Tails from the road - Meet Taz

Me taking advantage of Tiffin's standard doggie window.

Hi, I'm Taz! I'm a 9 or 10 year-old Shepherd / Lab mix that my Mom and Dad rescued. I'd like to think I got the best of both breeds. You're obviously not seeing my best side right now, but this picture is entirely appropriate given my lifestyle and Mom and Dad's choice of motor homes.

I used to be a car dog, jumping at every chance to head somewhere down the road, but now I've upgraded to something bigger - but I'm not quite sure it's better yet. Like most dogs, I get used to certain things, and when change happens I get a bit weirded out at times. Like when my "home" walls all of a sudden start closing in on me for the first time. Dad calls them slides, but I know slides and these aren't them! Then right after the walls come in, my home's engine starts up and we begin to move! What the heck ?!?!?!

Anyway, the good thing is that Mom and Dad know what I like, which is a nice, comfy position by their feet. But there's a lot of pedals under Dad's feet in this new home, so that option is out. But they got me a nice soft pad to lay on, where I can look out my own window and step on Mom's feet whenever I want. I'm still a bit nervous about my home moving a lot, so when Mom has to leave her seat every now and again I move over closer to Dad - until she gets back. Then I step on her feet again and lay down by my nice window provided by Mr. Tiffin.

I'm not very different from most dogs, in that I really don't like sharp noises. Mom and Dad added something called a Safe-T-Plus to our new home, and the guy putting it on started up a really loud  impact wrench right under my feet, so I had to hide from that under my kitchen table. Good thing Mom and Dad were there to keep me safe!

One thing that is also a bit scary right now is what Mom and Dad call a "campfire". Every once in a while there's this popping sound coming out of the campfire, and that sends me to my safe place.

Under my new home.

But it's OK. I'm kinda a cave dog at heart, so this is just my own personal cave whenever I want it.

I also have a nice bed set up in the back bathroom for sleeping, but I really don't use it much because Mom and Dad really like me sleeping between them on their queen size bed! They don't tell me that in so many words, but I just know it to be true. I'm very perceptive in that regard.

Otherwise, once it stops moving, it's still my home, and once Dad sends the walls back out, I have plenty of room the sprawl, which is what I do best!

We have had one scary thing happen on our first trip, though. Mom and Dad are laughing about it now, but they weren't laughing the other day. Seems as if this thing called an "exhaust extension" got knocked off my home on the way back down from New Hampshire, and caused a lot of heat and fumes to come into my home while we were driving to our current camp site. All of a sudden, this loud beeping noise comes on about 3 feet from where I'm laying. It was VERY LOUD! Mom was in the back picking up something that had fallen off the counter top, and I had no one to hide with or calm me down. So I just ran across to the other side of my home where Dad was driving, and got right on top of his feet! For some reason, Dad didn't appreciate me doing that, because we started going faster and he started yelling for Mom to get me off of his feet.

Some people just don't appreciate a good doggie cuddle. And I WAS scared after all . . .

I found out later that Dad said our CO2 alarm went off, so we opened our windows really wide in hopes the sound would stop, but it  didn't until we got to our campsite and got the door opened. Boy, I couldn't get out of my new home fast enough!

Otherwise, this RV life is turning out to be pretty good. I get to go outside with Mom and Dad more than I used to, and they're around a whole lot more because they're doing something called "retirement". If you see me at a camp site you're staying at, don't be shy; I love meeting new people! Not always other dogs just yet (I can take some and leave some others), but with more practice I'm sure I'll be as good at that as I am sprawling.

See you down the road!