Travels with Abigail — Part 1

Dear Friends and Fur Baby Lovers,

A few weeks ago I announced that I rescued a sweet dog from the Bay Area named Abigail. My dear friend and client, Dr. Ann Schiebert, sent me pictures of this cutie, saying she would be the perfect dog for me. And she is! Believe it or not, it’s my first dog ever, except for Honey-Fitz who I had only for a couple of weeks when I was about ten years old. She peed on my mom’s rug and that was the end of her (the dog, not my mom!). I was heartbroken when I got home from school and learned she’d been given away to a farm family. So, now I’m making up for a lot of lost time without a “woman’s best friend.”

It’s been a couple of months and a number of adventures later that I’ve had Abigail. I picked her up at the foster mom’s home on April 21 over Easter weekend in the Walnut Creek area. She got carsick on the way back to Santa Barbara. For sure, this was not ideal for me because I wanted a travel dog to to accompany me in my 19 ft. Roadtrek on camping trips.

We started off slow, meaning we went on short trips. The first was to Morro Bay State Park where we checked in and then took a side trip to Baywood-Los Osos and met up with this one and only Cow Bear. Abigail didn’t know what to make of Cow Bear. All she could do was bark at it! Was it the poppies on the cow bear’s apron, her udder, or the fact that she’s paddleboarding?

The Cow Bear is the creation of father-son artists, Dave and Kyle Doust, who each took a half of the white fiberglass cow and completely remade the sculpture, turning it from a horned cow on four legs to a standing, half bear-half cow, paddling a stand-up paddleboard. It has the face and front paws of a bear (Los Osos’ mascot) and the lower half of a cow. Cow Bear even has her own Facebook page.

Abigail loves running alongside a bicycle. That’s “Nanny” Kathy who has taken a shine to Abigail and spoils her, too.

Thankfully, Abigail is well behaved at restaurants when we want to eat out. Here we are at the Bayside Cafe across the road from the state park.

There must be something about statues that irks my dog. On a walk around the square in beautiful downtown Healdsburg, Abigail got thirsty and wandered over to a bowl of water to have a drink. Whoops! The dog statue freaked her out. Or did she just want to play? Don’t you wish dogs could talk? I do because I’m sure she’d have a lot to tell me.

On a road trip to Paso Robles, we booked a Hipcamp at Hartley’s Farm Organic Orchard. They’re an organic stone fruit farm with pet goats and chickens. The real live goats were a hit with Abigail.

We did a jam tasting at the farm with owner Barbara Goodrich and bought a jar of their Peach Jalapeno to have with salmon that evening. It was fabulously yummy.

Another night we cooked a pork loin, and the jam was the perfect accompaniment. Even Abigail would attest to that!

One family camping at Hartley Farms had a little boy who fell in love with Abigail and vice versa. She seems to adore children, so I imagine there were children in the family who gave her up. Fetching a ball is one of her favorite pastimes, and this little boy was definitely game for playing ball.

The grounds of Hartley Farms are meticulously kept, and there’s so much to see and explore on the 37-acre property.

It’s also a wedding venue with a 2-acre Event Garden.

Thanks for indulging me on this post about my new dog Abigail. I’m now officially a dog mama. If you’ve read to the end of this post and have any advice about motion sickness in dogs, I’d love to hear your comments here!

In the meantime, we hope you’re having a great summer!

Keep on adventuring!

Gail, Denise, and Lindsey

#gourmetgirlsonfire #dogmama