I had to write about Momo’s travel tails because I always romanticise travelling with my dog. When I watched the ‘Expedition Happiness’ travelogue on Netflix, it was stuff of my dreams. It is about a couple who decided to travel by road from Alaska to Argentina with their Bernese Mountain Dog Rudi, aboard an old school bus. How adventurous!
Lately, my Instagram feed has been full of travel stories and posts of doggos with their humans. From mountains to sea beaches, from snow-clad trails to deserts and ghost towns (we have one in the UAE…spooky eh!). Packs have been in an exploratory mood. So, I thought of doing a ‘travel tailz’ series.
You may also like: A dog and his human
First one is Momo’s travel tails
The first travel tail in the series comes from Momo, an itchy paw and a social bug at heart. His travel tail come all the way from India. After a rather tumultuous 2020, Momo’s humans were keen to break the ‘stay at home’ spell and start 2021 on a fresh note. “What could be better than road trip,” they thought, “since Momo is quite comfortable with car rides.”
Here are some highlights from Momo’s first road trip in the new year…in his own words.
December 31, 2020
I could sniff adventure in the air. Finally, we were getting into our car for a road trip from our home in Ahmedabad to a city called Jodhpur. It was a beautiful morning, crisp, sunny yet there was a chill in the air. The pillow and the blanket inside my crate were inviting enough, so I went right in. My humans told me it was an eight-hour drive, and that we will stop to do our business on the way. Honestly, I was keener to hop out of the car at some point to smell the grass and run around. That is what I do every afternoon at my gramps’ place. When we stopped to take a break, humans realised that they had forgotten to bring my water bottle with a collapsible cup. It was just as cool to drink water from a white bowl, which moved a bit due to the wind but was a new experience for me. I noticed a few other dogs too, but somehow, they did not warm up to me. A few hours later, I woke up and found myself in this beautiful, pet-friendly hotel called Raas. That evening, we had dinner at a roof top restaurant. It was my first visit to a restaurant. Initially, I was inside my uber-comfy sling bag but then sat with humans at the table. And by the way, everyone there complimented me.
January 1, 2021
It was a beautiful day, especially since my humans woke me up with a big hug and cuddled up with me. Although our hotel room was different, my humans had planned everything else to the T – I had my playpen, water bowl, crate and even my pee pads – think about it! After a while we went out. The weather was perfect and our itinerary – yes, now I know what that means – was to walk around the old town of Jodhpur. All the humans I met there were quite nice and welcoming. My humans took me to a pawsome place called the Stepwell Café, apparently the stepwell is few centuries old. I became pensive after a while, because there were too many new smells and scenes to take in and remember.
January 2, 2021
Before hitting the road again, my humans wanted to visit some Forest Essentials boutique, where I smelt all kinds of things except what I had expected a forest to smell like. No one noticed me at the shop, until I popped my head out of the sling bag. But once they did, it was nothing short of red-carpet treatment. One human there could not stop clicking photos with me. Our trip was truly epic. And since then, my human takes me wherever he goes – gym, salon and even restaurants.
That was Momo’s travel tails. After Jodhpur, Momo’s humans have travelled with him to Mumbai. They are planning a trip to Delhi as well, so Momo can meet his other pack members. All of five months old and Momo is already gathering enough memories for a pan-India travelogue 😊
