He Can't Go Camping Alone!!!
We love the dogs boarding at Harmony Farm Kennel And Lamb, close to Kamloops BC and we are inspired by the children some dogs are devoted to also!
One beautiful summer day a family van drove up to drop off a dog for a kennel vacation. The gal opened the back hatch and a very robust Chesepeake politely hopped out. Not real eager to leave the van the dog sniffed around and stopped for seconds at a time to smell the air, sessing up the location. The nice lady excused a child's bawling, as she went to console the little girl in the back seat. There she was, strapped into her kiddy seat, huge round watery blue eyes just weeping. Big alligator tears rolled down her pink butter soft cheeks, as soaking wet lockes of blonde hung in disarray around her face. As her Mom attempted to console the little girl she said reassuring things like...” It's ok darling, Lanny is just going on a doggy vacation, like camping, you love camping, we talked about this, he'll be fine, it won't be for long, it's ok. He'll have fun and this lady will take good care of him while we are on our holiday...he's going to summer camp, that's all...” The little girl wept even louder.
Not buying any of it, she looked up, wiped back her wet hair, piped up some courageous volume and yelled through her heart wrenched tears, “Lanny can't go camping all alone!!! He'll be all by 'iself and he can't be all alone camping, Lanny needs me! We can't leave Lanny all alone, we just can't...”.
Gosh my own eyes swelled as she wailed. Just then the dog sauntered over to the van, slowly stepped up to the little beauty and started to gentley lick away her tears. A pit of emotion came up in my throat as I witnessed true love. The beautiful little girl wrapped herself around her dog and then as if turning a page, promptly sat up in her jumper seat and gathered herself as the dog stepped down. Those big swollen wet eyes looked up to her Mom and quietly spoke, “Ok, Lanny says we can go. He's gonna' miss me but he says he'll be ok”...almost choking on her words she added, “Lanny says we can go now Momma.” I looked at the Mom with my own wet eyes, and shaking my head hearing the shift, I spoke, “Wow, she's an old soul. How beautiful.” Mom gave me a big hug and with a smile said, “Yes, we all love Lanny, but he lives only for her.”
Lanny was an awesome dog to care for but he was truly depressed for the first 2 days, no doubt about it. No matter how we tried to lighten his spirit he just moped. He walked listlessly on his hikes, head and tail carried low. His eyes drooped with heartfelt sadness that put tears in my own eyes each time I saw his face. When in his yard he placed himself at the furthermost corner sitting, starring down the driveway. Gerry came in that first night and said, “Lanny is eating and taking care of everything but that dog misses his kids something terrible.” Morning of day 3 not much had shifted for Lanny so I went to him after breakfast, layed down next to him and had a 'sit down visit' with Mr. Lanny. I spoke to him softly but confidently, giving him extra big hugs telling him, in my own way, that his little girl was just fine and they would be back soon, and how many moons it would be til they would be back together again. I told him he needed to let her enjoy her vacation and not to worry or pout and everything was AOkay. At one point he looked directly into my eyes, long and hard, as if to check my sincerity. That very afternoon Lanny greeted me for a walk with his tail was up! He trotted alongside me, hopped the first log on the trail and happily, I was relieved to see he had shifted. Amazing dog, inspiring connection - I couldn't wait to see his reunion with that beautiful little blonde!
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