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by Cody Jones
Wow! Has life been hectic for us birds since I last had a chance to put paw to paper, so to speak. On a gloomy note, Mum's mum passed away at the end of April, which made Mum very sad. So I had to be extra nice to her and take her for lots of walks. But life must go on, I guess, and after all, Mum's still got me, so what's she so sad about?
Just recently Mum and I took the moke on an expedition to Busselton which is about half an hour away. We went to visit Ted and Liz Callow (read my first column in the Feb., 1997 Pyr-A-Scoop to find out who Ted is).They own a couple of newsagencies. Their daughter Sheryl and her husband Vincent with their two kids, Amy and Luke, had come down from the station at Djatagin, which is up north, prior to setting off around Australia.
Well, as you know, I love my moke, and this was a great adventure. When we arrived I was invited upstairs (which is where Ted and Liz live above the shop) to meet Luke, who is only a year old. This little tacker was born and bred in station country so he is a pretty tough little bloke, but he had never seen a dog as beautiful as me or more to the point, as big. Phased him right out. You see, he had something I wanted--lollies. I just kept following him, slowly, of course. He just kept hiding behind his mum with the goodies, but you can't fool me and I am fairly persistent. I relentlessly followed and eventually we struck up this deal: I wouldn't drool all over him if I could help him eat his lollies.
Callow's corner is something special--paradise. You've never in your wildest dreams seen anything like it--Aladdin's cave or what??? The whole of the upstairs is just chock-a-block full of boxes and boxes of lollies, chocolates, potato crisps and all sorts of yummy things. Nose heaven, but I seriously wanted to change that to heaven on a stick. Mum wasn't too pleased with me because I am not usually allowed junk food. But she gave in, outnumbered. Well, I had lots of new taste experiences with my new buddy, Luke, and then we both fell asleep on the floor. I make a good pillow. What a Pyrfect day!
By far the biggest event in our lives at present is that we are building a new house and moving from here. This will be a fairly radical change for me and Fuzzy and my mate Junior, too, because we have lived on five acres all our lives. Mum used to live in town when she was a puppy, but that was a long, long time ago. We are moving to the other side of town, (in part because Dad is starting up a second vet clinic over that way) onto a normal sized house block (lot) 870 square metres. The block is part of an estate that features canals and a lake which most of the houses are built around, the estuary, a humungous (really big!) wildlife/bird sanctuary, which is a huge lake with lots of islands.
Our block is the only block which runs longways against the lake so I will have lots of interesting new things to watch and things will never be boring. Best of all, I will have my very own garden (yard) all fenced in so for the rest of my life I will be FREE--no more running chain. There are lots of great areas to go for walks. Mum and Nat have been taking Kelly (Nat's Alsatian) and me over in the moke to check on the progress of our new house and to acclimatize me to my new walking areas. Where we live now we go to the beach every night and I can run free with Kelly. I am so good on the way down the beach, but have a really bad hearing problem once we turn round to go home. Mum now ties our two leads together, which has sort of ruined the game. You see, Kelly is sort of like the thought police. Just when I start to head for the sand hills, she drags me back to Mum and Nat. What a party pooper!!
For my training runs at the estuary, this little sneaky method of
keeping me under control has been employed so I can run semi-free
with my own personal bodyguard. It's still great fun though, and I
think I'm going to really like my new place. Nat, Kelly's mum has
just built her own place not far from where we all live now, so Kelly
will not live with us any more and I know I will miss her, but we
can visit on weekends and go for runs. The garden is being planned
with moi in mind--lots of shady areas and hidden digging patches,
as well as a special design feature in the house of my own little
doggy retreat--cooee! From what I've heard, we should be able to
move in around October/November. Just in time for Xmas. I will keep
you posted.