Bittersweet Camping to Start 2020

It’s bittersweet camping to start 2020.

Tammy and I got our first White Shepherd 25 years ago. The kids were young and our daughter Jennifer said that our new house was perfect for a dog.

Shana was a rescue and seven months old when we adopted her. As Tammy says “She was the dog that all other dogs are measured against”. She was everything a dog could be and more. Shana was smart, sensitive, obedient, and loving. She lived to be almost 14 years old.

When Shana was around 7 years old we adopted our second puppy. Kaela was a 12 week old lab/shepherd mix that came from the Door County Humane Society in Wisconsin. Kaela was an adorable puppy, but had her challenges from the start with Urinary Tract Infections that greatly impeded her potty training. On Trash pick-up days I would look at her and say “You are so lucky you are cute, otherwise you would be on the curb”. Kaela was a lot different than Shana but a wonderful dog.

Shana was not thrilled with our adoption of Kaela. She was used to being the only dog in our family. However, it only took a few days and they were joined at the hip. Kaela adored Shana as a surrogate mother. Six years later Shana passed away and Kaela sunk into a deep depression. Kaela needed another sister to make her happy.

Shortly after Shana passed away we found a white shepherd breeder in Illinois and brought home Hannah, a ten week old puppy. The minute we came through the door with Hannah, Kaela was in heaven. Her attitude completely changed and it was a mutual love fest.

Hannah adored Kaela and they were inseparable. In fact most of the early pictures of Hannah are her next to Kaela. Where Kaela went, there went Hannah.

Hannah was not Shana, that was apparent from the start. She is more independent and somewhat stubborn. However, she has such a sweet disposition and is so loving that it is really easy to overlook any faults she may have. She is welcoming and kind to anyone that ever visits.

As Kaela got to around ten years old, she really couldn’t quite keep up with a three year old that wanted to play constantly. So one day on the internet, I found a German Shepherd named Kendra. She was being fostered in Indiana. She was 17 months old. We loaded up both girls and drove through a blizzard to do a meet and greet in Indiana. The girls liked Kendra immediately, so we loaded her up and headed home. Kendra was the best thing I ever found on the internet; and I told her that often. Kendra was the most loving dog we ever had. She was the first dog that could reach the bar that Shana had set so long ago. It is impossible to come up with a negative word about her, unless it was her barking; she had quite a voice. When Kendra would bark the Parrot would scream and vice versa.

The three girls were a circus, and Kaela was the ringleader. The other two girls always took their cues from her.

Eventually we all moved to Texas. Kaela passed away in early 2014 going on 14 years old. The other two girls knew something was wrong when she didn’t come home from the vet with me. Over the next few weeks it was an adjustment for all of us.

Fast forward five years. July of 2019, we think Kendra is having a back issue but it turns out to be cancer and she is gone within two days. It’s devastating. We had always thought that she would live to near 14 or longer because she was the healthy dog. In the meantime Hannah was struggling with her own health issues.

Five months later, Hannah, a month after her 13th birthday, passes away. It makes 2019 a very bad year for both our puppies and us.

So what does any of this have to do with camping?

All of our dogs have been avid campers, going back to Shana. They would get completely hyped up when they would see us loading up the camper. They absolutely loved traveling across the county and experiencing new campgrounds. So it’s bittersweet now as we camp without our floor children. It’s been 25 years since we have been without a dog. I’m sure at some point in the near future a puppy will come our way. Hopefully she will meet the bar that Shana set so long ago; but puppies are like kids, they are all different and you love them for who they are not who they can be.

If your camping with your puppies now, enjoy every moment of it, time goes by so fast.