Field Notes with Isabelle Hinckley: Moving your anxious dog cross-country
Meet Maev’s newest human-dog duo, Isabelle and Baby.
2021 was the year of big moves, in career, family, self, culture, you name it. Here at Maev, we made moves of our own — and elsewhere, so was our newest team member Isabelle. But before she could make the cross-country trek to join us, there was Baby to consider.
Baby, as in her 10-or-11 year old rescue pitbull, who was probably also itching for a break from the mundane and more vitamin D, with one concernable difference: She hates moving vehicles.
A few months after they settled in Austin, we sat down with Maev’s new Social Media Manager on Baby’s story, their 2,000 mile road trip, and the hard lessons earned.
Isabelle! Welcome to the team. Tell us a little about you.
Hi! I’m Isabelle, the new Social Media Manager at Maev. I’m originally from Richmond, Virginia, went to Bucknell University in Pennsylvania, then wanted to do something scary after college. I’d grown up going to Maine every summer and loved it, so I made the move and lived there for four years. It was there that I met my boyfriend Chandler, but best of all, Baby.
The star of the show. So did you two adopt Baby in Maine?
Well, she was actually already Chandler’s dog. But when we started dating, it didn’t take long at all for me to take her over for myself. So I got her through him.
And what’s Baby’s back story?
Baby has a crazy story. The summer after his sophomore year of college, Chandler was working in a fly shop in Montana. These people walked in with an overweight pitbull that had cuts and scars on her neck, probably from a choke collar, and a pink heart dyed permanently into her back.
They were looking around the shop, and Chandler walked over to ask if he could help with anything. They said they were looking for bait. They’re shopping for only a few minutes when Baby came running over to him and just sat at his feet, staring at him. Straightaway, the owners basically asked if Chandler wanted her. She was tied up outside all the time, and they didn’t have the money to take care of her.
There was a split second where he was like, I'm in college, I can't do this. But all it took was looking at Baby’s face, and he’d decided he had to save her.
Oh wow, what a story. And now she’s part of the family.
Yep. She's the most loving, sweet, kind dog I've ever met in my entire life — and I grew up on a farm, with a bunch of dogs.
Do you know Baby’s biological story?
This part is a little fuzzy. She's a pitbull, and we think she’s about 10 or 11 years old. But we don’t know her full story — all the previous owners really told Chandler was that they adopted her from a kill shelter in LA.
I bet she has so many stories in that mind of hers. If only dogs could speak, right?
It's pretty crazy. We look at her all the time and be like, can you tell us your story? What happened?
You, Chandler, and Baby just relocated to Austin. What inspired the move?
We were both ready. Our four years in Portland were amazing, but we wanted to go somewhere new that held a lot of opportunity for both our careers and lives. Austin was the best place for that.
Maine to Texas. That’s a pretty big difference.
So different. There was a huge learning curve for both of us and Baby.
How so?
It’s the little things you notice the most, like the elevator. In Portland, you live in small little apartments in old buildings that have two floors. Baby’s never really lived in a building with an elevator before.
Tell me about the move itself. How was the road trip with Baby?
Moving her here from Maine was one of the most challenging things that we’ve ever been through — both in our relationship together and in life.
Oh, wow. What happened?
To start, Baby is 10 years old. She's a rescue with anxiety. She's neurotic. She hates being in the car. So driving 30 hours from Maine to Texas was really, really, really challenging.
Was there a turning point at which things got bad? Or was the whole trip just a goner?
By the fourth, third or fourth day of our trip, she was in such a bad state. I mean, I cried, it was so bad.
Describe the scene to me.
We’re driving across the country in my teeny old Volvo with a U-Haul attached (that probably should not have been attached to said teeny Volvo). Baby’s in the way back, and I’m constantly leaning over the seat trying to get her closer to us. She won’t ever lay down in the car, so for three days straight she’s been standing and panting. Occasionally it gets so bad that Chandler would pull over. I’d get in the back seat thinking that would help. It wouldn’t, she's still anxious.
She's still upset. We're both talking about what we maybe should’ve done differently, Googling what's going to happen if she's panting for this many days straight. By the time we got to Austin, she was dehydrated, tired, and it was clear that her arthritis was hurting her from standing so much.
That must have been so hard for you and Chandler to watch.
I can’t even fully explain. It's so challenging because they can't tell you what's wrong, and you can't tell them that they're going to be fine. There's no way to communicate to each other what you're both feeling and experiencing, but we as humans knew she was struggling.
How were you feeling when you finally got to Austin?
We felt so guilty and so sad for putting her through that. But there was also relief. Portland to Austin, that's a long trip. A lot can happen, and at the end of the day, we felt very grateful that we just got there safely.
From then on, what was the recovery process like for you two and Baby?
We took the first few weeks to just take a breath. We decided we were going to stay home for a little bit. Baby wasn’t going near the car — we were going to go for short walks and that's about it. She needed to recharge before we really started living our life again.
How long did it take for things to get back to normal?
For the first week or two, she was following us into the bathroom every single time. It wasn’t until we were three or four weeks settled before she felt comfortable laying in her bed or on the couch without me in eyesight.
Is that how you knew?
Yeah. When I could be doing a little laundry and she'd stay in her bed or on the couch.
In hindsight, would you have done anything differently?
Hindsight's 2020. I look back now and wish I would’ve talked to my vet more about the possibility of sedating her — or that my vet would’ve offered more support and guidance in the first place. As a first-time dog owner, I just didn't know how bad it was going to be, and I didn’t want to drug her because she’s old.
What’s something you wish you would’ve known? Something you’d tell other dog owners looking to move?
That any big move — from one city to another, a big move in a career, whatever — is really challenging at this age. Then to also watch your dog go through that move too, it's really challenging.
But at the end of the day, they love you so much and they just want to be with you. So as long as you're meeting their needs and finding ways to make this new place home for them, they're happy.
