It's too quiet in my house

[F8th637]

I totally hear you! My dog is on vacation with my dad whom she absolutely adores. We basically have joint custody of her. She stays a few months with us and then a few months with him. I miss her immediately when she goes. Yukon will be fine. She'll miss her Mama, don't worry!

[bmccasland]

I understand the strange quietness of not having your fur babies around. It always feels strange when I drop the cats off at the vet and the dog off at a sitters if I'm going to be gone for several days. But even stranger coming home and not having them there to greet me.

The worst for me was when I took my critters up to my aunt's vet for boarding after Hurricane Katrina. When we saw the levees break, we knew we couldn't go home anytime soon, but I also knew I'd be called back to work within a week or so, doing recovery, therefore I needed to arrange long term care for my cats and dogs. They were boarded for 3 weeks, and when the vet tech was leading the dogs to the waiting room, I could see them looking back to their kennel and not forward to me. Apparently they had a lovely large kennel, and on weekends they'd go home with someone to a ranch for a good romp in the country. I was relieved when they saw me and got all happy. Nala had to have her nose touching me all the way home (6 hr drive).

[Bad JuJu]

I think our pets are more adaptable than we maybe want to admit to ourselves.

When we travel, if we can't take Cocoa with us, he goes to the neighbors' house, and likewise, when the neighbors travel, we get their dog, Bo. We tell them they're having a "sleepover." They've gotten so used to this that when the neighbors are gone for a day, if the weather is good and they leave Bo outside, he comes to our house on his own. (We live out in the boonies, at the end of a dirt road, so neighborhood dogs roam pretty freely.)

If we're all gone at the same time, and we have to leave "the boys" at the kennel, we all feel a little downhearted about it. Then, we tell them they're going to "camp."

You get a little crazy with your dogs when you don't have any kids.