dogs lift our spirits in tragic times

I think it’s a good thing that our dogs want us to walk every day. Penny looked at her lead so often this morning that I finally organised myself to set off for Darebin Parklands. Like everyone else in Victoria I had woken up feeling awful, because of the terrible bushfires that have devastated our state. But as soon as we went down the hill into the park my spirits rose.

The ponds had waterfowl sitting on the surface, looking as if the last two days had never happened.








But when I looked closely at the water’s edge I saw how the ponds are suffering from the lack of rain.





And when I walked around the edge of the pool, I saw the saddest sight of all – a ducking that probably died in the incredible heat of Saturday.





After I had checked for a heartbeat, I reported the find to the ranger, and we continued on, past trees dead in the drought and past limbs dropped by young trees trying to survive.







As we continued on I heard a beating in the sky and looked up. It was one of the wonderful helitankers, heading north to drop thousand of litres on the fires. A reminder that people continue to mourn and suffer.



But Penny doesn’t get downhearted. She thought the water looked pretty good in the creek and waded in, even though we weren’t in an off-lead area. Naturally, that refreshed her, so we headed to the off-lead area to enjoy chasing a ball.






Penny thinks life is good. And I know that life goes on.