The Dogs of Here
In most campgrounds, dogs must be leashed at all times and you must pick up after them. I’ve even heard of one campground where if you dog pees in the wrong place, the manager calls the sheriff. At Hart Ranch, dog owners are in the Pet Ghetto. Well, really it is nearly half of the place and just as nice, but there are signs everywhere stopping you from even carrying your pet into the non-pet area. Kind of reminds me of segregated drinking fountains. And of course, if you don’t pick up the poop, there will be dire consequences.
Many campgrounds will not allow you to bring any dogs or other pets, others discriminate against Dobermans, Rottweillers and Pit Bulls since those breeds have been deemed too dangerous by the insurance companies.
Here in Spring Branch TX by the banks of the Guadeloupe River, all dogs are welcome, and none of them are tied up or leashed. Dog heaven. This means you have to be very careful where you step. It also means that the dogs lead their own parallel lives.
The Owner has three dogs, well two and a part timer. The avuncular chocolate lab is Ajax, he is pleasant to all. For some reason our dog, Pepe, dislikes him, but I don’t know why, he is a nice dog. Max is an older golden retriever and smiles all the time. He has bad hips, and is a bit overweight, but is also a nice dog. The younger dogs sometimes gang up on him since he can’t move fast enough. The part timer dog is a nice young blond lab, Pam, that just turned up and has been adopted, partly by the Eye Lady and partly by the Owner. She is bumptious and friendly, but is a notorious thief of shoes, cleaning rags and any thing else soft and portable. The Eye Lady also has a very pleasant boxer named Precious. Precious likes to sit on top of picnic tables and takes seriously her job of keeping an eye on the place. She doesn’t keep enough of an eye on her owner however. (update, she can see pretty well out of her damaged eye but is still doing a complicated and emotionally fraught dance with the medical profession. She has recovered enough to do her one job, picking up dog poop. At least she did it once).
In cabin two lives Niles, black and Irish setterish. His full name is Denial, as in what dog? Where? His owners are a new version of the Downontheirlucks. She has a blue- collar New England accent and laser lungs, so we hear every word she says to Niles. “Now you listen to me, I’m talkin’ to you, you need to get over here right now. How many times do I have to tell you to stay here and listen to me and not wander over there Niles I’m talkin’ to you, don’t make me come over there, you get over here right now or you are going inside”. Niles, who carries his feathery tail at a jaunty angle over his back pays no attention whatsoever to all this. Niles is not fixed, so he is less liked by the other dogs, and he isn’t very good at whose territory is whose. Two days ago, according to The Eye Lady, some kids stole Niles, she called the Sheriff immediately ( probably #1 on her speed dial) and the dog was recovered. I can’t tell if the dog really was stolen, but his mother is keeping him on a pretty short string after that.
In the Lodge, the exotic dancer has a very noisy and aggressive Doberman named Louis. He usually is inside, but had a round of diarrhea and was chained outside and parked non stop for 36 hours. He now wears a bark collar, and never runs loose. Hard to tell if he is vicious or just dying of boredom. The dancer also has a little blond lab named Buddy who is shy, but coming out of his shell under the watchful eye of the rest of the crew, especially Pam, who could easily be his older sister. The dancer also had a young enthusiastic shorthaired pointer puppy named Cletus. He is ridiculously friendly and goes everywhere at a gallop. I use the past tense because I don’t think he is still here, don’t know why.
The Construction guy in #11 has Boudreau aka Bonehead, an uncut male blond lab, which makes three all told. Boudreau plays a little rough, and the only one who likes him is Pepe, oddly enough. The two of them wrestle and growl at each other for hours.
The other workampers have a small white elderly one-eyed mop dog named Neesia Marie. That’s what her mother calls her when she won’t come. Neesia only comes out for short walks.
Rounding out the cast of beasts is Toby the cat, who is bigger than Neesia and a force to be reckoned with. He is technically a tabby, with white points, but his dark markings are very big and bold. He generally hides from the dogs, since the younger ones like to tumble him if they can, but he scores pretty well when he has to.
