As many of you know, we got a new motorhome last month. This weekend is our maiden voyage. We chose someplace semi-close to home…less than an 8 hour drive. Branson, MO.

I took some pictures while we were still sitting in the driveway. Everyone was creeping around trying to figure out what was going on.

The rats DID NOT like the diesel engine and all the hydraulic noises and air brakes. Jeau was the most scared (more on him later). Telly was in a crate. I had to get him out and try him in different areas, as he was a “troubled traveller”. Teena is afraid of everything, so her reaction was not unusual. Linus was ok. Little Thing was needy (wanted to be on my lap). After six hours of travelling, I was disappointed that these Gold Medal nappers had not fallen asleep even once. Every time I looked over at them, I had eyeballs all around trained on me.

During one potty stop, Bob had the bathroom vanity open….and I found a Jeau nervously peeking out of it at me. Very cute.

And when I had Telly on his bed next to me, I had to laugh. It looked like a giant rat was hiding under the blanket! I brought his favoritest bed and blankie

Once we got to our campsite and all the rumbling stopped, everyone seemed to settle down. I set up an exercise pen and it seems to work well, though we still walk them about four times a day. They’ve never leash-pottied before, so they are doing really well!

In the middle of the night, Jeau was panting. Bob got up with him. As Bob was doing his business, he suddenly smelled something. Jeau had a major blow-out on the bathroom rug. Poor little Jeau. He had really bad diarrhea. This morning, when I walked him, he still had diarrhea and it was turning bloody. I gave him some Immodium. Throughout the day, he has lost his appetite and energy. Had another BM with blood following… but had a recent BM with no blood (THANK GOD!) Has ZERO interest in food. THAT bothers me. I cant recall Jeau ever losing his appetite. If he is still bad in the morning, we’re heading out early and may even swing by Manhattan, KS to the K-State Vet College. Please say a little prayer for my Jeau. He’s my heart dog.

On a lighter note, the trailer next to us has a Bichon Frise and two cats! And, uh, one of the cats is on a tie-out and stares at my cageful of rats!! It’s hard enough teaching barky, barky, barky, barky, & barky to be quiet campers…but to have a cat on a leash only 15′ away is pure torture! As many of you know, Telly HATES (LOVES) cats! As you can tell from my pics, Telly is always looking to his right : )

And later….

And, sigh, it’s such an effort to stay on cat-watch…his crooked little nose got tired and he rested it on the cage bars…

I plan on making some LOST DOG posters for future trips. If one of them ever went missing, I want to be able to IMMEDIATELY go put up posters. So, I needed to start taking some good poster pics. Here are my beautiful Jeau and Linus. I need to take Teena and Little Things. Telly most likely wont need a LOST DOG poster!

UPDATE:
Jeau is feeling better! Bob and I left to go visit some neighbors and toured a motorcoach down the row from us that was also a Bluebird (same brand as ours) When we got back, the rats were ultra-excited! Then, Jeau marched right over to the counter and barked and started dancing around. His uneaten dinner was sitting up there. YAY! I was so thrilled! I suppose we will need to dope him with ACE for future trips to prevent the nervous bowel. I hope he doesnt fall apart on me again tomorrow after our trip home.

More tomorrow.