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Fine Candies

WE KNOW THE
SWEETEST WAY
TO CELEBRATE
ANY OCCASION!

3 locations to serve you:

BIRMINGHAM

ROYAL OAK

3584 Maple at Lahser
248-646-0344

1206 S. Main Holiday Market Plaza
248-398-4720

DETROIT

On Woodward 2 blks. s. of 7 Mile
313-368-2470

DogGone, a useful, brightly writ-
ten bimonthly newsletter is $24 a
year. Call 561-569-8434 or e-
mail: doggonenl@aol.com. Web
site: www.doggonefun.com

Vacationing with Your Pet by
Eileen Barish ($19.95, Pet-
Friendly Publications). A state-by-
state listing of 23,000 hotels,
motels, inns, B&Bs and ranches
that welcome pets. Section on
"travel training" and air and car
travel. Call 800-496-2665.

AAA Pet Book, guide to U.S. and
Canadian lodgings that take pets.
Call your local AAA office.

Europeds, for 1999 Doggie Walks
call 800-321-9552 or e-mail:
Europeds@aol.com or check out
the Web site at wvvw.europeds.com .
Of all the pet-travel Web sites I've
looked at, www.traveldog.com
was by far the best, with tips
about air and car travel, pet-
friendly lodging, dog camps, dog-
gie day care and products. —EU

Inns have put out the welcome mar
for animals. I cannot pretend that I
would want to make a regular
stopover of Motel 6, but when my
husband Gil, Travis and I arrived at
the Motel 6 in Portland, Maine, in a
driving rain, I was so happy to be
there after our 11-hour drive that we
may as well have been at the Ritz.
Motel 6, in fact, is one of the
nation's most pet-friendly chains,
with at least some rooms in each of
its more than 790 properties dedicat-
ed to animals like Travis. "We
guesstimate that at least 10 percent of
our guests, at least in the summer,
travel with pets, and it's a niche that's
growing," notes Eric Studer, vice
president of marketing services for
the chain.
Barish, who travels with her
Golden Retrievers, Rosie and Max,
also has produced dog-friendly travel
guides to Arizona, Texas, California,
New York and the Northwest.
Another on Florida and Georgia is in
the works. Even the Automobile

11/19
1999

814

248-855-9545

Telegraph at Maple • In Bloomfield Plaza

Association of America has gotten in
on the animal act, with its AAA Pet
Book ($9 plus tax), a guide to recom-
mended hotels that are pet-friendly.
We haven't flown with Travis yet,
but one of the problems I encoun-
tered on our road trip was that I
sometimes felt excluded from things.
For instance, the Portland Art
Museum was showing a much bally-
hooed exhibit I wanted to see, but
what to do with Travis while Gil and
I wandered through the galleries?
"You have got to do advance plan-
ning," DogGone publisher Ballard
says. "If you want to see that exhibit,
then find a nearby groomer and leave
your dog there for a day of beauty.
Treat both you and your dog." She
recommends calling the Chamber of
Commerce in advance to get a list of
recommended groomers.
We also learned on our road trip
that traveling with your pet can
restrict your dining choices. America,
after all, isn't France or Germany,
where pets are mini-gods and are wel-
comed at most restaurants. So we
picnicked a lot. Occasionally, we left
Travis in the car just a short time
while we grabbed a bite indoors, but
only when we could see our car from
our table. Pet sitters, of course, are an
option, as well.
I have been vacationing on my
own for years to such far-flung desti-
nations as Venezuela, Mexico, the
American West and a host of
European countries. But since I mar-
ried Gil and, thus, took his dog as
mine, too, I have rethought what
pleases me.
Because now there is Travis, who
sleeps at my feet every night, whom I
feed and walk every day and whose
general demeanor I have come to
know just as well as my own.
Which is why I am so interested in
1999 Doggie Walks, a fabulous tour
that will begin in southern France in
May. It's offered by Europeds, a
California tour group that takes vaca-
tioners and their dogs through the
leafy forests, farmers' fields and feudal
castles of rural France.
Travis? Ready boy?
Let me grab a leash. ❑

Writer Ellen
. Uzelac lives in Maryland
with Thzvzs.