The Labraventures of Carbón, Spanish (ex-) foster dog extraordinaire

Emily_Babbelhund

Mama Red HOT Pepper
Bad news: I've caught a cold and feel pants. Good news: I got to use 'pants'! :giggl:

Actually most of today was catching up on email and finding a place near the beach for the next few days. I don't know about this planning on the fly. It seems I spend a great deal of my potential tourism time in searching for my next accommodation. However one of my goals of this trip was to learn to live a little more by the seat of my pants (hey, more 'pants') and make quicker decisions. I may be getting a little better. A little. :hmm:

There were a few places with a sea view that looked fabulous, but I'm officially back in dog travel mode as I chose a place with an enclosed garden and only five minutes from the dog beach that was recommended to me by the lovely Lab breeder/gun dog trainer in Florence. Carbon has put up with a LOT in the last couple weeks, so I figured it was his time to take off his working vest and have a proper dog beach holiday. :dug:

Parco Naturalistico della Sterpaia - Cottages for Rent in Piombino, Toscana, Italy
 

Emily_Babbelhund

Mama Red HOT Pepper
Hola todos! It is I, Carbon the Spanish gentleman dog. I am taking over the duties tonight because all foster lady does is talk about computers and finding a place to stay and blah blah blah. Boring! Bo! Ring! What about my trip to Rome? What about my valiente efforts to protect our car from cats? What about my love affair with the pine cone that lives outside our door? What about the magnificent worms that I produced? Vale, maybe we shouldn't talk about that last one.

Entonces tonight I will tell you about Rome. First we had to start very early in the morning. We took our beautiful blue car and drove it to another place and left it in a sort of field. I could tell foster lady did NOT want to leave it because she did that worried look thing and then kept checking the doors even though she locked it twice.

"I hope it's here and in one piece when we get back, Carbon", she said.

How many pieces can a car get into? That makes NO sense. She's a little loca sometimes about our car, but that's just my very intelligent doggie opinion.

After we walked through the town there was a big building with lots of stairs and a shiny snake train waiting for us. This one was much better than the one in Florence because there was almost no one on it. I had lots of space to stretch out and take a siesta. Que bonito! In two hours -or so foster lady tells me as dogs do not have such a good idea of time - we got to an even bigger building with lots and lots of shiny snake trains. MORE stairs - down and down and down - and we came to another snake.

This snake was not so shiny - it was kind of stinky actually - and it was full of people. I tried to take another siesta, but foster lady kept saying, "Stand up, Carbon! Oh, your tail!" Foster lady always seems very worried about my tail. Seriously, she needs to get a little more relajada - that's 'chilled' to you - about this tail business. Who would dare to step on the tail of such a handsome Spanish gentleman such as myself? That would just be bad manners.

Finally we got out of the second snake and - wowza! - there were SO MANY HUMANS! I have never seen so many humans in one place. So many of them wanted to pet me and take my photo, too. Everyone loves some Carbón, let me tell you. Foster lady asked me to model and then I modelled for everyone else, too. I have really gone international now, verdad?

Then guess what happened? My friend Miry from Spain was there! Aye, aye, aye...I was so happy to see her! She was with another lady and with Murilo who I also remember from Spain. All of us together walked and walked and walked and I got to smell lots of really interesting old stuff. I didn't get to wee on it though - can you imagine? What a waste! But foster lady said, "No, Carbón, you can't have a wee here because it's a museum, even though it's outside."

Pfft! You humans and your silly rules!

After a really long time walking, I finally got to have a siesta while the humans ate lunch. I did not get any pizza, which I feel is a bad trick to play on a dog, but the nice restaurant man did give me my very own special bowl of water, just like they did back in Germany. Foster lady says it's because Italians LOVE dogs. It was all very simpatico, but to tell you the truth, if he really loved me, he would have brought me my own pizza.

There was even more walking after that and I was getting very tired. When it was dark, we found another underground entrance for the stinky snake train. It was dark because a lot of the lights weren't working. Foster lady had put my light up collar on so people didn't step on me, but I could tell she was worried about me. Probably having silly thoughts about my tail again.

All of the sudden, foster lady said, "Oh no, we can't get to the trains! What are we going to do?" She was really upset because there are only those scary moving stairs, no normal stairs. She tried to get me used to those dumb moving stairs in Germany and I said, "No way, nada, nada, jamas!" Back in Germany, foster lady had said, "It's ok, Carbon, you are so good with everything else - those scary stairs can wait for another day." But now the only way back to our little car and my bed was down those scary stairs! What were we going to do??

Miry to the rescue! "Murilo can carry Carbon on the escalator," she told foster lady.

"Estas loca, pesa 30 kilos!" cried foster lady. (That's "Are you nuts, he weighs 30 kilos!" to you)

But Murilo just picked me up in his arms and we got on the scary moving stairs and foster lady stood behind me and told me how brave I was and gave me cookies. Guess what? The moving stairs aren't so scary after all!

Once we were in the stinky snake with a lot of really stinky people, we had to say goodbye to Miry and Murilo, which was sad. I didn't let it show, though, because it's my job as a Labrador to be cheerful. Never stop wagging, that's me! When we got back to the big big building with lots and lots of shiny snake trains, it was so full of people there was hardly a path for us to walk, but foster lady kept weaving in between people until we got a seat on the train. Vale, she got a seat, I got an under-the-seat.

Another two hour nap, another walk to our car - this time in the dark - and another drive and finally we were HOME. Dinner for me, a play with Bunny and then time for this tired little Spanish gentleman to finally get a big rest.

Y eso fue Roma...que aventura!

Photos are coming...
 

Emily_Babbelhund

Mama Red HOT Pepper
My day started with a ride on the train...
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Then I had a big photo shoot in front of some old stuff...
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Even other people beside foster lady took by picture...
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But I wasn't the ONLY doggie model...
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Then Miry came!

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And Murilo gave me pets...

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And here's some of that old stuff in the outdoor museum you can't wee on...

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Emily_Babbelhund

Mama Red HOT Pepper
The grand finale!

Let's get the buildings out of the way first...
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Now here I am posing with my amigos on Capitoline Hill..
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Taking this one attracted some attention...
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So then I got some really nice pets from these lovely chicas...ah...that's the spot!
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Here I am checking out a pretty Italian señorita dog in Piazza Navona...
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And last but very much not least, getting some love and besitos from Miry!
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Emily_Babbelhund

Mama Red HOT Pepper
I'm so impressed at what you can do/where you can go with him!
Me too - he's quite literally bomb-proof. I couldn't believe it when Murilo picked him up to hold him all the way down the mega-escalator in the Rome metro. He didn't even squirm, just kind of looked back at me like that's what he did every day!

Though I do sense him needing to get some serious zoomies out after so many days 'working' on leash, which is why the next couple days are going to full of free runs on the beach - if all goes to plan, that is! :D
 
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