I had to travel out of town for a business trip this past weekend and decided to take Mocha with me. Along with a co-founder’s dog, we did a road trip with our best friends safely tucked away in their crates.
We even brought our dogs into the meeting so they could share in all the business talk. I don’t think Mocha approved of our company strategy. Or maybe he didn’t like being stuck in a room full of business talk all weekend.
And yes… I wore that shirt
on purpose. I know. It’s wrong, so very, very wrong.
We found a nice, dog-friendly hotel in San Diego for our trip – Crown City Inn. It’s a quaint little place on Coronado Island, right off a main road. They give you a food & water bowl for your dog, a bag of doggie treats, and feature some nice patches of grass out in front for potty breaks.
What’s great about Coronado Island is that practically the entire island is dog friendly. We took Mocha for a walk down the street and came across a bunch of dog-friendly cafes. Even the dog beach isn’t too far from here.
And oh Mocha… will you ever stop hiding under furniture? You scaredy dog you.
Happy day at the dog beach on Coronado Island in San Diego! Mocha’s in the water!
Well, almost. Waves still freak him out a bit.
But with a bit of coaxing and encouragement, he’s wading in the water happily.
He’ll even run back and forth with us, like it’s a game. Hurray, our little fellah is starting to love the water!
The dog beach on Coronado Island is by far the best dog beach we’ve seen yet. Along with the usual dog waste bags is a fountain and hose for washing off your dog. That alone totally won us over.
Sounds totally obvious to me that a dog beach should have a place to wash your dog. Yet, other dog beaches I’ve seen don’t have one. Not that I’m being unappreciative, mind you. I’m really thankful the kind beach officials zoned a portion of the land for dogs. Having a way to hose down your dog is just such a great addition though.
Hmm. I wonder if a portable dog-washing truck or kit would be a good small business?
We love road trips. But we weren’t sure how Mocha would handle them.
After having him for just a few days, we didn’t want to leave him in a kennel or someplace alone. He still needed medication (antibiotics) for the stitches from his neutering operation, as well as plenty of tender loving care.
However, we had planned a road trip for this past weekend from Southern California to Northern California. It was to see some friends & family and wasn’t a trip we could post-phone. So we decided to take Mocha along and hope for the best.
I lined my car’s seats with water-absorbent pads and towels. We had ample dog food, water, paper towels, cleaning products, and medication on hand. Though the road trip was usually six hours, we planned for eight or more hours so we could stop often and let him out. We weren’t sure strong his bladder was and I’ll be damned if my car is going to smell like a NYC subway station (read: urine-infused).
My job was to drive there without killing us and being ready to pull over at a moment’s notice. Mia’s job was to watch Mocha and warn me of impending pee or poop.
So what happened?
Mocha was totally awesome in the car. Totally awesome. (Unfortunately, we didn’t take any pictures. Sorry.)
He slept most of the way there. We stopped roughly every two-to-three hours, which was enough for him to take his potty breaks. He ate heartily when we fed him, and peed & pooped when we stopped. Thank fricken goodness we have a car-friendly dog.
We listened to an audio CD of Barack Obama’s The Audacity of Hope. Mocha curled up in the back seat and passed out as soon as we popped in that CD. Perhaps Obama’s soothing voice put him to sleep? I guess Mocha is a democrat.
Surprisingly, he didn’t seem to like sticking his head out the window, even at slow speeds on side streets. (Try saying that three times fast – “slow speeds on side streets, slow speeds on side streets, slow speeds on side streets…”)
We’re now back home and sleeping in our own beds. It’s great to know that we could take off for another road trip someday and bring Mocha along though. We’ll just make sure we have another Obama CD for him.
