Category: Volunteering

Our acreage property seems to be shrinking. I’ve never spent a lot of time walking around it before but since Ebony arrived and we’ve had to accompany her around the yard, I’m becoming much more familiar with the terrain. Enjoying the exercise too, bad leg and all. Have even exchanged more frequent greetings with the neighbours.

Lately (touch wood) Ebony seems less interested in escaping and more interested in the local wildlife – birds, lizards. Her nose is down the entire time and she seems to be following endless trails in the yard. Watching her is enough to make you dizzy, her path is something like the flight of the bumble bee – wandering and backtracking all over the place.

She still likes to be the centre of attention, butting in when we’re spending time with Boss or Sasha. This morning I was sweeping the kitchen floor and she planted herself right in the middle of where I was sweeping as if to say – don’t worry about the floor, here I am!

It stings! I had Ebony on rope yesterday and she’d tangled herself around some trees. I let go of my end and started pulling the rope free. She saw the end moving through the grass and took off after it, giving me rope burn along my left arm, wrist and hand.

Apart from the odd incident (like pullng H’s work uniforms off the line the other day) she seems to be doing ok. She still demands lots of attention, but I find if you give her plenty of cuddles to begin with eventually she settles down.

At times H finds this very annoying, which is understandable when you’ve just come home from work the last thing you want is a pushy dog in your face. Unfortunately telling her off just seems to stir her up, you need a lot of patience with her.

Sometimes she gets unbearable for both of us so she goes out. She has this habit of hitting the deck when she knows she’s in trouble, and she’s too heavy to lift or drag. Luckily a bit of Schmackos works wonders.

Less stress about Ebony making a run for it since we took to tying a long line to her collar whenever she is let out into the yard. You normally have to hang on to the other end though, because she still heads for that corner where she can climb out. Something very fascinating about next door’s dam and new puppy.

With the line on from time to time Ebony does a funny looking sideways walk, and sometimes her back legs seem to walk faster than her front legs. Sometimes there are lots of interesting smells around and she can’t get to them all quickly enough – it’s as if someone has pressed “fast forward” on the remote control.

Feeding the three dogs together in the morning has been no problem (touch wood). Humorous to watch as they rotate to each other’s bowls looking for scraps, they are very well coordinated.

I think Ebony is gradually settling in. She still does naughty things, like digging holes in her pen, shredding blankets and taking ages to calm down when we let her indoors, but I have this idea that underneath the high spirits she is a good dog in need of discipline and routine. She is very intelligent but can be a little wilful at times so when my leg is better I would like to do some obedience training with her.

We’ve discovered how spoilt we have been with well behaved dogs. Ebony is a real adventure seeker and you can’t take your eyes off her. After the dam incident she escaped into neighbouring properties twice yesterday when H was in the yard with her.

This morning I let her out of her run and she took off like a shot after some chooks which had wandered into our yard. I hobbled after and watched as she caught one, there were feathers everywhere. Fortunately the chook got away, but I had trouble getting Ebony back. She wouldn’t come when I called so I ended up hobbling down to her and carrying her back to the house.

Ah dear. H has just come back into the house after taking Ebony for a run. He’s not happy. Ebony ran right down to the bottom of the yard and climbed the fence into the neighbours property. H had to climb after her to get her back.

It’s not nice to have to keep a dog restrained but we are going to have to accept that at least in the short term, Ebony can not be trusted to stay in the yard.

Ebony joined us again late yesterday afternoon, and settled in right away. It was hard to see how she could have been a problem at the other place but I guess it’s fortunate she and Boss seem to have made friends with each other. It would be different if they were constantly fighting.

Panic stations this morning as I went out to gather the dogs dishes for breakfast – she was nowhere to be seen. She’d been about at 5am when I’d let Sasha out.

I hopped into the car and drove around the nearby streets looking for signs of a mad black dog running around, while H went about on foot calling her. As I was coming back to the house H met me at the gate and pointed down the road – there was a soaking wet, happy black dog running towards us. She’d been for a dip in the neighbour’s dam!

Little bugger, she is lying at the back door now with the most innocent expression on her face. No idea how she got out, unless she managed to squeeze her fat little body through the gap in the gate. We’re thinking of getting a kid’s wading pool so she can take a swim here at home.

I visited a local school today to accept a donation of dog food on behalf of the dog rescue group. The kids had been collecting cans for weeks and were very excited about the project. I had to make a loo stop along the way but got there on time and made a nice speech to the assembly.

I got back to work afterwards, and one of the first things someone said to me was “do you know your fly is undone”.