10 tips on getting a dog

In the 2012-2013 financial year 49189 dogs were received by the RSPCA (this is their report). Of these, 17946 were reclaimed; leaving a staggering 31233 dogs to be re-homed, of which 10355 were euthanised. If you've ever loved a dog (or a cat, the statistics for cats are even worse) this is mindblowingly tragic.

I once had to re-home two beautiful spoodles; Ernie and Maisie. My long term relationship ended, he didn't want to keep them and I (financially) had to move into a share house. It was impossible to find shared rentals in (Brisbane) Australia that would allow two indoor (one highly challenging) dogs. It took time to find them homes and they both ended up with very loving owners. But I don't know if I will ever get over it. I am tearing up writing about them and still have dreams where I am trying to save them (often from a flood!?!). When I got Ted I committed to being his forever mum. One dog is much easier to manage than two and he has been treated and trained to be suitable to live anywhere I may need to. I am not making the same mistake twice and I don't want you to ever suffer the heartbreak I did so I put together this practical little guide. I am no expert, there are plenty of guides out there from experts; this is based on my own experience, research and time working with rescue groups.

A dingo stole my... heart

I would like you to meet Tangle

Is he not one of the most gorgeous, intelligent creatures you have ever seen?

Happy Monday

Oh dear! Another week of the universe being a huge meanie. This time it was the loss of a job (that I was ready for really, a management restructure thing) but the loss of those work-friends has really hit me hard. People that you grow to know so well without actually being close enough to hang out for coffee. I remember details about people's lives, ask after their kids, their parents; and to suddenly not know how J's final exams went or whether A got on OK with her braces has really made me very sad. Plus, I am now officially on a very low income until something else comes bounding around the corner so there may just be a series of 'interesting ways to serve beans on toast' coming up.

The good thing about the tough weeks is that focussing on the happy stuff is a challenge and I do like a good challenge. It is really important though. Most of the time you don't have that much control over the things that happen in your life but, without meaning to sound like a self-help book, you do have control over the way you deal with them and move on. Looking for the moments of joy stops the moments of darkness, crippling self doubt, betrayal and loss from being overwhelming (yep, that has been my week).

Things that made me happy this week:

:: I finally watch "The Grand Budapest Hotel"; heartstring-tugging, hilarious and poignant. Just magical. Visually beautiful too. Just go see it.

:: This amazing chocolate pudding that a friend brought over for dinner. I haven't even edited this picture- just look at the gorgeous natural ooze.

Photo Day in May

I am a people-watcher. 

There is a lot you can learn about people (and sometimes yourself) by observing others. I am also a terrible eaves-dropper, in that I am exceptionally good at it but feel bad about snooping (well, a little bit bad). There is a bit of a blog-trend at the moment to do 'a photo an hour' posts where you take a photo of something every hour for a day. That's right, people giving you permission to have a snoop into their life!! Generally they are filled with gorgeous pictures of breakfast in bed and cute dogs frolicking. My life is a bit same-samey to do these posts on a regular basis but I do so enjoy having a little snoop into other people's lives, so I though I might do one a year (or something like that) and have a little snippet of what my life looked like at the time. And because I like rhyming I decided to do this on May Day...it made sense at the time.

I set my alarm for 6:10 but hit snooze a few times so it was almost 7 by the time I staggered out of bed.

7am

Ted ready for his walk

Ted-Day

You will have to forgive me if this post is overly sentimental and has far too many pictures. You see today is Ted-day- it has been exactly 1 year since Tedicus J. Magic Paws came to live with us.

    Psyching himself up for Ted-day

We don't celebrate his birthday because we don't know when it is. His original paperwork estimates the 8th of January 2013 but when he was assessed by a vet a few months after we got him, instead of the 6 1/2 months we thought he was, she placed his age as being much closer to 9 or 10 months. Hardly surprising that his age was misjudged because at about 6 months (corrected age) he was dumped at a rural NSW pound significantly malnourished and weighing about 7kg.

2013

I don't mind a bit of reflection. You learn twice as much from your mistakes as long as you acknowledge them. 2013 has been a bugger of a year for me. I have worked too much and too hard for too little reward. I have not spent enough time following my dreams (heck I haven't been sleeping enough to even get into the dreaming) or even just having fun. The problem is that I say the same thing about 2012, and 2011 for that matter. It seems that I am not learning from my mistakes. I recently had a minor health scare (fortunately it was just a scare) but whilst I was in the Waiting To Find Out phase I said to the Bookworm "I haven't done anything I want to do yet". In retrospect, that is the scariest part of all. We can be taken from this world at any time by any number of causes and were that to happen to me soon, mine would have been a life half-lived. Sickening to think about. So here's to 2014 and seeking victory.

