Mid June catch up

In all the craziness of the May and June, I forgot to mention some of the smaller things. There’s actually been more happening than just competing and then Lassie’s puppies.

 

First of all, you all know about our usual trip to the Gympie Show to compete with the dogs. You also know about our young cat Gyvie, who turned one year old in March. Well, we were parked up at Six Mile Creek, just on the edge of Gympie, for a few days before the show. On the 16th of May we packed up and prepared to head to the showgrounds for the three day show. We started the bus. We all sat down and then… “Do we have the cat?” Um, no. We didn’t. We spent two hours of searching under our beds, in the cupboards, behind the seats, then the whole camp, across the road, in the surrounding bush, around the rugby clubhouse up the track, under piles of junk, and we even crossed the creek to look in the scrub over there. But there was no sign of Gyvie. We had to go into town, so after shopping and picking up some last minute show supplies, we went back. Nothing. Still no cat. We put up a lost cat sign in the toilet block and left for the showgrounds. The show was great, and we were so busy having a good time we mostly forgot about Gyvie. But when the last of the bulls had been loaded into the trucks to be taken away, the music had been turned off, and the grandstands were empty, he was the only thing on anyone’s mind. On the 20th of May we returned to Six Mile Creek and searched again. Nothing. We were all devastated. Apart from being our pet, Gyvie is kinda like a living memory of a really rough patch in our lives. We went to bed with most of us in tears. Then, in the very early hours of the morning, I heard something. At first I thought it was just a sound in my dreams. But as I slowly woke up, I could still hear it. “Gyvie!” I yanked open my curtain and scrambled from my bed, Jessica right behind me as I dashed into the kitchen. And there was Gyvie, standing on the bench, meowing at the top of his lungs and in remarkably good condition. No injuries. He wasn’t skinny, although he was very happy to see his food bowl again!

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And then there was Lassie’s second birthday on the 18th of May. We brought Lassie as an eight week old puppy at the Emerald Fieldays. She was so small that when she had a drink, her tummy nearly touched the ground! We called her a barrel on legs.

She quickly grew into a sweet but hyperactive young dog. She’s always been kinda shy around other dogs – I dunno why. Often her focus during agility runs was awful. Once she ran straight into a jump, and another time she totally misjudged the hoop and crashed into the side of it.

It wasn’t until she was over a year old that she could actually jump without crashing into something!

Lassie loves water and rocks. If you drop a rock in the creek she’ll stick her head under the water to find it. We’re trying to break her bad habit of picking up random stuff – because it’s not just sticks anymore. She’ll pick up stones, glass, bits of bark, hay, and leaves. It’s become an obsession. She also can’t read other dogs body language. She’ll come up to Sparkie and lick her face, paying no attention to Sparkie’s snarling and doesn’t stop licking and wriggling even when Sparkie growls and bites Lassie’s muzzle.

Apart from her bad habits, she’s a beautiful, lovable dog. And her pups aren’t half bad either! :)

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We also took the bus over the pits for it’s yearly “check up” and it passed! Always a good thing when there’s nothing wrong with our bus – when there is something wrong it’s usually pretty expensive to fix. Daddy’s been working on the rust the last month or so, so our bus often looks patchy!