Saturday With Ollie

Yesterday, I transported a handsome and charming English Setter,  Ollie, from Ashland Va to Rocky Mount, NC.  My sister was in from Bedford.  Though she had a 3 hour drive into town on Friday, she agreed to accompany me for the ~8 hours of driving that our trip entailed.

Our passenger was on his way to his permanent home after generously being fostered. He's been trying to get from New Jersey to South Carolina for the past three weekends--all of which I volunteered for.  I withdrew my offer for the fourth weekend as my sister was coming into town.  However, Ollie's foster mom made an urgent plea to volunteers.  She was beginning her own important RV retirement adventure, and it has been postponed for too long.  So, I was prepared to ditch visiting with my sister to drive Ollie.  I was glad that my sister came with me.

Ollie's profile warned that he was not good in the car.  He barked at cars and moved around quite a bit. I was confident that he would be fine in the backseat of the Aurora.  Most dogs just flop down after a bit.  Ollie was not like most dogs.

He seemed to enjoy riding in the car and was convinced that we needed him to be an active participant in his transport. He would graciously point out when  cars were passing by giving two very loud barks.  We assured him that our mirrors were working just fine and he needn’t notify us via his loud barking.  He  pointed out about 5 cars that way.  Each time we collectively expressed our dismay at him, and praised him when he was quiet.  He figured it out quickly and stopped barking—and trusted that we could figure out traffic on our own.

He quickly turned his attention to the driver and passenger area.  Were we buckled in?  Hmmm….could we read the gages?  How about steering?  Driver position okay?  Can you reach the gas and brakes?I am going to my new home and want to get there in one piece. After about 45 minutes of his conducting his 10 point traffic safety inspection of all aspects of the car’s operation and the driver’s operation of the car he settled down quietly to enjoy a little nap.  In fact, he slept like a baby for the balance of the trip.

We had a merry adventure with this fellow. We noted a 10 mile backup on 95N as we were traveling south. We plotted a course around it for our return trip.  In doing so, we passed this memorable store:

He's a picture of Ollie in profile. I used Photoshop to create this.  My husband said that no one can tell that it is a dog. 

 It was a beautiful day to drive (something I don't mind doing!), and it was great to be part of this guy's transition from foster to permanent home.