Hello all, this is my only my second post on this forum. Like most new posters I have been lurking for months and drinking from the fountain of information that this site/forum contains.

I am posting to tell a sad story that happened this weekend and to remind every one this holiday season that if you are ttraveling with your beloved pets to please bring a kennel and use it. I thought that this would be standard operating proceedure for mos people this, until this weekend...

I was on my way to begin Christmas shopping (yes I always start late) when I saw a small brown chihuahua in a brown sweat running through a very busy parking lot. Watching the dog run about 100yards or so I noticed that no one was chasing him or even looking for him. As he exited the parking lot, and began running paralell to one of the busiest streets in Sacramento I decided that no body was looking for this little fellow and I had better follow him to offer some assistance. I knew that since this dog was a stranger to me I could not simply get out of the car and chase him down, he would have just kept running and I might have herded him into oncoming traffic. So I decided to just follow him and wait until he ran out of gas or at least led me to an area that was not so congested. Well I followed him about for about 1/2 a mile when the little guy simply took a right turn into traffic and was struck by a ford explorer traveling about 45mph. By the time I could make up my following distance of about 50 yards the little guy had died. So I blocked traffic with my truck and got him off the road, as I had got him off to the side of the road a girl ran up from a local hotel asking if I had seen a brown chihuahua. When I told her the story of what happened, she told me that the dog was a guest of her hotel's and that when the maid opened the door the little guy made a break for freedom...


The worst part of this whole thing is that it could have been easily prevented by kenneling the dog. So I hope this story helps to remind you guys, when traveling with your pet, travel with their kennel/crate.

Happy Holidays!

Jason

Why people will leave a dog uncrated in a strange place is beyond me. Poor little guy.

I had a friend that took her Rotti bitch to be bred. Left her out in the motel room while she went out to eat. Came back to a destroyed room. She had shredded the curtains and bedspread and literally ripped the door-facing down. Also, tore the carpet around the doorway up and there were claw marks on the walls from the ceiling to the floor.

It is amazing how people just don't "think" sometimes.

Poor puppy.

What a terrible way to have to learn a lesson. But don't forget that much of the public is not educated about crates, and of course some think they are "cruel." Many of us learned about crates from attending shows and performance events. I know my mother only started using crates when she was flying with her dogs between San Diego and Sun Valley. Now, she wouldn't be without crates but I still can't convince her to use them for travel. I am going see if I can print this out and send it to her. it probably won't help (her daughters know nothing, you know) but at least she won't be able to say she wasn't warned.

I find when I travel my dogs PREFER to be in their crates. They don't mind being out in the hotel room with me when I'm there, but if I would go to get ice, for instance, and come back in 30 seconds, they'd USUALLY have kenneled themselves.

I kennel the dogs whenever I leave the room for more than 30 seconds to get ice.

This is such a sad story, because on the one hand the chi's owner should have had him crated... On the other hand, you WANT to blame the maid (even though that's entirely inappropriate). It's just heartbreaking. I can't even imagine what I'd do if anything happened to any of my guys.

poor lost, frightened little dog. When the run in panic like that, it's really sad- everything they knew and trusted is gone and they don't even know where they are running to.
I used to enjoy traveling with one dog in the front seat beside me, until I heard of someone whose dog was killed by the airbag. Others have had dogs killed or running loose on the highway from what would have otherwise been a minor traffic accident. Now I only get cars I can fit crates into, and everyone travels in crates. I take those collapsable tent crates into the motel room to put the dogs in for when I'm out of the room for short periods- when I go eat I take the dogs in the truck.
RIP little chihuahua.
vickie

Another sad story-
This sounds straight out of a movie but is true...It's winter here and a friend of mine was out walking her dog in a park with her 2 younger children and her husband. A woman came up to her and said she had lost her kid could they help, so they started walking with the woman and ended up finding the kid along the bank of this pond, he was fine just wandered off, well apparently they had let go of their dogs leash (no idea why!) for a bit and he wondered on to the pond, they tried to call him back only to see the ice crack and the dog went under. The Dad tried to break the ice farther down stream to get to the 6 month old pup but couldn't. So sad, their kids just sat there and watched. Be safe with your pets this winter and this holiday season.

So sad for YOU too, Jason, bless your heart -- The same thing happened to my son when he was driving home from his after school job & he followed a stray, trying to save him, only to see the poor dog get killed right before his eyes (I cried for days, not just for the unfortunate animal, but for my teenaged son as well)...

Since this littledog had a sweater on, I'm sure it had a purse to be carried around but the owner couldn't think of a crate to keep it's dog safe.Sometimes people think about themselves and not about what's good for their pets. Sad story.

What a shame, the poor dog.