Little Gifts

Go Wilma!

A whole bunch of committees were given the axe. Apparently any outstanding committee work will go back to the govt agency it sprang from to be completed. Or not.

I'm sure I've come across holier than thou in this thread only because I have roughed it and for an extended period of time. The Australian outback is a harsh beast and presents lots of dangers. We never came close to starving because of our preparation and planning but on one occasion our tent was nearly trampled by buffalo, another time we camped too close to an unseen river bank and had crocs thrashing their tails on our tent (that was a hairy escape) and one time we found ourselves in the middle of nowhere certain we were being stalked and were going to die. Every single day was focussed on survival at all levels. You have to worry about your transport, food, water, health, shelter, weather, wild animals, terrain, personal safety, other people and your carbon footprint. Transport, water, daylight hours left and a safe place to sleep each night were probably our biggest daily concerns. We heard many tales of what others did in similar situations and knew how far we were prepared to go ourselves to be out there. So I feel I have some insight into what is required and have a strong opinion on things. At 50 years of age I also know myself pretty well and know under what circumstances I would kill but not eat my pet dog (or other humans). Same if the animal was a horse. I apologise if I came off as dismissive of anyone else whose opinions differed to mine. I love DOL because of it's diversity. (But I still think this guy was an idiot!)

Oh the pain that poor dog suffered! For her to get what she did wrong perhaps a bone in her leg needs to be exposed and left untreated. If Rainy was fine with only 2 legs then she should be fine with just 1, right?

Two different entities who don't talk to each other here in QLD too!

I have never received anything from NPR regarding the microchip in any of mine or my sister's dogs. And while I get the microchip number from my vet (or the rescue group) when the chipping is done, the issue for me is that if the registration hasn't gone through properly there is nothing to match the dog to me. In this instance NPR isn't even recognising that number so it wouldn't even lead Temp back to Ams or the vet who the chip number was allocated to. Not sure how the hell that could happen in this age of technology - surely that number is 'allocated' at least? We don't get any confirmation letters from council (Logan City and Gold Coast City) either - just the annual registration invoice which includes the microchip number (because I gave it to them!). But my dogs don't wear collars/council tags at home so if one escaped the yard or the verandah before they were harnessed (which Stussy has done) then I would be stuffed without those chips. I would be devastated if I lost Temp knowing she wasn't protected by her chip.

I'm not letting Temp do any free ranging until I know her chip is on the register. I am very grateful for this thread as I would've never known otherwise.

OK. Memo to self. Never ever do anything for fun incase of a disaster. You do realise that people experience disaster every day of the year just 'having fun' right? This guy was an experienced hiker who frequently spent weeks alone in the wilderness. Ofcourse no one forced him to go out there. People do stuff like this all the time. What should we all do - lock ourselves in our houses just incase we become victims of something catastrophic? Just watch out for that meteor that might land on your house. What irks you - that he had to resort to eating his dog to stay alive or that he's still alive but in critical condition? The guy's planning irks me Raz. He wasn't prepared. He cost his dog it's life. He put his own life at risk. He put the lives of his rescuers at risk. I assume he also caused his family a lot of stress. And after the bear attack his behaviour also lacked any knowledge. I know some of this is speculation but he ate his dog after only a few days but was still lost out there for many more weeks after that so obviously he found something else to eat. Was he nude when the camp was trashed? Did the bear eat 3 months of food AND all his tools and weapons in the one go? Or were they in his canoe and it got sunk to the bottom of a deep river? If he had a small pocket knife in his pocket when his camp was trashed he could've made traps and spears. Could he use the sun/stars as a compass? Could he light a fire without matches or a flint? He could've succumbed to the cold as much as hunger. If he was near water surely there was something he could've trapped and eaten? If not why couldn't he walk to a better trapping spot? I'm assuming he boated it in, which is why he couldn't walk out, but what about keeping a signal fire going? Was he still trying to fulfil his dream of staying there the whole three months despite what had happened? It is just not making sense to me really if he was that experienced. And I hate to say it but he could've also sharpened some of his dogs uncooked bones to create a spear tip/knife. Maybe he did and that is just not pleasant enough to talk about in the media? I am happy he survived his ordeal, I'm sure he will have his own demons to deal with. I just hope he never tries to do this again because he either isn't made for it or he is jinxed.

