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I’ve told you about our trip with Houdini to visit our daughter Amy and Gene in Wilmington, NC.  So now I’m about to tell you of his introduction to her cats, Ali and Spike.  In order to understand the story completely you will need a little bit of history concerning these two pets.

Ali was the first to come into our lives a little over 12 years ago. She is a beautiful black ball of fur that is content to just lay around and maybe try to sneak out the door for a short prowl around the neighborhood.  Spike entered the family about 3 years ago. He is a ball of black and white fur and is into any and everything he can find.

Ali and Spike both have enjoyed the life of luxuary and have always loved being with other pets. Ali grew up with Sage, a wonderful dog who is now enjoying all that heaven has to offer him.  What makes this story so interesting is Spike’s life with Sage and other dogs that would visit.

Spike was born here in southwest Virginia and Rick and I made the trip to Wilmington to take him to his new life with Ali and Sage. The trip there was rather interesting. Spike was just a few weeks old and this was his first road trip.  That poor kitty cried for the entire trip.  Rick kept saying “Oh, he will get sleepy or his voice will wear out.”  WRONG… Anyway, we finally arrived at Amy’s house and Spike fell asleep just about the time we got to her door.  We thought that was good.  We could slip Spike inside the house and Amy could introduce him to Ali and Sage gently after he awoke from his nap.  WRONG again… The minute we opened the door Spike let out a “meow” that would wake the whole neighborhood and of course Sage came running to see what was coming into his house. Well, Sage decided we didn’t know how to care for Spike and he took over. He opens his big mouth, picks up Spike and from that moment on that cute little kitty bacame Sage’s little brother.  Spike stayed wet from Sage’s licking for months. He loved being taken care of by that big black loveable brother. They were best of friends forever.

Spike and Ali always get along with other critters that happen to visit from time to time. And other cats and dogs visit on a regular basis…  UNTIL … we opened the door and in we go with our huge ball of white fur — Houdini. On our trip down, we talked about how excited we were that Ali and Spike were going to meet Houdini and what a great time they would have together.  WRONG, WRONG again….

When we walked inside the cats came running to see what was coming in the door. What they saw did indeed excite them, but not in the way we had anticipated.  Instead of being happy to see Houdini, they were scared. So scared that they both went running to Amy’s bedroom and under the bed they went.  And they stayed there most of the time. Ocassionally they would peek out and look around the corner to see if by chance Houdini had vanished. The minute they saw him, the hair would stand up on their bodies and back underneath the bed they would go. And what was Houdini doing all this time?  Just laying around wondering why he was being ignored.  I don’t think they realized that he was a dog and a gentle one for sure. To them he was a big white monster that had invaded their home.

Well, we intend to visit more often and Houdini will be visiting with us and hopefully at some point Ali and Spike will come to realize that he is just as gentle and loving as their big brother Sage.  I believe that during one of the visits Sage will look down from his heavenly home and tell them that it is ok for them to accept Houdini.  And that he is not the big white monster they seem to think he is.

Have you ever been on a road trip with a canine?  Well, let me tell you — it is the experience of a lifetime. Especially when that canine takes up the whole back seat of your vehicle. I’m about to tell you about our trip with our canine named Houdini.

As far as we know, this was his first trip out of the state of Virginia. Now keep in mind that Houdini is not just a small, or even medium size canine. He is large ( 100+ pounds)  well I guess large is not even  the correct description. Let’s just say the back seat of our car has just enough room for him to get his head on one side of the seat and his butt on the other side, when he lays down. And that is a big ‘when’…

After getting the luggage and all the ‘stuff’ you have to have for us humans to take a trip, my husband Rick and I packed Houdini’s belongings. Of course there was his food and water bowl and enough food to do for several days. We also took his leash –let’s see — make that two leashes. One to lead him with and one for hanging onto him with whenever he had a chance to roam around.

We finally were ready for our journey – a six hour trip to Wilmington, NC. Houdini was all excited because he got to go with us. He has been on a ten minute drive to visit relatives, but this was a special trip. We were on our way to help our daughter pack her belongings so that she can move closer to us in Rock Hill, SC.  So our trip began…

We climb in with Houdini in the back seat all ready to see the world. Now we thought he would get bored and fall asleep after a little while —WRONG… We kept telling him to lay down, but have you ever tried getting a stubborn Great Pyrenees to lay down when all he wants to do is look out the windows of your car??? And look out the windows he did — the whole trip — all six hours.

The windows were covered with nose prints. He loved watching the cars and trucks go by. People were waving and blowing their horns at us whenever they saw Houdini. And he was loving it.

We stopped to get a bite to eat and I headed for the restroom, but the girl at the drive-thru asked Rick to bring him to her window so that she could pet him. And of course several other workers there wanted to pet him also. Rick then went inside to order our food and get Houdini some water. I kept him outside with me. There was a fence between us and the children’s playground. Of course all the kids stopped playing and came over to talk to and pet Houdini. And he loved all that attention he was getting. Everyone going into and coming out of the restaurant were petting him also.

You would think with all that playing he would be tired and want to take a nap once we got back on the road…WRONG… Nope, he had to watch the world go by as we drove down south. And this big white ball of fur couldn’t just sit or stand – he had to make cirles in the back seat… huffing and puffing all the way. And that canine had some slobbers that stretched from one side of the car to the other side. We used a lot of paper towels and we still got a slobber bath at times. Ok, enough about that nastiness.

Well — we finally arrived in Wilmington, NC and Houdini was introduced to Amy’s two cats… Well I think I’ll leave that story for the next writing. Hopefully you will be interested enough to come back and visit for that story.

In the meantime – have a nice day.

This is my first attempt at writing and I’m sure I’ll make lots of mistakes. I’m not very good at this, so just laugh at me as I go along my merry way sounding weird. My husband is the writer in the family and I’m sure he will correct me a lot. But that’s ok. I sometimes have to tell him when he does something weird or silly, so I guess it will be my turn now.

Back when I was in school (many, many, many years ago), I never did like writing because I could think of all kinds of things to say, but when it came time to put it on paper, well I just didn’t do so well. So I have no idea why I decided to do this. Maybe just to say I have at least tried.

This writing thing is not easy. I’m still full of ideas, just having a hard time getting it written down so that someone might understand what I’m trying to say. But they say practice makes perfect. Whee, I’ve got a lot of practicing to do. So I guess I’ll just have to practice on you and hopefully I’ll learn something while you are having a good time laughing at me. I’ll probably laugh right along with you. And since this is my first try at this writing stuff, maybe I’d better stop for now and see what happens. I think I’ll sleep on this and maybe I can come up with something interesting next time.