dog thoughts

Ahhh…a road trip! There are no better words for a canine than, “Do you want to take a ride?” I gleefully heard those words mid-January when the temperature was going to be almost 70 degrees. My Mom and I were going to meet a friend and her pup in Boston. Whew-hoo…a car ride, the dog park in the South End and a visit to Polkadog Bakery for treats. How great is my life? Especially when winter sucks in New England, and often we dogs are pretty house bound. Our peeps too.

So off we went on Saturday, January 11th. The day was wonderful. Sunny, a brilliant blue sky and warm. But the drive to Boston was a nightmare from my perspective; a dog’s perspective. I’ll only recap the drive down, as the trip back was pretty much the same!

I’m in the backseat, faithfully trusting my Mom as I’m getting a bit sick to my stomach from the constant starting and stopping in bumper to bumper traffic on I-95. After it finally clears and we get moving at a good clip again, someone cuts in front of us because they think that if they get ahead of JUST ONE MORE CAR, they’re really going to arrive at their destination much sooner! In their haste to arrive “just one more car sooner,” I’m hurled forward as my Mom slams on the brakes so we’re not wiped out. Ugh.

We get stuck in a traffic quagmire again on Route 1 in Saugus. The horns honk incessantly as we simply try to get to a fun place to walk around and enjoy the city. I really don’t get this! Why do humans think honking will free up traffic? No one can move at this point. There’s no where to go…faster. And honking is going to help? It’s just loud, annoying noise to my ultra-sensitive dog ears. Well, not just mine; but to everyone’s ears…loud and obnoxious.

Boston. No, not seagulls but the lovely raised middle finger humans flip off to my Mom as she politely lets cars go in front of us so they can get in their right lane. Not literally, but the lane they need to be in to get where they’re going! The exits are close together, confusing and there’s not much time to make a swift lane change. We’d want someone to do the same for us. Yet as I look out the window, all I see are waving middle fingers that accomplish nothing. Kind of an odd action from a dog’s point of view. Even if we had fingers to raise; we wouldn’t. We’d simply wag our tails and wait patiently.

Life is too short to get overworked by getting there…wherever one is going…one car faster, one tailgating faster, one finger-flipping faster! Why not just enjoy the ride? Knowing that all these silly antics…will never get one to the dog park, the beach, dog-friendly brew pubs or wherever you’re going…any faster.

And then we dogs could really enjoy one of our most favorite things, car rides…instead of lurching, wanting to plug our ears, swaying and being dismayed by the anxiety of the trip. If humans would just go with the flow, as we canines do…road trips for all of us would be much more enjoyable. And, it would be easier for us to put our head out of the car window and simply enjoy the ride!