Chloe graduated from Puppy Class --got her diploma and her photo on the "Graduating Class" wall at the Petsmart. John finally finished her little "puppy prison"-- can't say that it's a wonderful addition to our motorhome--but he did do a great job of making it- matching the woodwork (for the base). It's a bit of an eyesore-and is still untested. We start today with our short periods of leaving her alone. Fortunately, our neighbors are Canadians so we don't care much about what they think, eh?
On the way home from puppy class, we stopped to check out a kennel. We've got John’s niece, Jane’s New Jersey wedding at the end of the month--and don't feel that we can leave the rambunctious Chloe with my mom. I checked it out on the web--it sounded wonderful--daily activities like golf cart rides, nature walks, movies, home made snacks, individual condos. The reality--we turned onto a dirt road with double wide mobile homes. When we got out of the car, two huge German shepherds came out in their dog runs to bark at us. The two women in the office appeared to love dogs. Since we didn't have all of Chloe's vaccination records, we had to leave her with one of them while we checked out the "accommodations". She promptly took Chloe outside for a smoke break. The kennels were atrocious--the smell of disinfectant, concrete floors, chain link on the outside with rows of barking dogs. You couldn't talk over the sound of the barking. Upon seeing our horror, the nice woman said, "We have another area for our older, small dogs that might be more appropriate for your puppy". Inside the office, they had an area with two levels of cages and a TV showing "Animal Planet". There was a 12 year old Shitz Tzu in one cage, looking quite sad. I guess it would be OK for a few days...but this dog is so accustomed to 24/7 attention, it's hard to imagine what she'll do being left alone in a cage from 6PM to 6AM!! Next week, we're doing a road trip to check out a few more options.
In between dog walks, we had a bit of a problem with our heater. It's a hot water based heat --and it suddenly quit one day. John got on the slider tray in the "basement" and discovered a water leak. After much work, he finally replaced the fitting --but not after a lot of water made it onto the slides. And, with our lovely Florida weather, mold started to take over. Now, we had a real problem. So, John has spent days unpacking the entire basement and spraying all of the underside surfaces with mold killer/inhibitor. Our site looked like Balkan gypsies lived here...for days, we had all of our boxes and stuff sitting outside, covering them up with tarps at night. Since everything was out, John decided that we should sort through all the boxes--and clean them all. What a job!! Unpacking every box, washing it out, drying it completely (no more Mr. Mold for us!) Well, it took a week - and we still have a few boxes left to deal with.
So much for our relaxing time in FLA. We've only got a month left here before we take off. We've got a week of maintenance the second week of April- then we're off to Louisiana.
We've been watching the British sitcom- "My Family" every night. John normally hates sitcoms--but he loves this one. We watch our 30 minutes of evening news- scream at the TV --then turn on My Family so we can have a bit of a respite from U.S. politics. My mother- who is a political junkie (literally, watches coverage of the campaigns all day-and has watched EVERY debate) -- is so fed up with it all that she's claims to have sworn off watching any of it
On the way home from puppy class, we stopped to check out a kennel. We've got John’s niece, Jane’s New Jersey wedding at the end of the month--and don't feel that we can leave the rambunctious Chloe with my mom. I checked it out on the web--it sounded wonderful--daily activities like golf cart rides, nature walks, movies, home made snacks, individual condos. The reality--we turned onto a dirt road with double wide mobile homes. When we got out of the car, two huge German shepherds came out in their dog runs to bark at us. The two women in the office appeared to love dogs. Since we didn't have all of Chloe's vaccination records, we had to leave her with one of them while we checked out the "accommodations". She promptly took Chloe outside for a smoke break. The kennels were atrocious--the smell of disinfectant, concrete floors, chain link on the outside with rows of barking dogs. You couldn't talk over the sound of the barking. Upon seeing our horror, the nice woman said, "We have another area for our older, small dogs that might be more appropriate for your puppy". Inside the office, they had an area with two levels of cages and a TV showing "Animal Planet". There was a 12 year old Shitz Tzu in one cage, looking quite sad. I guess it would be OK for a few days...but this dog is so accustomed to 24/7 attention, it's hard to imagine what she'll do being left alone in a cage from 6PM to 6AM!! Next week, we're doing a road trip to check out a few more options.
In between dog walks, we had a bit of a problem with our heater. It's a hot water based heat --and it suddenly quit one day. John got on the slider tray in the "basement" and discovered a water leak. After much work, he finally replaced the fitting --but not after a lot of water made it onto the slides. And, with our lovely Florida weather, mold started to take over. Now, we had a real problem. So, John has spent days unpacking the entire basement and spraying all of the underside surfaces with mold killer/inhibitor. Our site looked like Balkan gypsies lived here...for days, we had all of our boxes and stuff sitting outside, covering them up with tarps at night. Since everything was out, John decided that we should sort through all the boxes--and clean them all. What a job!! Unpacking every box, washing it out, drying it completely (no more Mr. Mold for us!) Well, it took a week - and we still have a few boxes left to deal with.
So much for our relaxing time in FLA. We've only got a month left here before we take off. We've got a week of maintenance the second week of April- then we're off to Louisiana.
We've been watching the British sitcom- "My Family" every night. John normally hates sitcoms--but he loves this one. We watch our 30 minutes of evening news- scream at the TV --then turn on My Family so we can have a bit of a respite from U.S. politics. My mother- who is a political junkie (literally, watches coverage of the campaigns all day-and has watched EVERY debate) -- is so fed up with it all that she's claims to have sworn off watching any of it
