Serendipity

Today I walked my dog along the beach after dropping Kaidin at school. We head to the dog beach in San Remo, which is a pretty nice beach with only a little swell, but massive tidal movement. Literally, in the morning there is a beach and by the afternoon there is only dunes.

Today I took down a magazine, but I thought I would actually walk and try to find some dogs for Pepper to play with. So I walked along (I used to walk 8km along the beach every few days, but now that I actually have a dog I just walk down and up one bay, about 2 km) and as I was walking I was asking for a friend, a friend for me and a friend with a dog so Pepper could have a friend because I am just so damn lonely at the moment now that Adam is gone. A wave crashed and I looked out at teh sea and giggled a bit and thought ‘yes, even an undine* would be better than no friend at all, as long as it doesn’t try to drown me’.

Walked a bit further and there was a older couple with two red heelers. We chatted about dogs and the beach and the dogs played and Pepper even followed one of the heelers into the water. A man walked along with a shepherd cross and told us that he’d seen a seal, but there are never seals at that beach, so I kinda shrugged it off and kept walking when the old couple had to head off.

Further down the beach a lady and her gazillion kids where playing with their two Labradors*. I told them about there supposedly being a seal and we stood and chatted while the kids swam and the dogs played and Pepper even went further into the water.

Suddenly, a little along the beach a head popped up. I can see why the legends of selkies began – from a distance, the seal’s head really did look like the head of a doe eyed woman with long dark hair. It was huge. It swum along the bay towards the groyne where some surfers were catching the little swell. It must of been lost and looking for other seals, because as soon as they got out of the water it swum around the groyne and away into the open ocean.

The lady and I talked for a while and the dogs played and things were good. It wasn’t until I was walking back that I realised just how well my wish came true – a friend to talk to, a friend (two in fact) for Pepper AND an undine thrown in for free.

With luck like that maybe I should buy a lotto ticket.

*An undine is a water spirit. A selkie is an undine who spends part of their time as a woman and part as a seal. they can take off their seal coats and come onto land, without the coats they can’t return to the sea. Depending on which legend you listen to, they were either nice and saved drowning sailors or horrible sirens who lured men into the depths to drown.

*When you have two or less kids you tend to count offspring like this – none, one, two, a gazillion. I think in reality it was about 4 but they wouldn’t stay still long enough for me to count them, so maybe it was 5.

Puppy Training

Yesterday, Kaidin and I took Pepper to her first dog training class. There was a bit of a scramble trying to find her immunisation record (The girls at my local vet are so lovely. Not only is their office open Sundays, but they printed me off a new record for free. My doctor charges $3 for a copy of Kaidin’s immunisation record!), but we got there not too late.

The classes are run by the RSPCA. It cost $99 and runs for 6 weeks, with a graduation ceremony in the last week. Apparently we have to teach our dogs tricks to show off on that last week.

The lady taught us doggie massage – one hand holding the dog’s chest, the other hand rubbing and stroking and massaging from the ears down while saying a calming word like ‘Calm’ or ‘Relax’. The point of this is that eventually, you can just put a hand on the dog’s chest, say the word and the dog will relax. Then you can stop putting the hand there and just use the word.

We gave our dogs (there were 5 in the class) treat while saying ‘Good’ and the the dog’s name. Pepper got bored after about a minute and would have rather sniffed the other dogs than eat treats – it’s good that she’s not greedy, but it’s really hard to make her pay attention. The ‘Look’ command is to make the dog look you in the eyes, which helps later when you want the dog to pay attention. Pepper is very used to looking people in the eyes, but she was more intent on looking at the dogs, cockatoos, boys on skateboards…

We did ‘Sit’ and ‘Down’ commands. Pepper was really good at the ‘Sit’ command, not so good at the ‘Down’. There was a chocolate lab puppy called Tully who was 4 months old and picked up the ‘Down’ command a lot quicker. he was so roly-poly-pudgy and cute too.

