If anything had a chance of stopping us from traveling, it’s this girl right here.
This is a tender subject among people—and it should be. What happens to your pets when you leave? It was never on the table that we’d give her up—we committed to being her parents from the moment we spent $35 to bring her home from the Humane Society in February of 2021.
When we first started entertaining the idea of full-time travel, it was with the thought that Luna would travel with us. She’s harness trained, does great in the car, and has gone on a fair few mini-adventures with us with reasonable success.
But as we took the time to really consider the reality of full-time travel (particularly international workaway travel like we’ll be doing) it just seemed more and more likely that we’d be asking too much of her. We couldn’t ask her to tolerate public transportation or risk losing her at a farmstay… we would not be able to control the stressors she’d be exposed to and it wasn’t going to be fair. The kind of travel we’re going to be doing isn’t glamourous: we’re gonna be working, potentially sleeping outside… There might be other animals or bugs and we have no idea what border crossings are like with a pet.
Vanlife with Luna would be one thing: she’d be in a contained and familiar space with her parents constantly present. But international budget travel… it just isn’t worth the risk. But man, is it one of the most heartbreaking things we’ve ever done, leaving her behind.
Allow me to introduce you to CJ. CJ and I met in 2017 in a production of Hairspray in Greenville, SC. We kindled a friendship that has stood the test of time, multiple moves, and a pandemic. In the summer of 2021, CJ was hired at Sight and Sound and moved into the Mother-in-Law suite of our house downstairs. She shortly thereafter graduated from “friend” to “family” and became Luna’s defacto godmother; watching her for us whenever necessary and often looking forward to the opportunities to do so.
At first, the thought was that my parents would take Luna while we were gone. But they had an elderly cat and aspirations for eventual long-term travel themselves…
So the choice was pretty clear: Luna should stay with her aunt CJ. She’d be safe with a familiar person and well loved in a place she already knew.
And as much as it was devastating to say goodbye to Luna this week, there wasn’t any fear. Knowing as we drove away that she wouldn’t only be cared for, but loved, happy—that was a balm that eased the grief in such a way that we knew we’d made the right decision. The right decisions can still be really hard, but Luna deserves a cozy home while her parents are away with a godmother who will love and care for her as much as we did ourselves.
The goal is still to take her back. As soon as we can travel with her in such a way that we know she’ll be safe and comfy, we will.
But in the meantime, we’ll treasure every Marco Polo and photo CJ sends us on the daily.
Our sweet Luna McGonagall Valentine Blanchard <3
