GrannyJen
Super Poster
Lifetime VIP Member
Three days ago we had a serious problem with Max.
120 miles into our 900 mile bike ride and already having lost one day to the great storm we lost another day.
We left Max in the caravan, where for the last five years at least he has been happiest when we have been touring, and set off on another round trip. After a couple of miles I stopped to check he was ok on the security camera in the van and saw a clearly distressed dog, barking and whimpering at the door.
We got back, he was physically fine, but clearly very upset.
He is an old boy and we have noticed in the last three months that separation anxiety was building up. We have no choice now but to tear up our itinerary and replan taking Max in the camper with us, finding somewhere to park, cycling for an hour, giving the old boy lots of TLC and walks before moving on and repeating the process, up to four times day.
The response to "do you mind us parking up here for a couple of hours", pubs, village halls, private hotels, farms etc, has been amazing. People can't do enough for us, from offering to look after the doggie, take him for a walk etc to having tea and biccies waiting for us when we have come back with an "of course the Dog's welcome inside". Meanwhile, back on the campsite people have come up offering to look after Max if we wanted to cycle for half a day.
These last couple of days have ben remarkably stressful but we have found such kindness, and now also there is a huge bonus for us, Max is now part of our days activity. He knows the camper, has lived in it for many nights with me, seems to know that we will only be gone for an hour and is quite happy to have a well-earned snooze in that time, and of course getting lots of new walks every day.
Thank you just today to Kevin at the Missing Sock near Cambridge for looking after us and Max so well, even opening up his private garden for max to have a run around in.
It's been an incredibly stressful year for so many and so many reports of the more unpleasant sides of human nature but all we are seeing at the moment is what is more of a norm, people generally being just so kind and decent.
120 miles into our 900 mile bike ride and already having lost one day to the great storm we lost another day.
We left Max in the caravan, where for the last five years at least he has been happiest when we have been touring, and set off on another round trip. After a couple of miles I stopped to check he was ok on the security camera in the van and saw a clearly distressed dog, barking and whimpering at the door.
We got back, he was physically fine, but clearly very upset.
He is an old boy and we have noticed in the last three months that separation anxiety was building up. We have no choice now but to tear up our itinerary and replan taking Max in the camper with us, finding somewhere to park, cycling for an hour, giving the old boy lots of TLC and walks before moving on and repeating the process, up to four times day.
The response to "do you mind us parking up here for a couple of hours", pubs, village halls, private hotels, farms etc, has been amazing. People can't do enough for us, from offering to look after the doggie, take him for a walk etc to having tea and biccies waiting for us when we have come back with an "of course the Dog's welcome inside". Meanwhile, back on the campsite people have come up offering to look after Max if we wanted to cycle for half a day.
These last couple of days have ben remarkably stressful but we have found such kindness, and now also there is a huge bonus for us, Max is now part of our days activity. He knows the camper, has lived in it for many nights with me, seems to know that we will only be gone for an hour and is quite happy to have a well-earned snooze in that time, and of course getting lots of new walks every day.
Thank you just today to Kevin at the Missing Sock near Cambridge for looking after us and Max so well, even opening up his private garden for max to have a run around in.
It's been an incredibly stressful year for so many and so many reports of the more unpleasant sides of human nature but all we are seeing at the moment is what is more of a norm, people generally being just so kind and decent.
