Roofus.

Well Roofus is home...I now have to go out in the rain and dig a hole so I can bury him but hey, That's life aye.  Or death.  So I'm having a bit of a cry.

Ron rang this morning to tell me that Roofus was dead, said he was alive last night when he checked and had pee'ed but this morning when he went in...dead cat.  Said the bladder had filled again and Roofus probably had kidney failure.  

I am angry too.  Not at Ron, he was brilliant yesterday but at circumstances.  We try and do what is best for our animals.  If we believe they can be treated we take them to a vet, put them through horrible things,...the animals are in pain, not at home...whatever...and they get to die in a cold cage all alone.  It's not right.  If I had of kept him home he would have died in a warm house with someone who loved him.  If he looked like being in pain the end could have been so quick he wouldn't have even know it was coming.  But no, we think we are doing the right thing by putting them through *stuff*.. And I think we do it more for ourselves than for the animal.   The end result is the same, the lead-up very different. 

Anyway, I am cross that I didn't just get the son to shoot Roofus while he was asleep.   I would have felt guilty for not giving him a chance but he would have been at peace a lot sooner and not even known how horrible I was.  I think that would have been better for us both.  As it is...well who knows what he went through and if cats think...he wouldn't have been thinking anything nice. 

And it's raining more, I'm home alone, feeling cross and sad.
Husband will be home this afternoon, I could wait and ask him to dig the hole for me but Roofus is my cat so I think I should.    Might wait until he gets home before I bury him, not sure yet.  I am going to plant a plum tree with him.

 BigBoyBeautiful, You didn't like me much but I loved you, sorry I wsn't there.

Roofus .

Dog Drama.

We've had a bit of a drama here,  made more stressful because it was happening a couple of hours away...
I have a daughter living far far away.  She has a dog.  She loves that dog, he loves her.  I love that dog...he loves her...

On  Monday evening I get a call from daughter here in town saying that this dog was missing and had been for a couple of days.  A friend was going down the next morning to help look for him.  I heard that the dog chased after an emu on Saturday morning and didn't come back when called and daughter spend all that day and the next looking for him.  I can only imagine how upset she would have been. 

They have only lived in this house for 3, maybe 4 months. The dog knows the area around the house but not any great distance away. It is surrounded by bush


I am a member of a forum and they have a thread for psychic help.  We posted about this missing dog on it and one lady came on and said that the dog was alive and near water, maybe stuck somewhere.  They live very close to a river.  I get home from work on Tuesday and hear that she (psychic lady) has said that he is trapped near brambles or prickly bushes and getting quite weak.  There are blackberry bushes on the property...How this woman knew these things I have no idea but it had us very worried but at the same time gave us some hope but daughter that lives far far away has no Internet, no phone, no mobile coverage.  We couldn't contact her at all to tell her to check out these bushes so daughter from here says we should go down there now...I ring son, he agrees to go and help look too.  We drive down, getting there a lot later than we thought we would but they are still up and we all go down the back of the property, torches in hand and spend 3 hours searching for this dog.  Call an end to it not far off midnight saying we'll start looking again early in the morning.  Daughters go out early, calling and looking.  Come back after an hour or so.  No dog.   I go out a hour or so later and the dog is walking up to the gate.  He was as happy to see us as we were to see him.  He had been away since Saturday morning. 4 days and 4 nights.   He was wet but looked alright.  Skinnier, had sore paws but otherwise seemed OK.  He was asleep on his bed when me and the daughter from here left to come home.

I don't think he'll be running after any emus again any time soon.

An eerie thing...Daughters husband was down searching for the dog and early this morning went down the back to look some more and to, I don't know...commune with powers?
The dog shows up, this bloke starts up the hill...He comes back just after the dog gets back.
He says he was told to stop looking, go back to the house, what will be will be. And just afterwards a big Tiger snake went across his path.
He gets back to find the dog home.

I did not think this dog would be found, not alive anyway.  Chasing an emu?  Are you a stupid dog?  3 days lost in the bush?  Four days gone after running who knows how far in an area that he doesn't know....I honestly believe that it was the fact that all of us were there calling, looking, praying that got this dog home.  I believe that our combined *energy* led him home.

Frig, Frig and Frigging Frig!!

We had another night time visitor last night.  Hubby and I heard a noise around 1am and both get up to go see what it was.  I thought it was the chooks, he says the cat has the bandicoot.  He goes out the back door I go out the front.  He says again the cats there, something went in your garden still thinking a bandicoot.  I walked out the front towards where I usually see the bandicoot but know straight away that is wasn't that.  I smelt fox and sure enough looking around we find the feathers with blood and then I remember that I didn't shut the chookshed door or the gate to the chicken pen.  Go in the pen and see more feathers then find the black chook, dead.  No other chook, no chickens...

This fox has come right up in the yard near the house and through 2 open gates to get to these chooks. 

I feel angry with myself as I kinda knew that I should shut the gates...I didn't 'cause I was so sore and tired and in bed by half past eight and I couldn't be bothered getting up again and going outside.  Husband says they'll be right but I should have shut the gates. 

