Hi Eric,

Well, we’re back! The flight in was a bit of a rollercoaster as there is a big storm in Israel with high winds. However, the landing was really smooth…good pilot.  Just to let you know (to be fair to El Al) the food was REALLY GOOD – they must have changed the menu and chef…we were met by Eli the cab driver who had just bought a BRAND NEW cab (three days ago – remember this point).

We then went to the dog “hotel” from the airport. It’s on the way to SION and is in a Kibbutz. It had been raining cats and dogs (and still was raining hard) so we drive into the road to the “hotel” which was FULL of mud.  We went too far and Eli had to turn the cab around, it bottomed out in a big sink hole and scraped the undercarriage. No one said a word…..We then drove up to the hotel and Gabe gets out of the car and “plunges” into a river of mud, soaking his shoes up to his socks. Eli and I exit the other side of the cab and go into the hotel. Gabe squishes behind us a few minutes later. The guy at the “hotel” tells us she is a VERY HAPPY dog and goes to get Bubbie, telling us to wait. Naturally, I’m too excited and I follow him. He’s coming with her on a leash from a little distance away and I call her and ….she goes APE SHIT. She’s SOAKING wet and jumps all over me. She hasn’t been brushed in two weeks so my sweater and pants are FULL of her wet hair. I grab her leash and take her back to the “hotel” check out area.  Eli sort of looks at this soaking wet dog, my sweater and he says, “You go to the car and I’ll carry her behind you.” I then remember that her bed is at the “hotel” (imagine bringing your own bed to Holiday Inn Express). So, the guy gets her bed and I can SMELL it before it arrives…the pillow that she sleeps on is caked with mud (I turn it over before Eli can see it) and it stinks to high heaven. Eli says, “You bring the bed, put it over the towel and I’ll bring the dog”….I guess I forget that Gabe is with us because he’s ringing out his socks.

I go to the car, place her bed on the towel and here comes Eli with this HUGE, WET, STINKING Bubbie in his arms. He places her in the bed and she moves so that she’s half in and half out of the bed so she can be closer to me (and, by the way, on the outer margin of the towel covering the seat). Eli gets into the car and turns on the AIR CONDITIONING because of the stench and waits for Gabe to wade through the river and get back into the car. I notice that Eli has placed newspaper on the floor and I’m sure it isn’t there for us to read…

We drive home and on the way Bubbie can’t contain herself so she tries three or four times to “LEAP” into the front seat and lick Gabe. There is WET, DANK, Bubbie HAIR all over the car by now….When we get home – he took a “short cut” so it took an extra 15 minutes, I get out and Bubbie LEAPS from the car to follow me, walking on the seat that I’ve vacated (where there is no towel). Although she’s “sort of” dry by this time, her paws were full of mud and there are a “FEW” prints on his new seat. I try to rub them off with the towel and only succeed in transferring the hair from the towel to his seat….Eli NEVER said a word. HOWEVER, Gabe told him to get the car washed on us…Eli said, I might have to get the inside detailed as well (Gabe agreed immediately).

Now we’re home. We turn on the water heater and 30 minutes later Bubbie and I are in the shower. She smelled SO BAD….but her breath was still nice. I washed her thoroughly while she just sat there and enjoyed it. She let me suds her for about 15 minutes. I wash her pillow and bed…and we decide that, since she slept in the bed for two weeks, she will probably be “trained” to use the bed and won’t jump up on our bed any longer. Well, you can see the results of that stupid assumption below: