pros of leaving the dog with my parents in st. louis for the rest of the trip:

1. she’ll be happy not to be in the car anymore.
2. my parents will lavish attention on her; my dad’s home a lot so she won’t be alone much.
3. i won’t have to worry about her while i’m driving.
4. i won’t have to worry about where and when to take her to the bathroom, which will be hard in big cities like new york and boston.
5. i think her ears are sunburned from being in the car.

cons of leaving the dog with my parents:

1. i’ll miss her a lot.
2. she’ll miss me a lot.
3. i’ll have to drive back to st. louis (a 14-hour drive from austin) to pick her up after my trip’s over, and i won’t be able to do so for at least three or four weeks after i get back to austin. this means i won’t see her for two months.
4. the people i’m staying with on the rest of the trip won’t get to see her.
5. my mom will feed her too much; she will get fat.
6. she won’t be in any more of the pictures.