We would arrive at our camp and our two Lab Mix mutts would jump from the truck and take off running. Rachel would take about 20 steps then a giant leap into our smaller pond then return to shake it all off on our camps front porch while we were carrying provision in.
Reggie wouldn’t leap into the pond, but he would start his routine of sniffing out all of his favorite spots to see if someone had stopped by while he was out. Both of our pups just loved camp and they would watch us during the week to see the signs of us going to camp. They would watch for us to touch the cooler or possibly put on the hiking shoes, touch the truck keys, water jugs, bins, or what ever else we touched before going to camp. The word “CAMP” could’t be used in a sentence without a burst of excitement by both dogs. If I ever uttered “Do you want to go to Camp?”, all hell would break loose.
I heard from a local gun club member that the NYS government was in with the insurance companies to cut down on the deer population. NYS released coyotes in the area to eat the fawns and thus cut down on the car/deer accidents. This sounded really stupid, but some hunters didn’t get their deer so it may have seemed logical to some of them. I tried to keep from laughing at such a ridiculous theory, but it all seemed somewhat harmless and I didn’t put much more thought into it. I figured these guys would be out gunning to get the coyotees.
That spring we went to camp just after the snow thawed and we noted that there was a deer carcass in the woods. The animals had dragged it around and it was mostly eaten except for the skin and some bones. I wasn’t sure if Reggie and Rachel had messed with it, but they are dogs and dogs would be pleased with such a find.
Later that day Rachel coughed up little green chunks in the cabin, but I made an assumption that it was the Greenies that I gave her earlier. Something must have upset her stomach and she seemed OK later so we didn’t make anything more out of it.
We went on our Spring Vacation in North Carolina for a week and put the dogs up at a local kennel. Upon returning we were told by the kennel that Rachel had a toenail that was bleeding and they had a lot of problems stopping it. We were a little upset since they obviously cut the toenail too short and caused the problem. We were able to get it to stop so everything was OK and the dogs seemed happy to have us back.
That following weekend we went back to camp and Rachel and Reggie did their routines, but Rachel just seemed a little bit off her game. Our neighbor asked if she was OK, she seemed to stop and squat quite a bit. We said we noticed that too, but it was probably nothing. That evening Rachel got really sick. We contacted our vet and they took her in for the night for tests. She was dead by morning. She had been poisioned.
We went back over the past three weeks and realized that someone had most likely planted rat poison on the deer carcass for the coyotes, but it looks like it only killed our dog. Reggie was taken back to the vets for tests, but he checked out OK. I asked the DEC to check out the property, but they didn’t see anything suspicious. The evidiences was gone and so was our dog. The fact of the matter was poisoning dead deer to kill coyotees just doesn’t work. The coyotees prefer fresh kills and don’t scavange like dogs. It is also wrong and illegal as hell.
My wife and I were a couple of basket cases over the ordeal and Reggie really missed Rachel. We buried Rachel near the pond she loved so well, right about on the spot where she launched her big dive into the pond.
Reggie was really depressed and didn’t move around much. We knew we had to find him a new companion to keep him from getting lonely. We took him along to various shelters to check out the available strays. Reggie wasn’t happy with most of our choices, but we finally found a female in the shelter in Bradford PA that he seemed to totally ignore. We took them for a walk and they would sniff the same spots and they acted like they had known each other for years. It almost made us belive we found another Rachel.
We took her home and we named her Trixie. Reggie loved her and they played and played.
If you ever read Stephen King’s, “Pet Cemetery” you’ll remember how they would try to bring back their dead pets, but these revived pets were just not quite right. Well it seems like we had run into the same problems trying to bring back Rachael.
Rachel stayed close to us at camp and loved to chase dragon flies. Rachel was good in the house and was well trained. She loved to ride in the truck with passion. She would actually try to chase cars from inside the truck and she would bark the whole way to camp.
Trixie on the other had ran off and got lost. She did like the pond, but that was about it. She rode quietly in the trucck and she couldn’t be left alone in the house. She had to chew something (shoe, book, paper) and we had to start crating her. The other big problem is she gets lost big time. She wandered off about four times at camp and we’ve decided to keep her leashed. The last time she got lost it was for three days and she ended up at a shelter 10 miles from camp.
We love Trixie and we know she isn’t Rachel. Rachael is gone and there will never be another one. She was special. Trixie isn’t Rachel, but she is Reggies friend. We are sad that she isn’t more like Rachel, but we should have remembered “Pet Cemetery” and realized any attempt to bring Rachael back would probably go quite wrong. It looks like it has, but we’ll try to make the best of it.
We’re trying to get over the bad feelings of Rachels death, most likely caused by poisioning at camp. We fear a repeat of the poisoning so we walk the area frequently looking for suspicious things. Our feeling of camp may never be the same thanks to some idiot who believes putting out poisoned carcasses will help him get a deer next winter.
Two weeks ago we heard the coyottes howling in the evening. They seem to be doing just fine.
