THE CARLY REPORT - July, 2011

In this report our traveling pooch describes a bit more of the beach house where everyone stayed while in the 'outer banks'. Their plan was to stay until the 4th of July and then head back to Pennsylvania until time to head west again.

Hello My Feline Friend,

I thought I'd tell you some more about where we are in the outer banks. We are over three miles from where the road ends. Like I explained before we have to drive down the beach to get here. That is both fun and frightening all at the same time. They will never put a road through here because this end of the outer banks has wild horses. The horses live on the doonz and they are beautiful. This morning we had 4 adult mares, one of which was pregnant and one baby horse hanging out in what could be considered the back yard of this place. There is a law against getting closer than 50 feet from the wild horses but they were only about five feet from the decks off the back of the house. Once again I will mention how short my leash is, otherwise I would have loved making friends with these huge critters.
The beach is beautiful. I really like the beach but not the ocean. It reminds me of baths. I don't like baths.
The house is on the beach, about 100 human feet from the ocean with the doonz I told you about, between here and the beach. It's a 2-story house on top of piers that make it look like a 3-story house. The bottom has a garage and storage rooms, a bathroom and a shower beside the pool. Shower is literally a wooden enclosure with wooden floor and bench and a shower fixture on the wall. Pretty cool for humans but I avoid it! They can wash off beach sand before coming up but for the most part they just hit the pool to wash it off. It has 6 bedrooms and 7.5 bathrooms. The living room is what humans call a "great room" arrangement with a dining table big enough for 10 humans, 3 down each side and 2 on the ends. For some reason they still feed me on the floor but that's okay as long as I get to eat. There is one bedroom that has two sets of bunk beds, one bedroom that has a full size bed and one set of bunk beds. The rest all have king-sized beds even though some rooms aren't big enough to accommodate a king. My crate is in the closet and I get to share time between there (for my own little space) and Mom and Dad's bed. The bed is so high I have trouble getting in it so Mom pushed a rocking chair up to the foot of the bed so I can climb up in stages.
Yesterday I rode along with my humans down the bumpy beach and went into town. I met a nice dog and a nice lady at a dog shop. A whole shop dedicated just to doggies and doggie lovers. My humans bought me a collapsible bowl to drink water out of instead of the 'ol butter dish I usually use.
I hadn't seen the horse in a couple days but one came by today. They are very big, even the baby one, but do seem peaceful. We leave the beach house tomorrow and drive back to the house in Pin-sill-vane-yah. I haven't seen Lilly in a week. My Mom says she hopes I get along better with her. I think I will if she's gotten any smaller. She's big. She always wants to play but I don't. Therefore, when I tell Lilly I don't want to play with my sharp bark, people think I don't like her. I try to wag my tail to tell them I do but I just don't want to play. I've found that people often don't understand what doggies are saying. Do they understand what kitties are saying? Bye now, Carly

Hi Carly!

Cool...you scored a good water bowl and you've been able to hold on to your real estate on the folk's bed. Good girl! The beach house certainly sounds fun, especially with the sights you were able to see. Rolling in the dry sand, watching horses, avoiding that mega bathtub called ocean, you've had quite a vacation. Better you than me. I can't stand to ride in a moving vehicle so I'm a homebody. I can't even take walks with my humans. I mean c'mon on now...how undignified to follow along on a leash with a human attached to it at the other end!! I refuse to even think about such a thing. I'm glad you've had fun though and shared it with us.
Now don't get your hopes up about Lilly getting smaller cuz it's never gonna happen. Maybe when Lilly comes around just pretend you're sound asleep. You're right about people not speaking or understanding doggie lingo or kitty lingo. You and I both know they are two very distinctly different languages too. I'm lucky in that my human speaks and understands cat and dog...and occasional profanity.
Okay, you have a good trip back to that other place and I'll watch for your next report. I think we've about caught up with your emails.
Sister VC