The Jackson Chronicles: Day One

Most of you know that we adopted a dog. Well, he actually adopted us by showing up at our door almost every day for months. So Mr. Basketmaker started letting him sleep in his workshop and then finally took him to the shelter and “registered him” to make sure he wasn’t a missing pet and after a 3-day waiting period he went to the Vet and then he was ours. I mean, Eric’s.

We originally named him Jaxson McBrown. Then Eric started calling him Shoeless Joe Jackson. So we changed the spelling to ‘Jackson.’ I was fine with that since my auto-correct kept changing it to Jackson anyways when I texted updates to my family and friends.

So, we adopt this dog and he’s a great dog but 100 percent a “farm dog.” He keeps watch over our house, digs up moles, finds the occasional animal bone to chomp on at the end of our driveway and loves jumping into the mucky pond behind our house. He’s also a brilliant escape artist and continually lets himself out our front door. So we knew he would be hard-pressed to stay confined at a kennel when we hit the road. And leaving him behind during our last trip and having me watch our video surveillance online in an obsessive manner to keep an eye on him wasn’t going to fly for this trip. So he’s on his first basketry adventure. And I thought it would be fun to document this previously-homeless dog’s second shot at life and his experience on an extended road trip and staying at a hotel. I’m naming this series “The Jackson Chronicles.”

The morning started off well. He hopped in the van after some coaxing from Eric. Chance knows it’s time for a road trip as soon as the first suitcase comes out. So he was in the vehicle, waiting patiently, an hour before Jackson got in.

In this pic above, Eric is off to the right, behind me, telling Jackson to be used to this car because he will be in it for the next 7 hours. The look is telling us “Are you kidding me?”

Weeks prior to this trip, Eric took Jackson along for the ride on his errands to get him used to the car. He quickly learned that Jackson likes to sit right up front. We don’t allow that. So we had to rig up a barrier that Jackson could not barge through. Eric chose this pic to be posted because he said it showed we are now rednecks. But I say it’s Yankee ingenuity! It’s actually an old gate that I bought at my antique store up in Maine from one of my dealers eons ago. It worked perfectly!

He started to get a hang of this travel thing and would lean up against the window and watch the scenery.

But mostly, he would sit right next to me, in my ‘mobile office’ while I worked on my laptop. Here I was designing some logos for one of my clients.

He cycled from looking out the window with his big nose directly above my keyboard to simply staring at me while I worked to then leaning his head on my arm.

(awww… I know… so cute. A little blurry but still cute.)

Then Chance got jealous and jumped up beside him. So it was me, the two dogs and my laptop all on the back row of seats in the minivan. All I can say is that it was really getting quite stuffy back there if you know what I mean.

And I wasn’t the only one tired of being cooped up in this stuffy van. 

And one dog seemed to be quite annoyed at not being the “special one” anymore on all our basketry road trips. He now had to share everything!

In addition, what I didn’t anticipate was all the hair on my clothes! Chance is not a shedder. He has hair and it needs to be groomed. Jackson has fur. I know some of you might think that’s odd that we both neglected to even consider bringing a lint brush but we totally were absent of the fact that Jackson sheds! And it seems like he started shedding the moment we hit the road!

However, I did bring his dog brush. So I guess I sort of knew that he sheds, but not in a way that my pants, my jacket, my computer bag, you name it… would be covered in fur!

Overall, the trip went quite well. At first Jackson was shaking a bit and then moving quickly from side window to side window, probably trying to figure how to get out. But soon he settled in and seemed to be a little calm. But then that brings us to when we arrived at the convention. You will have to tune in tomorrow for that!

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