Here is a little recap of my 2013:

Ted's Outdoor Renos

"Do you need some excavation work done? How about pruning? What about remodeling your deck or outdoor furniture? Call Ted's Outdoor Renos for your complete service."

Ted seems to have hit his challenging 'teenage years' and in the last 2 months has shredded an olive tree (we had had since before he arrived), dug up and shredded a new decorative plant the Bookworm was very proud of, derooted a lemon tree and remodeled his kennel for Summer (open-plan living is all the rage). This is in addition to his usual consumption of hard-core chew toys- the type that are supposed to last him months and are lucky to make it through 3 weeks.

The decorative plant was Ted's first casualty, other than eating the herb garden which we kinda understood (who doesn't like fresh basil?), he hadn't really caused any major damage to our property before. Sure, he had eaten the edges of the hessian mat in his trampoline bed (I figured he just preferred to sleep on the floor) and many a chew-toy had met a premature end (30 minutes was all it took with a supposedly super-tough extra durable alien toy). Back to the plant, it was a Cordyline, a Cabernet Cordyline, a pretty dark red grassy looking thing. The Bookworm had selected it for my love of wine and the fact that his parents had them planted and their previous dogs had been fine with them.

The Cordyline had been with us for maybe 4 days when Ted had a day home alone. Despite 2 slow-release treat balls, a frozen meat-stuffed Kong (for heavy chewers) and the usual detritus of chewed towels and bits of sticks (games from another day), he ripped up the plant and (I imagine) shredded it with glee, tossing the bits into the air and then rolling in his kill. I received a call at work at about 4pm with the news. A quick google search revealed Cordylines to be toxic to dogs, causing gastric irritation, vomiting and diarrhoea.

These are a few of my fa-vour-ite things {October 2013}

"The Sound of Music" was one of my favourite films as a child. I wanted to grow up to be Liesel. Sadly, my hair is red and I didn't reach her height, and I can't sing so well. But I have always loved the song "My Favourite Things", well, all the songs really, but a serious of blog posts about a lonely goatherd (unless I actually knew one and wanted to find a home for some goats) seems less entertaining. I got the idea of a little life summary post from one of my favourite blogs, the very elegant Time After Tea
So, here are a few of my favourite things at the moment:

Afternoon Walks with Ted
I generally enjoy Ted-time but having to squeeze in a walk before or after work, sometimes in the dark, is less exciting. Now that daylight saving has started, we can go for long walks in the afternoon with the last of the lovely warm sunshine.

World Animal Day

October 4 is World Animal Day, started in 1931 as a way of highlighting the plight of endangered species. Over time it has evolved into a day that celebrates all animals and in a wonderful turn of events, this year it was celebrated in Melbourne in the middle of the CBD at Federation Square, which allowed for a whole lot more attendance and exposure than ever before. Pigs in Fed Square- oh yeah!

Edgar's Mission is the amazing not for profit rescue group behind Melbourne's World Animal Day celebration. These guys are remarkable in that they provide sanctuary for farm animals. You see, 'food' or 'production' animals lie outside of the animal protection legislation (and you already know my feelings on the state of our animal protection legislation), so these critters are basically doomed unless they somehow stumble upon Edgar's Mission. EM rehabilitate everything they can get their hands on from battery farm chickens to stray pigs. Spend some time checking out their webpage

As part of the celebrations, local rescue and animal welfare groups were invited to set up a stall to help raise awareness about the issues facing them and what people can do to help. I tagged along with the Magic Paws team and got to wear this fabulous t-shirt.

Yep, I just put a close-up of my boobies on the internet- Hi Mum.

Operation: Secret Squirrel

I don't think my Dad will ever forgive me for moving away. Most times when I speak to him on the phone he reminds me that I am not around for family events or even just random Sunday barbeques. I was feeling a bit homesick a few months ago so I hatched a plan with Mum to fly to Brisbane as a surprise combined Fathers Day/Birthday present for my Dad and so began Operation: Secret Squirrel.

Astoundingly she managed to keep it a secret, only trusting my brother and sister-in-law (SIL) with the plan after they had booked in their pup to be speyed on Dad's birthday. That was rearranged and everything went according to plan. The surprise was low-key, a couple of days before his birthday Mum picked me up from the airport and I walked in while he was watching TV. Dad was pretty chilled (which is good because the last thing I wanted to do was surprise him into a second heart attack) but had a huge smile on his face.

