Last Monday, I drove to Mudgee to get Gypsy’s rescue remedy. Of course there were a few things I needed as well, but I wanted to be home by lunch time so I hadn’t left her alone for too long. I succeeded in doing this, and gave her her first dose of rescue remedy as soon as I’d unpacked the car. There was a slight improvement almost straight away, and a steady improvement since. She gradually stopped hiding, and stopped looking guilty. She still looks sad from time to time, and still won’t come into the living room unless I have the lead to go walkies, or I’m giving her a treat. So, this is something I will have to work on, and try to encourage her into the living room and help her to realise nothing bad is going to happen. She has started barking at people going past, and is more openly stealing the cat food.
She hasn’t been without her “moments” though. One day I decided to put on her lead while I was sitting on the back steps. She got so excited, she actually fell off the steps! With her lead on, and me hanging onto the other end! As you can imagine I got a big shock too! The good thing was she didn’t fall and hurt herself, but she was dangling by her neck! Fortunately not for long, because I reached down and grabbed hold of her so I could let go of the lead and put her back where she was supposed to be….on the step. I decided then that I wouldn’t put the lead on her there any more. We went on the walk with no ill effects, although I was still in a tizz….
A couple of days later we walked to the bank. She was having a lovely time, head held high, tail up, when I noticed another small dog race in front of us to bark at a dog on the other side of the road. Gypsy and I just kept on going, when suddenly this same little dog ran up beside us. She and Gypsy sniffed each other, then the other dog laid into Gypsy! There was a lot of noise, and a lot of snarling, but I didn’t want to grab hold of Gypsy and risk getting bitten, so I started hitting (not hard…just enough to break her concentration) the other dog with my hiking stick. This eventually worked, and I picked Gypsy up and I walked away as fast as I could. Gypsy kept looking back, and so did I, and once the other dog was no longer in sight, I put Gypsy down. She kept looking back, and had her tail between her legs. When I got her home, I gave her some rescue remedy, and she seemed ok.
While we were making our escape I heard a man call the dog. I thought he was in one of the shops, and was making a poor attempt at controlling his dog, but I didn’t see who it was. I was more concerned at getting Gypsy out of harm’s way. The next day we went for another walk. It was a fairly long one, and by the time we hit the main street the shops were closed. So we just meandered up the street, with Gypsy checking her wee mail from time to time, and me checking out things of interest in the windows. Then I noticed that the police car was out in front of the “cop shop” but with the engine still running. I didn’t think too much about it, and just kept on going. However, when we got closer, the police car did a u turn so that he pulled up next to us! He rolled down his window and spoke to me. I got a bit of a shock, but realised from his tone he wasn’t about to arrest me…. He actually told me that he was the owner of the dog that had been harassing Gypsy and he apologised profusely. He said she should have been named Houdini….and the fence to his house is continually in need of repair. She of course finds every hole. He rents the house from the Police Department, which has a typical government attitude to repairs….find the cheapest way to do things, even if it means you end up paying more in the long run. So, he has to jump up and down to get anything done to the fence. Instead of fixing the whole fence at once, they decided they’d only do the worst bit, which means he still has to block any holes as they appear, and hope they’ll get organised and do a bit more repair for him. He said he’d managed to keep her inside the yard all that day, and said the reason he waited there was in case she came rushing out…and he could catch her. He also said he didn’t want her to get a head start on him because he had stitches in his leg which hamper him somewhat (which is why he was slow getting her under control the day before). I don’t know how he manages if he has to chase baddies….perhaps his colleagues do that, and he just drives the car…
I was quite amused by all this, but I thought it was lovely he apologised.
During the week I did the washing (actually I usually wash a couple of times a week), but this particular day I wheeled my trolley out to the line and noticed a HUGE spider web. It was attached to the rotary clothes line at the top, and the ground at the bottom. The line is a bit higher than eye level for me, so the web was well over 5 feet high at the top. It was also stopping the clothesline turning in the breeze. I’m sorry I didn’t see it first thing in the morning with dew on it. By the time I saw it all the dew had evaporated, and there was a certain amount of damage to the web. There were a couple of dainty morsels wrapped in silk for later consumption, but no sign of the spider. I used the rest of the line and tried not to disturb the web too much…
Last Thursday, Gypsy and I went for our walk to the river. As we arrived there, I paused to look to see if I could see any sign of the platypus, even though it was a bit early in the day. Just as we were looking two sulphur crested cockatoos (white cockies) flew down and perched on a couple of wires that go across the river. They then proceeded to put on a circus act, and dangled from the wires by their feet and beaks. Luckily I had my camera, and I managed to get a couple of shots of them! It’s usually the galahs that do this sort of thing.
Friday came, which was the day I was supposed to go to the skin clinic, at Katoomba in the Blue Mountains, a couple of hours away. There were three of us going. Seeing it’s quite a distance away, we pool our resources, and costs. About an hour before we were due to leave I got a phone call from our driver, who was feeling unwell, and had decided not to go. I then had to ring the other lady to re organise things, seeing we would now need a new driver. It took me quite some time to finally catch up with her and we decided we would take my car, and she would give me directions for parking if I needed them….with my neck problems, parking (and getting out of the parking spot) can be a trial. We eventually set off and I was pleased to note that while Gypsy looked disappointed she was being left behind, she didn’t look heart-broken. The drive took us a little longer than it should have, because we needed to get petrol for the car, and there were road works. We also had a bit of trouble finding a car park….the first place we checked out was full, the next one had a limit of one hour…but the final place we looked was just right! We gathered our belongings (including my hiking stick) and took off in search of a loo. Katoomba is a very hilly place, and the place we thought a loo would be was, of course, up hill. When we got there, the building was undergoing renovations, and they directed us back DOWN hill to the closest loos. We finally found them, and then set off, up hill again, to find somewhere we could buy lunch. We found a place where my friend had a HUGE chicken salad roll, and I had pumpkin soup. Thus fortified, we headed up hill again in the direction of the skin clinic. We had a bit of time to kill so we engaged in some window shopping, but avoided the shop with hand made chocolates….they were expensive…and VERY tempting. We were nearly at the top of the hill, and checking out the local “posh” pub’s gardens. Katoomba in days gone by had been the place of choice of the well to do to come for holidays. These days it has an air of decayed grandeur and is a mecca for backpackers and hippies. It is surrounded by beautiful scenery (the Three Sisters, and many lovely waterfalls). Anyway as we turned back to the street, I noticed a familiar face. It was Linda, my only niece! She actually lives in the Blue Mountains, but quite a distance away, but had come up here on a job…she’s a gardener (although trained as a high school teacher), and was on her lunch break. We spent a few minutes talking, and then she had to go. We kept heading towards the clinic but spent a few minutes (and dollars) in a second hand book shop.
We both survived the skin clinic, although my friend had to have some nasties burnt off her forehead. Neither of us have to go back for twelve months. We headed back to the car, which was downhill from where we had been, and had an uneventful trip home. Gypsy was overjoyed to see me, but didn’t seem at all distressed. In fact, as I’ve been typing this, we’ve just had fireworks (it was show day today) and while she was initially startled by them, she seems to have coped normally, and just sat in her box next to me.
Here’s hoping she’s finally on the mend…
Mamaroo's Diary 