The good things about a dog

I mean, there are many good things about having a dog- and this one in particular. But, this morning I found myself realizing two of them. They have come to mind a couple of times since bringing her into our family, but this morning for some reason, they were really in my mind! They are really about the dog and where we live. It is just nice to have a dog while living in a condo complex. For these two reasons.

The first is a no brainer- when you live in a regular house, in a regular community, when the dog poops you pick it up, carry it back to your house and put it in the garbage until garbage day. That adds up to a lot of, well poop! This morning, after picking up poop, I sealed the bag, turned the corner and tossed it into one of the many dumpsters around the complex. That had me thinking for a bit. Since bringing Sugar home, I think the longest I have carried the bag is maybe a minute. There is always a dumpster around. Picking up the poop doesn't really bother me, it has always been the thought of carrying a bag of your dogs poop. They must think that they are a higher being- I mean, after we use the bathroom, no one bends over, picks it up and then carries it around for us! But, not having to carry it far is great!

Then, this morning as I walked around, I got this feeling. A feeling that I knew from my past. Last night it rained. So, this morning, things were fresh, a bit wet. It was warming up, but still a little chilly. It really reminded me of waking up in the morning while we were camping as kids. Coming out of the trailer to fresh, sort of wet nature. And where we live, there are many houses (campers), some still sleeping, and some people up and getting ready for the day. There is also many walking paths, and green grass. So, walking around here reminded me of walking around a camp site.

We camped a lot when we were growing up. We had a trailer and would go to many places, mainly in BC and Alberta. So, we were in the mountains, the days started out just like this one- a bit chilly and fresh, and turned out to be beautiful. We used to have so much fun camping, and many of my childhood memories are while camping. Including my brother burning his head the summer he just had to have a buzz cut! Feeding a family friends little boy chocolate marshmallows- he was a mess! Riding our bikes down a HUGE hill into our campsites at the bottom- and a friend running into a tree! Roasting marshmallows, hot dogs and pretty much anything we could on the fire! Staying up late staring at stars, playing the story game, while wrapped in a blanket around the fire. waking up early to the smell of the toast cooking on that funny toaster thing! And spending quality time with family.

Things in life have changed, but I remember many great times with my mom and dad, and my grandma. Oh- I guess Ryan too! We usually camped with the same people as well, so these memories included them!

It was such a beautiful morning, a kind of morning that I would have missed before we got the dog! So, thanks Sugar for bringing back some amazing memories for me!