Our household revolves around our fur children. It’s almost as bad as when we had real two-legged children at home. Our youngest son is graduating from college in May. He’s worked a long time for this and I’m so happy that he has accomplished  it. (At least he wasn’t on the thirty-year program like I was).

After he moved to Virginia he decided to start working on his degree again. He’d started at the Community College here and was going at the same time I was. We even had one class together. In Virginia, he decided to attend a college that offered both in-person and online classes. Online universities are such a great thing. It allowed him to continue his classes even though he was now 1,000 miles away from the college.

So our trip to celebrate the Great Hunter’s 80th birthday this year will be college graduation. -Our son wants to go back to the college campus in Virginia to walk in the graduation ceremony. I certainly don’t blame him for that. When I obtained my degree in 2013, I wanted to walk too because it was an accomplishment that was on my bucket list. But my other son had the audacity to get married that day. I had to settle for a photo wearing my cap and gown with my new daughter-in-law, the bride. (The photo actually made it onto our local news broadcast because they were asking viewers to send in their graduation photos!)

We are flying to Virginia to attend his graduation. Everything is booked; the flight, the hotel and the rental car. The only hurdle we have left is what to do with the dogs. The only times we’ve gone somewhere without them, they have stayed with our son. Now he’s not going to be home, so what do we do?

We took them earlier this week for a trial boarding at a kennel that came highly recommended. We got there and I told them that our big girl, Millie, loves everyone, but the smaller one, Dolly, is a little skittish. Sure enough, when it came time to take them back into the kennel, Dolly had to be dragged through the door. Millie went willingly. The attendant, a super nice lady, said if they had any problem with Dolly, they would call and let us know.

About 1:00 p.m., the phone rang and it was the kennel. Dolly was doing good, but to my great surprise,it was Millie that was the problem. Apparently, she was so stressed out by the loud, somewhat chaotic environment that she was growling and snapping at the workers. What a shock! Millie is one of the sweetest dogs I’ve ever known.

If you’ve never boarded a dog, you don’t know what you don’t know. This kennel was a large room with open wire (?) kennels. The day I visited, all the dogs were standing at their kennel doors barking. It didn’t bother me but it apparently bothered Millie…a lot. The only thing I wasn’t too keen on was there are no staff on duty at night. My girls are spoiled. They sleep in the bedroom with us so the idea of them being in a wire kennel with twenty other barking dogs and no one there to see to their every whim just didn’t give us any warm fuzzy feelings. And if I’m lying awake at night worrying about my dogs (which I have been since the visit to the kennel), then it must not be the right choice for us.

And…goodness…it costs almost as much to board the two dogs for six days than it does to rent a hotel room for a week. Some places charge more for outdoor play and an additional  charge for giving medication and even an “opening the door” fee if you arrive after hours (even though you’ve been charged already for a late pick-up.)

We’re still exploring other avenues, other kennels and the possibility of one of my adult grandchildren staying with them. That, of course, would be the best (and cheaper) option.