Coffee Breakfast

At our pet friendly Virginia bed and breakfast, I am once again reminded this morning just how much we all (me, Suzanne and all the staff) enjoy our dog guests. It is super to watch the dogs having such a ball running and romping. Usually our lovable Golden Retriever Callie is right in the middle. But today is especially wonderful because, along with Callie, there is an adorable black 11-month-old mixed puppy, Ursa; an extremely elegant German Shepard, Bandit; and a cute and lovable white, tan and black dog, Doc, all asking to play! People and dogs are running in every direction and I must say it has made me laugh out loud. Our guests often tell us just how much their dogs like it here and return over and over with them. We have watched many dog guests grow from puppy, to full-grown, to mature seniors, enjoying every phase. We share the painful loss of pets with our guests when that happens, as well.

We’ve even had several dogs as bridesmaid or best man at their human’s elopements. Sometimes they can be really funny and never fail to produce light heartedness and love.

We are also introduced to new breeds. Just recently we had a Japanese Shiba Inu, Anime, a breed of Spitz. Our guest explained that these small dogs resemble a fox (we agree!) and self groom like a cat. And last week we met a beautiful Saluki, Luka, for the first time.

The two most jaw dropping dog guests have been an enormous bull mastiff, Agamemnon, that weighed in at 225 lbs! He was gentile and sweet and extremely well mannered…but his size was huge! The second guests had two giant schnauzers. I had no idea they were nearly the size of Great Danes.

I do have to say that watching our all time favorite pet-parent guests arrive at the Inn on motorcycle with their Golden Retriever, Gus, in the side car is a totally amusing sight. He will wear his goggles but really doesn’t like the helmet.