Bonita Springs--It's a Dog's Life

Jan 16, Bonita Springs, Florida

A major question mark in our mind as we embarked on this adventure was how well our two dogs would adapt to this lifestyle and, more importantly, how well we would adapt to living in our motorhome with two dogs. After almost five months, I think we would both say that having the dogs with us has many more rewards than disadvantages.
The rewards include:

• meeting people who are often curious about their breed
• taking frequent walks
• having more than each other to "talk to"
• cuddling with us (especiallyu on stormy nights)
• entertaining us with their various antics
• protection--warning of something wrong with barking
• giving us something managable to worry about rather than the things in life we have no control over

Disadvantages have been:

• not wanting to leave them for more too many hours in their crates
• having to tie them up when outside in most places
• not being able to take them with us in the car everywhere because of heat
• beaches that don't allow dogs at all (even on leash)
• putting up and taking down crates

Even if the disadvantages list were longer, we would still choose having dogs with us as we long ago acknowledged that love trumps logic everytime.

We love to find dog parks or beaches where the dogs can run free and really show their personalities with other dogs.  Our neighbor in the park here has four three large dogs: two goldens and one border collie mix. He told us there was a great dog park on the beach about thirty minutes away near Lover’s Key state park. The trick is to get there at low tide as the entrance is not accessible at high tide. What a fantastic place this turned out to be. I never dreamed it would be such a lovely beach (on somewhat of an inlet so it was calm and protected) with beautiful white sand and gentle sloping beach bottom so the dogs could run out pretty far into the water. Rico was just beside himself with excitement as there were dogs of all sizes and types to check out and herd in the gentle surf. Jetta was more fixated on retrieving her tennis ball even in deep water. Both dogs are more hesitant in salt water with waves vs. a freshwater lake experience, but they had a blast. It’s hard not to have a smile on your face when you are watching dogs having such fun with abandon. I even found a beautiful olive shell while playing fetch with Jetta.

The arrival back to the motorhome from the dog beach called for bath time. The dogs both needed clipping too, so we took advantage of their clean hair to get them combed out and do a grooming session on our patio area picnic table. Both the dogs behaved quite well and now were all set for our trip to see their cousins in The Keys.