On September 1st 2018 my rescue dog Storm and I set off on a westward adventure. I had only had him 9 months and he had never been left alone so we had our work cut out. Luckily Storm loves car rides, unfortunately he doesn’t really care for semi-trucks. “Borking while driving is not appreciated” was one of our first lessons.
Before we move on to more of the stories from our adventures our story deserves a bit of background. We didn’t decide to just pack up everything we could and venture west with no home, job or end destination just because it sounded fun (it was and in retrospect just wanting to would have been reason enough). After finishing my undergraduate degree I had planned to take a month or more long trip before I started working toward a career, things didn’t really happen in that order and I found a job that would put me on my ideal career path before I was finished with my undergraduate degree. I still wanted an epic road trip, my new job said no problem, but I got really invested in my work and soon my dreams had little to do with travel. My family was taking a trip to Cozumel, Mexico to scuba dive and spread my grandfathers ashes. By this time I had been working whenever I wasn’t sleeping for 2 years and was ready to take a break. Toward the end of what was a beautiful and very hot/humid (mid July in the mayan rivera) vacation I was at they ruins of the Mayan city Chichen Itza when I learned there had been a fire at my home.
Unfortunately in addition to most all of my personal property my 12 year old dog, Lucy, wasn’t able to make it out of the house before succumbing to smoke inhalation. This sudden and devastating event left me effectively homeless for almost a month. During I stayed with some very kind friends and acquaintances and began to realize you really don’t need many things to enjoy life.
Finally I moved into an apartment with a friend and eventually we both decided we wanted to be involved in fostering with a dog rescue. Cause for Canines approved us and we immediately got paired with River, who had been in boarding for almost a month. She had separation anxiety and was fearful of new people. With some time, treats and stability she was turning over a new leaf, but really needed another dog to show her not to be afraid. Storm was listed as needing a foster or else he was up for a permanent eviction from the pound, he was so cute I was sure he would get adopted so I volunteered. Storm was so friendly, to everything and everyone, eventually River felt left-out and began approaching all kinds of people wanting attention. They really loved to play and chase each other, and finally we saw a big smile, tongue hanging out and all, on River’s face. River got adopted and has been with her new family for a little over 2 years now.
I always expected to end that lease with an open ended road trip, but the plan was to adopt a dog after it had eventually ended. Life doesn’t always follow your plan and within a week of meeting Storm I knew he was a special dog and adopted him myself. I had let a lot of things stop me from doing things that I dreamed of and decided that I was still going on the road trip and Storm was coming with me.
“Once you have had a wonderful dog, a life without one, is a life diminished.”
Dean Koontz
takenbystormusa.com 