A week in Kauai, a week alone.

First let me say that my heart goes out to all the people on Kauai who have been effected by Hurricane Lowell. I fell in love with Kauai many years ago and this past trip just sealed the deal even harder. What made this trip so very special was that the entire family was with us. All 15 members of our family vacationing on the beautiful Island of Kauai.

So, the alone part. This was a magical trip but before hand I have to admit that I was filled with apprehension. As we got nearer to our trip I was filled with stress. In June I couldn’t imagine leaving Elsa; as she was not in great shape. Infact I didn’t know how she was going even deal with summer with her Laryngeal Paralysis. I stressed about leaving her; but also stressed about the what ifs. What if she passed before hand and we had to leave Riggs alone when he was dealing with grief.

As most of you know, we lost our girl June 21st. And, as I expected, Riggs was devastated. He was deep in mourning and the idea of leaving him alone was very difficult to consider. But as I said, this was our whole family trip together; no way I was missing it. I had lots to do to ease my mind so that I could go and enjoy.

We had booked our sitter for two trial weekends before the big trip. One 2 nighter in June and another in July. This would give the dogs time to get to know the sitter and for the sitter to get to know them. We had to cancel the June trip as we had just lost Elsa. The July trip would have to stay in place or there was no way I could wrap my head around going.

As the date for the trial run drew closer; I fret, stressed, over thought and worried. I worry about my dogs like they are my children. Long story short, it turned out great and lifted a huge weight off of my shoulders. I could do this, the sitter was as worried about it working out as I was. No point going away if you can’t enjoy your trip.

Riggs and I had the sitter over for lunch a week before the big trip. It gave him and her a little more time to get accustom to each other. This was extremely helpful when she had to arrive very early for our trip day. We had to leave stupid early of course. I hate early flights, I truly do. Anyhow, it was early and I waited at the airport for my “I’m here with Riggs” text. It came well before we had to take off; so this I was very happy about.

There was a lot of communication throughout our week in Kauai. The sitter changed her schedule a bit to accomodate my dogs. But the days that she had to be away for any length of time; I had made plans for another great sitter to come in and hang with Riggs. This was set in place mostly for Elsa but I kept it because this was the first time he’d been left for a week, alone.

I remember thinking “so we just leave him all alone?” I havn’t had one dog in a longtime and Elsa seemed so much more adjusted after losing Luke. Although it was probably just her stoicism, she was a tough cookie. Tough cookie is not how I would describe Riggs. But everything was set in place to make this work for everyone, including me.

Riggs is a highly intelligent, uber emotional guy. Every feeling he has is big so thinking about him dealing with grief and missing us; not knowing if we were coming home or not was tough. But we’ve gone on many trips; and we always come home, he knows that. The only difference now was that he didn’t have Elsa to lean on. But he did it.

Not only did he do it, he had a true connection with our sitter. She was concerned about making him feel safe and connected. She was who he had to lean on and that is exactly what he did. As they say, “it takes a village.” Not really a village but it does take people who care for our dogs as much as we do. They want it to work as much as we do. Not only did he survive it, he thrived with the genuine love from someone who loves their job and now Riggs too.