Sendero Group Travel Blog

Our ninth day of the cruise and the fourth and final full day at sea. The only planned events for this day were another exercise session for the dogs from 1100 to 1300 and a public petting session from 1400 to 1500.

Well, it finally happened. Both Rod and I returned to our cabin briefly with our dogs in harness. He was just going to get his jacket and I was going to use the bathroom before we left again. Therefore, neither of us felt the need to remove the harness or for me to put McCall on tie down. He left while I was in the bathroom. I decided to sit on the bed and give McCall some personal attention for a few minutes before we left. I started petting him and immediately realized that it was not McCall, but Justice. I instantly ran out into the hall and instinctively called out McCall Apparently Rod only had hold of the leash, because, as soon as he heard his name, he turned and started running back to me, pulling the leash out of Rod's hand. He was extremely excited to see me. Rod said that he could not figure why McCall kept looking back, as that was not normal for Justice. Although the time that we were separated from our dogs was only a few minutes, it was impressive to see how much they missed us and how happy they were to reunite with us.

The session with the passengers was just as popular as it was earlier in the week. In the first session the passengers not only wanted to pet the dogs, but also were curious about their age, how long they were working, and various training questions. This time many were persons who had met us during the cruise and were thanking us for cruising with them and how much they enjoyed observing the dogs working, and how well they all behaved. In my case, I am sure that McCall opened the door to several new friendships for me.