Buddy - RV life & Traveling with a puppy!

I tell the story that when we got Buddy he was this cute little cuddly ball of fur (photo on left)  WHAT HAPPENED?!   (photo on right)  The photo in the middle is him looking for me when I have him shut out of the bedroom.  He has to be with me ALL the time!

Maybe I should start at the very beginning.  When Jim and I met he had recently divorced and let his ex-wife keep "His Golden Retriever".  I vowed to get him another one.  While we were living in Springfield, MO we saw an ad that a lady had found one, advertised for his owner and no one responded.  We were the first to respond and "Mister" became ours.  He was almost a year old and already a good sized dog...I thought.  He was such a lovable dog.  We had almost 12 good years with him and found he had cancer and died.  We cremated him and scattered his ashes on my Dad's farm in Missouri where he loved to run. 

So then Jim decided we would never get another dog.  I would frequently joke with him when we'd  be around another dog.  Then shortly before Easter 2013 he said I've decided if you want one we can get one.  I told him no I was just joking, that I knew living in an RV, etc. etc. that we didn't really need one.  Well, come to find out HE wanted one!  So we went to one of the area animal shelters.  When we went he said he thought we should get a male dog.  He immediately bonded with a female Jack Russell Terrier.  We came home with Mattie.  I won't go into all the details but not real impressed with the animal shelter.  Five weeks after we got her, and after spending $XXXX at the vet's, Mattie died of distemper. What we didn't know was, she had it when we got her.

So again Jim said we weren't getting another dog.  Then a few days later he said...unless we know someone who has one.  So our grandson told us one day a guy he worked with had a dog that had puppies and he had one left.   He said the mom was  poodle and the father was small so he would probably stay small.  (When Buddy is bad we like to blame our grandson for finding him for us.  But we love Buddy and our grandson very much.)  We went to see the puppy.  We were going to be going out of town the next weekend and determined that if  we "liked" the puppy that we would see if the owner would keep him until we returned.  We would of course buy the food, etc.   When we got there we found that the mother and puppies were outside dogs.  The poor little guy was covered in fleas.  Jim and I kind of looked at each other like  "not sure if I like him" but we can't leave him here.  We took him, stopped at Walmart on the way home for flea shampoo and all the other items we would immediately need.  Jim said take him "directly to the shower".  We got all the fleas off of him and took him to the vet the following Monday.  Everyone thought and still thinks Buddy is so cute!  They don't live with him!  If you look at his photos he really doesn't look at all like a poodle, he looks primarily terrier and a terrier he is.  The first year he was an expensive dog...he chews and tears anything and everything, there's only so many places to put things out of reach in an RV.   I'll share more on that in some of my blogs later. He is now a year (April 2014).  He seems to enjoy traveling as long as he is on my lap or can be near me! 

Buddy is very destructive with his chewing.  We have found GoDog toys last the longest.