RVing with pets

Today's post is about RVing with pets. In my case, cats & dogs.

Although I'm a fulltimer, I've been fortunate that my dogs & cats have been able to live outside of the RV. The dogs in a kennel situation, although I'd prefer to have them in the RV with me, when I'm in Texas, they are safer in the kennel & have access to a big dog yard to use several times a day. Why is that? Because they are in better air conditioning because I do not have 30amp service at my friends house in Texas & we have a lot of power surges. Which causes the power to go out often. Not safe in an RV which can heat up much too quickly.

In Texas, the kitties get the comfort of a cat room.

When traveling, all my babies are with me in the RV. The day we get a bigger RV will be a much better day for us all! However, they are all happy to be with me & they all love to travel! And we have 30amp power where we are, so in the heat of the day, they have the air conditioning going.
Well actually, I turn it on for them. They don't actually control it themselves. ;-)

So we take several walks a day. The downside of where I am, there are no dog parks, no fences anywhere. So they can't run free. Bummer. So we take nice long walks instead. I'm thinking of buying a new bike so I can train some of them to trot along side the bike so they can get some sort of exercise. But this is all temporary. We'll be heading back to Texas in a few weeks. Back to the heat. Ugh!

Now comes the side of responsibility. Of course, the cats are easier. They can come out & hang out on the bed. They don't go outside. Ever. None of my cats have ever been outdoor cats. Plus the campgrounds here don't allow loose pets. One thing I learned though is choosing your cat litter wisely! Wow, I do mean wisely!! I made the mistake of running out of the feline pine type of litter that I use. I had to choose a regular type of kitty litter. So I chose one of those clumping brands. I didn't think it would be a bad alternative....until...I could barely stand to be inside of the RV! The dogs could barely stand it either!! It contained soooo much perfume that the dogs started coughing & sneezing! I thought they had a case of kennel cough. Seriously, I did! But my nose & eyes burned as well. As soon as I possibly could, I got the pine type of litter. Changed out all boxes & viola! No more smell! No more sneezing from the dogs!! Yay! I could sleep in comfort again without that terrible odor. But I will admit that the kitties thought that their litter boxes magically became great sand boxes with that gritty smelly kitty litter! Yes, at 5am, Tribbles is doing a dance in the litter. Flipping in the air. Spreading litter far & wide. He was in glee, sheer glee. He was sooo happy. But I wasn't. So that stopped with the pine litter - whew. Sure am glad I brought my Shark Vaccuum along! Whew! Upside of the cats, no one really knows I have cats with me. They don't bark. They don't sing & howl. Well, they kinda do, but no one outside of the RV can hear it when they like to talk.

Now for the dogs & responsibility. They DO have to come out of the RV several times a day. Unfortunately, I can't set up their expens in this campground. So they can't come out & lounge around in the pens like they can do at some places. That's a hinderance for us, thus it means more walking for them & more exercise for them...and me. My right pocket is always full of baggies. You MUST clean up after them! No one else should EVER have to step into their business! The campgrounds must NEVER have to deal with doggie waste. It totally irritates me when folks do NOT clean up after their pets! It's just rude & lazy.

The kind of dogs I have never can be let loose to walk by your side or run free. They have zero road sense. They were bred by Nomads over 2000 years ago to hunt game. That is deeply bred into them, so if they see bunnies, birds, etc, they will take off after them. They will not hesitate to run in front of any kind of moving vehicle, so it's not safe for them to run or walk freely by your side. But that's ok. I realize that, so we go for walks. Nice long walks.

Now when I walk them, I keep off of other people's sites. I strongly believe in respecting other's privacy & not interfering with other campers. But since my dogs are a bit unusual, in order for them to benefit from a nice long walk, I walk them where others generally don't go. I walk them around the big buildings here, along side the edges of the parking lots, etc. There's lots of grass & trees here, so no need to walk them anywhere near the other campers anyhow. I will walk one of them on one of the roads here where the other campers drive their golf carts on. They really like seeing the dogs, asking questions about them & visiting with them. My dogs really love people, but it would take me hours to walk them if I did walk  most of them around people. They really can draw attention. And people like to guess what they are. What breed of dog they are that is ;-)

At night, before we all go to bed, we all get one more walk. I take along a small flashlight with me so when they do their business, I can bag it & see what I'm bagging. I've even cleaned up after other people's dogs here so mine don't suffer any blame. On that subject, I carry baggies & take them back to my RV. I drop them outside of course, then I go inside & get one of those grocery store bags & put them all inside of that. Then all that goes to the dumpster. I walk over to the dumpster on the property so they don't get placed in any trash cans where the campers might be. Nice, neat & clean.

Below are some pics that I took at Purina Farms in Missouri. They had a wonderful dog yard that I did take advantage of. They loved it!

This is one of the RV areas at Purina Farms. I liked the little no poop puppies!

Birdie & Roper at play in the wonderful dog play area!

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~