Chips are also useless if the paperwork never made it into the system. Temp has a chip but for whatever reason I found out today she is not registered. You think they could've contacted me or Ams when they got the bleeding change of ownership form and my money back in January! Given she hates leaving the front verandah and certainly wouldn't go anywhere with a 'stranger' the likelihood of her going missing is low to zilch. She'd be pounding on the front door to be let back in.

I had several Christmas offers but my lovely family (we know I have some not-so-lovely too) will be staying here over Christmas. Plus my sister works long hours over Christmas and New Year and she would run away if left to care for herself, mum and dad, any visitors and three dogs! I'm already taken in March as well - another DOLer. I do love NSW. I was born in Wollongong, have lived here and there in the state and still have family spread out down there. I love dogs - all breeds, sizes, ages and personalities. And I love to go for a bit of a drive, so there are loads of benefits to doing this for me! You also get to meet some lovely/cool people!

I actually wouldn't even have a house dog with me. If I had a hunting dog or a sled pulling dog then yes, maybe, as it would serve a purpose. If I was unable to provide for my dog and it was going to suffer and die then I would kill it as humanely as I could. I'd have to be crazy hungry to consider eating it though. I'd really rather eat moss than go down that path as psychologically I might not recover from that kind of decision and I can imagine not being able to keep it down anyway, which would put me in a worse position physically. (Same when it comes to eating another human being to survive. I think I would rather die and be eaten than eat another human being. I honestly can't imagine keeping it down and I can't imagine my inner demons letting me survive the experience sane.) This might make me sound like a hypocrite but if I had taken my dog with me on a trip like this and if I had to kill my dog because it was injured or sick beyond my saving and if I myself was starving and had no other protein option, I would use it's dead body as bait to attract and trap other animals I could eat/keep down. I'm assuming that would be a controversial decision with some people but that would be my strategy for surviving in those specific circumstances. It certainly wouldn't be Plan A, B, C, etc but it would have to be given serious consideration if everything out there went to shit and I was the last woman standing. (I must add that I can't imagine using a deceased person as bait. Psychologically I would never recover from that either and if it meant I died then I died.)

Oh Jennabub! Some things are just not meant to be. Thank you for giving Koda all the love he deserved over his short and sometimes difficult life. I'll be looking for his star in the sky tonight. XXX

I do it and just ask for a donation for Peiradise and some food in the fridge as payment! I love going to someone else's place and living their life for a period of time. For me it is all about the dogs so I don't tend to go anywhere else and I try and follow the same routine they are used to. I think it is a great learning experience for me and because I immerse myself in it I find it quite relaxing. I do take books and music and craft to do while the dogs nap! If needed I also drop off and pick up from airports, make meals for that first night home, visit beforehand, bribe with beautiful treats made by Ams. I'm going to stay somewhere in two weeks and have had several meet ups with the dogs as one was abused and is very distrustful of new peeps and situations. He now lies on his back in front of me for belly rubs! His poor owners have not had a holiday for years simply because they worried about leaving him, so it feels good to help them out. They also have special neighbours who drop notes into their letterbox if one of their dogs even farts next to the shared fence so being there all the time also helps with that situation.

I just checked using that website (thank you GbDb!) and had to update our contact info for Stussy and Wolf. Even worse - no record of Tempeh's number! Not happy about that and will be ringing NPR tomorrow! My worst nightmare! So now all I need to do is have all 3 scanned by my vet to make sure the chips are reading and they contain the same number. My advice is don't assume everything is ok just because you paid your money and sent off your form.

I spent two years living in a tent, camping around Australia with my then boyf, sourcing our own food and water most nights. We fished with our limited resources and climbed coconut trees. We camped near water wherever possible (which also meant buffalo and crocs in the territory). I can start a fire without matches, lighter or flint. I know how to heat rocks to keep me warm and get water from a hole in the ground or leaves and cook on the most basic of structures. Survival and safety is your top priority. To me he was unprepared for an emergency or a disaster if all it took was one lousy bear to put him at that kind of risk. How did every knife, gun, bow, arrow, fish hook, rope, etc get damaged beyond use? You can do an awful lot with just one knife. You never keep all your valuables together for a start and you always have a mini emergency kit on your own body at all times. As for keeping his food safe and out of bear grasp, that's a whole other issue. I don't care if he ate the last platypus on earth - in my eyes he wasn't prepared and his dog paid the price for that very early on in his trip and he seems like the kind of tool who will do something similar again. The world needs adventurers, but not idiots.

