Dogs on the Road Interview ~ Sheelah and Miro from Paws on Tour

We just returned from an AMAZING trip to the beach with mom and dad and Porter is well into a blog post about it, but in the meantime we got yet another great Dogs on the Road interview with Sheelah and Miro from Paws on Tour!

Please offer up a short blurb about who you are? Age? Who else is in your family?
We are the canine Overlanders Sheelah, 13 and Miro, 11 years of age. We have been traveling through the Americas in a Toyota Landcruiser HZJ75 with our humans Michel and Ursi since early May 2012 and have more or less 6 months left until we return home to Switzerland.

1.Tell us a little bit about where you have traveled with your family.
We have always traveled a lot with the family, we ran on wide, huge beaches in France and hiked hundreds of mountains in Switzerland, swam in rivers and lakes, but this time, I must say, it is different. I rode an airplane for the first time in my life and when I got out, my humans said ‘Welcome to Canada!’. Canada is a wonderful country: cool, airy, dotted with snowy mountains, full of green, juicy grass to chew on and clear blue lakes to swim in. I adored Canada and I think Miro loved it too! Wherever we went, we were more than welcome and people always called me “puppy”, which I love because it makes me feel so young and cute and in reality, you know, I am old and I grow tired quickly.
The 4 of us traveled a bit of the USA later, and from what I heard in a few discussions, we are not allowed in any of the National Parks. Instead, we visited places less known, hiked a lot and got to spend so much time with our two loved humans. Then, shortly after we got our Christmas bones, people spoke a different language and were so very afraid of us! It made me sad to see everyone move away from me when I just wanted to say ‘Hi!’. A long time in this place named Mexico passed, Michel said it was 6 months, before we came to some very unfriendly border people. It seems this country called Belize requires a very special permit for us 4legged ones to enter. We had all papers in order and were ready to sniff on, but the border people just wouldn’t let our humans in… thanks to my friendly barking, my charming looks and wagging tail, we were all let in after some time and guess who got some extra cuddles the very same night?

From there, my memory gets a bit blurry but I remember staying in a beautiful house on a lake surrounded by volcanoes. The most beautiful lake in the world, they say. That is also where my buddy Miro got very sick and had to be shampooed with stinky stuff every second day. Until this day, he gets very shaky when we are being showered! We lived in this house with two other humans, a lovely woman, Arzu, who always made me taste the food she was preparing and her husband Kevin, who is a cook. Imagine when he prepared some meat! All he cut off was offered to me for dinner!!! I love these two humans despite the fact they travel with…..2 cats…. which I didn’t mind too much as long as they didn’t get close to my food! Of travelling through El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua, I mostly remember the sound of the AC in my ears. I am so glad we have that in the car, sometimes it gets really hot outside and there is not always a beach or a lake or a high mountain around. When we crossed into Costa Rica, it smelled a bit like home to my nose. Although Ursi warned me that I was about to meet some animal friends of mine I had never seen before. And she was right, they were everywhere!!! I just couldn’t stop sniffing at all of them! Miro much preferred hiding behind Michel and observing from far, I know, I know, Miro looks more impressing than he really is!

It was time for our second Christmas bone on this trip, only this time it felt more like summer to me. Obviously that didn’t stop me from finishing the bone! It was again time to board an airplane. As soon as we were in the air, the plane went down again: what a short flight!!! Michel told me that this was his home Colombia, where he was born a few decades ago. Man, how beautiful his home is! I got to meet the whole big human family with all their canines and they all love me!!! I am so happy!! Unfortunately I also got the news that I have cysts in my ovaries and they had to be removed. It made me sad but I was hoping to feel much better afterwards, I hadn’t been very hungry lately and had lost quite some weight… my humans grew more worried every day. After the operation, I was really well again and we moved on to a country by the name of Ecuador. Met some of the loveliest humans there and moved on to Peru where we spent countless hours driving on horrible roads! I was so glad when we moved into a little house in a sacred valley- it had a grassy garden, a nice view and was fenced so no other dogs came to disturb my peace. I so didn’t want to leave that at the end of the stay there, I sneaked back into the yard just before the owner locked up and left. You can probably imagine how angry my people got when they saw me inside instead of outside with them. Well for once, they had to dig a hole and I gladly watched them doing it. That’s what the call ‘walk in someone else’s shoes’ I guess?
So far, we have gotten to Argentina and I must say that I love it. The meat! I get to eat so much meat!!! I hope we can stay here for much longer!

2. What is your favorite place to travel? Do you like hiking the mountains? Running on the beach?
I love places where the wind blows around my nose and brings all those smells over from faraway kitchens. I know that Miro does not care where he is as long as he is with Michel and Ursi. He does it all, the running, the hiking, the jumping, the swimming…and much more. I used to do it too, but now, I am tired. I like to sleep a lot and being massaged. I like my time in a quiet corner. I do still roll on the beach sometimes or rub in fresh grass, but my back is sore and I have to be careful.

3. When you’re traveling do you camp? Stay at hotels? Rent houses?
Apart from being in a house once in a while, we mostly sleep inside the car. It has a pop up roof, our humans sleep in this roof. We sleep on the floor. I have a great mattress from Orthopet in Peru which does it all for my back. I can really relax on it! I remember though that back in time when it was still very hot in all those other places more north, we could sleep outside to cool off better. We enjoyed that, too.

4.Do you have a hard time finding good quality food and water on the road?
Of all things on this trip, the one thing I have nothing to complain about is the food. Really, I get so much fresh meat, veggies, soups cooked with bones and different treats. In Canada we found an Elk bone I could chew on and at the end, Michel cracked it open for me to get to the marrow. Mhhhhhh, yummy!!! Miro is such a hillbilly when it comes to those things. He prefers playing to gourmet kitchen. I on the other hand indulge in straying around, sniff on smelly things, chew on an old piece of bread or have a taste from a dirty diaper sometimes. It’s not for nothing my humans have been calling me vacuum cleaner all my life!

P5.Have you had any problems with other dogs, either playing at dog parks, or street dogs when traveling?

Problems? Nooooo, we never cause any trouble at all! The funniest encounter we had with furry friends in Santa Cruz, California. They have a nice, halfmoon shaped dog beach where we were supposed to be on a leash. It even had a sign saying that we have to be leashed. But when we looked down from the cliff above it, everyone was running around off leash! Oh how I miss running around like crazy. Miro even stole someone’s toy and ran off with it!!! He is such a fast runner you know!

6.What don’t you like about traveling? A different bed? Strange water?
Hmmm, sometimes we drive for a very long time and although we take breaks, I get tired. And I can’t sleep well while driving so in the evening I am even more exhausted. And as of lately, I have to take some nasty pills that get shoved down my throat if I refuse. I hardly meet playmates, well, I am not fit enough anymore to play anyway but still, I miss meeting friends. But I guess my humans do so, too.

Thanks Sheelah & Miro for offering up such an interesting interview! You are certainly two of the most traveled dogs yet. Follow their journey at

http://www.pawsontour.com

Happy tails & Happy trails~

Aspen & Porter