Calling for Back-up!

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As most of you are probably all aware we were house sitting over the Christmas Break in the east of Perth for some friends we know through the Toyota Landcruiser Club.

We have house sat some great properties and they all have there little quirks that make them unique and this was no exception.

Our brief is usually the same, but it depends what is important to the house owner, this time this time we had some added responsibility with two dogs, two horses, two chicken, seven Weiro’s and a cage full of budgies, far too many to count.

Now the horses were no bother and I just love horses, there is always something so calming about horses and these two guys were no exception.

Oscar and Spirit did not belong to Trevor and Ria but they were on agistment at their property all five acres of it and all we had to do is keep them watered and give them carrots as their owners would give then regular feed.

When I got home from work, these two guys would be waiting by the fence and as I walked to the house they would follow me down the fence line in the hope I would have a carrot I my pocket, (I never did (that could be the prelude to a dirty joke)) but its not.

I used to go in the house, let the dogs, “Flik and Ricky” out, go to the fridge, arm myself with carrots then go and talk to the horses.

Oscar was quite an imposing character, I remember filling their water trough up and Oscar and put his head on my shoulder and was pushing me against the wooden post I was leaning against, he then was sniffing my hair and got my ear in his lips and was just tasting it, panic rushed through my mind thinking that he might bite my ear off but he didn’t he just gave it a gentle suck.

I would have to give him his carrot first and he would never let Spirit have a carrot before he had his, as he got quite spiteful about it, Spirit would take no notice and walk away, so I would always put a small piece of carrot in my right hand and get Oscars attention, then feed Spirit with a large piece of carrot in my left hand, its all just about smoke and mirrors.

Now let me tell you about the dogs in our temporary charge “Flik and Ricky”, The Beagle and the Rottweiler, wow what a combination of personalities, Flik is the cutest hound, with a evil glint of mischief in her eyes who is always on the hunt for food and when she gets on a scent, nothing else matters its head down tail up and she is off and no matter how much you call her, she only has that scent on her mind, nothing else matters.

Ricky is just a big sooky girl who is virtually scared of her own shadow, she is a big dog but needs to be by you all the time, pushing against you as a sense of security and just knowing you are there.

We were warned not to look her in the eye as it upsets her, she needs to know she is the boss and in her own time she comes around and adopts you in her own way.

We were also warned about Flik, these instructions were far easier to understand than those physcological ones about Ricky, “Don’t leave any food lying around”, on a plate, worktop or anywhere or she will have, this dog has an insatiable appetite and no matter what it is she will eat it, obey these rules or learn the hard way.

When our UK visitors came to stay with us, they loved the dogs, Flik and Ricky were spoilt rotten and we had lots of fun.

We also have a swimming pool of a fairly decent size and If we were in it Ricky would run round and around the outside of the pool barking until somebody went under the water and that was the trigger she would dive in and try to save you, it was amazing watching 25 Kilo’s of dog coming in to assist, she would swim out and do it all again, though Flik never ventured in to the water.

We did have some funny incidents with Flik and food, like the time she pushed her bin full of dog nuts over and tried to eat the lot, or when she ate half a packet of Gaviscon Indigestion tablets and when I held her snout and smelled her breath it was all minty, fortunately she had no ill effects from this.

And finally the Chickens and birds, Caroline really doesn’t do chickens and birds, but had got off to a good start with them we had two Chickens, Seven Weiro’s and a aviary full of budgies, she was grateful for Hillary's extra advice on how to look after birds.

The chickens and the weiro’s were fed and watered regularly which went well, up until the time Caroline raced in on a Friday night and said, I am not going back in to the chook pen, “there is a big snake in there” I cannot remember what I was doing at the time, but I think my response was, “Awesome, a snake”, we will have to phone a snake catcher, he or she will come out and we will get some great photo’ for the blog and so on.

We sat down and went to Google and typed in “Snake Catcher Perth and began phoning the numbers, we really didn’t expect it to be as difficult as it was.

The first bloke said, I have only just got in from work and I have already had a couple of beers and there would be no way of me being able to catch snake, another bloke, said the same thing, then after a few more calls we came to realise that it was going to be harder than we thought.

Each call gave us a bit more information, one guy said the snake was probably not after the birds but there would may have been a mouse or rat in the Chook coup because of the grain and that is what the snake was after, Caroline said she thinks she had seen a small marsupial creature called an Antechinus, or an ex Antechinus as the case would be.

Finally this blog brings us to the Budgies, they are such sweet birds and were pretty easy to look after, well until Caroline or Hilary did not quite secure the door correctly and three budgies got out, we managed to get two back in the cage but one of them never returned.

So as you could imagine, our Christmas was pretty busy, or we could describe it as manic, with our visitors from the UK, the animals to look after and the temperatures around the early 40’s to contend with it was a busy time.

Now some blogs we type we struggle for a title, but some like this one, I have seven titles at the top of my word document ready to choose, the conversation I have just had with Caroline when she just read the list was, the fourth one “Two Dogs, Two horses and Two Chickens” sounds like the start of a joke and the Barman says to the horses “and why the long Face?"

Now these were the blog titles we had.

Flik and Ricky

Smoke and Mirrors

Calling for Back up

Two Dogs, Two horses and Two Chickens

The Beagle and the Rottweiler

Gaviscon! Settles your stomach and makes your dogs breath smell minty

Obey these rules or learn the hard way

Now if you look at title three “Calling for back up", how we got this was really simple, Flik and Ricky were two very independent dogs, and the Beagle was definitely in charge, she had an amazing deep woof and would bark then trot out chuntering to herself was she went.

Now some times Ricky the Rottweiler went when Flik barked and sometimes she didn’t and we worked out that her bark was very different when Ricky went with her, it had sort of a more urgent and gruff bark and we got used to that scenario when Flik would call for back up and Ricky would wake from her sleep and immediately join Flik outside to protect what was theirs.

We had an amazing time with these two dogs we loved both of their individual characters but interestingly enough both dogs seemed to have a favourite, Ricky would stick by Caroline and Flik would stick by me, but the funniest thing was how Flik would take a flying leap on the bed in the mornings to wake Caroline up and insist on some doggy biscuits before going to work but Caroline was none too pleased about the 5am alarm call!

One thing Caroline and I both agree on is that we would like a dog in our lives but for now it is not the right time.

So you will just have to see what this blog title ended up being called.





Kj

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Photos

Calling for back up !
This is a canine eating machine

Calling for back up !
We love the Beagle, its a great breed of dog

Calling for back up !
Caroline and Flik

Calling for back up !
One of the few photos of Rick, I don't know why

Calling for back up !
Peter and Leigh Walker with Spirit, Why the long face

Calling for back up !
Flik just chilli with John

Calling for back up !
Flik after some attention as usual