The big deal for me is that if he was prepared or knew anything about his environment he would've been able to source his own food to survive regardless of what the bear did to his canoe and supplies. Did the bear eat his knives? He killed his dog by smashing its head with a rock. With a knife he could've fashioned a spear to get fish or animals down holes. I'd live on beetles and bark before I resorted to killing my only companion for warmth and sanity. And I sure as hell would've given it a cleaner death with my knife if I had to end it's suffering. I don't have any sympathy for him because locals told him what a difficult place it was and it was clear he went in there only prepared for everything to go well. Mother Nature isn't like that. His dog paid the price and he nearly followed. Lots of other people's lives were subsequently put at risk saving his stupid arse. Just edited to remind people the bear incident happened very early in his trip and so did eating his dog. He survived quite a number of weeks out there after these things happened and before he was found near death, only after his family sounded the alarm after his initial three months was up.

Totally agree. What, he couldn't catch fish? Set a snare for rabbits? Eat moss or berries? I wouldn't have killed the dog. I should rephrase, I couldn't kill my dog in that situation. This is why I think he was unprepared. Even with the loss of tools from the bear attack, to be able to survive in an emergency situation he could've at least taken a bloody boy scout manual on how to improvise or watched a few Bear Grylls DVDs before he left home! The attack happened early in his trip and because he was overdue home his family raised the alarm, so he was in that predicament for months, not just a couple of weeks. It took the searchers 8 days to find him and he was nearly dead. Why did he not try to get back to civilisation earlier under his own steam? I also hate to say it but I suspect he took his dog for protection as well as company and I'm not sure that is fair on the dog. And if the bear wrecked the camp what was he going to feed the dog if he couldn't even feed himself? I hope the guy has a lot of regrets and never again attempts something so foolish.

It is clear he wasn't prepared. He had no back up plan in the event he lost his canoe and/or food and/or hunting/protection equipment. With just that one event he lost everything and he almost lost himself too. It's unnessecary. Even Grizzly Adams needed some buddies out there!

Many years ago I ended up with my sister's wayward BC. It was not happy with us and used to run away quite a bit. We lived semi rural. After one escape I went to the pound, saw the naughty dog there and went to claim it only to be told it was wearing a council tag registered to another person. I was livid and was told to come back with evidence of ownership such as photos. So off I went. I came back with a fistful of photos to find the 'other owner' there bailing her dog out. I also discovered that the dog in the pound looked nothing like the dog I was looking for! How embarrassing but at least it forced the owner to retrieve their dog rather than let it languish in the pound for multiple days over summer. I don't know if they would use photos as a form of evidence supporting ownership these days though. Seems unlikely.

Where's the 'Like' button when you need it!

But does this mean anything really? I am going to ring them and read the number and MAKE SURE my details are correct. I am going to get my vet to scan them as well to and double check the number. Basically I want to know if my dog is scanned the correct number shows up AND that number leads back to me.

How bizarre Greytpets! She must've rued the day she was born female! Unnessecary operations seems like a pretty good reason to get ear tattoos when a dog is desexed then! Well unless it is in the best interest of the dog not to of course. I'm sure few human beings would like to be opened up to find out their appendix was already gone!

I had to vote yes. Over the years I have taken long OS holidays and one of my dogs could travel into another council area making it hard for a temp carer to locate them. My heart girl loves everybody and would settle in with new people very quickly. Mine are micro chipped but I have never even double checked the pet register to make sure their details are correct so that is why I say this could happen. I would be heartbroken to lose my girls and so I would like to think a new owner would take pity on my circumstances and return my girls to me. I'd be at the RSPCA every day crying my eyes out till they helped reunite us too. What else could I do? I would be so, so grateful to the adopting family and would offer recompense and even visitation rights if I had to! A timely reminder for all of us to check our micro chip details are current. And if your dog is not micro chipped then I hope you have a really, really good reason that is in the best interests of your dog. :D

What a gorgeous happy boy! Fantastic he has gone to rescue where he has a better opportunity of finding the most suitable home.

I'd be making a booby trap outside the gate - a lightly covered hole with a pile of poop of something unpleasant in it (spikes would work too!). I would go ape if someone did that to my dogs. I would be ranting and raving on their front door step and they would be calling the police on me! Part of me would be a teensy bit scared but I figure if I act crazier than them then they'll give me a wide berth. No telling what a crazy dog lady might be capable of!