Having gotten Winnie safely on the ground at the airport, we were grateful for the airline's Live Cargo Transportation service, they were dedicated to their job seeing to the care and comfort of their charges. That being said, we knew it must have been a harrowing trip for the 8week old puppy we had yet to meet. When the staff member presented us with the tiny crate we couldn't wait to get to a safe place, somewhere clean and quiet where we were certain no other dogs had been as our puppy hadn't yet gotten all vaccinations and we didn't want her on contaminated ground. We had picked out some possible names and waited to meet our puppy knowing she would name herself and as soon as her spirit connected with us. She became WinnieBelle right before our eyes.
The final leg of Winnie's journey was a one hour car ride and I didn't have the heart to put her back in the crate so we hit the road with Winnie on my lap. I was totally enamored, couldn't stop staring at this tiny little creature curled up and sleeping so soundly, she seemed so grateful to us for having freed her from what must have seemed like the end of the world inside that frightening box all alone. I pulled my eyes away when my stomach began to turn. Worst time ever to get car sick!
The view became a moving screen of scenery, nothing really registered as we drove on and the tiny bundle remained deep in silent slumber, too tired to even snore. I realized that Winnie hadn't gone potty in the crate on her flight, nor had we let her go at the airport. I began to hope she would continue to sleep, after all, she was exhausted. We wanted to at least get to Novato, familiar ground were we were confident we could find a safe clean spot to potty her. Winnie slept thru Novato but awoke in the Narrows on Hwy 101. Oh, dear. No way to stop or get off the freeway. Yikes! Winnie stretched her little body, yawned and stood to try to see out the window. We had to make it to Petaluma.
Luckily, after a short spell of squiggly, wiggly, squirmy puggle antics, Winnie turned back to my lap, safe and warm she fell asleep once again.
Sleeping thru Petaluma, Winnie woke with more intention, popping up on hind legs with her front feet reaching towards the dash. Her message was clear, make no mistake. "Oh, she's gotta go now. She's gotta go ten minutes ago!"
We exited the freeway at Railroad Ave, drove under the over pass where there wasn't much chance dogs would have been running around, and as soon as we set the puppy on the ground, she peed and peed and peed. The size of the puddle was three times the size of the dog who made it. I repeated the command, "Pee pee pee" and she went, went, went. She still goes on command but to this day I can't drive over that over pass or underneath it on Railroad Ave without remembering where we stopped and left Winnie's "calling card"in the dust as we neared the end of her first car ride with us coming home.