Good girls…and their dogs...gone
glamping! So where’d we go and what’d we do?
First of all what is “glamping”?
It’s camping with GLAMOUR. As a right of passage girls often change the English
language into whatever they want, thus drop the C and add a GL…woo-lah, you’re
glamping! Of course, it’s a bit more than that especially when you’re doggie glamping. There’s much pre-event glamour
planning. After they doll up a camp area with a lot of pink frills and pink
champagne, well here’s how my, Carly’s, first glamping trip went…
Being a good
little dog who likes to socialize with other doggies indoors and out glamping
seemed like a good idea. (I will point
out, after-the-fact during the pre-event glamour planning that there was no mention
of sticks, bushes, crawly bugs, and dirt which did nothing for my paw-d-cure!) Being a doggie fashionista
(while trying to maintain my upper crust image), planning the glamping outfit
was as important as planning the place!
I chose an
outfit from Harlow & Grace Canine Couture
– especially designed for little me. This harness vest was made from cool
comfortable cotton, perfect for strolling the river’s edge looking for crawdads
and other non-city dwelling creatures (that’d
be crayfish/crawfish depending on what part of the country you’re from). Clearly,
functional cotton needed to be glamourized for a day glamp. On the back of my
harness was a pink and white satin camper with a polyfill stuffing for a puffy
3-D look. Adorned with sparkling Swarovski crystals on the door window and
window curtain as well as unique tiny flowers for a flower box look furthered
its girly glamp theme. An added black leather wheel, trailer hitch, and edged with
pale pink lace trim made this a true glamping outfit – fashionable AND functional,
which has always been one of Harlow & Grace’s mottos!
Nearly as
important as the outfit are the accessories and leash. My favorite leashes are
from FabuLeash. These leashes have
over a 100# of pull strength so even if I wanted to break away from the pack I
couldn’t. The FabuLeash I chose for this
event was the Fireball leash in
fuchsia. Gorgeous glittering beads nearly as bright as the crystals on my
outfit. I ordered my FabuLeash from Diva Dog Pet Boutique’s online store. My glamp look was complete with a Harlow &
Grace pink hair bow with an Owl accent for a woodsy effect.
Obviously, fashion
is an absolute necessity for any upper crust pup’s outing but when spending a
day near the woods there were other items to bring along. The day would be long
and a comfortable spot to take a snooze would be nice. Bringing a blanket to
lay on the dirty ground isn’t exactly keeping with glamping (on the ground is camping
not glamping!) So mom included my
Adirondack-inspired chair from Yvette Ruta. (which
Dad painted in pink and white of course!) with its Cinderella inspired quilt
mom made to fit it gave me a place to snooze my lunch away and kept me off the
ground where those pesky bugs crawl around just looking for some fur to burrow
into! She was also thoughtful enough to pack my bestie stufffed squirrel in the
event I didn’t get a chance to see a real
squirrel. A backup webbed harness and my lifejacket in case I wanted to dip my
toes in the Spokane River (no way was I going to let river water get on my
special glamping outfit!)
Beyond
fashion and comfort there are some equally important take-alongs, such as ID
tags, a minor emergency kit and a few other necessities. My tags are kept on a
easy change clip to transfer to the d-ring of whatever harness I put on just in
case some growly bear sneaks up on us in the woods…because if that happens,
mom’s on her own as I’m outta there,
but with my trusty tags and microchip I have a better chance of making it home.
Mom always has my microchip checked yearly to make sure its operating correctly
and registered to her. Your human should have yours checked at your vet’s
office too.
On any of
our many excursions mom always packs me two bottles of water. One frozen and one
just from the refrigerator, which she sprinkles a tad bit of sugar into to help
ward off any hypoglycemic episode should it arise. (She said she keeps her own “water” in the bottles with the cork, how
lovely for her.) My own little water and food bowl is included in the pack.
Mom includes eye, ear, and body wipes from John Paul Pet, because, really, what if
some knat flew in my ear or I stepped in squirrel droppings? Mom’s one of those
helicopter moms who can hover with the best of them, as such she always
includes a miniature homemade first aid kit*. She likes to get some items in
sample/travel sizes at the grocery store, such as: baby wipes, miniature
bottles filled with hydrogen peroxide, aspirin, sanitizing wipes, Q-tips. She
also includes gauze pads, a roll of sports wrap (ones that stretch and
magically cling to itself – in pink naturally), tweezers, scissors and of
course a cork screw (uh, yeah doesn’t
everyone keep a spare corkscrew? Those “water” bottles won’t open themselves).
You should see what she brings when we go away for an entire weekend -- “Better safe than sorry” is one of Mom’s
mantras. She has a lot of mantras, like
“get off the table”, “stop barking” and “stop jumping”.
While the
human glampers were setting up I couldn’t help but notice the only potty area
seemed to be offset from our glampgrounds and the privacy curtains appeared to
resemble bushes. This was truly ruffin’
it! Mother nature or not, twigs stuck in my fur would never do, thus I was
grateful when I discovered my human had packed the perfect diva inspired potty
pad from Hollywood Pads! These pads are so
great I didn’t mind when some of my friends decided to borrow it (well I did,
but my mom shushed me when I started to object). She had potty bags ready to
roll but I generally keep that business at home.
Since it was
a day glamp the humans thought rather than attempt to catch a fish and cook it
over an open fire pit a potluck would work better; besides none of the humans
would bait their own hook even if they had brought a fishing pole. We’d starved
waiting for that to ever happen as they’re more of a diva than I! The yummy
food stuffs brought potluck style from the humans sure smelled delicious. Mutt
Muffins for us pups were brought too! We couldn’t understand what was taking
these humans so long to get the food flowing – all they were doing were talking
about what type of weekend long glamping trip they could plan for NEXT year! I
think the thought of spending an actual night in the woods is a bit much, but
they seemed to think they were up to it. We’ll wait and see about that one. Apparently,
my human didn’t get the memo that said I ate light for breakfast in anticipation
of splurging on those divalicious Mutt Muffins.
Finally, the
food was ready! Us doggies dined on gourmet Mutt Loaves made from Northwest elk
and peas. For dessert we had some delightful pink frosted doggie cookies. The
humans enjoyed a cheese platter, crackers, chips & dip, and a refreshing fruit
platter. For dessert they had two choices: a healthy gluten-free raspberry cake
as well as a margarita cake**.
With the
unbearable Northwest’s August heat behind me I must say that September brought somewhat
cooler temperatures for a most enjoyable day! Now to wash nature off of me and
snuggle down for a good night’s sleep…in my own little bed where no bears can
get me.
And
no, Jessica, taking your Louis Vuitton bag camping isn’t weird. Seems perfectly
natural to me.
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Join us next year for the
annual glamp gathering getaway!
Email me at uppercrustpup@gmail.com and ask to
be put on our invite list.
And, maybe,
just maybe, I can talk my human into one of these divine
little pet campers
from Straight Line Designs…in pink of course!
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*Without a doubt, there are many more recommended items that should be in any pet parent's pet emergency medical kit, which you'll find in an upcoming page (did you check out the pages section on my blog yet? Find fido-friendly book reviews as well as some fashion reviews & recommendations!)
**Margarita Cake...want the recipe? Send me a woof via email at uppercrustpup@gmail.com
