Tell me YOUR favorite camping story with your pup!!

First Camping Trip of the Season

We had our first camping trip of the season last week!  I was hoping Chach had gotten over his fear of riding in the jeep over the winter, but as soon as the wheels started turning, the whining commenced. Don't know when he is going to outgrow this but it is getting old. Of course, as soon as his little feet touched ground again...he was happy dog.                              

Another thing he hasn't gotten over is his fear of the campfire. He loves the warmth, but doesn't want to be too close . He wants to admire it from afar staying true to his Barney Fife personality.

 

 

Here he is enjoying the pier... was a little hesitant at first because the wood was swaying under his feet..but he got used to it. I put his feet in the lake, and made him get his feet wet. I tried to get a pic, but he was having none of it!

Gazing out at the vast expanse of water. I wonder what goes on in his little doggy brain?
                                            
                                                                      

And... a happy smiling Chach with his bud "Baby Milo", who belongs to my son and his girlfriend. Chach and Baby Milo had a blast just chasing each other all around the campsite that morning. This is one of the rare times when they were actually being still.

 

And the old saying, "a good pup, is a tired pup".

    I think the picture speaks for itself...    

                                             

Here he is soon after we brought him home. It was still cold, so we bought him this new shirt. He didn't realize I was taking a picture, so this one turned out good.

And on a walk in the spring. I thought I would get a nice picture of him on this particular day, but no he was having none of it. I had to grab his head and take the picture. Notice he refuses to open his eyes...like I said, the camera is "of the devil".

Here we are in this pic, trying to teach him the art of staying, when he is told to stay. LOL While he does look like a frozen statue here...he actually did pretty well!

  How best describe Chachis personality?...It would best be described as the "Barney Fife" type. He is very brave as long as he is.... in my arms, behind my leg, in the fence barking at a dog across the fence, in the house barking at a dog across the road, but when actually confronted by anything...his strategy is to RUUUUUN!!

Here is a prime example of Chachi, aka Barney Fife.
We have a fenced in back yard and Chach is always barking at the neighbors dog Brownie. Every time he sees Brownie, he will run to the door, and bark, so I let him out and he runs across the yard to the fence like a hyena, gets in his bulldog barking stance, which is a sight to behold... and barks like he is gonna tear Brownie up. Brownie usually looks at him, and then saunters off, like he is the dumbest thing she has ever seen.

Well one day, we were out back and I saw Brownie in the front yard. I thought I would go around and see her and introduce Chach to her. She is a super friendly dog and will give you doggy kisses upon greeting. So I go around front with Chach following, but he was meandering along the way, and didn't really see her. Brownie comes over and lets me pet her and she is doing the whole wiggle butt thing...then she sees Chach and Chach sees her. Chach has got that whole deer in the headlights look going on. You can tell Brownie is happy to see him, but....when she starts walking toward him, he has this panic stricken look on his face, he then tucks his tail between his legs and starts running like the hounds of hell are after him, simultaneously making squealing sounds like I have NEVER heard come out of his mouth before. At first I thought maybe she had reached him, and was tearing his leg off. But no....she had stopped, and he was racing toward the backyard fence, squealing like a girly man the whole way. He reached the gate, which was closed at the time, and managed to squeeze himself in between the two inch gap, and on through the fence to save himself from vicious, wiggle butt Brownie. I laughed till I cried...

 Once we brought him home, he seemed to know it was his home too...although he had a worried little look on his face for the first month. His brow would wrinkle like he was seriously thinking and evaluating things. Eventually, it left. I guess he decided there was nothing to worry about, or he grew into his face. Who knows...but it disappeared.
 I thought our cat Bean would be a problem, but she seemed to kinda like him too. Eventually she started grooming him, like he was her kitten.

Her standards of cleanliness are obviously higher than his, so he gets a good grooming every day, and  he tolerates it very well.

These two pictures, are actually good ones of him. He isn't fond of the camera. Whenever I get one out, he turns his head and refuses to look at it like its gonna steal his soul.

I got a response a week later! My husband was totally shocked. To tell you the truth, I couldn't believe it either. I told him, it was meant to be. This is the one the Lord picked out for us. She said she would meet us the in a couple of days, which happened to be Black Friday, after Thanksgiving, at 7pm in a Petfood parking lot. Clandestine meeting... I was hoping it wasn't an omen. In the meantime she had mentioned she had a female rat terrier, but I had already fallen in love with the cute little brown nosed Chi. Clearly he was the looker out of the bunch.
The pick up day/night came with much anticipation. We got there first, and it was dark and cold that night. We waited and then she pulled up and got out with my soon to be, little Chachi. I melted...I told my husband, he was the cutest dog I had ever seen in my entire life...and he was.  He was trying to climb up on the Chihuahua ladys head when she was carrying him. He was cold! The Chihuahua lady told me they were having a sale on little dog sweaters, to go in Target next door and get him one. We made the switch in the parking lot, with him trying to climb on my head and both parties were happy, happy, happy. I went in Target to get him his sweater, while the hubster babysat. Luckily I had brought a fleece blanket to wrap him in. When I got back in the car, I noticed there was an older couple next to our car that were really smiling and just looking over at us. The man motioned for me to roll down the window, which I did. He asked me where I had gotten that Chihuahua. He and the older lady both gushed over him, and then told me they had just lost one they had had for years. They gave us their blessings and told us they thought we would be good parents for him, and went on their way.

This is Chach the first night we brought him home. After we got home and inspected him, we realized he had two little light colored wings on his shoulder blades. Further proof he was a gift from God...an angel pup.

I  quickly realized I needed to change strategies. My newest was to show him every cute dog on Petfinder and Craigslist that I could find. I would spend hours on there and fell in love with every dog I saw. I soon found out this strategy seems to have had more effect on me, than him.... Nada. I just started praying, "Lord change his mind".
In the mean time I had started going through our local want ads and found an adorable pup on there. It had the cutest little brown nose, and the sweetest little face... but it was a Chihuahua. I was NEVER a fan. They were mean...plus my brother had a chihuahua, which was horrid...sorry Chris. Will add she was cute...but, don't let that innocent face suck you in... It was like she was hatched straight from the pits of hell. She was about as friendly as a rattlesnake. I renamed her "El Diablo". If you are rusty on your spanish, that means the devil... which fit her perfectly.

Back to the classified ad. This is what I saw.  I kinda fell in love. He WAS a Chihuahua, but dang it....he was irresistible.  He was $250. That would be a problem. Hubby had already stated he didn't want to spend money on a dog. So I quickly stated scheming again. And....I got it. You see, I had a stroke of luck back in the fall and had won an entire Wii gaming system, game and fitness board. It retailed for....you guessed it, $250 dollars. I didn't use it. It was close to Christmas. I thought hmmmm....maybe the seller would consider a barter? I fired out an email....no response. In the meantime I had told the hubster about it. He said, "Jules, thats dumb, no one is gonna do that". Then, he throws me a bone, and tells me, he had prayed about it. He asked the Lord to send me a dog if it was meant to be.