Last month Honey and I got to meet a special friend. Can you guess who from the title?
You Can Learn A Lot About Someone By How They Treat Their Dogs
Some of the people I adore the most I’ve never met.
But I have read their blogs, Facebook posts, or comments on Something Wagging. And I know how they treat their dogs.
And when I do meet online dog friends in real life, they turn out to be thoughtful, curious, and interesting. Just like they seem online.
It happened again when a blogger visited us on the boat in Cambridge, Maryland.
Now I’m Really Glad I Didn’t Stalk Her
Taryn has been blogging at A Tail of Two Cardis (It’s clever, eh? Cardigans are the corgis that have tails.) even longer than I’ve been writing at Something Wagging This Way Comes.
She writes about life with her Welsh Cardigan corgis (Jimmy and Wilson) and includes interesting recaps of her agility competitions with Jimmy.
When we were driving around Virginia two years ago shopping for boats, I considered trying to catch one of Taryn’s competitions. But I knew she would be too preoccupied to meet me.
And I worried that showing up and not saying anything would be creepy. Y’know, like a stalker.
When Taryn contacted me and offered to make the drive to Cambridge, I was really glad I hadn’t indulged my puparazzi fantasy.
I would have scared her off.
Corgis And Their People
As you might expect of a herding dog, corgis are smart and independent. And Taryn seems to have found a perfect match in her love of corgis.
Golden retrievers are smart and de-pendent. And Honey is all golden retriever. Which means she couldn’t wait to jump right onto Taryn’s lap.
And that was even before Honey smelled the duck feet, tendons, and other assorted yummy treats Taryn had packed for her.
I refrained from jumping on Taryn’s lap. But I was thrilled when her strategy to avoid rush hour traffic meant she has to stay and chat for another hour or so.
Because Taryn was as thoughtful, curious, and interesting as she seems online.
And she was very kind to the golden retriever and her person who threatened to jump into her pocket and stay there.
Real Dog People
I meet a lot of people on boats with dogs.
They love their dogs. But not all of them wonder what their dogs think about. What they need to be truly happy. Or how to strengthen their relationship.
Most of those people I meet online.
And a lucky few I get to meet in real life.
Will You Be My Friend
If you live on or near the east coast of the United States, we’d love for you to visit us on the boat.
Honey and I are both extroverts. And it’s a heavy burden for Mike to keep both of us amused day after day.
At times, I’m sure he wishes I’d jump overboard to make friends with some passing sailor.
Or a flock of geese.
Or even a little duck family.
We’ll be in Annapolis most of September and some of October. We’ll be somewhere in Virginia through the New Year. And then we’ll be heading south for warmer temperatures.
Or you can follow us virtually through the map widget in the sidebar. Zoom in our out to see where we are in context.
Every time we drop the anchor or dock at a marina, I update our position. So if we know where we are, you do too.
And if a smart, independent, and competitive, corgi-lover can survive the onslaught of dog fur, hot breath, and affection that is Honey when she loves you, you can too.
If you don’t already know Taryn and A Tail of Two Cardis, go check her out. Besides making agility come to life for the uninitiated, she knows more words beginning with “W” than anyone I know.
And now you know the secret of the strange blog post title.
Your Turn: Have you ever met any of your online friends in real life? Or do you prefer to keep your virtual friendships virtual?
Doesn’t Every Dog Deserve Her Own Beach?
We met one blogger here in MN, recently one in Chicago on our trip, and a bunch at the several BlogPaws we have attended. If we were on the East Coast, we would definitely visit you!
I’ve never met any bloggers outside of the BlogPaws conference. Some day I would like to do that, to get more one-on-time to visit that you just can’t really get much of at the conferences.
I hope you get more visitors on your travels, I’d hate to see you have to jump overboard to meet friends. Though dolphins might be good – they are very friendly, right? 🙂
Next March, starting on the 18th, collies from all over the country will be descending on Virginia Beach for the collie National. 🙂
You asked if I’d ever met any of my on line friends in real life….as a matter of fact, I just did this past Monday…Two gals, sisters and daughters of a friend of mine from our growing up years. Sadly, she has been gone for many years and the two sisters got together and I answered a request from the one…since she had been given up for adoption at birth, and wanted to hear from people who knew her mom. I really enjoyed meeting them both.
I haven’t met any bloggers yet, but would like to someday. I think it would be great and very interesting to meet you. 🙂
We aren’t able to travel much with our four and their special circumstances, but we are hopeful someday we will meet the dog lovers we talk to every day in person.
Thank you for the online introduction to Taryn and her adorable Corgis. Meeting people you follow is like a dream. We’ve only met one blogger, LeeAnna from Not Afraid of Color and look forward to meeting her new standard poodle pup, Milo soon when they come back to Denver. Keeping my fingers crossed my travels will take me to the East Coast where I can give ear scratches to Honey in person. Happy sailing!
If you ever get curious about the Panama Canal and get to the west coasts you can be our first.
I had so much fun, I’ll even try to come back for a second visit! Annapolis is way closer and such a great place to visit. I actually lived there for a while right after college. Maybe we can plan another get together for the end of September sometime 🙂
I’ve wanted to meet online friends in real life, but just haven’t been able to for a variety of reasons. Maybe “someday” I will, but for now it’s just not in the cards for me.
PS. When will you be back in Charleston? If at all possible, I’d LOVE to get to meet you, Mike, and Honey while you’re there next time.
My 3 rescue dachshunds are jealous of Hiney’s adventures; they used to thing goforrides around the neighborhood were great – now they want us to get a big RV and a sailboat. They all say Hi Honey!
Your doxies are very smart pups. A sailboat AND an RV would let you explore the entire country (including Hawaii and Alaska)!
BTW, you might be as surprised as we were to find that many cruising boaters travels with dachshunds. I don’t normally think of doxies as boat dogs. But we see many of them all over the waterways. I suspect they’re great for boats because they have a big dog personality in a boat-sized body.