Penny stayed home today

Penny didn't come with me today when I walked in one of our favourite spots, near the confluence of the Merri Creek and the Yarra River.

Long ago, I sort of complained that we had been banned from entering our number one top-favorite, most loved swimming spot. I'm glad that a short time later I wrote about our acceptance of the new restrictions, because today I found out what a special spot this is and why it should be protected and allowed to regenerate as natural bushland.

This week is Wurundjeri Week. The Wurundjeri are the indigenous people whose home is this region of Victoria, and they are conducting walking tours to teach the public about their culture. It seems the places where there is a confluence of streams or a crossing place have special significance, and our old swimming spot is the meeting of the Merri Creek and the Yarra River.

It was lovely to be made welcome in this special place. I've often noticed the sign at the start of the off-lead area, and enjoyed trying to read the language on the sign, but it was even better to hear a speaker of the language welcome us.

mud and dogs

When walking with a dog, it's a good idea to wear old clothes and we usually do. But yesterday when we walked at Yarra Bend, Human Number Two was headed to the City, so she wore good clothes. Lucky for me, I wore my usual awful old dog-walking gear.

We passed a really good mud puddle and gave our obedient dog the instruction to 'leave it' and follow us, didn't look back to check, and had a nice surprise when she caught up to us.

Now, I ask you. What does any self-respecting dog do if she's all wet and muddy?

Yep, she gives herself a good shake. Too bad if a nicely-dressed human is standing close by.

So, while Human Number Two headed off to the City in her brown-spot polka-dot outfit, I took Penny for a second walk, to swim in the Yarra river at Warringal Parklands.

I made sure to put a towel in the car before I let her in.

So, swim:

And, voila, clean dog!

Penny walks once more

Penny had the stitches out today and when the vet examined her foot he said she should be fine to go for walks, even though her foot might be 'tender'. The original problem, which seems to be a build-up of calloused skin, hasn't been resolved, but the vet thinks the large slice he took out for the biopsy might result in new blood-flow to the area and thus solve it. The problem seems to be developing on her other front foot, though. I guess we'll deal with that when necessary...

 She set off enthusiastically for her first proper walk in two weeks, sniffing around Yarra Bend Park.

And, joy of joys, she found a ball.

(In this photo you might see how she is leaning to the left to take the weight off her right front foot. That was the behaviour that made us take action to try to resolve the issue.)

 After lots of bounding around and rolling, Penny noticed her foot was indeed tender. More than tender, by the body language.

So we headed home.

safe throwing toys for dogs

Out again early this morning to beat the heat, we met a couple of lovely black dogs (and their human) at the dog friendly park along the Yarra River. They had a couple of Safestix, which their human had purchased online.



We were wondering whether Penny might try to nab one of the lovely orange sticks, instead of her boring old piece of wood (which I'm holding in the background), but she swam quite happily for the ordinary stick.



The dogs with the Safestix had to learn to watch carefully when the toy was thrown, because it momentarily sinks and then bobs up again.





Now I want one for Penny. Of course.

I can't find an Australian supplier listed on the Safestix site, so I've emailed my favorite pet supplies store, Murphys, to see whether they might have them or might get them in. Otherwise I'll order from either the UK or the listed New Zealand shop.

The Safestix seems to have a similar use to the Aussie Dogs Slapathong, which is also a floating alternative to a stick.

By the way, we never throw a stick for Penny on land. I've heard many people mention the dangers of tossing sticks for dogs to fetch, but I don't need to be warned of the possible consequences, because I once saw a man with a stick embedded in his face. He lived, but it was one of the worst things I've ever seen!

Sticks are dangerous.

dogs make us get out of bed at dawn

Now the hot weather has arrived, it's time to get up early and walk at dawn. Yawn...

We went to lovely Yarra Bend park this morning and this is how it went:

You swim out...



You get the stick and bring it back...



You juggle it and jiggle it to get it past the rocks...



and stay out of the way of the people in the boats.

a dog swims in the upside-down Yarra river

Last weekend Penny and I went to Yarra Bend park for a walk. At one end of the trail a sign welcomed us on behalf of the traditional owners of this land and I was reminded that Australia has a wealth of indigenous languages.



The Yarra, often referred to as 'the upside down river', was even more muddy brown than usual. However, this didn't mean it was dirty, so I let Penny swim.

