Camping Kitty: Part Four

Skye has graduated to full-fledged camping kitty.

The trip to Erie wasn’t without incident. We made in about five miles down the road before we realized that we had no trailer brakes. We turned around and came back to our beloved mechanic’s garage. Skye and I moved from the truck cab to the camper while the guys worked on the truck, hitch, and trailer to isolate the problem. I sat and read the newspaper while Skye prowled the camper and puzzled over where her house went. At home, when she looked out the camper door, she could see our house. Now there was a sidewalk, a garage…and a dog. Not good.

Also, not my idea of camping. And at that point, I was pretty convinced it was as close as we were going to get.

Then Skye and I were evicted so the guys could take the rig for a test ride. With Skye in her carrier, I moved inside the mechanic’s “lounge.” We sat and watched TV.

Through it all, Skye was remarkably well behaved.

Finally, we got the all-clear and climbed back into the truck with the problem apparently resolved.

It wasn’t. We soon determined that we STILL had no trailer brakes. But by then we decided we were going anyway. The truck is hefty enough to stop the trailer barring anything catastrophic. And as hubby pointed out, if we got into a situation that required a catastrophic stop, we were probably screwed anyway.

We made it to Erie without any such disasters. And Skye only fussed a little. Considering the three hour trip had turned into a four-and-a-half hour trip, I couldn’t blame her.

That first day had Skye (and me) stressed out. She spent most of her time hiding in any “cave” she could find. Including the bathroom.


The noise of the campground and the barking of a nearby dog added to the stress of the trip. But at least my fears of her escaping were quelled. No way did she want outside.

The first night, she meowed. All. Night. Long. She tried to climb into bed with us only to fall out. Nothing more than her pride was bruised by the tumble.

Needless to say, I was sleep deprived most of day two. Skye finally wore herself out and spent the entire day snoozing.

This was pretty much how I’d expected the first two days to transpire. A year ago, when Skye first came to live with us, she reacted the same way.

Thankfully, she slept straight though the second night, too. So did I. And when she climbed into bed next to me, she didn’t fall out.

By days three and four, she was an old pro. She scornfully eyed the neighboring dog through the window or the door. She surveyed her new kingdom from the back of the couch or the back of the bench instead of hiding in her cave.

I think she actually had a good time. And the trip home (hubby had fixed the brake problem) was much shorter and without complication.

Skye’s happy to home. But she has earned her new rank as camping kitty. Hopefully next time, the settling in process will be a little shorter.

As for the rest of our vacation, I will post more tales from Presque Isle and more pictures over the next few days.