This morning we hear chicken chirping so I get up and I find 1 little chicken in the garden, all cold and alone.  I have it in a box but it will be lonely now and is at that stage of few feathers so now I may need to set up a light for it for nights and we don't have any of the globes that give off heat only those stupid new things.   So I'm feeling out of sorts for all kinds of reasons this morning.  AND!!  The crows are back stealing the eggs.  Not sure where from but I see them flying off with eggs and want to shoot them in the head! 

Off for another coffee and I think I need a *chill pill*

It's A Write-off.

This morning I was shown some photos.  Of my sons car.  Then I cried. 

This afternoon I saw my sons car.  And I cried.  And I heard the story and I cried and hugged him and thanked God that he was alright.

 That hole in the windscreen, bottom passenger side corner, that's where a tree branch went through.  It speared through and angled out the back window missing his head by a few inches.

 He was on his way home when it happened, not long after he was nearly gored by a wild boar.

What, me worry.

I suggested he settle down and stay home where he will be safe.  He says "nah, not gonna happen" 

While I was crying, thinking about what could have happened I said something about not even knowing if he was dead out in the bush and we wouldn't even know where to look if he was missing but was reassured by the husband that he would have been found sometime, probably within a few days...

So all is good and apparently I cry and worry for nothing.  

Bloody kids!!

Unwanted Nighttime Visitors.

I was lying in bed this morning wondering if it was too early to get up when I heard a noise outside.  So no, not too early and I get up, look for a torch, discard 2 that need new batteries, rummage under a pile of stuff and find another one and go out in the wet and cold.

Everything looks OK but I put on Hubby's old workboots and as I go clumping towards the chookpen I see some red eyes in there and I start shouting at the bloody things.  I hear them go out through the fence and think that there were at least 2 of them.   I go in the pen and see the chooks roosting, some in the fruit trees, some on the ground.  They all would have been an easy target.

Hubby will be home sometime today but not up to doing much so I will put them, the chooks,  in a lockup pen closer to the house tonight and borrow a foxtrap from a friend.  I might even sacrifice my liver to the buggers.  Well not my liver but the one in the fridge that I was planning on cooking for lunches.

Hubby will ask why I didn't get the gun out and shoot them but it was 4.30am.  And dark.  And son still has the gun.  And I can't shoot animals anyway...

I hate foxes.


Hours later....I am back from a walk and can definitely smell fox outside the gate and front fence.  I will ask son to bring his dogs out today and maybe get him and the daughters to save the dog poo for me.  I have heard that is a deterrent and other years when we have put it out we haven't had the foxes back.  Could be a coincidence but worth doing anyway.

Can We Be Prepared Enough?

Cyclone Yasi has been and gone and though a lot of property was destroyed there weren't many injuries.  One death has been reported (but I don't put that down to the cyclone.  He was using a generator inside) and from what I last heard at least 1 person is missing.
Over that side of Australia they have had floods, cyclones, fires.  People have been killed, houses and lives washed or blown away...It is all very sad.

I have heard that there arem also fires over East and I have just read about the bad storms and flooding going on in Victoria...
Surely this is not all normal?  Or is it that we hear about it more now, there are more cities, towns and people affected because there are more cities, towns and people...

Over here in WA we too have had floods and storms and fires.
Hubby has been away this week cleaning up after a massive storm knocked down trees and made a mess of the bush area and blocked off roads where they are working.

It is happening all over the world.  We are always hearing about people being killed in Natural Disasters.

I don't personally know anyone that has been badly affected and I think that makes me a bit blase about it all.  I think it is horrible but it's been happening forever, here and in other countries, and it will continue happening.

It is hard to believe though that there are still thousands of people that are not prepared in any way.  Some people, even knowing that they are in areas where cyclones and storms happen regularly and that they may be cut off, do not have enough food in the house for more than a day or so.  I do know people like this.  They think it wont happen or that the shops will always be there...

I like to think that we could live through a lot of things but really, we probably couldn't.  We would easily manage with no power for a week or two.  We have rainwater tanks.  I have a stockpile of food and things put away.  But when I think about it it is not as good as it should be...If the water tank was blown away or struck by lightening we could use the water from the dam out the back.  But it's not clean enough to drink...
If a storm destroyed all the gardens then fresh food would be scarce.  It the roof blew off the house?  I'd camp in one of the sheds if they were still standing otherwise...What is our plan?

What I need to do is think about what is most likely to happen and to do things that will make it easier if it ever did.   I have a long way to go and might work on that this year.

A few years ago a tornado went through this area.  It didn't hit this house but a couple of houses down the road were damaged.  What would I do if I was home alone and there was a massive storm here?  I'd probably freak out and panic.  After that...I dunno. I should learn and have a plan in place.

*I do have a plan for if I am here alone and *boogymans* came.  I hope I never have to use it.
*When our water is turned off for 2 days I can manage.  It's better when I get notice that it will happen but the last 2 times we had no notice.  We planned and we manage.
*When I can't move very well for 2 days, I have a plan in place and manage OK.
*If Hubby couldn't work for a few months...we could manage because we have planned for it.
Do you have a plan for what *might* happen?   Do you stockpile?   Do you have an emergency bag ready to go?  

I'd be interested in your thoughts on this subject so please leave a comment and let me know your ideas.


ETA.  And now there are massive fires around Perth and north of....Dozens of houses burnt, hundreds of hectares of bushland... People evacuated...How do you prepare for something like that!