Camping with animals

Silly if you thought this entry is about bringing a dog camping. We're a 4H family and we just got back from a weekend of camping with a large group of 4Hers. That means animal options are much more varied than your average dog, or cat.

We traveled to our camping adventure (Maine 4H Days at Windsor Fairgrounds) with a chicken in a cat carrier. L. talked me in to this because she really wanted to take classes being offered on how to show poultry at the fair.

A couple of the younger kids in our group took a rabbit fiber class and each came back to the campsite with an actual rabbit afterward, which was not anticipated by any of the parents. Even though both of the kids' families had a rabbit at home, the logistics of purchasing one while camping wasn't so simple.

The kids were sure the rabbits could simply sleep in the tent with them but one of the moms hastily made arrangements for the rabbits to sleep in the poultry barn that night.

Our most amusing animal visitor though was Twinkle the goat (not owned by anyone in our group). Twinkle felt right at home at our campsite and decided to jump up on a chair to hang out. While one of the moms suggested to Twinkle's handler (not the goat's owner) that allowing a goat to sit on a chair wasn't a good idea because of the indiscriminate pooping goats do, the handler assured her the little balls weren't a big deal.

But moms do know best because while that conversation was going on, Twinkle decided to take a tinkle while perched on the chair.

After a long beat of silence, there was not one adult who could contain their laughter. The hilarity continued long after Twinkle made an exit with her handler saying, "Well, I hadn't thought of that."

Twinkle the goat not only visited our campsite but also attended the shelter building workshop in the woods taught by a couple of dads from our 4H club. Fino said that Twinkle tested the durability of the shelter by jumping on top of it (it held so the group knew they'd done a good job). I also heard Twinkle attended the nature walk class as well.

Never a dull moment when you're camping with a large group of 4Hers!