Things that make Scout an excellent campground dog

And that I hope writing down will help me stop taking for granted!

Two great friends sitting in their favorite bright lawn chairs at our recent campsite in Bahia Honda State Park.

Scout Finch is the canine neighbor of your dreams. Well, at least of my dreams. Sometimes I forget to appreciate her wonderful, reasonable-creature-in-a-shared-space traits because 1) I’ve habituated to the good stuff such that it’s easy not to ever think about until something goes slightly wrong and then 2) I’m still prone to overthinking and catastrophizing and mentally time traveling to the height of her fear reactivity. (Oh no! She barked a single time! Is it going to be like the old days?!)

Today we’re wrapping up nearly two weeks bopping between actual developed campgrounds in south Florida. We’ve spent more nights with campsite neighbors so far in February than the previous five or six months combined—and I’ve realized all over again how well suited Scout’s become to these environments.