After high school, our daughter moved in with a boyfriend and they decided that a puppy was a good idea even though, at the time, she could barely take care of herself. Don't get me wrong, I made the same mistakes she did at that age and she's well on her feet now. However, at that moment in time, a dog wasn't a good idea. The upside is that they found her at the pound as we had done with my dear departed Shadow. The best anyone has come up with regarding a breed is a mix of pitbull and beagle. Her beautiful brindle says pit, her annoyingly loud bark says beagle.
They did what they could and would put the dog, Marceline is her given name, on a runner in the back yard to play. Sometimes they would turn her loose and she would rarely listen when called to come back. Marceline had been to our house a few times and they only lived less than a quarter mile away so it stands to reason that the dog would know where we lived. Proof of this came almost every time puppy would take off, escape, etc. She would run free in the woods, drink from streams and puddles, and most likely chase anything that dared move. After her romps and when she got hungry, she would always show up at our door. Needless to say, she has always been an Adventure Dog.
Fast forward a few years and things didn't work out with the boyfriend and our daughter had to move back in and she brought Marceline and Mojo the guinea pig with her. Mojo is another, rather hilarious story, but we'll stay on point here. As time passed she had the chance to move out again and had to leave the pup behind promising to return for her soon which didn't happen but she blended in well and occasionally came with us on camping trips and such.
We sold our house in April of last year, which you can read about in another post, and we headed to Michigan where set up for the summer. We would always take a trip somewhere or another and although we could have asked park resident friends to look in on her, it just didn't seem right. When we would get to some secluded campsite or backwoods stop we always let her off her leash since the park we were in had a strict leash policy and she needed to run from the to time, even in her advanced years (she's about 12 years old now). That's when I started calling her Free Range Dog.
Then, on one particular trip to Munising, Michigan, we were camping at a HipCamp sight in the woods and we let her run free. One particular evening we were lounging about the campsite, drinking beer, and enjoying a nice fire. Marceline and I had walked towards the river that way next to our camp and she noticed a deer walking along the river bed that I didn't see and bolted as she was determined to make chase. I let out a command to stop and she did but kept looking at the the deer then me again. I knew she wanted nothing more than to chase that deer as far and as fast as she could.
Just off the cuff, I called her Free Range Adventure Dog and it just stuck. It should be said that Marceline has another name that she responds to. When we are not adventuring, she spends most of her time on the couch in varying stages of consciousness and has done this for years. That has earned her the name Lumpy.
To this day she prefers to drink rainwater from a puddle instead of water from her dish.
Have a great day!
