Pets are adopted each and every day, sometimes in unplanned ways. Motorhomers have been known to take in a stray during their travels. Thus, this month’s question:
Have you ever “rescued” an animal while on the road that became a member of the family?
One Friday afternoon we were heading home to Colorado from a trade show in Las Vegas. As we were driving 65 mph on U.S. 160 in northern Arizona, near the town of Kayenta in the Navajo Nation, the afternoon sun glinted off something near the highway. My wife and I saw eyes and knew it was some tiny animal. We turned around. We found a tiny puppy, about the size of my fist, shivering and scared to death. I carefully picked her up, allowed our chocolate lab, Teaser, to check her out, and offered her water. We made her a bed in the back of our Suburban and planned to take her to the animal shelter on Monday. We named her Kaya. For the first two nights, she slept in one of my fur-lined slippers. I potty-trained her by gently pushing her out the heavy plastic curtain covering our doggie door, then pushing her back in. On Monday morning we loaded Kaya back in the Suburban, but the trip was to the veterinarian’s office instead for shots and an exam. We discovered that she was a 4-week-old terrier-coyote mix. More than 10 years later, Kaya is still part of our family. She looks like a miniature coyote and is one of the smartest dogs we’ve ever had. She loves traveling and rides on the wide, padded dash of our motorhome. She even house-trained our newest household member, a 110-pound Great Dane-lab named Shadow. Kaya liked to carry rocks around as a puppy; ironically, we found out later that in the Nez Perce language, Kaya means “mover of rocks.”
Jim Brightly, F358406
Kingman, Arizona
We were in an RV park in Chula Vista, California, before going to Baja for a month. Every day a little yellow cat would come to our RV, hungry and lonely. She wore a blue collar with a bell, which would alarm any prey she might find to eat, except bugs. We checked at the office to see if anyone was looking for a lost cat and went to every RV in the park. It was obvious that her owners had left her. Animal control was in the park nearly every day, as there were many stray cats. We knew she had been spared because of the collar and bell. We decided to take her with us and planned to stop back. When we returned, still no one was missing a cat. We took her to our home, where she became a loving house cat. We named her Bugsy.
Weta Berger, F205425
Brownsville, California
Future questions:
1. Do you work or volunteer while using your motorhome? Explain.
2. Describe your favorite national park.
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