You are off on holiday but what do you do with your pets?

Well its getting to that time of year when Christmas is on the forefront of everyone’s mind so I thought I would write about something loosely based on travel but also a bit personal to me instead of my regular cruise blog.
You see I have had my pet greyhound Marko for going on 6 years now and he is a massive part of our little family. He is a truly remarkable dog and has done and achieved more than many humans could put their name to so I’m massively proud of him. 

As much as I love him my natural urge is to go on holiday a fair bit and we always have a large chunk of guilt about leaving him behind, especially for any length of time, so we dont travel as much now quite as much as we used to!

There is also the expense as its not a cheap business putting a dog in kennels, so in an ideal world we would be able to take him with us but its not often that easy going abroad.

I’m naturally averse to the idea of putting Marko in kennels anyway, as in my humble opinion as a racing greyhound he has had plenty of time in crates and kennels as this is their life until they finish racing and now he is retired and a dog at leisure he deserves a quiet life!

Interestingly out of cruise companies, which is my business Cunard offer actually offer dog places on the Queen Mary 2 (although they wont allow greyhounds as they are not in their accepted breed type, seems like discrimination to me as greyhounds are the best!!) so cruise options are limited. For poor old Marko and us its holidaying in the UK if we want to take him anywhere or maybe going over somewhere on the ferry/chunnel to France but not sure about that option how workable that is and havent got round to it yet!

As for Marko himself he started his greyhound racing career in Australia to great success and once he had lost a bit of pace he moved over to New Zealand where the competition is a bit less fierce. Once he had hung up his racing he had a bit of time with his trainer who took a shine to him (most people do, including other male dogs inexplicably!!) then he eventually found his way to us after a five year racing career. His full name is Marko Polo like the great traveler so its ironic that he is such a well traveled dog, we imported him from New Zealand to the UK at great expense and stress for him and us he made it in one piece, if just a little ruffled. So he’s really travelled half way round the world and more to be with us but we love him to the moon and back.

It would be interesting to hear from what everyone does with their pets when they go away, do you aim to take them with you or just put them in kennels when you are cruising or do you leave them with friends and family? It would also be interesting to hear from any Cunarders who take their dogs on as well!!