Travels with Tundra

pet-friendly hotels up and down the shore

Wendy Webb

Oh, you people with the lapdogs have it so easy. It’s no problem at all for you to arrange a weekend of care for your pet while you hightail it to some romantic destination with your sweetheart. There are any number of folks —legions! —who don’t mind dogsitting for a darling little ball of fluff. And there are no shortage of great kennels where your pet can take his or her own holiday.

Imagine, then, what it’s like to attempt to get away for the weekend when you’re the pack leader of a 130-pound Alaskan malamute. Not many people (okay, not any people) are going to open their homes to a dog this large. (Did I mention she sheds?) And kennels are out for a myriad of reasons I’d rather not cite. But they all involve teeth coming in contact with inappropriate items. Like flesh. And bone.

Tundra came into our lives when she was a puppy. Her mother was all of 70 pounds and her father was not much bigger. A fine size for a dog! But Tundra, like Clifford the Big Red Dog of children’s book fame, just kept growing. I suspected we might have some interesting days ahead when she weighed 96 pounds at her sixth- month checkup and our vet said: “Oh. Not to worry. This is common in most giant breeds.”

“G-g-g-iant?” I stuttered.

“Well, yes,” my vet proclaimed. “Tundra is a giant malamute.”

I marched home and shredded her pedigree papers. Shortly thereafter, I found myself with a dog twice the size of an average female timber wolf and roughly equal to that of a yearling deer.

And she sleeps on my bed.

But back to vacations. We’ve got Don, a wonderful dog sitter who comes into our home to care for Tundra while we go on (very infrequent) extended family vacations. Even my parents have been coerced into this activity, but only when my son is here to take care of the daily walks.

But what of the improptu weekend away? Out of necessity, we have found some great hotels on the north and south shores of Lake Superior and up the Gunflint Trail that welcome dogs. And if they welcome my dog, they’ll welcome yours.

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