Two Balls of Fur

I write a lot about our two boys and how they are handling the trip, but the truth is we have two other “kids” with us who enhances our trip as well. Jackson and Dakota, our two 11 year old labs. These dogs brought Chris and I closer together when we were barely a couple, adopting them when we were three and nine months into our relationship and bonding us for the family we’d become. Between then and now they have lived in college homes, mountain towns, and the suburbs. They have lived with roommates, other dogs, babies and now kids. They are the sweetest.

As we watch the boys walk around taking the dogs for walks, I think Chris and I are both happy that we are traveling this way with 11 year old dogs and not 1 year olds. They are content to go out for their morning walk, get up and exercise a bit mid-day and get a bit antsy for their last walk come 6pm, but other than that they love the sun and lying in it! Jackson still makes it to bed before the kids and we were happy that our camper has room right next to the boy’s beds because that is where he slept at home. Traveling with these two can sometimes drive me crazy with the amount of dog hair they can drop in a day, but we invested in a nice compact vacuum which seems to keep the fur tumbleweeds at bay. The only furniture they get onto is Oliver’s bed which is just fine with Ollie as he’d rather have them up there and tuck them in then see them unhappy on the floor.

I think this trip has been great for them so far. Since Jackson taught Dakota how to swim by paddling around with her on his back when they were pups they have been water dogs and one of our “bucket list” items was to take them to the ocean. Now they've been in pools, lakes, and rivers across the nation as well as the Pacific and Gulf of Mexico, and in two weeks they will be swimming in the Atlantic! They have regular admirers and currently have a group of walkers that stop to pet them each morning. Any child that happens to be around can be seen hugging and petting them and when I was just coming home two kids were laying on the grass snuggling them as they missed their own dogs back home.

I often think of this pair as “Jackota” because they are so rarely apart. At the dog park the other day a woman with a new puppy loved the relationship they had as Jackson gets the ball, gives it to Dakota, who gives it back to us. They have been pretty inseparable since they were pups and I’m so happy that we still have both of them to be together. We are a family of 6 and we hope it stays like that for a while to come!