It’s no secret that when it comes to critters, I’m prejudiced.

I don’t like cats, I’m a dog person. But I don’t like just any dogs. I abhor yappy little mutts that serve no purpose in life except to make noise and waste precious oxygen. An ill mannered dog of any size is not something I care to be around.

I tolerate well behaved medium sized dogs just fine, and I like big dogs. My preference is for the working breeds, be they spaniels, retrievers, or shepherds. Over the years I have owned a couple of Springer Spaniels that were fine animals, but my favorite dog of all time is the German shepherd. For my money, you cannot find a more intelligent, loyal, or versatile canine companion. I have had several in my life.

However, a German shepherd is probably not the best suited dog for the RV lifestyle, which is why I don’t have one today. In fact, as much as Terry and I both love animals, we don’t have any pets, and have made the decision not to do so for as long as we continue to be fulltime RVers. For our particular lifestyle, vending at RV rallies, doing speaking engagements, and leaving the bus a lot to cover stories for the Gypsy Journal, it just is not fair to have an animal that spends so much time alone. 

For many years we traveled with Terry’s cat, Sasquatch, who came as part of a package deal when we got married. But he wasn’t your run of the mill kitty. He was a hybrid with some lynx, Manx, and Himalayan blood, that tipped the scales at well over 20 pounds in his prime, and looked like a bobcat. He also had several extra toes on each foot and could use them like a hand to grasp things. Even though I don’t like cats, he was a good conversation starter because he looked so unique. Sasquatch passed away a few years back, but he wasn’t the only unique pet we have seen in RVs as we have traveled around the country.

Once, in Lake Conroe, Texas, we met a couple who fulltimed with two parrots. They said the birds loved traveling, and were always drawing a crowd wherever they were parked when they brought them outside. Since parrots can live a long time, the owners had already made provisions in their wills for the adoption of the birds if something were to happen to them. Since then, we have met several other RVers who travel with birds.

I also met a couple once who fulltimed with a collection of snakes, which they used to present educational programs to schoolchildren. I hate snakes even more than I do cats and yappy little dogs, so I took their word for it and did not venture inside their motorhome to see for myself.

While I have never seen them myself, I have met RVers who told me they traveled with ferrets, a skunk, and even a monkey. Don’t ask me why, I don’t know.

My friend Henry Gartner, better known as Flakey the Clown, travels with a couple of rabbits that he uses in his act at RV rallies and shows. Does that qualify them as pets or props? I’m not sure. Just as I wasn’t sure if the goldfish one couple kept in their RV to entertain their cat qualified as a pet, or just pet food.

Perhaps the strangest pet we ever saw in an RV was a baby kangaroo, which is more correctly called a joey. It’s owner came to a Life on Wheels session in Bowling Green, Kentucky when we were teaching there several years back, and people were crowded around wanting to pet and hold the little guy, who just wanted to snuggle up to his human daddy and go back to sleep.

Thought For The Day – Don’t believe everything you think.

Register Now For Our Ohio Gypsy Gathering Rally

The Affinity rally ended yesterday, and while we had a good time visiting with old friends and meeting some new ones, it was a break even event for us financially.

While we’d have loved to come away with buckets full of cash, going in we said that if we could cover our costs and introduce some new readers to the Gypsy Journal, we’d be happy with that, and we accomplished that goal.

So what’s with people and their dogs?

Though we choose not to own a pet while we travel, I love dogs. I love big floppy eared mixed breed mutts. I love AKC dogs with pedigrees that make my own family tree look pretty shabby by comparison. My preference is big dogs, but I’m quite content with the medium size breeds too.

My good friend Ann Pruitt has an adorable medium size service dog named Curlie Sue whom I have a special relationship with. My pal Mike Howard in Kingman, Arizona lives next door to a massive mutt named Skeeter who is taller than me when he stands on his hind legs. They’re both on my Favorite Dog list.

In a pinch I’ll even cozy up to a small dog, unless it’s a yappy little mutt with a big mouth and a bad attitude.

I don’t like French poodles, probably because the only things French I like are toast, fries, and kisses, though not necessarily in that order. Don’t tell Chris and Jim Guld from Geeks on Tour, but I even sneaked a surreptitious scratch behind the ears of their yappy little poodle Odie once when nobody was looking. When you need a dog fix bad enough, I guess any old mutt will do.

My favorite dogs are German shepherds, and I’ll walk a block out of my way to meet and pet every one I see. I don’t trust pit bulls, most of whom deserve their bad reputation, no matter what their fans will tell you. In my many years in the newspaper business, I never covered a story about a collie mauling a kid, but I did have to report on too many sad stories involving pit bull attacks.

So, overall, I’m a dyed in the wool dog lover.

What I don’t like are irresponsible dog owners, and people who think the rules do not apply to their dogs. People who allow their dogs to bark endlessly, or who go off and leave their noisy dogs back in the RV to annoy everybody in the campground in their absence.

I get really ticked off by people at public events where dogs are specifically prohibited, but who insist on bringing their canine companions in anyway. We saw dozens of people doing this at the Affinity rally in Albuquerque. One person after another came wandering through the vendor area with their dogs. One lady even had two little mutts in a twin baby carriage, forcing shoppers to find a way around her as she blocked the aisles.

Besides being against the rules, some people, like Miss Terry, are allergic to dogs, and some are afraid of them. But these inconsiderate pet owners could care less. After all, it’s all about them.

We welcome dog owners to bring their critters to our Gypsy Gathering rallies, but we make it very clear that their pets are not allowed in the buildings or in the vendor area, as mandated by our insurance company and the fairgrounds who rent us the space, and I don’t hesitate to enforce the rule.

Yet we have had people show up at seminars and in the vendor area with their dogs. A couple of years ago at our rally in Casa Grande, Arizona, we even had a woman carrying her dog in to get donuts in the morning, leaning over the open box of pastries with the dog in her arms!

Invariably when I tell someone they are breaking the rules, I get the same reply “But this is my baby!”

No, it’s not your baby. You may consider it your fur kid, but it’s still an animal. I wasn’t a memorable student in high school, but even I learned that much in biology class! Human babies have two legs, and if that thing has four legs and is your baby, you need to sell that freak to a sideshow!

Thought For The Day – The treasure you find is rarely what you thought you were looking for.

Register Now For Our Ohio Gypsy Gathering Rally