Speckles' Story

When my wife and I answered this ad in a local paper, we had no idea what adventures it would bring. We are retired "empty-nesters", having raised three children who now live scattered throughout the southeast, and we only see our grandchildren occasionally. We have had pets throughout our lives, but at that particular time the "pet-nest" was empty, too.

I have always loved cocker spaniels, particularly black and white ones, and when we went to look at the puppy, of course we brought her home. This was in April 1998, and "Speckles", as we named her because of her numerous little black spots (ticking), was 12 weeks old.

As the weeks went by, Speckles became our constant companion - including potty calls at
dawn - and we didn't want to travel without her.  The only problem was, how could we visit our
grandchildren and take her along?  One grandchild is allergic to dogs, and the others have houses full of dogs or intolerant cats, so we would have to stay in motels and leave her alone there for most of the day, if we could find nearby motels that would take pets.

So we finally came up with a solution common to retired folks - we bought a small travel trailer.  That's right, a $13,000 doghouse.

The world of RVing was completely new to us, but we entered it with enthusiasm.  We were safety conscious, so we had our Ford Explorer fitted with electric brakes, had load-levelers installed, and a sway bar.  We spent day after day outfitting the trailer with all the comforts of home, including a television and VCR.  We sent away for RV site directories.  We even searched for sites that were modem-compatible.

We acclimated Speckles to the trailer by bringing her inside it when we were outfitting it and by making a short trip with her.  We bought her a little bed that just fit under the dinette table, and she had her very own Tupperware container for her dog food.

Finally in November we were ready for a real trip.  Speckles was 10 months old, housebroken, and enjoyed the short trips we had taken her on.  So we set out for Atlanta, Charlotte NC, Knoxville TN, Richmond VA, and Bluffton SC.  The trip was planned for two weeks, and we would, for the most part, park the trailer in the yards of our relatives while we visited.  Then we could see that Speckles had the attention she needed during the day, and she would sleep with us at night.

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