This is the story of Eva, our sable shepherd puppy’s first camping trip; Eva begins camping!
So the ride was almost non eventful to Tyler state park. The only exception was Eva getting all twisted up in the seat belt and her harness. This required a quick pull over to the side of the road. I better review the instructions again before our next trip!
Two hours later we arrived at the campground. Due to Covid, all registrations are done with a member of the state park staff coming to your vehicle. Eva was not having any of that! She was barking up a storm when the ranger came to the car, and there was no stopping it. Once he left to get our registration, Tammy got in the backseat with Eva, so when he came back she wasn’t quite as bad.
Eva sat pretty patiently in the back seat as we maneuvered the trailer into the site. It’s a good thing no rain was predicted because we had no grass at this site. Once we felt the trailer was in a good spot, Tammy took Eva on her leash to the picnic table. While she had Eva, I unhooked and plugged into the power box.
Once we had power Tammy took Eva in the trailer and started the air conditioner. It was a balmy 96 degrees outside the trailer but at least it was shady. While Tammy set things up inside I leveled the trailer and extended the jacks. Next I hooked up the water.
Once that was all completed I tried to get a signal to the Satellite dish, but there was just too much tree canopy overhead for it to work. So it was an air TV sort of trip – no big deal.
Now the fiasco began. Anytime I took Eva outside, she would bark. She would bark at other people, other animals, and any noise she heard. This would be typical for day 1.
She also would not pee at the campsite. So I took her down to the grassy area by the showers. It was now about 3:00 PM and she hadn’t gone to the bathroom since 11:00 AM. This is not normal behavior for Eva. I started thinking the stress of the trip may have caused her to be dehydrated. She did drink a bottle of water once we arrived at the campsite, and a half bottle later. Every dog we have ever had seemed to be happy to pee like crazy when we would go camping. All the smells and other dogs that obviously frequent the campground tends to encourage it. Hannah couldn’t go three steps without going potty, then another three steps, then another three steps. So Eva was certainly not acting like any other dog we ever took camping.
There was plenty of barking each time we left the trailer, but on one occasion it was for a good reason. We had a huge Raccoon in our campsite, and she was letting me know. This Raccoon was not afraid of Eva or me. It found something to eat and it wasn’t leaving. I put Eva back in the trailer and started cooking dinner while keeping an eye on the trespasser.
After dinner I thought maybe we could get Eva to relieve herself but after numerous trips we had no success. I told Tammy that the trip would be over the next morning if she didn’t go by then. The last thing I wanted to worry about was Eva getting a UTI. So as the day came to a close, Eva ate her dinner, and continued to refuse to do potty of any sort. We closed out the night with Eva in her crate and us in the bedroom. She showed no signs of any discomfort, and complained very little about being separated from us.
I woke up often during the night wondering how Eva was doing; but all was quiet with the exception of the air conditioner kicking on and off.
To follow this trip from the beginning click here.
To go to day 2 of this trip click here.
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