Dog Friendly Accommodation

It is no secret that we love Dog. We do often manage to organise outings that can include her and she is just as happy as Larry ( who the fuck IS Larry ?) lying in her big space in the monster truck. She is less pleased when she has to squeeze herself into my little hatch. It's a bit like trying to poke all of me into one of those spanx, body fixing corset step-ins things, it's never gonna work out well and there are gonna be bits hanging out and other bits that are squeezed to breaking point. But unlike me who will go for the swinging flab comfort every time, she would prefer to squeeze in that be left at home.

As we are trying to organise a few days touring around the country areas near Stanthorpe, we thought we'd take her too. I mean she is better behaved than many of the kids I have taught and indeed more easily controlled than most of the adults I am pleased to say I spend time with, so I thought finding a decent place to stay that would happily accommodate her would not be too tricky.

I do believe that it's possible to take your dog and stay in a .... I can hardly even think it.... a caravan or a tent!! But if indeed there ever was a time I was happy to cram myself into a sardine can or sleep in a canvas bag barely bigger than my best smock, well that time is now well passed.

The purpose of our little expedition is to find  piece of rural metal that might look cool as a sculpture in our garden. We have been on the hunt for something suitable for sometime, but I reckon we just need to go further afield - pardon the pun. However, I am not so fixated on the sculpture idea that I am willing to sleep or rather, not sleep because of snoring and claustrophobia and cold and schlepping out to shared toilets a number of times in the night, stubbing toes on rocks or snakes or whatever, and the notion of cold communal showers leaves me, well more than just chilly.

So I googled pet friendly accommodation and there were a number a places to choose from. I started sending emails about 2 weeks ago. I made it very clear that we wanted to bring Dog.

Yesterday I got serious about making the booking, so I emailed the best sounding places again and then actually spoke to one owner. We were all set to go. He had given me all the details and we had agreed tariffs and even though it had been very clear in all my emails, I mentioned Dog again. Well he just dropped his bundle, said that his wife wouldn't allow dogs, said that she had been welcoming parrots and the dog would interfere with that, and then he said that if I could just see the house I would understand why there could be no dogs. I must admit to being a little miffed at this point, cos the implication was that his place was better than my place, and that's why it was OK to have a dog at my place.

Yes of course it's his right to say NO to pets. It's a shame though that he advertises on the pet friendly site... Or maybe he would be happy if I brought some of my fish, or a cat or a snake or HORSE?

So I found the next favourite place and emailed again. DOG info was in capitals.

Again I got a confirmation email with tariffs and bank deposit info and linen and fireplace stuff . Yippee!

I fired one back again as there had been no mention of DOG. And almost immediately I was told NO DOGS due to Council regulations.

I am not a patient woman, so I have thrown my toys out of the pram and told Steve that I just can't be bothered trying to find anywhere else.

So if you know of a cottage near Stanthorpe with a fireplace and owners with a willingness to accommodate Dog, please drop me a line. Otherwise I will look to find a different garden solution and stop at the Goldie and enjoy this lovely winter weather.