…if you want to live happy, buy a (Riesen) dog!
This was the motto of this great week we had at Kopparbo.
We were part of the biggest dog camp in Europe as one of the organizers told us the other day: 160 caravans, 340 persons and 200 Riesen Schnauzer dogs turned the quiet Kopparbo camp into a real small town.
For 25 years this sweet crazy people came in the same week of the year to share their passion on their dogs. As I found out, this is what motivates them when they go to their jobs; they just live for this camp.
At first, I was looking at this people with such kind of irony, just because I had the feeling that they look so stupid with their dogs and it seemed to me that people are owned by their dogs, and not the other way. They walk and stop every other meter just because the dogs want that, they wake up early because the dog is hungry, gather their pup and carry it around, keep the dogs in their leashes while their children are running away from them.
It seemed kind of stupid…but it was stupid of me to think this way. We discovered some great people that just have a great hobby, know how to have a great time together. I think that they just have some extra love and energy to give to their precious dogs which are part of their families.
And it was inspiring for us to see so much good mood and happy spirits from everyone while they were having some beers, singing around the camp fire, competing in silly funny games, but also in the dog contest, parades or trainings. This people were mostly from all over Sweden, but also from Norway, Denmark and Finland, the four sister countries, but I could feel that the passion for their dogs makes them like one happy family. In one of the drinking songs I could understand some guys from Finland singing: “I do not remember if I am Finnish or Swedish, I only remember that I like alcohol and women.”
For us, it was definitely one of the best weeks at Kopparbo.
We met so many new people, great ones like Theresia. She was here as the chief cook for the dog camp and we admired her energy and openness. Her husband is from Norway and he is going there every other week to load a truck of fish from the North Sea. (I might have the chance to go with him also).Bubu played a lot with her little son Tom Eric.
Bubu found herself a little five year old girl to play with, named Amanda. They had such a great time together, we could feel that she was really happy this week, because at some point we realized she is missing a lot playing with little kids of her age. But Amanda came right in time. We know that Amanda also liked BuBu and before she left she came to hug her and give one of her books as a present. It was really nice.
Even it was a little bit more work to be done, for us it was a great week. Also we got to know better our new colleagues, Hampus, Esther and Ida. They are all great young people and we feel that we make a good team here.
The dog camp is almost over and we already made hopes to see some of the people next year in the same camp. By the way, there are high chances to come back next year, we do not want to be really happy now until we know for sure.
But there’s one aspect that we really have to mention: this place looks almost as clean as it was before this 300 people and 200 dogs settled down here a week ago. Can you imagine how it would look like if 300 Romanians would spend a week together? I can only picture a lot of trash everywhere… at least a mountain of trash plus 300 manele songs in the same time!
This is one extra reason to be thankful for being able to experience living in a civilized country with civilized people. It linked me again to one of the comedy shows of the great George Carlin in which he was making fun of those who want to save the planet. He had a great line: “The planet is fine, the people are fu_ked”! But we learn every day.
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