Happy Campers

I'm not sure how I am ever going to move back to my lovely city home in the fall, because the bulldogs are in heaven and by the time summer ends, we will have been here 5 full months. September is going to be a rough transition...

The first week of camp was last week and it rained every single day. My dogs will roll in a puddle, jump in a lake, and splash in their pool, but if there is even a tiny bit of rain coming from the sky, I can't drag them out of the house. This week, it's been much nicer weather, and aside from the 2 hours a day that sports is on the field with a ball (which both Olivia and Griffin will steal and pop at the first opportunity), they are free to roam around camp freely.

Today was sweltering and they were stuck in the house most of the day, except for swimming. They were very unhappy with me, and I felt bad, but the house is cool and I knew that even in my office or outside, they would overheat. Some dogs live in a kennel for hours and hours every day or live on the street. My dogs have a pile of bones, the couch they lounge on all day, treats, freezie pops Nurse Julie gives them every day, visits from staff, and yet, today they were feeling very mistreated. They were brave and managed to suffer through the hardships...

Walk?! Not these bulldogs!!
They ride shotgun and are driven door to door...

Being the boss means that the staff have to be nice, even when
 the activity they are teaching gets interrupted by a sassy puppy...

Loving the beach on a hot day.

At the beach...

Griffin is quite the swimmer

Also loving the beach...

Olivia's favorite time of the day is when she
gets attention from a field full of campers 

Griffin's favorite time of the day is when he is the center of attention

Exhausted Bulldogs

On Friday, we completed our 10 day staff training. Training was 8am-9pm every day and by the time we were finished, everyone was pretty exhausted, including the Camp Dogs. 

About halfway through the week, I went into my room to grab my pajamas before taking a shower and didn't realize, until I turned on the light, that at some point, Griffin had gotten into bed, under the covers, head on the pillow and tucked himself in for the night. When I turned on the light, he looked up at me like, "turn that off! I'm sleeping!" We have the same routine every night, including a potty break outside and then me lifting both dogs into bed, so I was really surprised and amused. Apparently staff training was wearing him out.

Last night I was finishing up some work, talking on the phone and realized neither dog was anywhere in sight. I walked down the hall and heard snoring. Earlier in the day, I'd washed all of my bedding and when it was clean, I had just thrown it all in a big heap onto my bed, planning to make it later.

Apparently they both decided to go to bed, couldn't get onto my bed and so they went into the empty spare room and I found them, totally asleep, in the dark, snoring. I often wonder what goes on in their minds...

Crabby Camp Dog

This is a photo of Olivia during lifeguard training today. Because my house is one of two tvs at camp, I rearrange my living room for CPR and lifeguard training. I turned the couch around so the dogs could still lay down, and also to make a wall between us and them (it's difficult to practice CPR when a bulldog is licking your face and the mannequin).

This arrangement was NOT pleasing to Olivia. She screeched and barked and jumped off the back of the couch twice, so completely unhappy about her life one might have thought she was being tortured.

After several hours (and being sent outside for time out several times), she calmed down. She had to be touching someone at all times, but she eventually calmed down.

Oh the difficult life of a camp dog...

Frogs and Dogs...

Olivia "supervising" as we run internet cable
to the Welcome Center

Monday was the beginning of 3 straight weeks without a day off- summer is officially here and we are getting ready for staff to arrive (tomorrow!) and soon after that, campers!

For now, Olivia and Griffin are helping me and the Lead Staff as we organize camp (see photo). Olivia has an opinion about everything and tends to micro manage, while Griffin prefers the technique of attempting to occupy exactly the same space as whomever he is following at the moment. Luckily I'm the boss and so my staff have to be nice to them (also, I have the nicest, most patient staff in the world), otherwise, I'm pretty sure one (probably both) of them would have been kicked by now.

As I am too busy to think of any cute stories from this week, here's one from last year.

Dogs and Frogs

Monday, June 21, 2010

11:30pm, last night. After a very long, exhausting first day of camp, I let the dogs out one last time before I could fall into bed. After a few minutes of hanging out and not going potty like mommy wanted, I went outside to drag them in.

As I walked outside, I must have spooked a very large (like the size of my fist) toad. When Olivia saw it, she became a wild animal hunter and attempted to go after it. Just as I grabbed her, shouting, "no!" Griffin pounced and had the entire thing in his mouth. The thought of one of my babies eating a giant toad is gross and awful, but I also remembered something about toads possibly being poisonous, so of course I was frantically trying to get it away from him. But less than 10 seconds of having it in his mouth, Griffin spit it out himself and then started foaming at the mouth.