There was a bit where we all ran around calling our dogs and doing a ‘Play’ pose (bent over, hands on thighs) to try and get the dog to follow us. Pepper and another puppy called Minus were too busy trying to get to each other to pay any attention to what me and Minus’ owner wanted. Pepper did really well with the free lead walk around, but I feel like I cheated because she had her Halti on and she is always such a good girl when she is wearing it. By this time she was definitely sick of the treats.

After the class I let her sniff Tully a bit while Kaidin wanted to pat him. I thought some people might want to go for a walk or something, because it was a nice day and we were on the foreshore, but no everyone else jumped in their cars and drove away. So Kaidin and I walked up to the circus which is being set up. Kaidin was the official photographers for the day (hence the photos being slightly blurry) and he took a few shots of the circus before I decided that at any minute some clown was going to come out and scream at us. I’m terrified of clowns. We walked back across the bridge and went home.

Later that night when I was on the phone to Adam I was saying how I kept having to say ‘Pepper, Look’ over and over again, but when I said it, she actually looked up at my eyes every time. Maybe she is learning something! When I cooked tea, I cut up all the fat off the meat and made her ‘Sit’ and ‘Down’ for it – maybe next week I’ll just take meat scraps for treats. No dog can resist!

Abandoned Pets

Recently, my parents made the heartbreaking decision to have my old dog Lucy put down. She was a 14 year old Golden Retriever that we have owned since I was 9. I remember the Christmas we got her – she did a large liquid poo under the christmas tree. Unfortunately Retrievers are prone to hip problems and dispite several operations and steroid treatments, the old girl couldn’t walk anymore, or even get to her feet, so the vet decided the best thing would be to put her down.

As a general rule I am very against animal euthanasia. When it is a very old dog like Luce-the-juice then I understand the reasoning behind it, but one issue that really gets to me around Christmas time is the amount of unwanted, abandoned pets given as gifts and then euthanised, or the lost pets whose owners don’t bother to collect them from the pound, or animals that are mistreated and have to be put down when they become aggressive.

My four cats (yes, I have four cats. I am slowly but surely turning into the crazy cat lady from the Simpsons.) were all rescue cases. Jet was at a pet shop near my house. he was the runt of the litter and black, so while all his brothers and sisters found homes, he didn’t and the owners were just going to put him down if he didn’t sell. Luckily a friend of mine who worked at the pet shop rang me to see if I wanted him. When I picked him up he was so tiny hecould fit on my hand. He would suckle at my neck and clothes, a sign he was weaned too early. Now he is an adult cat, but you can tell he was the runt – he eats a lot and is still smaller than my other cats. He has a strange habit of liking to be in boxes, so I leave a few of my grocery boxes around the house for him to sleep and play in.

Gemini is one of those cats who was born simply because his owners were too lazy or broke to sterilise his mother or father. His owners where a group of seedy guys who lived on my street, whose cats where always having litters of fluffy kittens. They simply gave them away to whoever walked past and looked twice. I never saw food left out for any cat there, but the mother and father (and a few grown up uncles) hung around and when I asked the man if I could have Gemini (the smallest and fluffiest) there was 5 kittens and 4 adult cats. Gemini was smothered in fleas – the poor thing could hardly open his eyes without fleas crawling into them. He was undernourished, dehydrated and hadn’t been handled at all. Now he is the fluffiest, most gorgeous cat who is ever so loving.

Momo and Ninja belonged to the sister of a friend of mine. Momo and Ninja’s mother were left behind when a family moved out of their rental house. The girl cat was heavily pregnant. The sister-of-my-friend kept the two and looked after the kittens, which were burmese/persian crosses, until they were ready to go to the pet shop. She then kept one kitten, sold the mother cat (a pure Persian) and asked my friend if she knew anyone that would like MoMo. So my friend bought a sad, frightened MoMo to us. It took him a while to get used to us, three families in a few months is a bit much for any cat! He ran away when we got him desexed, but now he is back and he rules the roost. He is the oldest of my cats, the vet said he is approximately two, and he is certainly the boss.

