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It’s Oliver’s first night away from home. We’re heading over to Tampa for the Kenny Chesney concert (woot!), and while the big dogs will be totally fine on their own for a few hours, Smalliver wouldn’t be, so I made the decision to board him. After *extensive* research, I finally settled on The DogMaHall. Now, some would say that I have a tendency to go a little bit overboard when it comes to my dogs, and that’s probably true. Then again, we don’t have kids, so my maternal instincts need to be directed somewhere else. I really don’t like the idea of boarding our dogs (and I wouldn’t board the older ones, just because, well, they’re old and do really well with a pet sitter), but we get a fresh start with Oliver.

The most important thing was for him to not feel like he was too confined (he HATES his crate, and he literally makes himself sick if he’s isolated), so that automatically ruled out more than half of the doggy day cares since they use kennels. I asked my vet for recommendations, but those were all a bust, too. I must have looked at every single boarding facility in the greater Orlando area, but I *finally* found one that seemed to fit the bill.

Oliver has a little bit of separation anxiety. Kevin has a hard time with him on the weekends, since I try to sleep in but Oliver just scratches at the bedroom door and cries. Rigley was bad when she was a puppy, too, but Oliver is definitely a mama’s boy. I was certainly apprehensive about leaving him behind, since he is a sensitive little man. Turns out I had nothing at all to worry about. He was soooo done with me the minute we walked in the place, and of course, he charmed everybody there.

I have a feeling he may not want to come home tomorrow, in which case I’m totally booking him for next weekend when we go to Tallahassee, only next time I’ll throw in some extras. The boy does love his massages….. 😉