The only down side of all these critters is the poop, which is everywhere. You have to walk as if in an occupied cow pasture and pay attention. There is little barking, since most of them run free, and they all come inside for the night. I kind of like having them around, but sometimes my job entails a bit of dog wrangling.
Niles started hanging around the bosses’ trailer and whining, so it was decided that Pam needed to be spayed, and Niles is now on his string anyway to prevent another abduction.
Yesterday new people came to #6, with a dog, uncut male, chocolate lab and who knows what else. He wears a yellow bandana. He went over to Niles and started a hullabaloo, but other than that, he made remarkably little difference, besides one more poop source.
I am beginning to wonder if this place is listed somewhere as Camp Born Free for dogs. People seem to know that they can let them run free as soon as they get here. Or maybe the owner tells them. I think sooner or later it will lead to tears and vet bills.
Where I used to live in MA, there are a number of parks that let you turn your dog loose to run free. They even have “play-dates” where the owners get together to let their dogs socialize. Feeding the inner wolf perhaps. We used to ride our horses there, but it’s not safe anymore. When I went there with an elderly cranky Jack Russell ( oops Parson Russell according to the AKC) terrier, these furry children came running up and he attacked them, while on the leash. There were choruses of “He won’t hurt you, She is friendly” my reply of “Mine’s not” was drowned out by the Jack Russell doing his dragon imitation. I usually got chastised for having a vicious dog, as if I had brought an unruly wolf to a birthday party. I can’t even imagine what would happen if I let loose both the JRT’s my family owns.
Last minute update: the exotic dancer found a pit bull loose on a busy street in San Antonio, and brought her home. Judging by Louis the Doberman’s reaction, she is on one side or the other of being in heat. Pit Bulls are apparently not allowed here per the Owner, but he doesn’t yet know about Scrappy. She is light brown with white points, friendly, non-aggressive but solid muscle, with a wide jaw and a wide stance. In many ways she is scarier just to look at than the Doberman, although he moves like lightening and is edgy. Interesting that our notion of dog runs such a gamut, from virtual stuffed toy through puppy that never matures to lethal weapon.
Many campgrounds will not allow you to bring any dogs or other pets, others discriminate against Dobermans, Rottweillers and Pit Bulls since those breeds have been deemed too dangerous by the insurance companies.
Here in Spring Branch TX by the banks of the Guadeloupe River, all dogs are welcome, and none of them are tied up or leashed. Dog heaven. This means you have to be very careful where you step. It also means that the dogs lead their own parallel lives.
The Owner has three dogs, well two and a part timer. The avuncular chocolate lab is Ajax, he is pleasant to all. For some reason our dog, Pepe, dislikes him, but I don’t know why, he is a nice dog. Max is an older golden retriever and smiles all the time. He has bad hips, and is a bit overweight, but is also a nice dog. The younger dogs sometimes gang up on him since he can’t move fast enough. The part timer dog is a nice young blond lab, Pam, that just turned up and has been adopted, partly by the Eye Lady and partly by the Owner. She is bumptious and friendly, but is a notorious thief of shoes, cleaning rags and any thing else soft and portable. The Eye Lady also has a very pleasant boxer named Precious. Precious likes to sit on top of picnic tables and takes seriously her job of keeping an eye on the place. She doesn’t keep enough of an eye on her owner however. (update, she can see pretty well out of her damaged eye but is still doing a complicated and emotionally fraught dance with the medical profession. She has recovered enough to do her one job, picking up dog poop. At least she did it once).