The latest addition to my furry family is Ninja, the kitten that the sister-of-my-friend originally kept, but then got sick of 6 months later. I’m pretty sure she realised that any time soon Ninja was going to start having kittens and instead of paying for her to be desexed, she just got rid of her. It’s heartbreaking the way people can simply pass on their pets when they are no longer convinient. Ninja is still very timid. If you catch and hold her she will purr and roll over for tickles, but she spends most of her time hinding under chairs and behind the tv cabinet. Adam has found if you feed her salmon at night time she will follow you around the house. We are getting her desexed next month and in the meantime trying to keep her in the house away from any horny tomcats (there are lots around here. I was walking Pepper around the block yesterday and I could swear every second house had a least one cat). It’s kinda hard to take photos of a cat that refuses to come out from under the couch though.

My dog, Pepper, I bought from K9 Dog Rescue, which is our nearest dog shelter. K9 take dogs from the pound and from people who surrender them in. They never euthanise, if a dog is not adopted it simply stays there until the right person comes along. When I used to volunteer at K9 there were dogs that stayed there up to 9 months, but in the end they always found someone who would love them and treat them right. Pepper had already been adopted out once, but the people who took her ‘found her unsuitable’ and bought her back. When I adopted her (only $225) she was small and frightened and still very very sweet natured. I can’t believe that someone would bring her back. Sure – she has dug up my lawn and has to be exercised for 1 1/2 hours a day, is a fussy eater and refuses to come back when called – but I would never give her up as she is adorable, loving and very loyal. And who could refuse those ears?

So that is the story of how I got my pets. I would never consider buying a pet from a pet store when there are so many wonderful cats and dogs waited to be adopted. Plus it’s a lot easier when you get a house trained pet rather than a baby!

There are heaps of places that save unwanted dogs. Close to where I live there is a RSPCA (for all animals, including horses and bunnies), K9 Dog Rescue, The Dog Refuge Home, Animal Protection Society and the Swan Animal Haven. There are also heaps of rescue clubs which rescue dogs of certain breeds from the pound and foster them until they are given new homes. For cat adoption there is Cat Haven and the RSPCA. During the kitten season, there are usually cats and kittens for sale that my local vet too. iPet is a good resource site that has lots of Australia-wide pet adoption agencies.

Garden Dilemmas

Well, the tomato patch is spent, I picked the last roma today. unfortunately a lot of the big pink tomatoes and one lot of romas just rotted on the vine – I really did plant way too many in there. Next year I’m just sticking with the Black Russians and two types of cherry tomato. Now I just have to clear away the old stalks and prepare the way for a heap of rosemary and some other hardy, woody herbs that are good for autumn roasts and bbqs.

It’s been strange weather here; hot at the end of winter; medium spring; very very rainy start to summer and now it’s alternating between unbearably muggy with full cloud cover and clear, hot days where the sun wilts everything (including me!) This has not been very good for my garden, which needs a good mulch and as the retic doesn’t work I’ve had to move the sprinkler around by hand, which does not make planting anything new which needs a lot of water seem very fun.

Then there is the dog. my beautiful, wonderful, sweet, little Pepper. the arch-nemesis of the garden.

Our dog gets about 1.5 – 2 hours of exercise a day, 30-45 minutes in the morning on the leash and the rest in the evening when it cools down. She has about 50 big marrow bones, endless toys, a heap of empty plastic bottles she stole out of the house and 4 cats to play with (yes, we got a new cat. She’s a part persian called Ninja, but Adam let her out for the first time last night and I haven’t seen her since, so we might be back to 3 cats already), but still she has to dig holes.

First I just put dog poo in the holes. That worked – she doesn’t dig those holes anymore, she just digs new ones. Then I tried to wire off half of the yard, in the hope that at least half of the grass would be nice and green for our real estate agent. She dug under the wire. My latest attempt is a green plastic pseudo-chicken wire, with actual wire running through it. She jumps over it.

I’m running out of dirt to fill them in with. This next picture is of a hole that she dug up four times. The last time it took approx 75kg of store bought soil to re-fill it. Then there is the cost of the grass seed to re-seed it. Then there is the fact that because the soil has compost in it, she likes the taste so she just wants to dig it up again. So I chicken wire over the holes. My lawn mower man quit, so now we have to mow the lawn ourselves.

