The adventure begins!

You know that feeling when you are confident you have everything under control? And how in a split second it all goes pear shaped? Welcome to my world.

The car was loaded. Yes we looked like the Beverley Hillbillies but hey ho!

Up early to kick to the kerb (well put out for the bin men) the dreaded blow up bed that I’ve been sleeping on for six weeks. It’s that bad that even Dylan doesn’t try and sleep on it. I’m far too old for blow up beds! And Dylan’s far too choosy!

So all that remained was putting the cats, Harry and Pixie, in their carrier and putting Dylan in her harness and car seat.

What could possibly go wrong! Well only that the clasp on the cat carrier came loose and Pixie the tortoiseshell terror sprang free and shot under the car out of reach and refusing to budge.

Luckily, I managed to keep Harry in the carrier, as he has been known to go roaming round the neighbourhood for hours and we were on a deadline to get them to the pet transport courier.

In my mind I was working out how long I had to recapture Pixie and still make the couriers! And beginning to panic! But after half an hour Pixie surrendered and they were back in the car. However, then Dylan managed to open the door of the house and bounded out and shot up the road with a joyeous look on her face that said “Yay! freedom!”

My heart was in my mouth. But all those weeks/months/years at puppy class have paid off as I called her and miraculously she came back!

So fully loaded off we set off. Filthy weather, the kind of rain where you can’t see the car in front on the motorway. The cats wailed, Dylan snored, I turned the radio up.

An hour later the cats were dropped at the courier boarding – so horrible leaving them but they are being driven to Spain in air conditioned specially adapted pet transport. Much more comfortable for them.

Dylan and I continued to Portsmouth and the Ibis. As we arrived the rain gave way to sunshine – which I took as a good sign.

Dyls raced up the steps – she does love a hotel break. Mind you, maybe she was thinking about her previous Ibis break last summer when so excited by the room she did a wee on the bed before we had chance to put our bags down!

This time I got her in and out of the room pretty sharpish! And we decided to explore.

Portsmouth has been the focal point of the D Day celebrations this week, sadly Dyls and I missed the Queen by a couple of days.

But it was as though another VIP was in town – Miss Dylan! I have never been stopped so many times by people wanting to stroke Dylan. One woman told me she was on a weekend break and missing Lily her Wire Fox Terrier, so much that she had to come over and make a fuss of Dyls. Whom, it goes without saying, loved the attention. Her little tail held high and her Welshie trot became even bouncier!

Same thing happened in the dog friendly shops – of which there were plenty. In fact, I could still be in The White Company as the staff there didn’t want Dylan to leave!

Back at the hotel we had a drink at the bar – Dylan getting served first of course, and holding court as the staff came up for a cuddle.

She turned to look at me and did a Welshie smile – I think she’s enjoying her adventure! But tomorrow we set sail, so let’s find out how Dylan does on the high seas!