The Puffin Tales

Last Sunday morning I was on my way to the gym when I saw a little dog by the side of a very busy road. She was minding her own business so I stopped and watched, expecting that someone would call out to her or appear to be walking her off-leash. No such person appeared. I bent down close to her and put out my hand, she ducked back but then decided I wasn't too terrifying and came over for a pat and a belly-rub. Just then some people walked past to cross the road and she ran to them, expecting more pats, and onto the road. I dropped and called her to me, they heard and turned back and fortunately the little dog followed them. After ascertaining they did not know her and after a few more minutes of me crouching by the road holding her I decided an owner wasn't going to turn up and she was coming home with me. It is amazing how heavy a 3kg dog can be after you have carried her for 10 minutes.

She was wearing a collar but no tags. The first step was to see if she was microchipped. I rang my closest vet who I knew opened Sundays. They said they could scan her but would have to keep her and turn her in to the council. I explained that I was concerned for her welfare at the Lost Dogs Home (fairly high euthanasia rates) and was prepared to look after her until her owner could be found but no, that was their policy. I then called the emergency vet a little further away. They could scan her and even though they are supposed to call the council they understood my concerns and would let me care for her, so along we went. I spent the entire walk there (with the dog on a leash now) asking people if they recognised her and scanning the faces of drivers to see if they were possibly looking for a lost dog.

She did not have a microchip, was not desexed and appeared to be only about 6-7 months old. Bad news. I had been in touch with Mme Magic Paws (background info here) to check I was doing the right thing and now had to ask for more help. While I was waiting for the Bookworm to come and pick us up I named the dog Puffin- a feminised version of Puff the Magic dragon because she looked like a baby dragon :)

How Much is That Doggie in the Window?

The life of a pet shop puppy:

You wake in the morning at 5:30am like all good puppies and pull yourself out from under your sister who has fallen asleep on top of you. You climb over your other siblings and the 2 cavoodles they have chucked in your box and do a quick circuit of the perimeter, this takes you about 30 seconds and having decided there is nowhere new to go you do your morning business next to the water bowl that is empty after one of the cavoodles knocked it last night. You are really hungry but the staff won't arrive for another hour or two so you flop unceremoniously back on top of your sister and go back to sleep.

The lights come on. Hooray!!! You scramble to get a pat from the pet shop lady as she opens the magic door and reaches in to scoop out the dirty shredded paper that is your floor and bedding and make sure you are ready to pounce on that food as soon as it arrives. This is the best part of the day! After breakfast you have a bit of a roll about with you brother and the 2 cavoodles and then settle down for a nap. It is hard to sleep under the fluorescent lighting but you are pretty used to that now....zzzzzzzz

TAP TAP TAP

Shit, what is that?You wake abruptly and jump up ready to fight. There is a giggling noise and you realise that the noise was just a human tapping on your box. You go over to see if they will give you a pat but the magic door doesn't open and the human just waves at you while you trace their finger movement with your nose.

The rest of the day carries on much like this. You get a quick pat when the magic door opens and one of the cavoodles is taken away but other than that the highlight is when you get dinner just before the lights go out.

Fairly crappy existence right?

Casual Philanthropy

 I did a good thing.

About a month ago Oscar's Law and The Paw Project were able to provide enough evidence to the South Australian RSPCA to warrant a raid on an Adelaide Hills puppy farm. Over one hundred dogs and cats were rescued, including pregnant animals and a callout was placed on the Oscar's Law Facebook page for donations of blankets, food, medical supplies etc to assist the foster carers of these animals. Most of the drop-off points were in the outer suburbs and being inner city and wanting to help (and having seen other requests for inner suburbs drop-off points) I offered the shop I work in as a location.

The store was listed as a drop-off location on Thursday about midday, by early Friday afternoon we had this:

Starting

So, I am starting a blog.

Nothing unusual really as there are very large numbers of people with a blog, or who start one at least. Also, I am excellent at starting things. I am also not too bad at finishing things but I am relatively hopeless at any kind of long-term continuing-on with things. Still, one must start.

I decided to do this because I am not the sort of person who coasts along in life. I don't really coast along in anything. Definitely not a coaster. I am potentially entering a period of reduced work hours,  stress and increased time for non-work pursuits and I know that unless I give myself things to do that are at least slightly artistic I will spend my time doing random jobs and errands, over-organising the minute details of my life and checking Facebook.