Starting to Pack for My Trip to America

      The suitcases came out this morning.  Not a good sign.

      I've learned over the past eighteen months that pretty soon after my best friends start packing clothes in suitcases I will be heading for what they charmingly call the "Dog Hotel."  Ugh!  Some hotel.  NOT!  I remember the first time they sent me there and the "Dog Lady" came to the flat to pick me up in her battered little car.  She actually asked Drew (one of my best friends) if he would like me to sleep with her.  What's that about?  He said "no" (thank God).  I understand that in America "Dog Hotels" can be really cushy places, but not in Slovakia.  But enough about that. I've learned sufficient English to know that its going to be different this time.  I'm going along with Traci (my other best friend) for a trip to America.

      A couple of weeks ago a large crate showed up at our flat.  Jozef, Traci's driver and a very good friend of mine (although not a best friend), brought it up the two flights of stairs and left it in front of our fireplace.  Since then Traci has been luring me into the crate with cookies (I really like the bacon flavored ones) and then telling me how great a place it is for me to hang out.  I don't like it.

      I don't understand everything that Traci has been telling me about our plans but I'll share the details with you as best I can.  Drew is already in America (wherever that is) and we have a new home in a place called Mt. Lebanon, close to another place called Pittsburgh.  Next Tuesday Jozef is going to drive Traci and me from here in Kosice (my hometown) to Vienna in Austria, a five hour trip.  I've never travelled for even a half-hour in a car before and I'm not looking forward to that at all.  I don't like riding in cars and I have a real tendency toward car-sickness.  Tuesday night Traci and I are going to stay at a hotel.  I sure hope human hotels are better than dog hotels.  On Wednesday, and this is where my understanding of things is a bit fuzzy, we are somehow going to "fly" to America.  Just exactly how are we going to do that?  Pigeons can fly and although I like to try sneaking up on them and catching them I've learned that the "fly" thing is something that they can do and I can't.   Apparently the "flight" is where the crate plays a role and I'm pretty sure that I'm going to be in it and I'm not going to like it.  We will be flying from Vienna to Washington, DC (another place somewhere in America) where Drew will meet us for another long car trip to Pittsburgh.

      I have decided to start my new blog in order to share my trip to America with you and then as a place to report on what I find and what I think about it.  I'm a dog and, as such, I don't usually pause to reflect much on things.  However, I've had a pretty interesting life so far and it sounds like its about to get even more interesting.  So I hope you'll enjoy my reporting and let me know what you think of my Canine/European opinions on America.