Woof… Honk!
The ‘no dog’ hole in my life appears to have been filled, temporarily.
When our dear ol’ and very much loved pooch went up to the great kennel in the sky late last April, we ended up with a gigantic hole in our lives that all of you who have been in the same place know about. We’ve only ever had two dogs – a big Old English sheepdog that lived to be 12, and the hyperactive labradoodle that had as much get-up-and-go on her last day of the 13 years on earth as she did on her first.
It’s been 9 months now since, well, you know. But, on most days as I drive in the driveway after a long day of work, I still expect to see the four legged Fangio propel herself at warp speed down the gravel toward the drivers’ side door, in a contest of who was more excited to see who. But no, those days are over. With no kids at school nowadays, it would be a bit of a strain on both dog and parents to start again – going to puppy pre-school, obedience training, the howling and scratching from the laundry in those early days, not to mention what we’d do on weekdays as we head off to work. So, it was decided mid last year that for the foreseeable future we’d go without man’s/lady’s best friend and just keep ourselves as company.
It appears though that over the last 6 months I’ve taken solace in the other furry/feathery beasts around our place. I’ve been told that I spend an inordinate amount of time feeding and tending to our chooks, where they’ll happily shuck down and let me pat and massage their feathers. The same goes with our woolly friends down the back – saying “good morning sheeps” to them and chucking a little bit of extra hay or a couple of weeds pulled from the garden is more fun than it used to be. Up until last weekend, the past few months have seen us (like most of you) hand feeding the animals to some degree or another. Whilst the 10 animals we have in the back paddock is a laughable amount to feed compared to the work being done to help stock survive by our hardworking farmers, it’s become a little more than just raising them from paddock to plate so to speak. They’re kind-of, well, family.
I can only put it down to the unique and dare I say it ever increasingly uglier weather changes we have endured in recent times, but we’ve had five new members of the animal kingdom join us these past few weeks for a feed, a chat, a wander, and yes, a huge amount of poo. Five wild geese have made our humble patch their home too. Four pure white ones and a grey-black one. They’re an absolute hoot, if you’ll pardon the pun. They wander around in a ridiculously and mathematically straight single file, unaffected by our comings and goings. They drink from the bird bath and the sheep trough, chew happily on whatever grass they can find in around the house, and leave poopey deposits anywhere and everywhere, as is their prerogative. Unlike their aggressive reputation, this quintet are quite friendly. They’ll wander up to within a few metres of you, keeping a cautious distance, but are happy to engage in a bit of friendly banter and take in the activities of the owners as we go about our business.
Being the chicken, sheep and geese whisperer hasn’t exactly taken the place of doing everything with a labradoodle shadow just inches from your ankles, but it’s better than not being a whisperer at all. I guess they’ll fly the coop once a bit more rain comes, but it’s been fun while it lasted. Honk.