Whose Happiness Matters?

Well, let me just say that I now realize that our lives completely revolve around our fur babies!! Last week we were on vacation -- tried to go camping for a week with the dogs. It did not work well at all. Let me start at a near beginning.

When we got Pru and Neo almost 3 years ago we were a boating family -- we boated every weekend, traveled and spend weekends on the boat. But, neither Pru nor Neo liked the boating, so we stopped and sold our boat.

We then thought we'd go back to camping on weekends. We've tent camped for all 25 years of our lives together, even camped on the boat, so we knew we'd enjoy it. But alas, that plan too was altered. Pru and Neo would not go into the tent. The wind blowing on the awning and the sound of their paws on the flooring scared them, and they wouldn’t go in. So we bought a travel trailer.

At first we thought this plan would work. The three like the trailer - and actually prefer to be in the trailer rather than out by the fire! Brin (not two years old yet) has always been fond of being where ever we are, so camping is fine with her. But Neo and Pru just do not like it. They are nervous the entire time -- have those worry wrinkles on their foreheads. Neither of them relaxes the entire time we are away. Pru cries to go into the camper; she’s quite happy in there as long as she can see where we are. Neo is on constant alert – guarding every leaf that falls and every sound that echoes through the woods.

This past week we gave the experience one last try. We set out for a week long camping trip around Indiana. We hoped that the longer time frame would allow the dogs to become more comfortable with the experience. Nope!! On day two, Brin began limping after our first hike (so we knew that hiking was out of the picture), Pru begged constantly to stay in the camper and Neo, well, he simply growled at everything. So, we took them home. We then went ahead with our camping for the rest of the week. Both Himself and I were miserable without our dogs. The guilt of leaving them at home (they had our youngest son to care for them, but he isn’t us, you know?!) was more overpowering than the experiences we were having.

After much thought we have decided to sell the camper and find another activity that we can all enjoy – humans and K9s alike. Strangely to others, we are very pleased with our decision. We love spending time with the dogs – quality time when we are all relaxed and all having fun. Some say this is too great a sacrifice. We say, no – this is simply a choice – whose happiness do we value? Our own and theirs is the answer. We were not happy without them, and they were not happy camping. The decision seems logical to us.

We choose everyone’s happiness!! Don’t you just love win win situations!!!