Eric 'Ed' Camron
Feb 1937 — Jan 2013
We came from different worlds and in many ways continued to live different lives during our 30 years together. The place where our lives joined was with the animals. When our relationship was not going smoothly, somehow the animals always held us together.
June 1985. Ed and I had been married several months, gotten our place in Corrales and two horses. He came home one day and asked (!) if he could get a dog. He said a guy at work had one like he always wanted, and there were others in the litter. He said he would name him Bro because he had always wanted a bro.
The next morning I picked up the dog so that he wouldn’t have to stay in the heat all day. By the time Ed got home, Bro was my dog. Two weeks later Bro’s littermate Tracy joined us. Bro and Tracy set the path for our lives. We had only to follow where they led.
Ed enjoyed the photos I made of the dogs and our travels. At that time, most of my photos were slides, and he was an appreciative audience for the slideshows I made of old favorites as well as each new batch. Later he supported my desire to make a book of them. I’ll always remember our excitement that cold snowy day in February, his 55th birthday, as the four of us headed to San Francisco to meet our publishers.
Back then the sand hills to the west of Corrales were open, and we rode often, always accompanied by the two dogs. Climbing the hills, loping in the arroyos, enjoying the sight of the dear burrowing owls, coyotes… we were so fortunate to have that opportunity. Then the yellow machines came and terraced the hills and filled them with houses. After that, Ed didn’t ride as often, but he enjoyed having horses and continued to build and repair our fences, corrals, stalls, and all the stuff involved in keeping horses and dogs safe.
Ed had a special ability to pick the right animals. I appreciate that he brought into my life Bro and Tracy, our buckskin Tádídíín, and even the newest dog, Dixie, although I wasn’t so sure about her at first. And I appreciate that he always supported all the activities the animals led me to, including the many fosters who shared our home. How many times did I tell him that I was getting a new dog, and he would say, “Don’t you have enough dogs? You have too many now.” When they arrived, he usually fell in love and wanted to keep them. I managed to move most of them along to new homes, but I gave in on Dixie.
Ed loved and respected all animals. We always enjoyed watching the quail, especially in summer when they had their babies. People frequently asked him if he liked to hunt. His answer was, “I’ve never been that hungry.”
Many years ago Ed came to a Parelli clinic to watch me work with Tádídíín. Afterward he said, “I don’t know if you got the right husband, but I know you got the right horse.” When I was a child, I used to dream of horses and dogs and the West. Ed may not have been a “perfect” husband, but considering the animals that he brought into my life, he must have been the right one.
Photographer Joyce Fay founded Bro & Tracy Animal Welfare in 2000, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping individual animals find the right homes. The intention of this column is to share some of those stories.