A Little Piece Of Home

Barley, a dog, lies on a very familiar dog bed amidst the scuffed legs of a hotel room desk.

Barley doesn’t spend all that much time in truly novel environments. On any given day, she is either at home (maximally familiar), or in my office at work (also very familiar), or hanging out in my car while I pop into the store for something, or walking the street in a neighborhood she’s now been exploring for most of her life. Even her vacations are, generally, a return of one sort or another, such as visits to my parents. So I don’t have too many occasions to see how nervous she gets in new places any more. I figure, better safe than sorry, so I generally bring one or two of her dog beds, so she can have an island of familiar scent if she wants one, as she did in this photo of us spending the day in a hotel room.