Cody, A Dog’s Tail
submitted by Jon Fowkes on behalf of Cody Roadie
Traveling is all I’ve known, ever since I was adopted when I was just 10 weeks old.
Being a New Year’s baby, I became part of a new family on St. Patrick’s Day. Though I won no awards by being the first born in the year 2021, or have any Irish blood, that I know of, my life quickly became one of a nomad. I understand that this is a new thing, traveling around the country in something called a Sprinter Van. My adopted parents call our van Liberte, or Libby for short, I simply call it home because it is about the only home I have experienced for the past 16 months. That’s right, I’ve only lived on this planet for the past 18 months and I have traveled to 44 different states. Well technically, it has been 43 states and the District of Columbia, but my daddy says it should be a state because it has a larger population than the state he was born in and lived most of his life. Yes, I have been to that state, in fact my name is Cody, after Cody Wyoming, and I can safely say that there are lots of open spaces out there, but not so many people. I know this because I really like people and there weren’t very many around there to fawn over me. I’m not sure why people do that, it must be because they say I’m just adorable. My biological father was a Yorkie, and my birth mother was a poodle. They call me a Yorkie Poo. Oh, did I mention I’m a puppy? Let me introduce myself, I’m Cody but everyone calls me Cody Roadie.
It is my understanding that I’m very fortunate to have traveled to so many states in this great country.
Most folks are not this fortunate their entire life, let alone in their first 18 months. I’ve even been told that many never even leave the state they were born in. That just seems so foreign to me because I haven’t experienced anything but traveling. It would be much easier to tell you the states I haven’t been in than to list all the states that I have. Mommy and Daddy say that they want both Libby and me to visit all 50 states – of course, counting DC as a state – so I guess I will be seeing 6 more in my future. I know what you are going to say, “there are 50 states and the District of Columbia,” but my response is, “silly you, Libby can’t drive to Hawaii, so it doesn’t count.” Daddy jokes about that though, he says he can count Hawaii since he sailed there in a sailboat. I understand all about sailboats because I’ve gone sailing in San Francisco Bay, but I digress. Yes, I was explaining the states I haven’t seen, Alaska, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Maine. You ask, “What? Maine, but you’ve been to Vermont and New Hampshire?” I understand geography, don’t ask me why, I wasn’t driving!
My travels through these 44 states involved 4 trips, 3 last year and 1 this year.
I was so young last year during those 3 trips I have a poor memory of all the great experiences we had. As a result, this year, I decided to keep a strong mental note on our travels, so I won’t forget all those great times. Since I didn’t have the time or the opportunity to write all of this down while we were traveling, I have decided to do so now in the form of a blog, where I will post chapters along the way as if you are experiencing it in real time. Daddy said he will set up a site on the Internet for me where I can post those chapters as I write them, and you can follow along if you wish. So please join us in our travels across this great country. As we progress, I will include information about the other places we traveled because there will be memories that will be triggered along the way. Hopefully by the end I can tell you some stories involving all the states. I think you will like it from a dog’s perspective, we tend to be more observant; after all, smelling is a really strong sense.