The discovery of fresh water in the Yarra was crucial to the development of Melbourne. The river’s pristine upper reaches feed the city’s nine major reservoirs which supply most of Melbourne’s drinking water.

Further downstream however, the Yarra has long been dubbed "the river that runs upside down" because of its muddy colour. The water was clear at the time of European settlement but significant land clearing and development since the mid-1800s has resulted in suspended silt (or tiny clay particles) being carried downstream.

The muddy appearance does not mean that the Yarra is unclean. In fact, it is probably one of the cleanest capital city rivers in the world. Since the major clean-up campaigns of the late 1970s and 1980s, the river has again become home to platypus and a range of migratory native fish species. Platypus have been sighted in the Yarra River at Kew, less than 10 km from the city centre.

Penny stayed quite near the bank, which was good, because the river was running fast after the lovely rain we've had lately. I wouldn't have wanted her to be run over by the kayakers who were also enjoying the river.

bats and dogs

Penny has just been outside for her last 'toilet stop' of the day, at 11:30 pm. It beats me how we came to train her to wait for a human to accompany her outside, no matter what the weather. (It's co-o-ld out there!)

And out there I discovered that it isn't a powerful owl in our garden, as I so optimistically thought. It's at least one very big flying fox. One took off from the tree just now, and obligingly circled the garden right above our heads, its big black wings beating the air with a whooshing sound. (I should have known our visitor wasn't an owl, because they fly silently, but I really wanted it to be an owl!)

Of course, being a champion worrier, I then remembered that these creatures carry a the deadly hendra virus. As far as I know, so far it has mainly caused horse deaths, though it can infect humans through horses, having caused some human deaths already.

I don't like reading that many new diseases these days are crossing species, possibly because we are crowding into the natural environments of wildlife.

I've read that

The disease appears to spread from flying foxes (fruit bats) to horses, especially during the fruit bat breeding season (spring to early summer). The flying fox is the natural host, that is it remains unaffected by the virus. It is suspected that horses may become infected by eating food contaminated with bat urine or birthing products.

Transmission from horse to horse does sometimes occur, probably through direct contact with the respiratory secretions of an infected animal.

If it can cross to a horse, who's to say it can't affect a dog? Penny loves to dash out to that part of the garden in the morning to eat possum poo, which I've never thought would be bad for her, seeing possums are vegetarians.

But now I'll try to stop her doing that, I think, just in case it's bat poo and not possum poo. (Maybe I need to do some research about what bat poo looks like. I wonder if bats don't produce poo - most of the sites I looked at only mention urine.)

I think fruit bats are gorgeous-looking and I've never objected to their being moved to our area to roost. But it's funny - now that I see them in our tree, just above our heads, each night, I don't feel so positive about their presence. We've known they visit our garden, because they eat the skins off our lemons on occasion, leaving the poor naked fruit hanging there all bare to the elements. And they squeal and argue with each other in our giant lemon-scented gum when it's in flower. But seeing bats eighty feet up in the air isn't the same thing as having them ten feet up.

hot days and play in the brown River Yarra

Today we headed off to the muddy Yarra early, because it was predicted to be more than 103 43 Celcius (that's about 110 Fahrenheit!). (Thanks, Mary, for pointing out that 103 Celcius would be rather hot.)

There I made an interesting discovery about the whirlwheel toy. You can pick it up with a stick if your dog won't bring it back on land. Penny always waits just in the water, ready for the second toy to be thrown. She won't put down the first until she is quite sure there's another one in flight.

Here's my patented method for picking up this toy:



And here's Penny hanging on to the first one, watching, watching, watching for the throw of the second toy:

early morning walks in the summer heat

Because the hot weather has returned, many people are walking late at night or early in the morning. They're both fascinating times; at night you can stroll around the streets and listen to the sounds drifting out of the open windows of the houses, and in the morning you can enjoy the freshness of the day before everyone is about.

The other day we walked in Yarra Bend park and Penny enjoyed a swim in the river and then a roll in the grass.



The best part about the walk was that we were right above a freeway and the traffic was roaring past, on the way to work, and we were free to wander. In this picture Penny is standing by the fence that edges the freeway, which is sunk below the level of the park.



Today we returned to Darebin Parklands. Seeing the water was low (and there hasn't been any definite information about where to swim), we stopped at a spot that would normally be too rapid for her. I could even join her in the middle of the creek without getting my feet wet!