Major achievement: the caravan is still in tact!

When I see a static caravan park that states 'dogs welcome' on their website, I think of two things; dog hairs, and smelly furniture.  To sum up; second rate accommodation.  Although, for some, this may be a major issue (one traveler commented that there were 'dog hairs in the bottom of the shower) for me it's almost a relief.  I'm not saying that I want to holiday in a place that stinks of dogs and has hairy mattresses, but at least if this were the case, you wouldn't have to worry about the damage your own dogs could do, particularly if one of them has separation anxiety which increases in severity when left in an unusual place.

You can imagine my panic, when I pulled up to the caravan park late on Wednesday night to find a caravan with cream carpets, perfect wooden furniture and a spotless cream sofa!   I was beside myself.  'There must be some mistake,' I thought, checking the name of the caravan on the plaque outside.  'This caravan is far too nice to accept dogs.'  Still pondering this, I looked up just in time to see Gemma squat and do a wee on the cream carpet!  We can't have been there more than a minute.  Thank goodness I thought to bring stain and odor remover in case an incident occurred!

Apart from having to wrestle Caesar off the furniture, where he liked to stand and eyeball the dog on the other side of the road, he seemed to settle very quickly and I could hardly believe it when I awoke at nine o'clock the following morning to the sound of silence!  Caesar's sleeping arrangements needed to be thought out carefully;  he couldn't stay in the kitchen as he is known for raiding bins and stealing food from cupboards, he couldn't stay in the spare bedroom because he would undoubtedly wait until we'd gone and then climb onto the bed and he certainly couldn't sleep in the bathroom...you can work that one out for yourself.  So, there was only one option; the hall.  It was pokey and dark and I was convinced that things weren't going to go well.  I had visions of waking up to claw marked doors and torn up carpet but from the moment we shut the door, he made no further sound.  In fact, at one point I began to worry that something dreadful had happened to him and had to check!

Caesar took to chewing his toy rather than the furniture!

Aside from the odd bit of sand and an unavoidable muddy paw print here and there, the caravan remained unscathed for the entire time of our visit.  Perhaps even more miraculously, despite the fact that Caesar quickly taught himself how to open the caravan doors, he decided to use his skills for good instead of evil and having granted himself access to the kitchen, decided to return to bed.  On the final day, as Damien prepared the caravan for our departure and I drove off to find a garage to fix the car, Caesar decided to get a breath of fresh air and skillfully opened the main door and disappeared.  Luckily, Damien found him almost immediately.  He had found a patch of grass close to the static van and was sunbathing on it, blissfully unaware of the panic that he had caused!

As I helped the dogs into the car for the final time, I couldn't help hosting a mini-celebration.  We had succeeded in our first caravan park holiday without Caesar doing any damage to the caravan whatsoever. Hip hip hooray!

Caesar, Gemma and I on our first ever holiday together!