Panicked, my first instinct was to run inside to do a quick google search. And yes, my memory was correct, some toads are poisonous. Some are not poisonous, but have really bitter skin to deter predators. Without actually seeing it, I didn't know which we were dealing with, so I dragged Griffin over to the hose and started flushing his mouth out like the website had said to do. Griffin thought we were playing and must not have ever seen a hose before, because he was happily biting at the water stream, flinging his giant, slobber-filled cheeks around, getting both of us completely wet.

There I was standing in the dark, yelling at Olivia to stop looking for the toad, yelling at Griffin to let me spray out his mouth, soaking wet, muddy, frantic, with two wet muddy dogs, hoping none of my staff could see or hear the ridiculousness. It might be funny if it wasn't such a typical experience in my life of insanity...

(epilogue- Griffin is fine, so I don't think it was the poison kind)

Adjusting

Griffin is what I like to call an aggressive cuddler. He is 70 pounds of enthusiasm and is eager to share his love with every person he meets. Given the opportunity, he will head-butt and wiggle his way onto your lap, slobber soaking your shirt or pants (or both), and smash his face into your face. He doesn't know how big and strong he is and just wants to be cuddled like a baby.

Unfortunately not everyone appreciates aggressive cuddling. Two of my staff have arrived to camp and Griffin and Olivia are re-adjusting. Olivia has been screeching for about 24 hours now- I'm not sure what her problem is exactly, I think she is trying to make sure she is still the center of attention. I'm hoping that she calms down soon.

Meanwhile, Griffin is thrilled to have more people to love. He's being as charming as a dirty, smelly, slobbery, hairy, 70 pound bulldog can be, but Program Director Paul still hasn't quite warmed to Griffin's intense love. I hope that Griffin calms down and gets used to everyone soon. As I type this, he is sitting on Paul's feet. He has gradually been inching closer to him all evening, gazing up adoringly, whimpering and trying to climb onto his lap whenever Paul appears to not be looking.

It's going to be a long summer if Griffin can't learn about personal space...

Bones!

I buy the dogs frozen bones from a ritzy spoiled pet boutique near my house. Bones cost $3.50 apiece and even though I know it is ridiculous, I buy them. Bones are a nice treat and also a great distraction when I have to get something done and want to keep them occupied. The frozen kind are great because they last forever, don't chip or splinter and don't get soft and lodge in their throats. 

The problem  is that there are no fancy pet supply stores in  northern Minnesota, I have to stock up at home and try to make them last all summer.

But last week I was at the grocery store and it occurred to me that there are farms everywhere and those fancy frozen bones were once part of a cow. I described what I was looking for and the butcher told me he'd check with the farmer and get back to me. He called me back a few days later to let me know that it would be .72 cents per pound. For a fraction of the cost I regularly spend, I walked away with 35 pounds of bones.

After four years of criticizing this small town and lamenting all of the things it doesn't have, it might have just won me over...

Industrial size pan of frozen bones for the babies...

Whirlwind Weeks

"WHY aren't we in the woods?!"

 Last weekend I left camp for an 8 hour journey south to Iowa for a visit with my best friend. It was good to escape the woods for a few days although, I have to admit that I missed the puppies almost immediately. While I was gone, they spent some quality time with their Grandpi.

After the weekend, I had to stay at home for the week to take care of all of the final pre-summer things I need to do before officially moving to camp (even though I've already been here for almost 2 months). But I couldn't be without my babies for a whole week, so on Sunday, my dad made a special trip down to drop them off at home.

After 4 days apart, it was good to go back to waking up
to this face!

Our plan was to meet at 2:30. At 1pm, he called to ask where I was (on the road). Apparently they were up by 5am each morning demanding breakfast, refused to get off the couch for most of the weekend and absolutely wouldn't cooperate on the multiple walk attempts, and by Sunday, Grandpi was ready to be puppy-free.

"How sad do we have to look before we can return to camp?"

Monday-Thursday, Olivia, Griffin and I went back to pre-camp schedule. I had to go to my office or run errands most of the day and so they had to be inside, on their own. They didn't get to run free, play nonstop, have constant attention and they were NOT happy about the return to city life. They spent most of the week looking sad and staring at the car as if to ask when they could go back.

On Thursday, when I loaded up the car, they eagerly rushed to the gate and attempted to squeeze their little bodies out. Twenty trips out to the car later, we were all exhausted, but they leaped and bounced when I finally let them out of the yard to the car. When we arrived back at camp we immediately headed out to the field to play with the ball, ran through the yard, jumped in the pool and joyfully basked in the glory of life in the woods.

Olivia "helping" as I painted my spare room

On Friday, camp welcomed almost 70 volunteers for the annual work weekend. Olivia and Griffin greeted guests enthusiastically, monitored with great interest many of the projects, soaked in the attention from all of the people and followed me back and forth across camp all day long.

Olivia climbed up there on her own.
Griffin was pretty unhappy he couldn't get up with her.

The past two weeks have been busy, but with summer around the corner, we are getting even busier each day.