The Rules for Having Our Dogs in the Van

Did I tell you that we took Jake and Rolli to the vet on Thursday for their shots and a nail trim. I gave them their pills earlier before we left, They get pills to calm them down, but they still did not want to cooperate when their nails were being trimmed. They were being down right little brats. But the vet got it done after almost, or it looked as, Jake was going to bite him. Luckily he didn't. Rolli fought too, but she just didn't want to cooperate. I think they were too excited because Dave was along for the drive. Usually they're pretty good.

Dave is usually up at the office on Thursdays, but he had to go in on Wednesday instead, so he worked at home on Thursday. Rolli loves going for car rides anyway, but she is even more excited when Dave decides to come along. She was so cute, even trying to sit on the storage thing between the seats. I usually have one of those little travel pillows sitting there for when she's in the car, but they were in the back. The only time that she's a lap dog is in the van. It's getting harder for her to jump up front though. I also had to help her get into the van. That's when I really notice how old she's getting.

I need to get them new harnesses. Jake's is too small for him and so is Rolli's. I don't like having to use their collars. They both get strapped in initially, but Rolli usually tries to move around the van, so I let her off of hers. We do have to keep her away from the front windows though since she has a tendency for stepping on the button for the window and having it go all the way down. She even jumped out once, but we were parked in the vet's parking lot. She just ran up to the door and then back to the van. Jake however, does stay strapped in, the same with Angel and Max when they're in the van.

The one thing we never do is stop somewhere when they're in the car unless there are two of us and one of us can stay in the car with them, especially on warm days so that the air conditioning can remain on. I see so many people leave their dogs in cars when it's in the 70s, 80s, and sometimes higher without a second thought. It really ticks me off. I have even gone to customer service or someone who can announce it and told them that there was a dog in a car that was in distress. It doesn't take long for that to happen. When it's warm, these guys stay home. After Monday they'll even have air conditioning after we put the units in the windows. It's supposed to get hot next week. They love the air conditioning.