The impressions we make.

Today was our trip to my parents house, two states and four hours away.  Reilly is quite the seasoned traveler now.  He understands well in this heat wave that the car is air-conditioned, and he likes the car.

Chris had additional things to do so had to leave at 4:00am in the pickup.  Reilly and I left at 6:50 in my car.  It's the first trip we've taken with just Reilly and me, and we were an hour into the trip before it dawned on me that I had a problem that I hadn't dealt with yet.  I had no one to tag-team with for bathroom breaks.  Leaving Reilly in the car in these temps is dangerous.  So I had to do some thinking before my bladder exploded. 

Normally when we stop, we take Reilly out immediately and the humans take turns going to the bathroom.  So I wanted to take Reilly first.  But then I realized that wasn't going to work.  The car would be heating up while I walked him, then I still had to go.  Too long.  I had to go first so the car would remain cool longer.  When I sorted this out, I chose my stop, then cranked my excellent air-conditioner up to get the car really cold.  I was shivering.  Reilly was sleeping.  We pulled in, I got out as quickly as possible, and moved as rapidly as I could.  I'd already decided that if there were a line, we'd go to the next exit and try again.  But there was no line, so I got back to the car quickly.  I opened the door, and it was still nicely cool inside, with a comfortable, sleeping puppy.  Whew.  He got a potty break too, and we got back on the road.  I did the same again half-way on the return trip...and the lock on the bathroom stall broke...yes, it broke...and I got locked inside the stall!  Locked IN!  The peg would not come out!  This was at a rest stop outside Columbia, South Carolina.  Luckily for me, the place was crowded.  I hollered and said I needed help, and I had a crowd of women working at the door.  In the meantime, I was thinking about trying to crawl under the door...knowing I couldn't get off the ground.  I was also peering at the helpful women, trying to choose based on looks alone who to give my car keys to, and ask them to get Reilly's leash out of my purse on the front seat and rescue him.  Luckily, one woman got the peg to slide with her keys before I had to take desperate action.  And the car was still cool when I got back. I was probably locked inside less than three minutes, but it was a looooonnng three minutes!

Reilly did really well at my parents.  Their recently rescued dog, Lucky, came to meet Reilly.  He was thrilled to see another doggie, but wasn't the least bit pushy.  Such a nice warm-up to strangers for Reilly.  I kept Reilly leashed until I decided I could trust them, which didn't take as long as I anticipated.  Reilly went inside with me and acted as if he'd lived there all his life, too.  Mostly, however, we all stayed on the air-conditioned sunroom/porch.  At one point, someone let Reilly slip back through the door into the house with them.  I went to the door as he was heading to the back of the house, and called him to come back out with me, telling him it wasn't his room.  He immediately turned around and came back outside.  HA!  Smartest puppy in the world.  At least, my dad now thinks so!  He was wowed by how well Reilly listens at 11 weeks old, and was bragging on him to everyone.  My younger sister was impressed with how mellow mastiff pups are.  She didn't get to spend much time with Murphy or Jake when they were young, so really didn't have an idea of how they are.

Reilly spent most of the day doing his favorite things.  Sleeping and growing.  He didn't have a single accident all day, even though he was in yet another new place.  He was thrilled that carrots can be found there just like at home, and I was thrilled that everyone listened to me and followed Reilly's rules.  Mean rules such as nobody being allowed to feed him or give him treats other than Chris and me.  Everyone likes to treat a puppy, and nobody could.  Reilly needs to learn that food comes to him only in his bowl, or from our hands.  Only.  He can't take it from others, nor pick it up from the ground.  A toddler walking by in a restaurant with a cookie in his hand could be construed as offering the cookie to a dog his size, therefore he can't be allowed to believe such things could possibly be for him.  So we start young.  (But he'll get lots of good stuff from us!)

We also ended up meeting my brother-in-law's dogs, Jewel.  She was not as nice as Lucky.  She started off nice, but when he reach for an ear, she snapped at him.  She didn't connect, and I don't believe she really tried to; she was warning him.  However, his reaction was good.  He jumped back out of her range, but didn't run, cower, or do anything submisive to her.  He also didn't try to retaliate, boss her, get aggressive in any way, or anything on the opposite extreme.  He pulled back out of snapping range, then pricked his ears and watched her, tail still wagging.  And that impressed me.

Dad also had decided by the end of the day that he needed to go adopt a second dog, because Lucky would like a companion.

I did manage a few pictures of Lucky and Reilly, although I don't know if any are good.  I'll check tomorrow.  For some reason, I'm tired today.  I'll dig the camera out of my bag and see what I got tomorrow.

Meg and Reilly