The campfire was burning down to just a few embers. All the pups were settling in for the night under the porch of the old place Felix had chosen for their campsite. Little Tito had nervously asked Floppy Joe if he could please bunk up with him. Floppy Joe was actually glad to have someone close by. All this talk of rats, hogs and rabbits, although the rabbits didn’t sound too bad, had made Flop a little anxious. Floppy had heard all the fun stuff that happens at camp, like eating smores, peanut butter and pig ears. He wasn’t prepared for an actual encounter with a wild hog! Or certainly not a rat! Egads! As Flop was saying his prayers, Tito whispered, “can you say a few prayers for me too Floppy?” Flop was happy to include little Tito. It’s always a privilege to pray for friends.

A new day brings sunlight and promise of great things ahead. Tito was the first one up and nudging all the others to get going. Tito ran to Felix and asked, “Felix, where are we going today? What’s for breakfast?” About that time 3 tiny rabbits went racing between Felix and Tito from the tunnels. Tito gave chase and almost caught one of those tiny rabbits before they disappeared back into their little tunnel. Felix cautioned Tito about chasing those rabbits because he knew those adult rabbits could get very mean while protecting their babies. Felix told Tito; those rabbits will box your ears and may even bite you. Tito thought, geez and I just thought there were Easter bunnies out here. Felix told Tito to go and call all the pups together so they could get the day started.

With all the pups now assembled Felix laid out the plan for today. Thank goodness there was enough left over pizza crusts for all the pups to have breakfast. Dallas made certain to pack lots of pig ears in her trunk so they could munch on those along the way today. In the old days we might have had lots of left over rat meatloaf for sandwiches but since Lacy the cat doesn’t come with us any more we don’t exactly have a good rat catcher. We were all shocked to learn that Lacy doesn’t even have a taste for rat. She just liked to catch them and bring them for our favorite rat meatloaf. Ah, the good ole days. Tito is looking a little green at the mention of rat meatloaf and is thanking his lucky stars he wasn’t on that summer campout!

So it appears the kids at camp today will be busing over to nearby Indian Springs so Felix thought it would be a perfect day to swim and jump on the world-famous-blob! We only had one opportunity to do that before since the kids are rarely gone from camp for a little while. I can’t wait to see the new pups reaction to that huge rubber blow-up. You jump on the blob then the next guy jumps and propels you high into the water. We’ll send Tito and Floppy Joe first since they’ve never seen the blob and don’t know how it works. Off we go. Looks like we’ll get to experience much of the camp today since it’s pretty empty for a few hours. So Tito jumps out onto the blob first at my urging. I agree to jump out with him. Then Bear plunges onto the blob. Geez, poor little Tito is so high into the air I hope he comes back down.  Tito finally lands in the water so I jump in next to him and tell him where we swim to get out. Tito loved it!!! Next up on the blob is Floppy Joe with Felix to follow to bounce him off. All the pups have their turn. It’s one of the most fun things at camp. Next we decided to try that water sock. It’s my first time to do that because the camp is rarely empty of kids. Floppy loved this one since he’s virtually a water bug. Meanwhile I look over to see where Willow and Hank have ventured off to. After looking everywhere I see them climbing the tower where the kids rappel out over the water. I should have known those climbing dogs would find that big tower. Merciful sakes alive. How in the world will we get them back down? They can’t rappel and it’s too high for them to jump. I think it will be best to send both Felix and Bear to guide them down. Bear leads the way. It takes them a little while to catch up with Hank and Willow who by now have reached the high platform. They are terrified when they look down. Willow is so nervous she just wants to jump but Hank, Bear and Felix stand in front of her so she won’t jump off. Bear tells Willow he will slowly start down the stairs and that she is to follow him. Hank will follow Willow and Felix will be at the back of their slow procession down the stairs. When they finally get to the bottom poor Willow is literally sick. She feels terrible she has caused so much commotion and trouble. Felix assures Willow that we have all made mistakes and the best thing we can do is learn from those mistakes and try to make good choices next time. At camp everybody is somebody. And we all take care of one another. Think before you act! What looks like fun might actually be very dangerous. That tower is for kids, not dogs. So off they go to join the other pups that are still enjoying all the water activity. It’s hot and water is the place to be. Let’s all swim across to the little place on the other side of the lake. Thankfully they are all good swimmers.

It’s been such a fun day so far. We find a shady place to all lay down for a nap. Dogs like to sleep a lot you know. Soon all the snoring is rattling the leaves in the trees it seems. Or maybe that’s just all the circadias making that noise. Nothing like a summer day when all is quiet and just listening to all the sounds nature provides. It’s like music to my ears.

Whelp it’s been a busy day but we need to find our way back to camp before dark because we swam across and don’t exactly know the way home. And we have no food with us either. We slept a little longer that we planned to sleep.

Felix decided we should follow a trail along the waters edge, which I totally agreed would be a good choice. Come on pups, let’s hit the trail.