Norm Stories: The Day Norm Was 86-ed from Camp Bow Wow

Today's story is why Norm was 86-ed from Camp Bow Wow.

In the first few years of Norm living here, I would take him to Camp Bow Wow on occasion. Sometimes it was for "doggie day care," sometimes it was for boarding. He loved it there and they loved him. Norm had an interesting habit there. At some point in the afternoon, he would get bored with playing with the other dogs and he just wanted to be left alone. So he would hop over a few walls and go to the warehouse area in the back (where they stored the dog food) and just go back there and sleep. At first the staff of Camp Bow Wow were a bit surprised that he would hang out there, but after a few times of catching him doing this, they came to the conclusion that he was not getting into anything back there and it was just "Norm being Norm."

But, eventually, at some point, the folks at Camp Bow Wow began to get nervous not about Norm hanging out by himself in the warehouse, but the jumping walls part of the equation. They were afraid he would hurt himself on the landing (not likely) or land on a smaller dog on the other side of the wall (definitely more of a possibility). So it was suggested to me that Norm should, perhaps, try a different facility. They were not mean or rude about it. They were in tears in fact. So I don't know where this directive came from. A manager? The franchise owner? Maybe he actually did land on a small dog one day. I don't know. But that was that. Norm had been 86-ed from his beloved Camp Bow Wow.

The first place I tried as a "doggie day care" facility for him was Doggie District, the one at Silverado Ranch and Bermuda. You know how these doggie day care places have you do a three-hour trial-run to see if your dog mixes well with the other dogs? I dropped Norm off for his three-hour visit and started to run some errands. Not even 20 minutes later I got a phone call from Doggie District. "Come get your dog. We just found him six feet up on a seven-foot fence." Norm apparently was climbing a seven-foot chain link fence and he was discovered right before he reached the summit.

That was the last time he stepped inside a Doggie District location.