Hotel Connoisseur

Chicago, IL (July 4, 2013)

The dog in the photo is Kero, short for Kerokai. He is our four legged family member and is a Samoyed. Samoyeds are a northern dog breed, akin to Malamutes and Huskies. It is one of the most ancient dog breeds, originally bred by the Samoyedic people (northern Siberia). The Samoyedic people are nomadic and their dogs were (still are) used to help herding their reindeers, pull their sledges and keep an eye on their kids. Differently than other sledge dogs, Samoyeds were allowed to stay at night inside the tent, to warm their occupants in the long arctic nights (Sammys have a very thick and warm double coat, that can be actually used as wool in knitting). Because of this origins, Sammys are perfect family dogs: they adore kids (and actually sometimes try to herd them, just for the fun) and want to be involved in every aspect of family life. Sammys are also very funny and have a keen sense of humor. I don't think they really mean to be humorous, it is just that they have a lot of behaviors and antics that are very human-like and uncannily funny (and sometimes a little exasperating). They are certainly high maintenance dogs, mainly because they pretend almost constant attention (never let a samoyed get bored).

The photo above proves the point. We travel a lot and when possible (i.e. when it is a road trip) Kero travels with us. Traveling with a 50 pounds dog requires some planning, because most hotels don't accept dogs. The problem is that Kero doesn't just want any hotel, he has his preferred brands, and the one pictured above is his favorite hotel, the Warrenville Hyatt House (yes he has expensive tastes, ouch)! I have no idea why, but that Hyatt is the only hotel he likes in the whole Chicago area, and if we use another one he complains quite loudly (Samoyeds howls like wolves), which is something you don't generally want your dog to do in a hotel. Fortunately, since Mayli is affiliated with Fermilab, she has a preferred rate with the Hyatt, which is what saves us from going bankrupted because of the lodging pretensions of our dog. Oh well...