Trips are fun. Planning to take off and go somewhere, whether spontaneous with friends or just to visit your family is exciting. You get all hyped up and start picking out the outfits you are going to wear and plan super awesome activities you are going to do. Until it hits you after you book the tickets or finalize the details that you've forgotten about something. That something is a someone, who is your very best bud...your dog.

You look over with pitiful eyes and they stare back either with excitement because they have no idea what is going on or, like my dog, with judgmental eyes squinting at you, because they know that you are leaving. They can sense your jubilee. They know what you have done and that you aren't taking them with you.

If they have no idea, your heart sinks because you can already anticipate the sadness on their fluffy cute faces when you drop them off at your parents or the kennel. Plus it's your best bud, you're going to miss them. You know they are going to make the best of the time you are gone and jump at you ecstatically when you get back, so it eases the pain.

But if you have the dog who is smarter than some humans, like mine, she already senses my depature before I pull out my duffle. These dogs are the sulkers, the ones who get mad when you are away and want you to come home ASAP, but when you do they ignore you and show you how upset you left them they are. They cannot believe that you would have the audacity to go off somewhere and leave them behind, even if they are going to spend that time with Memaw and Paw paw.

What your dog doesn't know no matter what personality they have is that there is a tear that rolls down your face as you pull out the drive and look back in the rearview. That even though you know you are going to have a blast going off on a trip, you have a moment of weakness where you think to yourself, "maybe I shouldn't go, I'll stay here."

If you are anything like me, then your dog is family not a pet. My dog is my daughter and I constantly refer to her as that. She is a part of my heart and therefore always on my mind no matter where I go. She's my go-to-girl. So when I am on a trip, I am constantly thinking, "oh Schatzi would love this". But that's OK! Enjoy your time away and miss your fuzzy friend back home, but go on that trip and maybe plan one where they can come too next time!