Scaredy Dog and Vansetter

SUMMARY: Boost in a pet store and Ellen in her minivan.

Pet stores terrify The Booster. I don't entirely know why. Some of it is the intense smells--she has the same reaction to vendors at dog shows who sell rawhides, pig ears, and such. All my previous five dogs have considered a trip into the pet store to be a special treat akin to Doggie Candyland or maybe Doggy Disneyland--so much to sniff! Scraps of treats on the floor! Squeaky toys of all varieties!

But Boost is, and always has been, overwhelmed by the stimulus. Funny dog.

In another story, I am going to attempt to relive the lost road-trip extravagance of my youth in celebrating this New Year. Coincidentally, all my stops will be among doggie people. However, dogs are staying home.

There's a party in Petaluma this evening, just under 2 hours' drive from here, north past San Francisco. The friend is a dog owner and sometime activist: Worked hard to get the first dog park installed in the Petaluma area. She also now lives virtually next door to the Fairgrounds where my club has started holding a trial once a year, and I didn't realize it until I just looked up the driving directions.

I'll spend the night there, probably on the floor (although I'm taking my own bedding and mattress because I can no longer sleep comfortably on just soft carpeting). Then I'll rouse in the bright morning of a whole new year and drive 40 minutes east, across the top of the Bay, to Vallejo, to meet a long-time agility friend and her two cattle dogs for breakfast.

Then I'll bip 2 miles southeast to another dog-owning, professional-chef friend & family's place for an 11 a.m. hair-of-the-dog soupfest and puzzle relaxaparty--briefly, because then I have to return the hour-and-a-half home, whip up my zucchini/italian squash/tomatoes dish, and head up into the east foothills for my agility instructors' 3:00 New Year's Day open house.

My sister pointed out that, if I were doing this sort of thing across the country or continents, I'd be a jetsetter; however, since I'm doing it on a smaller scale in my Toyota Sienna, I'm a vansetter.

I like it.

Hope you all have a wonderful, peaceful, relaxing New Year celebration.