Dodo Au Go-Go

A few weeks ago, I dreamt about my Bodie-Boy. It was a joyous moment, and he was as happy to see me as I was to see him. It’s the only dream of him I’ve had (that I can remember). It’s been 2 months and several days since we lost Bodie. If I think of him, I still disintegrate into tears. Because I miss him. Because of the way he suffered in his last few days. Because I want to tell him I’m sorry for how he suffered. Because I tried to be with him in his last few days, but I didn’t know how much pain he was in. I really thought he would get better. Because of the way he didn’t want to get into the car for that last trip to the vet. Because he knew. And I didn’t. Because maybe that wasn’t the way he wanted to leave - us, this life. Because I didn’t say the goodbye to him that I wanted to at the vet’s, because I didn’t feel I could get sentimental with all the vet people looking on matter-of-factly, and now I wish I had. And because I’m so sorry. There’ve been all sort...

We lost our beautiful Bodie-Boy this week. It was completely unexpected. I’m half-functioning and half-tears. I miss my little woof-boy. He was a stumpy-tailed cattle-dog. They’re meant to be long-lived. He was meant to have a long, happy life with us. Instead, he’s gone. The whole world stopped, started again, but now nothing feels right. Bodie got sick. We didn’t realise how sick. We thought he was constipated. We encouraged extra water, we watched his bowel movements. When he vomited more than twice, we took him to the vet and got an injection of antibiotics. The vomiting went away, we gave him softer foods, we encouraged him, we watched his bowel movements and made sure he was still going. We knew he wasn’t 100 percent, but we weren’t too worried. He was still running and barking at cars; he was still wagging his tail. Then two weeks later, the vomiting came back. We went back to the vet, got antibiotics in tablet form. He was still eating. We were still monitorin...

In the late afternoon of our first truly warm Saturday of spring (27 degrees - woohoo!), my stumpy-tailed cattle dog woofer, Indi-Girl, and I went for a little stroll at Hassan's Wall. Hassan's Wall is a lookout with magnificent views of the Hartley Vale area which undulates gently between the Blue Mountains and the country town of Lithgow, in New South Wales. Indi hadn't been there before, and she was absolutely bursting to smell ALL the new smells AT THE SAME TIME. So to calm her down a bit, we walked a couple of hundred metres down the driving track, away from all the lookout points, just to get the scented lay of the land for a bit. For good measure, we wandered down an overgrown side track that didn't go anywhere. I'm guessing it's an off-the-main-track parking spot for the likes of the NSW Parks and Wildlife, or the NSW Rural Fire Service folk. Anyway, the little saunter worked, and Indi settled into a more relaxed mode of grooving around. So we bac...

Before you start reading, it helps to know that Indi is the girl on the right and Bodie is the boy on the left. Indi: Our humans putting weird Things on our heads... Hey. You have treat? I want treat.  Bodie: Omnomnom. Treat yum, but stupid Thing on head. Hurry. Chew treat. Get Thing off head.