at dusk, a walk in Darebin Parklands

On a lovely cool evening, after the recent beautiful rain, we headed down to Darebin Parklands to see how things are going, now that the terrible hot weather has eased.

It was lovely!

We took a route we rarely use, along the Hidden Valley, because we wanted to see how the plantings are enjoying the rain. (We rarely go there because it's an on-lead area, and it's more pleasant to walk without having to be attached to our dog.)

The plants looked great, and we were surprised to come across a new seat, one dedicated to Laurie Course, one of the original group who saw the possibilities for the development of what was at that time degraded and useless land.



It was nice to sit in the quiet of this lovely park and remember a man who worked to achieve a refuge for native animals and a place for humans to relax.





Then we headed across the bridge to the off-lead side, for our usual ball-throwing and general racing around. (The humans don't do too much racing!) Recently the bridge has been under water, but it was all okay tonight.

a short story about a mischievous dog

After reading Raven's blog post about her childhood dog, an intelligent and determined GSD called Freia, I realise what a saint Penny is.

Raven was the winner of a Thanksgiving short story contest in which the prize was a donation to a charity of the winner's choice. She wrote about the day Freia scoffed the Thanksgiving Day pies...

I loved the story, but I think the dog was lucky to survive the family's wrath!

loyal dog saves the life of man lost in the mountains

Andy Purdon, hunting wild horses (brumbies) in the mountains, and dressed only in T-shirt and jeans, was accidentally knocked unconscious by his own horse, and spent three nights in cold, wet conditions after he regained consciousness. If it hadn't been for Scooter, a working dog who stayed with him, he might have died from the cold.

Reading the story in Stock and Land, I was interested to learn that Purdon spent some of the time cuddled with the dog in a wombat burrow. They sure are useful hiding places. In the terrible fires last February a woman and her children survived by hiding in a wombat hole.

And here's a short clip (warning - a bit sad, but the dogs are alive and recovering) of two dogs who survived those fires by hiding in wombat holes.

Back to the story of Scooter and Andy Purdon... apparently Purdon killed a snake and offered to share it with Scooter, but neither of them could eat it. I've heard that snake can taste okay, but I wouldn't want to be desperate enough to eat it!

I'll be waiting to hear whether Purdon's horse is found safely, together with the second dog that disappeared with the horse - Wags, Scooter's son.

the blue dog of anxiety

Penny's such a cheerful dog that it seems strange that we use the term 'the black dog' for depression. I hadn't heard of 'the blue dog' - anxiety - until I visited the Flowerdale - Survivor Spirit blog tonight.

I like to visit this site as often as possible to read about the courage of the people of this devastated town, trying to get on with their lives after the terror of the February bushfires.

I've posted about the horrible, unseasonable heat we had last week - even we, living in suburbia, feel afraid of what this summer will bring. But it's nothing to what the people of the burned-out towns must feel. Here's a poem by Peter Auty about the anxiety attack he suffered recently, when the terrible heat brought back memories of the fires.

kangaroos can be dangerous to dogs

A man was injured by a kangaroo recently when he tried to stop it drowning his dog.

It's sad to read about a clash between the two species that we love. An acquaintance once told me a terrible story about her dog and a kangaroo fighting and falling down the bank into a river - both drowned. Ever since then I've been nervous of the idea of Penny meeting a kangaroo. You'd think it's unlikely, but we humans are pushing further and further into the remaining territory the kangaroos have around Melbourne.

There is said to be a mob of kangaroos north of here that has been surrounded by suburban development, so that their range is more and more limited. I have wondered whether the kangaroos that occasionally make their way south to Darebin Parklands might be members of this group.

It's a sad situation.

When I read more details about this incident, I realised the kangaroo had been sleeping before being disturbed by the man and the dog and being chased into the dam by the dog. I've heard that kangaroos will head for water so they can turn on pursuing dogs and drown them.

Another report describes the kangaroo as a 'rogue', but I agree with the discussion after the article, that it's not fair to blame the 'roo, because it was the one being chased.

I hope Penny and I never come across a kangaroo when we're out walking.

it never rains but it pours

The horrible unseasonable heat wave has broken, and the rain has come! Lovely rain!

We went down to Darebin Parklands today to see how it is reacting to the overnight rain, and the creek was raging.

In fact, when we tried to walk along the path on the Darebin side, it was under water. I can't remember the actual path being submerged, not even in the welcome rain in December last year.



Hmm... I wonder where the snake has gone, the one who lives under this decking? I hope it relocated safely to higher ground. And I hope we don't meet it unexpectedly!

We turned back and headed for higher ground, and then went to see whether we could return to the Banyule side via the Sidney Clifton bridge. No, not a chance! It was well and truly submerged.



We went closer.



And Penny dashed ahead to have a close look. such a close look that she gave us conniptions!

continuing to learn about the Dog Fighter toy

In my last post I showed Penny trying out the Nina Ottosson Dog Fighter toy for the first time.

Here's the continuation of the story. A few minutes later we introduced her to the concept of moving two wooden pegs, in different directions. Already she had abandoned the technique of chewing the pegs, in favour of pushing them along.




Last of all for that day, I put some of her evening meal into the whole set of pegs and sat back to see what she would do.