Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

Tag Archives: camping


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Katie here

Hello everybody!

Hello everybody!

Hey you guys!  I bet you’ve been missing ME.  ME ME ME ME ME ME…oh wait. I get carried away sometimes but you know it’s all about me.  My Mama has been soooooo busy that I hardly ever see her.  And when she comes home from work she’s usually too tired to play.  But I make her play anyway.  She can’t ignore me….not me!  I don’t give up either.  I have an endless supply of toys to drop at her feet.  And while she’s at work I practice the BIG EYES and sharp whine so that I can make her crazy when she finally shows up.

Guess what?  It works!  And for the small fee of a few dog biscuits I can teach all of you doggies the skill set.  Oh wait.  You say you already  have that down?  Well!  Doggies rule!

So anyway….Mama and I are going to do a big dog show this weekend.  On Sunday we’re going to try to get our Advanced Rally title!  Mama says she’s stressed again.  Sigh.  I don’t know why she gets like this.  It’s just another day to spend watching people and doggies do stuff.  I like to go to these, and when we’re in the ring I watch my Mama very carefully.  If she can just read all those crazy signs correctly I promise to do what she asks.  So it’s all up to her.

Me?  I’m just having a good time with my Dad while my Mama is at work.  And I’ve been dreaming about Mama and me going camping next spring.  It’s almost spring, right?  Well it should be.  After all I’m the princess…and I decree it’s almost spring!

Cause it’s all about me.  Yes it is.


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Katie says – I went camping with my Mama

This is my big tent.

Katie here!  Mama says she got a new blog!  And it took her forever to let me on.  Yes it did.  A whole week!  So anyway…I haven’t been to my school in like THREE WEEKS!  Mama has been having adventures of her own and I got left behind at a kennel!  NOT FAIR Mama!  So I told her, yes I did, I told her she better shape up or I was going to go find a better Mama.  One who took my on adventures!  And did fun things with me!  And played with me all the time!  That is not too much to expect, me being a princess and all.  No it is not.

And do you know what my Mama did?  She put up the BIG TENT!  We got to go camping!!!

Nothing but sky and trees.

She didn’t put the rain flap on because she said it would be like sleeping under the stars and it was!  It was wonderful!  Ok, there weren’t any stars because it was cloudy…but there wasn’t any rain either, so Mama and I slept really good!  I slept upside down most of the night on my pile of pillows.  Hey!  Let me show you around my tent!

Come one in!  It’s a little messy right now because Mama hasn’t made the bed yet.  You know how Mama is.

Come on in, there’s room for all of us!

Of course my spot would be right here, on the blown up bed with my own personal window.  And the good pillow of course.

My favorite spot.

Oh!  Mama says I have to get OFF the bed.  Geesh.    OK, it’s true this tent has a little window just for me.  And that Mama put lots of pillows for me next to it.  I guess it’s just as good.

Yep this window is pretty sweet.

See?  It just perfect for me!

Those tent people sure know how to please a dog!

I didn’t want to go back in the house this morning.  I’d rather stay outside and play, take a nap in my tent, then play some more.  Oh wait.  Did you say that my breakfast was inside?  Coming Mama!

Did you say SUPPER?!

Mama says we can camp out again tonight!  I can not WAIT!  But I gotta get a nap in first.   Adventures are so exhausting.


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Katie says

Katie here.  Mom says I can talk today on her blog, cause she’s too tired.  I’ve been keeping her busy today and I think she needs a nap.  It’s her own darn fault anyway.

I’ve been waiting and waiting for Mom and Daddy to pay attention to me.  First they’re all busy with work, then we get company, then Daddy goes off to work on some project and Mom works late every night at work and I have to spend all day every day alone.  This is not what I signed up for when I adopted them.

So when they do come home I’m all about me.  Me me me me me.  And I want to play with  my rabbit and my froggy and my lambie and my squirrel and my ball and…well you know.  But they don’t want to play so much.  They say things like ‘Go lie down’ and ‘Katie! Stop biting my feet!’ and ‘NO BARK!’ and other nonsense.  I just want to play.  Gee.  What’s a doggie to do.

Well I guess this weekend I made my Mom feel bad, so Friday night she set up the tent and we got to go camping!  I love to camp in our back yard.  Last night I was such a good girl and didn’t bark at anything.  Not even the funny noises and smells.  I was just so good and let Mom sleep all the way until 5:30 this morning!

Then she had to go to work.  I was sad.  But she came home in the middle of the afternoon and  guess what?  WE GOT TO GO TO MY PARK!  I would have been happy just to stay there, but nooooo.  Mom wanted to go to HER favorite park which is almost a half hour away!  Since when is it all about HER?

