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by Cody Jones
Well, guys, here I am back from my moving experience over Christmas. The folks have been building a new house for us all to live in. When Mum quit training racehorses, the big decision was made to move into suburbia--shock--horror. We went block hunting first and it took a long time to find a block that suited all of our needs. We settled on one that faces a lake and is only a stone's throw from the estuary and the Collie River. This means that it's Pyrfect for us of the genus "pets" as we have unrestricted views across the lake and there is always lots to see. Also the walks around here are great. For the cats there is lots of bush away from the road for them to explore without getting squashed. Another big bonus is it's only five minutes from Dad's clinic, great for those calls at 2 o'clock in the morning.
Building of the house started in April '97 and the folks had a few minor setbacks during the building of the hacienda, such as the house pad was laid in the wrong place on the block and then the first wall fell down. Minor technicalities, of course! Things managed to get a little behind schedule, but it meant lots of rides in the mighty Moke to make progress assessments--of course I had to go, in my capacity of hygiene inspector, checking the site over daily to ensure no filthy workmen had left morsels of their lunch lying around which would have attracted ants. I fixed that. After sniffing out the offending tidbits, I hid them (in my belly).
It was early in November when we acquired a new member of the family. Mum is such a sucker. She went as driver on a weekly vet run down south with Dad and came home with a ten week-old Scotch Collie puppy. Even I had to admit it--what a cutie! His name is "Nank". How did he get this dreadful moniker? You may well ask. Alan's best friends at school were Nank and Cody. Get the picture? They already had me, of course. Well, Nank knows how to get ahead in this world. He is so good, it's sickening; nothing like the challenge of Pyr ownership. The little crawler comes whenever he is called, and only has to be told NO once and he just never tries it again. No intestinal fortitude, if you ask me. Maybe he is just trying to make me look bad. I figured out how to scare the hell out of him: I hide around corners and jump out as he's going past. That fixes his wagon for a while and he goes crying to Mum. I let Junior in on the secret and he tried it, but Nank thought it was a great game with a cat. Now every afternoon they chase each other around like a pair of lunies. I just sit back and watch the Nank and Junior show. Guess I'm just so big, my hulk thundering towards him scares him a bit, the sissy. Wait till he gets a bit bigger; he'll come round and then I'll have a playmate.
The big day finally arrived and we started moving on 23rd December--my folks decided to cancel Christmas this year because they were so busy moving. Also, the other vet, Peter, who worked for Dad, bought his own vet clinic at Geraldton about eight hours drive north of here. So Dad (Alan) has been running his vet clinic alone for two months already. He has a new lady vet, Rosemary, starting work on 27th January which is just as well, 'cause he is so tired doing all the clinics and everything else by himself that we hardly see him these days.
We moved the last load in on Christmas day--WOW what a Christmas present......... freedom !!!! I have been on a running chain all my life and for the first time ever I have freedom and a huge yard to run around in with lots of different levels, a sunken barbeque pit, fantastic views and even a huge fish pond with these funny squiggly gold things in there. I just lie and watch them playing under the waterfall when I want some relaxing entertainment. I have lots of elevated vantage points to 'guard' my family from. Pyr heaven couldn't be better than this.
I have even had to improve my manners a bit so I don't get shown up so much by that usurper Nank. I bark a lot less at night than I did at the old place and, surprise... you're just not going to be able to believe this, but most of the time when we go for our walks down along the estuary and up to the mouth of the river for my morning swim I am allowed to go loose with Whitney and Nank and 90% of the time I even come back when I am called, even if it is a bit (well, a lot) slower than Mum would like me to, and by a bit of a roundabout route, but I do get there eventually. The other 10% of the time my legs just run away with my brain. Mum gets very, very angry with me, and when she finds me I get what for. So I don't do it for a while after that. I prefer to be off the lead so it pays to try hard to be Pyrfect.
I still get to see my friend Kelly, who only lives about ten minutes away with her Mum (Nat) who used to work for my Mum. Kelly comes to visit quite a bit and I have had a few sleepovers at Kelly's house. Last week Mum and Dad bought a new BBQ and to christen it they had a dog BBQ. Kelly came over and they cooked lamb necks for us all. Drool, drool, slobber, slobber, slobber, oh, yum !!! It was so yummy for my tummy - we should do it more often, I think.
Well, we are off the Internet for a while because Mum forgot to get
a phone outlet put in her office for the modem so we are using the
vet clinic site temporarily: mcvc@ gateway.net.au. Well, that's it
for now folks. I will see if Mum can take a good photo of Nank and
me for my next installment. Really nice to read the news from across
the pond from a Pommie Pyr.