Okay, I'm awake.

I'm a little fuzzy from the few beers I had before bed, but I can distinctly feel the paws trying to pierce different parts of my body while the whining is piercing my brain.

I guess the dogs want out for a pee.

I open the door and as they bolt out, I crack my eyelids to see the sun peeking over Butler Ridge and licking the treetops above the truck. I check my phone.

Grrrr, it's 4:30 AM. We mumble some questions, like "Why do they need out this early?" and "Shouldn't they be exhausted from all the running they did on the beach last night?"

I wait a few minutes and open the door to let them in. They want no part of the offer.

"Should we go out and get them?" Gerri asks hazily.

"No, they probably just want to smell around and see if anything visited in the night. They'll be ready for a nap by breakfast."

We drifted back to sleep and woke up around 6:30. They still weren't back, so we got up to get the coffee ready and realized that we forgot the kettle or any sort of a pot to boil water in.

We improvised. Coffee was fundamental.

You gotta do what you gotta do.

I don't know about you, but I went through the levels of Scouts Canada. The motto was "Be Prepared."

I stole this from Wikipedia to explain:

Baden-Powell on "Be Prepared"[edit]

In English, this motto is most commonly Be Prepared. In the third part of Scouting for Boys Robert Baden-Powell explains the meaning of the phrase:

The Scout Motto is: BE PREPARED which means you are always in a state of readiness in mind and body to do your DUTY.

• Be Prepared in Mind by having disciplined yourself to be obedient to every order, and also by having thought out beforehand any accident or situation that might occur, so that you know the right thing to do at the right moment, and are willing to do it.
• Be Prepared in Body by making yourself strong and active and able to do the right thing at the right moment, and do it.^[1]

"To do the right thing at the right moment" can be extreme:

"Where a man has gone so far as to attempt suicide, a Scout should know what to do with him."<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scout_Motto#cite_note-2">[2]</a></sup>
"BE PREPARED to die for your country if need be, so that when the moment arrives you may charge home with confidence, not caring whether you are going to be killed or not"<sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scout_Motto#cite_note-3">[3]</a></sup>

Okay, so I might have started drinking and smoking weed before they explained the last part, but you have to admit we were pretty prepared with those empty booze cans. Sure we forgot cell charger cords and almost all cooking implements, but look what we did remember.

Our neighbours were kind enough to give us some homemade Irish Cream. They must have been Scouts as well.

Even though we were facing great hurdles, we made do, just like they taught me in Scouts.

Here's the proof.

Oh good, we can start our day.

At 7 AM, there was still no sign of the boys and it was supposed to start raining in a couple of hours. Blue, I could see not caring about meals, but Dover was only keeping himself alive to eat. He has never missed a meal since we have had him. It's not that we wouldn't have forgotten, it's just that he starts the high-pitched whine about thirty minutes before mealtime and doesn't quit until he's fed, so we can't not feed him.

As we drank our delicious elixir, we walked around and yelled for the boys. We wanted to pack up the dining tent and trailer, but we didn't want it to start raining if we were still there looking for dogs. So we left it up. This proved to be a good choice.

It's a pretty sweet setup.

As I walked along, drinking my boozy coffee, a feeling hit me that has probably hit a few of you after a bit of coffee and exercise.

Lucky for me, there were a couple of outhouses just around the corner. I started heading that way with a can of bear spray in my hand. I walked into the shitter and the door, which was on a spring and swings inwards, slammed behind me.

That's when I heard it.

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

I looked up and there was a wasp nest on the ceiling, maybe a foot above my head. The slam must have woke them up and they were piling out of the hole. Of course, I had a roll of toilet paper in one hand and a can of bear spray in the other and the door handle was one of those small, D shaped ones that I just couldn't grasp until I stuffed the spray under my arm. I could feel them on my head and neck, so as soon as I got the door open I was running and screaming towards the truck with my free hand swiping wildly.

Gerri, who had watched me grab the bear spray, thought a bear was chasing me and was preparing to jump in the truck. I managed to escape with only one sting on the back of my leg, but now I felt the call of nature even louder than it's already urgent cry.

Well, bushes it is.

By around 10:30, in the pouring rain, we unhooked the trailer and started heading for Moberly Lake to get a charger cord and some more food in case we had to stay an extra night. We hoped that the dogs would be waiting there when we got back but figured a pack of smokies and buns wouldn't hurt, plus we could use another jug of water.

When we got back, Blue was there but Dover wasn't. Blue was in rough shape, but he's a pretty tough dog. It's Dover that isn't very bright or worldly. He was the one we had to save.

We had to figure out what had happened out there. This is what we came up with.

This is where all future chapters will jump off from. You may have noticed that there are some repeats from Chapter One, but I was trying to get a bit more story in. Remember that these are basically all rough drafts for the final project, so if you see things that don't make sense or work well, please let me know in a comment or some other way that you would rather get a hold of me.

I'm always open to suggestions.

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Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://changethetopic.com/the-many-lives-and-deaths-of-dovey-doo-chapter-three/

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I am nominating @brockolopolis and @drewsmusic to think up a funny entry for COM Round 22