Animals

I mistrust people who don't like animals. As a general rule I prefer animals to people, particularly cats, dogs and horses. I am quite fond of cows, pigs and chickens as well. I am a bit afraid of goats and most of my experience of sheep comes from growing up watching A Dog's Show.

For my young and overseas friends, A Dog's Show was a New Zealand television show featuring sheepdog trials. It was broadcast between 1977 and 1992 (for context I was aged between 6 and 21 years old while this TV show aired). It was on Sunday nights at 6pm. Now, this was a much gentler time, when we had 2, maybe 3, TV channels (so not much to choose from). It is nice to imagine that most of New Zealand was watching sheepdog trials on Sundays at 6pm. I absolutely loved that show and I was most definitely on the side of the dogs and the shepherds. The opening tune, Flowers on the Wall, had us rushing into the lounge and piling on the sofa. You can imagine my surprise when the next time I heard that tune was in the movie Pulp Fiction released a couple of years after A Dog's Show ended.

I am now the proud owner of a Huntaway dog. They went first in A Dog's Show. They are a New Zealand dog breed, designed to drive sheep away from the shepherd over steep high country. They are very clever, strong, loyal and full of energy. If you'd like to know more about the breed here is a link to a lovely wee video. My University friend, Jill, lived on a huge sheep farm in Dunsandel. I used to love going there in the Uni breaks and could often be found at the end of the day hanging out with the working dogs housed outside in kennels. Our new puppy, Stella, is a rescue dog. She has quite a different life to a farm dog but I do try and get her a day or two a week off leash so she can run about like an Exocet missile. She has quickly captured my heart. I didn't think I could love another dog as much as I loved our last dog, Molly. It seems I can.

We got Molly before we were married. She was always a sickly dog, did not like other dogs, suffered terribly from separation anxiety, was fussy and not at all food driven and in retrospect displayed some quite problematic behaviour.

We adored each other. She was ecstatic every time I walked through the door. No matter how bad a day I'd had, it would fade away when I got home to a warm Molly welcome. My one dog fan club.

She was an old girl during the first Nationwide COVID lockdown and how she loved having us all home with her. She spent the day snoring under my desk while I worked and we went on little adventures. She was quite poorly at the end of her life but her death in January 2021 was sudden and traumatic. She left a huge void for me. Not long after she died I was diagnosed with cancer. I missed her so much when I was sick. She was one of the great loves of my life.

I had Molly and my cat Amy included in our "getting ready" wedding photos. Molly was with Bill and Amy was at home with me on our wedding day. I am so glad. It is lovely to have that moment recorded with them.

I have owned at least one Abyssinian cat for the last 20 years. I am onto my fourth one, Alfie. They are beautiful cats. I am particularly fond of blue Abys. I have had three - Amenti, Amy and Alfie. My other Aby, Jack, was a tawny. They have all been full of personality and been very much their own special selves but Jack was quite the local celebrity and we did not appreciate that until he was tragically killed, hit my a car, half a kilometre away on the main road. I live at the end of a cul de sac (a prerequisite when house hunting because I had two cats at the time) and you can tell my pets were front and centre in my mind while house hunting. My house is paradise for domestic pets. There is bush, a stream, a golf course, not much traffic and lots of open space. Unbeknownst to us during Jack's lifetime he visited several neighbours with small children and hung out during the day. He frequented the golf course opposite and was known to leap from the undergrowth and pounce on golf balls that had landed on the greens and move them (which made the golfers either happy or sad). We were also told that he terrorised a local dachshund out on his daily walk by leaping from the undergrowth by the stream path, all arching of back and spitting and growling, and the poor dog was too scared to pass.

And of course, I love horses. My perfect property would have room for some - you need to have more than one because they are a social animal. Horses form strong bonds with each other and can feel great loss if they are separated from their friends. They also have amazing memories and can remember horse and human friends all their lives. What I love most about them is their ability to recognise your emotions. They know if you are having a bad day and depending on the horse, will either provide comfort or try and exploit that by being challenging! My biggest gift to myself through my cancer recovery has been learning to ride. I look forward to my weekly lesson. I will never be a Mark Todd but it is wonderful to spend a hour a week in the company of horses.

My goal, should I be lucky enough to get to retirement age or win lotto, is to have a lifestyle block with a couple of horses, a couple of dogs and a few cats. I'll grow vegetables and some grapes and learn how to make wine. I might do a BA in English literature. But I'm now straying into some of my other loves which ideally will have their own blog posts. I shall leave you with some photos of my fur kids...

Stella

The wonderful late Molly

Alfie

My horse friends of Pataua North

Razz - the horse I have most of my lessons on