Traveling With Pets

by Catherine Dilts

Why do I always imagine I can write while on vacation? This trip had an added challenge. My husband and I have never traveled with pets.

We began on February 28 in Colorado. The plan was fairly loose, with the only reservations being for a Grand Canyon campground on March 2^nd. Maybe we’d find places to camp along the way. Maybe not. But we were driving a new-to-us RV. Any place you can pull over and fit becomes an impromptu campground.

Planning a winter camping trip, we figured we might not face the intense crowds of summer travel in national parks.

Traveling with a forty-pound, seven-month-old English Springer Spaniel and a two-month-old Humane Society rescue kitten had its moments. A car-sick puppy, a kitty so tiny I was afraid he might get stepped on.

Most of my fiction includes cats, dogs, and horses. I’ve felt slightly hypocritical extolling the virtues of animal companions in my stories, while not having a pet in over fifteen years. I did manage to do a little writing on this trip, but not on any of my fiction projects. Instead, I kept a journal and began a series of articles for my SubStack account.

I have noticed that my posts that include a photo of an animal get more views and reactions than anything else I throw on social media. Starting this Sunday, March 15, I’ll release one article a day for over a week at https://substack.com/@catherinedilts. These have nothing to do with my fiction work. They’re all about my experience of travel with pets.

Is it a waste of time to write and post articles that won’t promote my fiction? Or will this create that human connection that’s supposed to make people care about reading our books and stories?

I’m kind of past caring whether my social media presence sells books or not. If this venture isn’t about pure self-expression and having some fun, then I don’t really want to engage any longer.

Writing about the stresses and joys of traveling with pets has definitely been fun. The work of writing can roll along without me for a few more days.

And roll along it does, with Grandpa’s New Year’s Relocation available now at Basecamp Books and Adventure, and in the usual places online. Grandma’s Valentine Abduction released on the first day of my vacation.