Two and a Half Days at Camp

Hi Pals,

We've been quiet on this blog because we've been barking our heads off at camp the past few days. Mom and Dogdad had to travel to Tampa for a seminar so they packed us off to our favorite boarding place. When they came to pick us up, we dilly-dallied about leaving and our friends there said we were probably the only dogs who weren't anxious to leave.

Mom replied that days at home were probably very boring, since she sat at her computer working most of the day. As we said once before, we'll never tell.

Everglades National Park Photo

But what about E.C. Bird? Gussie asked last Sunday whether he could come to camp with us. We didn't think so, because of all the C-A-T-S -- and also the problem of fitting his enormous wing span into a confined space. He was not at all offended, though as he decided this would be a great time to spend a few days in the Everglades, catch up with some of his friends, and have better meals than the fish he can find in the golf course lakes.

To get to Tampa, Mom and Dogdad drive across Alligator Alley, which traverses the Everglades. E.C. Bird accompanied them until he found what he was looking for, and then said "See ya'!!" We assume he'll be back in time to take us to Azrizona for the Super Bowl -- but just in case we still have our reservations on Aire Ruby.

For those of you who may not know much about the Everglades, we've added a few facts about this awesome place.

Everglades National Park is the:
Largest continuous stand of sawgrass prairie in North America.
Predominant water recharge area for all of South Florida through the Biscayne aquifer.
A World Heritage Site, a Biosphere Reserve, a Wetland of International Significance

Home of fourteen endangered and nine threatened species.
Largest mangrove ecosystem in the western hemisphere.
Largest designated wilderness in the southeast.
Most significant breeding grounds for tropical wading birds in North America.
Only subtropical preserve on the North American continent.
Major "edge" area of the northern and southern limits for many species creating a unique mingling of diverse temperate and subtropical species.

Because of the way water flows through the Everglades, it is known as the river of grass, which is the title of an amazing book "Everglades: River of Grass" -- written by an equally amazing lady, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, who lived to be 108 and spent the better part of her life defending this unique resource.

"There are no other Everglades in the world," she wrote. "They are, they have always been, one of the unique regions of the earth; remote, never wholly known. Nothing anywhere else is like them..."

And we live just a few miles from this mysterious and truly pawsome place. It's not for dawgs, though, because of all the alligators and snakes...