Day 75 – Time to build an ark?

I have decided that it is possible that the rain might never stop. My sister recently suggested that it might be time to consider building an Ark. I’ll check in with the Bandycoot to see if he’s up to the task. We certainly have enough timber here. I’m glad the Old Dairy is up on a hill, though I worry how the alpacas are coping with it all down in the paddock.

Jazzie with cabin fever: 'Can we please go for a walk!'

I don’t know if it’s the cold weather or the change in environment, but little pup Indie has become quite skinny and I decide to take her to the vet for a check-up. It’s early when we arrive in Burnie so I take the pups for a run at the beach. They love attention and once we get down on to the sand, they make a big fuss of lady from Tullah (which got snow this morning). She’s quite taken with them too, and when she sets off further down the beach, I can see that they're facing the dilemma of whether to follow her or stay with me.

We get a different vet from last time and it’s quite an elderly gentleman. He’s very thorough and declares she’s in great health, not skinny but toned from all the exercise they’re getting down here. I’m thrilled to get the all clear from vet! Now that I know that Indie is a lean mean puppy-machine, it’s off to fish & chip lunch at a different beach to celebrate. Both pups get lots of pats from strangers as we have our meal, which is their favourite thing in the world (at the moment).

Day 74 - Snow day!

We wake up to our first real snowstorm as we can see snowflakes streaming down outside the bedroom window. The Bandycoot (my boyfriend) leaps up to grab his camera to capture this moment. It’s short-lived and proves almost impossible to photograph. There are showers and sleet throughout the grey day, where we spend most of it by the fireplace.

When we have a break in the weather, we take the pups out for a run in the damp fields as they are starting to get cabin fever. The winds are howling, the rain is intermittent but somehow we make our way down to the river. Before I only used my gumboots for music festivals, but now I don’t know how to get through the day without them. I tromp through the mud and puddles, try not to get blown away. The wild weather doesn’t seem to slow the puppies down at all and they are wet and muddied through when we get back to the Old Dairy.

We have been giving them a bath almost every day after our wet walks, and it’s quite a process of giving them a soak in the laundry tub and then rinsing them off and quickly rolling them around in a towel before they take off for a big shake. So today, we decided, was the day to see how they would go in the shower with the Bandycoot. Overall, I’d say a success, aside from a few scratches where they tried to make a break for it. I was waiting in the wings with a towel before I let them out of the bathroom and over to the fireplace for them to twist and roll on the carpet to get dry.

A wet Indie with my fabulous gumboots behind.