Tomorrow I am off to the pet store to see what other toys and treats I can get her. She has one of those hings where they have to roll the toy to get treats out – the treats just went mouldy because she refused to roll it. She buries her bones and digs them up. She eats her rope toys and leaves little shreds of them all through the house. If she can’t stop digging we will have to start tying her up or turn the chook pen into a dog run and lock her out there when she needs to be outside. I would also like to stress that there is someone at my house for about 20 hours of everyday. While I was typing the first two paragraphs of this, after she had just had an hour and 20 minutes of flat tacking running at the BMX track, she jumped the fence and dug up a hole I’d re-filled.

It is time for drastic measures….

We’ll see how it goes. Hopefully that will stop her for long enough that I can cover and re-seed all the bare patches, even if I have to spread it all over the lawn! $50 worth of chilli, snowed around the backyard. I’ll sneeze every time I go out there.

At least my basil is green and terrific..

Walking It Off

It’s probably not the best thing when you start talking advice on living from Law and Order SVU. I love crime shows, and SVU is probably my favourite In last weeks episode Finn and Elliot nearly come to blows over Finn’s some being charged and the Captain gets in between them and yells “walk it off”.

So today, when Adam and I had a disagreement about some stupid, petty thing that I can’t even remember now, I decided that instead of doing my usual thing, which is sulking for hours or crying about how unfair everything is or getting in the car and driving to nowhere in particular just away, I would take Cragen’s advice and walk it off.

Around the corner from my house is a large tract of undeveloped bushland, a kind of buffer between the train station and the urban area, where a few boys with motor-cross bikes like to ride around and a few locals like to dump old mattresses and tvs and a few people like me like the opportunity to take their dogs off the leash. Pepper has a halti collar and lead, which fits over her nose to stop her pulling. I love it, because it means she can’t rip my arm out of the socket (and if she can do that now, imagine what it’d be like when she was full grown) and even Kaidin can hold her when we walk her, but she hates it. Absolutely loathes it. So I take it off and let her run around whenever I can – she gets a lot more exercise this way.

So after about 5 minutes of sulking, I pulled on the dogs leash, slammed the gate to the carport and stormed off down the street to the bush, muttering under my breath about how crap everything was. When we got to the edge of the bush I clipped off Pepper’s lead and started to walk along the bike tracks.

I challenge you to try and stay mad, or even remember what you were mad about, when you are listening to a million insects, birds and rustling rabbits (I hope they were rabbits); the wind rustling through tree leaves and dried grasses; the dog pounding down the track in search of small animals*. The sun was shining, the trees gave a lovely dappled shade and littered here and there were some absolutely lovely feathers from Twenty Eight parrots and magpies and some white pigeons.

I always considered myself to be stubborn person. Open to learning and able to admit (after a few days, maybe) that I am wrong, but when I know I am right, I stick to my guns and I can sulk alongside the best of them. Today it all fell away. With every feather I picked up, every step I took, the anger literally melted away from me and by the time I’d walked for a half hour I could barely even remember what had driven me out of the house in such a huff. Even the rotting appliances and rusty mattress prings didn’t spoil the beauty of the bushland and I could swear that the trees were trying to whisper secrets to me. It was a lovely, lovely time and I came back refreshed and renewed and ready for a quick dip in our pool to cool off.

Kaidin playing with the feathers

So the next time I get mad or upset or sulky or sooky or afraid or just plain cranky, instead of letting those emotions take hold, I am going to ‘walk it off’. Everybody wins – whoever was making me cross gets a time out, I get some room to breathe and the dog gets extra exercise. Just another little way that I am taking control of my life and writing a new script for the story.

*For those of you who are going “You irresponsible twat, you let your large toothed dog chase after small animals”, let me reassure you – Pepper couldn’t catch anything to save her life, let alone when she is as well fed as she is. She just chases russles. Once a rat popped out of a hole she had stuck her nose in and she jumped up in fright and ran off down the track. So don’t worry, my dog is a uncoordinated wimp and the defenseless little fluffies are safe.