Sunday, September 1st

Today is Wattle Day.

The floral emblem of Australia

Of course most of the wattle has come and gone by now.

Wattle Day is the official first day of Spring
in Oz.
This year, it is also Father's Day.
We don't have a dad, but we have 'river' dads:
Ron, John and Craig
(they're always good for a scratch or two.)
It's time for new life
warmer temperatures
and, perhaps
SECRETS?!!!

Full story next time.

No Fun Friday

It was my turn for some ME time,

or so I thought.

Look where I ended up.

 Do I look impressed?

Heart strong
Weight PERFECT
All annual injections completed
Liver treat
Good to go.

Recovery position at home.

Don't even think the vet noticed the bath I had to have.

Thankful Thursday

We are thankful for Ron and his ute.

Dui who usually dislikes people, loves to sit near Ron and get head scratches.

Ron comes to the river nearly every day because his dog, Kelly loves it.  Kelly was hit by a ute about two years ago and was seriously hurt.  But Ron, a pensioner,  paid the huge bills to help his best friend.

He is a gentle soul one of the world's gentlemen.  Quiet, accepting of life's curve balls, and faces the world with humour and level-headedness.  

He is 91, and has recently been diagnosed with lymphoma which has invaded every part of his body.  His prognosis is months.

Ron went into action to ensure his wife who is frail and suffers epilepsy will be cared for.  He has visited lawyers, cemetaries, funeral homes etc. to get his affairs in order.  Because if there is a job to do, you just get on with it.

Every morning we wait to see if he shows up.  Some mornings he is too tired or his legs are too swollen to walk around the track, but he brings his beloved Kelly and will doggedly walk with her because she loves it.

We are thankful for every minute we have left with Ron.

Wordless Wednesday

Foxy Friday....

Just as everyone was packing up

to leave the river this morning.

A dog who shall remain nameless

took off into the bushy area

along the river.

No amount of calling

could attract his attention.

SHE was forced into leaving the car

(where two good dogs were sitting patiently)

To hike through the weeds, fallen tree branches,

up and down trench-filled terrain

towards frantic barking!

Where SHE eventually found

the naughty dog leaping around,

barking madly at a small, skinny

fox!

Yelling at said dog, only stopped the action

for a few seconds giving the fox

a chance to escape.

With him in hot pursuit.

She returned to the car, drove slowly along the river
searching for the naughty dog,
finally, seeing him racing madly up and down the river bank.

The naughty, and slightly exhausted dog slowly
came to HER.
This escapade took 30 minutes.
SHE was NOT in a very good mood on the way home.

Exhausted, nameless dog plotting his next bit of mischief at home.

Wordless Wednesday....

Shoes

These old shoes always cause great excitement!

BECAUSE

they are goin'-for-a walk shoes!

Whenever SHE puts these shoes on, 

we get very excited.

Roxy usually grabs a toy and shakes it.

A short ,out-of-focus video:

Do you have 'signs' that tell you something exciting is about to happen?

We have three of these

and they move around the house...

A little something....

to remind you that winter is coming!

We had a cold weekend. (continuing all week)

It snowed to the east and south of us.

We just got the freezing winds and some light rain.

Yesterday morning we nearly missed out on our 

Early Morning Walk because the gate latch was frozen shut!

Here's something you don't see every day.

Nature Friday....

Even though it's Saturday here.

Dui and Roxy had to stay on their leads most of this morning. 

 Because of:

 Roo 2

Roo 1 bounded along beside our car up the track, 

then crossed in front of us and bounded away.

Dui howled and screamed .

(roos count as nature, huh.)

Solo Ride...

You can see where I ended up.

Dui's watching a dog outside the window.

The vets'! 

Waiting for Dr Merwyn..

Heart normal

Teeth good

Ears clean

All needles done.

BUT

I'm sure the scale was wrong.

I couldn't be 1 kg (2.2 lbs) heavier than last year.

Home ALONE

Abandoned, left by ourselves.  Yes, that was our weekend.

We should have known when we got a big feed on

Saturday morning, that something was up.

We should have known when our water dish was 

replaced with a large tub, and there were

two additional dishes of water outside.

We should have known when SHE was putting that little

case in the car.

BUT, we were unaware we would be LEFT behind

for the weekend.

Yes, SHE went to Sydney for the weekend.

We had to mind ourselves all weekend until

Sunday night!

How could SHE abandon these three sweet dogs.

All this is true.

It was either one night alone or three at the kennel.

They had a very large meal Saturday morning.

The neighbours were alerted.

They had access to the back garden, the entire house,

and timed lights when it got dark.

They were fed Sunday night before the car was unloaded!

Monday morning we went to the river for a couple of hours.

So they were not hard done by!

Made us chuckle....