But I humored her and we sat by the lake and watched the geese and she read a book.  I was a good girl and sat by her feet while I watched kids fish and that goose swim around out there.  I didn’t bark at anything!  I was just glad to be out near a lake with my Mom.

So that’s the story so far this weekend.  I think we’re going to camp out again tonight!  I can’t wait.  As soon as it gets dark I’m going to go over to the back door and whine like I did last night.  It works.  She’ll go to bed early just to make me happy.  You wait and see.

I’ve got my Mom figured out.


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Stary stary night, croaking frogs, bumbling bugs, fireworks and a sheltie-girl

Katie and I had a lovely warm evening last night to spend camping in the back yard.  I was so tired that we went to bed at 9 — before it was even dark.  As I was gathering up our supplies I glanced out toward the tent and wouldn’t you know it, there was our friend mama deer, standing near the house, munching on a shrub.  Just waiting, I guess, to terrorize us some more.

After she left the yard we settled in.  Sort of.  Katie got up to look out the window at every little sound.  And there was a lot of sound.  Some township nearby was having their local fireworks, so there was the sound similar to distant thunder.  Nearby someone was setting off popping fireworks.  Two bugs managed to get caught under the rain fly of the tent and buzzed around, bumbling into the ceiling of the tent for what seemed like a long time.  The next door neighbor was in the backyard calling for her dog.  Forty-five minutes into our night the deer snorted at us.  Katie didn’t bark at any of it. But she checked each sound out.  No sleeping allowed.

Eventually we settled in to watch the fireflies and the stars, periodically rearranging ourselves, her on and off the mattress, me moving over to make room, moving again to reclaim my space when she chose her own pillow instead.  After two hours of this she began to whine.  I sighed and found my shoes and her leash and we went back outside.  She had to GO MOM!  Geeze!

Back in the tent things were quieter, and we both fell asleep…until I woke with a start to Katie’s frantic barking.  I thought she’d wake up the whole neighborhood and I couldn’t get her to quiet down enough for me to hear whatever was upsetting her.  In between her barks I could tell something was walking around out there, something small, making a cat-like sound.  Didn’t bother me much, but Katie was outraged.  Apparently a lot of night creatures like to explore near sleeping humans at 2:00 a.m. as this was about the same time of night that we were scared back into the house last weekend.

After about 45 minutes of on and off barking I gave up and we went inside, serenaded by very loud bullfrogs in the pond across the road.   Silly dog.  It was such a lovely night and I was enjoying my sleep in the night air. Tonight I’m considering leaving her in with her Dad and trying again.  But I’m moving the tent even closer to the house.

Cause I’m as big a chicken as she is.  I just don’t bark as much.

 


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It's summer…and the camping is easy. Or not.

Most of you know that Katie and I camp out in the back yard during warm summer nights.  That’s a bit harder to do now that I’m working;  I suppose I could try it on a work night but I think I’d be a wreck at work the next day.  So we have to wait for nice weekend nights before we head out for our camping adventures.

We got the tent out last weekend, Katie and I, and put it up on Saturday afternoon for our seasonal inaugural back yard camp-out.   I tucked it way out at the back of our yard, behind a big blue spruce near the woods.

Just as soon as we were back in the house I saw a mama deer wander out of the woods and walk over to the tent, inspect it then casually continue to the neighbor’s yard.  Hmmm I thought, that was interesting!

So around 10 that night Katie and I headed out.  Me with my phone, my water, my flashlight and my dog.  We settled right in, she plopped down on her pile of pillows, and I snuggled in under my blankets.  We were asleep instantly.

Suddenly Katie was barking hysterically and I was clawing my way back to consciousness aware of some sort of alien noise.  A noise very close to us.  I grabbed Katie and held her tight and she went quiet.  We both held our breath and waited.  Then it happened again.  Three snorts.  Just outside the tent.  Katie wimpered.  I held her tighter.  We stayed still.  More snorting and a stick cracking.  She began to bark.  I shushed her.

Everything went  quiet…and eventually we settled back down.  But not to sleep, no we were both wide awake and on high alert.  Then as we began to drift off the snorting began again, on the other side of the tent.  OK.  That’s enough, I was envisioning some wild animal crashing through our little tent.

I turned on the flashlight, made a great deal of noise and Katie and I hightailed it back to the house.  It was 2:00 a.m.  I got online to find out what makes that sort of noise and guess what?  Deer do, when they feel threatened!  Who knew!?!  Maybe there were baby deer somewhere nearby and Mama was trying to figure out what smelly thing was inside the tent?

Anyway, it was a lot of work to set up camp only to stay out a few hours.  So Katie and I are going to try again this weekend.  I moved the tent closer to the house.

Cause I’d like to make it through the night this time.