In cabin two lives Niles, black and Irish setterish. His full name is Denial, as in what dog? Where? His owners are a new version of the Downontheirlucks. She has a blue- collar New England accent and laser lungs, so we hear every word she says to Niles. “Now you listen to me, I’m talkin’ to you, you need to get over here right now. How many times do I have to tell you to stay here and listen to me and not wander over there Niles I’m talkin’ to you, don’t make me come over there, you get over here right now or you are going inside”. Niles, who carries his feathery tail at a jaunty angle over his back pays no attention whatsoever to all this. Niles is not fixed, so he is less liked by the other dogs, and he isn’t very good at whose territory is whose. Two days ago, according to The Eye Lady, some kids stole Niles, she called the Sheriff immediately ( probably #1 on her speed dial) and the dog was recovered. I can’t tell if the dog really was stolen, but his mother is keeping him on a pretty short string after that.
In the Lodge, the exotic dancer has a very noisy and aggressive Doberman named Louis. He usually is inside, but had a round of diarrhea and was chained outside and parked non stop for 36 hours. He now wears a bark collar, and never runs loose. Hard to tell if he is vicious or just dying of boredom. The dancer also has a little blond lab named Buddy who is shy, but coming out of his shell under the watchful eye of the rest of the crew, especially Pam, who could easily be his older sister. The dancer also had a young enthusiastic shorthaired pointer puppy named Cletus. He is ridiculously friendly and goes everywhere at a gallop. I use the past tense because I don’t think he is still here, don’t know why.
The Construction guy in #11 has Boudreau aka Bonehead, an uncut male blond lab, which makes three all told. Boudreau plays a little rough, and the only one who likes him is Pepe, oddly enough. The two of them wrestle and growl at each other for hours.
The other workampers have a small white elderly one-eyed mop dog named Neesia Marie. That’s what her mother calls her when she won’t come. Neesia only comes out for short walks.
Rounding out the cast of beasts is Toby the cat, who is bigger than Neesia and a force to be reckoned with. He is technically a tabby, with white points, but his dark markings are very big and bold. He generally hides from the dogs, since the younger ones like to tumble him if they can, but he scores pretty well when he has to.
The only down side of all these critters is the poop, which is everywhere. You have to walk as if in an occupied cow pasture and pay attention. There is little barking, since most of them run free, and they all come inside for the night. I kind of like having them around, but sometimes my job entails a bit of dog wrangling.
Niles started hanging around the bosses’ trailer and whining, so it was decided that Pam needed to be spayed, and Niles is now on his string anyway to prevent another abduction.
Yesterday new people came to #6, with a dog, uncut male, chocolate lab and who knows what else. He wears a yellow bandana. He went over to Niles and started a hullabaloo, but other than that, he made remarkably little difference, besides one more poop source.
I am beginning to wonder if this place is listed somewhere as Camp Born Free for dogs. People seem to know that they can let them run free as soon as they get here. Or maybe the owner tells them. I think sooner or later it will lead to tears and vet bills.
Where I used to live in MA, there are a number of parks that let you turn your dog loose to run free. They even have “play-dates” where the owners get together to let their dogs socialize. Feeding the inner wolf perhaps. We used to ride our horses there, but it’s not safe anymore. When I went there with an elderly cranky Jack Russell ( oops Parson Russell according to the AKC) terrier, these furry children came running up and he attacked them, while on the leash. There were choruses of “He won’t hurt you, She is friendly” my reply of “Mine’s not” was drowned out by the Jack Russell doing his dragon imitation. I usually got chastised for having a vicious dog, as if I had brought an unruly wolf to a birthday party. I can’t even imagine what would happen if I let loose both the JRT’s my family owns.
Last minute update: the exotic dancer found a pit bull loose on a busy street in San Antonio, and brought her home. Judging by Louis the Doberman’s reaction, she is on one side or the other of being in heat. Pit Bulls are apparently not allowed here per the Owner, but he doesn’t yet know about Scrappy. She is light brown with white points, friendly, non-aggressive but solid muscle, with a wide jaw and a wide stance. In many ways she is scarier just to look at than the Doberman, although he moves like lightening and is edgy. Interesting that our notion of dog runs such a gamut, from virtual stuffed toy through puppy that never matures to lethal weapon.
posted by Thistledown24 at 6:37 PM
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