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This is Fruitycake, and WE LEAVE TODAY.

I would like everyone to remain calm because I am currently trying to pack, and apparently no one in this family understands the seriousness of preparing for a four-hour road trip. Girl Person keeps talking about clothes and cameras and chargers and all the things we need for tomorrow’s rescue visit. Boy Person is doing whatever Boy Person does before a trip, which I assume involves waiting until the last possible second and then asking Girl Person where everything is. Meanwhile, I am left with the most important question of this entire journey:

How do I pack pizza?

Do I put it in a suitcase? Do I wrap each slice individually? Do I need one pizza for the drive and another emergency pizza in case something happens to the first pizza? Girl Person says the drive is about four hours, but I don’t believe she has factored in snack breaks, pee breaks, sniffing breaks and the possibility that I may see something interesting from the car and require an investigation. So basically, we could be traveling for three days. I have started packing accordingly. Collar. Leash. Water bowl. Snacks. More snacks. Pizza. Backup pizza. I think I’m ready.

And strangely enough, the one thing I’m not worried about is tomorrow.

Tomorrow we are visiting Parco Canile Valbasca, the ENPA Como shelter, and there will be dogs there I’ve never met before. They don’t know me and I don’t know them, but I’m not nervous about that because dogs speak the same language. We understand a tail. We understand the pause before getting closer. We understand excitement and fear and when another dog needs a little space. We understand what it means to wonder if you’re safe, and we understand what it feels like when you finally realize you are. And, of course, we understand snacks. Snacks may actually be the international language of dogs.

That’s one of the reasons this visit means so much to us. Girl Person and Boy Person aren’t going there because they think they already know everything about rescue. They’re going because they don’t. They want to listen to the people doing this work every day, ask questions, understand what rescue looks like here in Italy, learn what challenges are different and which ones are exactly the same, and find out how we can use what we learn to help.

And I get to go too. Brickle and Digby traveled across the states with my persons, visiting rescues and helping tell the stories of animals who needed homes. Now it’s my turn to put my paws into that mission. I don’t have to be Brickle. I don’t have to be Digby. I just have to be Fruitycake and figure out what my part of the story is going to be.

I think I can do that.

There is, however, one part of this trip that I AM worried about.

Boy Person cannot swim.

Persons, we are staying on a lake.

This seems like a fairly significant planning oversight.

Boy Person actually took swimming lessons once. He went somewhere specifically for another person to teach him how not to sink, and apparently they told him that he was a rare case of someone who could not float. I don’t know how rare we are talking here, but I would like to point out that rarity is not always something to celebrate. Diamonds? Good rare. Winning lottery tickets? Excellent rare. A grown man who apparently has a personal disagreement with buoyancy while we are staying on Lake Como?

BAD RARE.

So in addition to being Official Rescue Representative and Director of Road Trip Snacks, I have now appointed myself Boy Person Water Safety Supervisor. My current safety plan is very straightforward: Boy Person should remain on land. I have also been investigating whether pizza can be used as a flotation device, and unfortunately I see several problems. Crust absorbs water. Cheese gets slippery. Sausage has no known buoyancy qualifications. And perhaps most importantly, if I saw Boy Person floating away on a giant pizza, there is a very real possibility that instinct would take over and I would eat his flotation device.

Therefore, Boy Person, if you are reading my blog this morning, please stay on land.

I already have enough responsibility on this trip.

Fruitycake’s Wednesday Affirmation (Follow along in your workbook!)

One Step In Front Of The Other Does Not Have To Mean Big Steps

Maybe that’s really what today is about. One step. Not figuring out our entire future before we leave the rustico. Not knowing exactly where we’re going to end up or what this next chapter is supposed to look like. Not having every answer before we begin. Just taking the next step that is sitting right in front of us.

Sometimes when someone tells us to put one foot in front of the other, we imagine those steps have to be impressive. They don’t. A step can be getting out of bed on a day when you don’t feel like it. It can be making the phone call you’ve been putting off, sending the email, asking for help, packing the car or driving four hours because somewhere at the other end of that drive are people and animals you want to learn from. Small steps count because they still move us forward. Sometimes the smallest step is the one that changes the direction of everything that comes after it. Say this out loud!!

Today I will not measure my progress by the size of my steps. I will simply keep moving. I will take the step I am capable of taking today without worrying about how far I still have to go. Small steps can lead somewhere important, and I will be proud of myself for taking them.

Today our step is leaving.

Tomorrow our step is walking through the doors of a rescue and saying, “We’re here. What can we learn? How can we help?”

And somewhere between those two steps, my personal goal is to eat pizza.

See?

Progress.

So today we pack the car. We leave our mountain. We drive toward Lake Como. We take all of you persons with us, just like you’ve traveled so many miles with this family before.

I don’t know exactly what tomorrow will teach us.

That’s why we’re going.

One step in front of the other, persons. They don’t have to be big steps.

They just have to take you somewhere.

Fruitycake 🐾
Professional Blogger, Rescue Dog, Road Trip Snack Coordinator & Boy Person Water Safety Supervisor

MAKE RESCUES THE BREED OF CHOICE!

P.S. Persons, Tomorrow Is The Rescue Visit ❤️🐾

Today we’re making the four-hour drive toward Lake Como, and tomorrow we visit Parco Canile Valbasca—ENPA Como. This isn’t simply somewhere we picked because we wanted an adventure. We’re going because we want to understand rescue work here in Italy from the people actually doing it. We want to see what their days look like, learn about the dogs who come through their doors, hear about the challenges they face, ask what they wish more people understood and find out how we can help. We’re also going to film our visit so we can bring all of you inside with us and introduce you to the people and dogs we meet.

This feels like a very important little step for our family. Girl Person and Boy Person once traveled through 48 states visiting 48 rescues with Brickle and Digby. Life changed tremendously after those days, but the reason they started never did. Today we’re getting back in the car. Tomorrow we’re walking into another rescue. And this time, I’m the dog riding along. I think Brickle and Digby would understand exactly why that matters.

We still need help with the expenses and necessities that make this trip and the work that comes afterward possible. If you would like to put a little gas in our tank, help with our necessities or perhaps contribute to a certain rescue dog’s extremely important road-trip snack budget, you can help here:

Rescue Visit & Travel:
https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/QDBKM47GL4EJA

Necessities:
https://tinyurl.com/2tdnecessities

Venmo: @travelingdogs2
Zelle: rachael@2travelingdogs.com

You can also support the trip by getting Fruitycake’s September Affirmations For Dogs And People Workbook and following the affirmations right along with us all month:

September Affirmations Workbook:
https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/RCVRLZ8U4583C

Make Rescues The Breed Of Choice Shirt:
https://www.bonfire.com/make-rescues-the-breed-of-choice-7/

Girl Persons For Animal Rescue Shirt:
https://www.bonfire.com/girl-persons-for-animal-rescue/

And if you want to help us keep doing this month after month, you can join us on Patreon:

If you can’t purchase or donate right now, share our journey. Help more people meet the rescue tomorrow. Help us tell their stories farther than we could ever carry them ourselves.

Today we leave. Tomorrow we listen. And then we figure out what the next step is.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a pizza to pack. 🍕🐾