We made it to Eindhoven

Today was “travel-day”. We got in a rented SUV and drove to Canada, eh! The border people didn’t even care about me, Meredith had all my papers ready to show and all they wanted to know was if “Graham” was her maiden name. She kept saying, “It is my only name.” and they kept asking is it her “maiden name”. It was rather comical, in retrospect.

We stopped at a nice park where I could stretch my legs and enjoy the sunshine.

Mike and I found a great stick to chew on!


I’d really rather not discuss the plane ride. Traumatic, strange, scary… it was all of the above. And embarrassing. I had to go so bad I couldn’t hold it. I thought I’d never see my people again… but a nice man finally got me and brought me to Meredith and Mike. They let me right out of the crate and hugged me and loved me. I was so glad to see them I wagged and wagged. Meredith cleaned out my stinky crate and my stinky paws (yes, I stepped in it, did you have to ask?) and things seemed better. The scary part continued, however, as Meredith walked me outside the airport where there was no grass and loud machines cleaning the sidewalks. I was so freaked out that I couldn’t go to the bathroom. Eventually, Mike came outside too and he walked me around until finally I consented to pee.

We rented a car and they let me ride in the passenger foot-well on the way to the hotel. It was either that or ride in the crate because the crate and luggage took up the entire back seat and way back of the station-wagon. I sat up a few times to look at the farm animals Meredith pointed out on the way. But admittedly, both she and I did quite a bit of snoozing. Traffic was bad and poor Mike had to navigate on his own to Eindhoven.

When we arrived at the hotel, Meredith and I crashed almost immediately.


Mike did some stuff and then he slept too for an hour or so. They were all up again in the afternoon and out seeing apartments and then eating dinner. The time difference is 6 hours and so it will take some getting used to, I think.

It is going to be interesting ‘camping’ here in the hotel!

Home away from Home

Yesterday, after the movers left, we drove to Brockport to stay with Barb and Sal. Mandy had told me about their dog, Skunky, whom Mandy used to play with. Skunky passed away a few years back and it was very sad. Here is a video of Mandy (on the left), Ceasar, Moby and Skunky during Christmas time. It totally cracks me up.



Barb and Sal are so nice to me. They treat me like one of the family. Their house is fantastic for squirrel-watching. From the living room to the family room to the hallway, I’ve got tabs on all the windows. It’s nice to have a job to do for a couple of days here, and I know they appreciate my watchful eye.

Meredith and Mike have said we are traveling tomorrow. They are telling me not to be scared. Scared of what, I wonder? Well, for now there is relaxing with Sal. I’m great at it.

Boxes! Boxes! Boxes!

Oh My Bunnies, this week has been crazy. First, Meredith’s parent’s showed up with the van and loaded it full of stuff out of our house. Then, Mike loaded our car full. We get to the lake and unload everything into the basement. We only hung around there for the day and then came back to Rochester and Meredith and Mike worked like mad sorting and throwing things away. I kept hearing, “Keep it? VOA it? Toss it? Plane or boat?” I felt like I was in the way, but did get a couple of good walks.

Then, on Monday people came to the house with boxes. I’ve never smelled so many boxes!! I had to stay in my crate for almost the whole day while they wrapped everything left in the house into paper and then put it into a box. Soon, the entire house was full of boxes. Meredith and Mike let me sleep on the floor next to their bed that night because I was a little bit freaked out by the whole experience.

Tuesday, the same people came back and did the same thing with the rest of the house and other people came and took the boxes outside into a big truck. The truck was only filled up half way but I guess that is standard procedure. The people said they ordered a 20 ft truck and got a 40 ft one. So they use what they have, I guess. Which is what I do- if there is only rocks to play with, I play with rocks.

The Netherlands?

Things at Harlem Street have been a little bit strange as of late. People visiting, lots of throwing things away, sorting, packing, going to the lake with the car full every weekend (and coming back with it empty) have all inundated our house lately. I keep hearing about this place “The Netherlands” and I wonder what that means. Does it smell good there? Another interesting development is that I got a new crate. It is a little bit smaller than the old one, but better because it is hard plastic instead of metal bars. It looks less like a jail and more like a den. Not that I’m a huge fan of the whole ‘crate thing’, but I have to admit I kind of like this one.

At first there was a plastic bowl thing attached to the inside of the crate door. When Meredith was inviting people inside the house to look it over, I decided to eat that plastic bowl. In no time at all I had it gnawed off the door and partially chewed. After about 5 minutes of fun Meredith caught me in the act. She had a complete fit and of course I was very sorry. It had seemed like a good idea, but her disappointment overwhelmed me. As a result I sat meek in my crate during the “house-inspection”.

It’s now two weeks later and guess what: I got metal bowls attached to the inside of the crate! The box they came in had birds on them for some reason. I have a feeling they weren’t really intended for dogs but I don’t care. They look fancy and match my other bowls.

Nomads?

So last night I asked Mike, "Are we gypsies?"

It was actually a valid question- I mean- we've stayed at 4 different places in the past 6 days. I am starting to think we just live out of the car. Not that I mind much: vacationing is pretty darn cool because I get to see Meredith and Mike all day and nothing beats that. (Well, except if there are other dogs wanting to play with me, or squirrels to chase, or bunnies...)

Sturgeon Bay is pretty neat. Mike's parent's have a boat and we spent two days sailing around the bay. Well, they sailed and I napped.


I did very well on the sail boat. Here I am again, in position:


Don was great. He let me wander all over the boat, no leash. We had some fun times together while taxi-ing out of the channel:


I have to admit, sailing is my favorite kind of boating.

Trip to see Finn-land

Today we got to see Meredith's cousin Susan, and her son Finn. He is just one year old now and loved me at first sight. Meredith gave me a bully stick to chew (one of my most favorite things!) and so I let Finn pet me, pat me, and judge my overall fuzziness level.


Oh, I'm quite fuzzy, actually. I've got hair instead of fur and it is extremely soft. Meredith saves it from when she gives me hair cuts and brushes me. She is planning to have it sent away and made into yarn so that she can knit a scarf. (Between you and me I think that is kinda funny because she doesn't even know how to knit!)

Blue Lake: best time ever

Blue Lake, Wisconsin is absofrickinlutely great. The three of us drove all the way to northern Wisconsin over a two day stretch. Riding in the car is no problem for me, but Meredith needs to stop all the time to do yoga. Not that I mind the opportunity for a pee break and a chance to smell some rest-stop dogs.

The boating, running around like a mad-dog, being off-leash for the entire day every single day all made the trip perfect.(Okay, they had me on-leash on the boat. Only because I kept debating about jumping out and it made everyone nervous.)

We had a chance to catch up with Scott and Tricia, people Meredith and Mike know but I had never met before. They were real nice; although Tricia was also trying to get me to swim with the whole throw-a-stick-into-the-water thing.

I humored her, since she was so nice to me otherwise.

At the end of one day, the people decided to play some game they found in the game cabinet and I did some fabulous couch-leaning.

When do we get to go back there?