Written during my night watch on May 4/5, on the way to Gibraltar
My sincere apologies to everybody, being so busy in La Coruna, I simply forgot to update you on what you have probably been waiting for the most. The event that was even worth an entry in the log book: how Chester did on the trip! So, here's the pee-poo-update:
In the end, I didn't feel completely happy with the poo-kopter landing pad. After all, nothing ever landed. At the same time, I saw that my favorite Discount Store in Les Sables (can't even remember how often I went there) offered a very nice, soft and dense artificial lawn for a very reasonable price. It's quite heavy, too, so it's less likely to disappear over the side like its predecessor. I now call that 0.5x2m piece the "Poo Landing Strip", or short "PSL". We also decided to put it first in the cockpit and later just in front of the dinghy and thus out of the way. There's no way I would go to the foredeck in the conditions we are in to use the PSL. Can't expect it from the dog either, then. Okay, okay, I keep it short: Chester peed, twice!, on the PSL. The first time on May 2 at 7:45am. And again ten minutes later. You'd think he'd won the Nobel Price going by the praise he got from me! Of course, it was easy enough to get rid of that stuff with lots of water, no harm done. Now, if you paid attention, you would be asking: "well, he peed, okay, but what about the poo? You were on the go for 58 hrs after all!" Well, it just didn't happen. As easy as that. (A lot more happened on shore, though ;-)...Am I going into too many details now? For those that already had enough, stop reading here, do something nice. Good choice!
For all the others, in case there are some hardcore poo enthusiasts still left, here comes part two, as we are currently on our second over night trip from La Coruna to Lisboa, which could be called "The Night II", like one of those cheap horror movies; and which I am not enjoying one bit more than the first one. At least I seem to have found my sealegs, as I don't feel any seasickness at all. Can't sleep either, though, as I didn't take any pills that come with the nice side effect of knocking you out.
But let's get back to the poo issue. About 8 hrs into the trip, Chester quite obviously had a problem. You learn to read your dog after a while... So out we go with lots of praise and my "go didi" and "go dada" commands, as well as "here!" and "now!". Mind you, that wasn't some crazy baby talk, those were my and Chester's secret code words for 'going to pee' (didi) and 'going to poo' (dada). I didn't even mind that Chester stuck to the cockpit area. I thought that it would be no problem to pick up some brown balls and sausages with the poo bag as usual. (Too many details even for the daring rest now?) I thought, that it would hardly leave a dirty spot anyway. Man, was I wrong!!! I missed to consider that dogs can get diarrhea, too! Okay, definitely too many details now. Just one more thing to give you a picture of the whole situation, not just part of it: imagine, it's dark, you are standing on an oversized rocking chair that seems to be high on some Extacy pills, somewhere in the middle of the ocean (well, not quite, but that's what it felt like), your husband is trying to keep up with the buddy boat while making sure that the boat coming towards us won't run into us, while you have to clean up a a load of shit without accidentally stepping in it because the boat is so bouncy, AND while, at the same time, preventing the cat from sneaking around the corner to be washed overboard and never be seen again (or whatever Sparkles intended with that act. I do hope he's not suicidal.)
Now, as a conclusion - as there will be no more sequel to the pee-poo-story - at least I hope so! - let me say: no worries, traveling dog owners, what has to come out will come out. Just give it time. And maybe train your dog early on to do business on command. Helps with the communication. Poo and pee help desk out.
No comments:
Post a Comment