Our ward camp out was last weekend and for the most part we enjoyed some time away out of the heat and in good company. We stayed at our usual spot Pivot Rock and actually arrived at camp before it was dark! That in and of itself was a miracle! Ron grilled some really yummy hamburgers for dinner, I'm still drooling over them. Of course I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked but we did have a lot of fun. On the drive up we even spotted a large deer (pictured below) and a mommy Elk with her 3 babies. Super cute and definitely earned a couple U-turns on the highway for a better look. Mason got to bring a friend on this camping trip. They were so proud of the shelter they created and slept in! (Of course I didn't get a picture of that either!) Xavier is a good friend of Mason's and we were happy to have him along. Mason even got to pass off some scouting stuff because his scout leaders were both there. Our ward has a small primary but a surplus of girls! All the girls were so cute and played really well on this camp out.
Ron and I did our usual hang out by the campfire until about 1:30am. That's probably my favorite part of camping.
Saturday morning we decided to take the short cut to the cave hike so we drove to the top and parked the cars. The plan was to hike down to the cave (probably only about .3 mile to the cave at this point) then do some exploring and hike back out. When we arrived at the top or the "parking area" I noticed another truck there that I didn't recognize from our ward. The man at the truck was getting a large German Shepard dog out of the back. I didn't really think anything of it. One of our friends in the ward looked a little concerned and asked us if we had a leash for Goofy. I actually didn't but we fashioned a rope to him to use for the hike. As we got started on the hike I realized the man in the truck was a relative of one of our friends in the ward. Still not thinking much of it we started our decent. Our group was fairly large so we were spread out along the trail. During the hike at various times I was switching from helping with toddlers and holding Goofy. Little children LOVE walking Goofy so when they asked I of course said yes. At one point I had April on my shoulders and another toddler by the hand while chatting with my friends. Out of nowhere I heard a horrible wailing crying whining noise way in front of me. It was loud and lasted a long time and it was AWFUL! I had no idea what it was, for a second I thought it was kids being loud and obnoxious or maybe it was some weird animal on the trail ahead. It seemed to last quite a while and suddenly I panicked when I realized it was Goofy!!! I ran to the front and could see Ron walking towards me carrying Goofy (who was still wailing/crying). Ron looked calm but uneasy and had some blood smeared on his arms. As we started back towards the car my stomach lurched when I got a clear shot of Goofy's neck. He had a vertical gash that was oozing and swollen right under his chin measuring about 1.5 inches long. Ron later told me that he was worried he was going to have to put Goofy out of his misery, I worried the whole drive home that Goofy was going to die in our car and all my kids would witness it. We got back to the car wrapped Goofy's neck up and headed back to finish packing up camp and get home to help Goofy. The recap of the horendous incident: Goofy was being led towards the front of the hiking group where the mean dog was. Usually Goofy is super friendly and playful with other dogs so in my mind I thought maybe the attack happened because Goofy approached the other dog and startled it. NOPE. Ron said that Goofy was walking behind the dog and when he was just with in reach the dog made a quick U-turn and latched on Goofy's neck and then proceeded to viciously whip him around like a rag doll. The owner of the mean dog tried to get his dog off (shocking him and pulling) but it wasn't fast enough. Poor Goofy had been badly hurt. Later I found out that this particular dog has a history of abuse towards other animals and has even killed another dog before (in his own home!) I don't understand why someone would have a pet like this to begin with. Why would they also allow this type of uncontrolled violent anger around children and other pets? I was given no warning of this animals tendencies and the owner has made no attempt to contact me (they have my information) and didn't say a word to us when the incident occurred. I don't care about the money I have spent to help my super sweet dog. It's not about that. I really hope that this horrible troubled dog doesn't continue to hurt other animals. I have asked myself a dozen times this weekend "What would Christ do? How would he handle this?" I know we should let things go and forgive. But it's hard when I witness daily the pain my little sweet Goofy is in.
He 's the most perfect dog in the world and I'm so thankful he seems to be healing well. Time will tell. For now he's all sutured up with a drain placed to help with inflammation and is sentenced to low activity for a couple weeks.
The hike:
