Pets to borrow

Teddy and Sienna have only had my pet ducks before, when we lived in Queensland, but we were down to only 2 out of about 12 when we moved here. (8 month old Teddy with our ducks)

Our beloved red rottweiler 'Ozone' died when Teddy was 3 days old, he was very special to us and too hard to replace, especially when we might have got another one, Teddy was crawling around the floor space, and the extra workload of training a puppy too just wasn't an option.
So, nearly 4 years on, we are due for a pet or two.
But, then we moved in here with family and had so many pets to share, we didn't worry about looking for one, plus a cat came with the house too, so when I order some chickens to go in the hen house, we will have an instant zoo.

I would like to introduce you to our 'borrowed pets'.

This is Digby, he is Aunty Mary(my mum's sister) and Uncle Bernie's long haired chiuaua.








He is such a cutie!

Here is Basil One of Mary's cats, he is an affectionate cat when he is in the mood, but I wont go into details as he has his own chapter on devonhouse recollections.















Here are Charles and Kim's pets,









Roany the dog and 'the girls', Cloud and Misty,they all get on very well. Cloud likes to get into cars that are parked on the driveway with their windows down, and I am sure she has given people a big shock when they discover her as they drive off.








(Sienna kissing Roany, Roany kissing Teddy)

Roany's sister belongs to one of my other cousin's, Peter, her name is Mitti, named after Fletcher Christians Tahitian wife Maimitti.

Roany and Mitti both spend the day at granny and grandad's at Devonhouse when their parents go to work, and quite enjoy being the 'grandogs', especially around breakfast, lunch and dinner preparations, hoping for tidbits.

Mitti quite enjoyed having Sienna as an ally in her high chair and I'm sure that Sienna was equally delighted to feed her dinner to an appreciative dog.

When someone enters the driveway at Devonhouse, you can hear them drive over the cattle stop,
The dogs all hear it and Digby usually starts the parade, yapping, then the big dogs jump up and run out to see the car, barking, I guess to decide if it is friend or foe. Roany and Mitti get there first, followed by Digby's little legs, he rarely makes it out to see the car before the other dogs turn back.

Unfortuately, last month, Mitti got clipped by a van travelling down the driveway to Charles and Kim's 'Devonside' which is behind Devonhouse, We don't know if the van hit her or she hit the van by running into it.

The result has been a plaster cast on her broken leg for the past month, it hasn't slowed her down any though, she still races out to the cars like a greyhound!
This is Jane our adopted cat,she is more like the size of a kitten which is cute, even though she is certainly an adult cat, who has had many temporary homes before this one.

Although Brandt and I are not great cat lovers, we are more dog people, I can still appreciate a purring cat that wants a cuddle for a little while, Lucky Jane got to sleep at the end of Teddy's bed last night.

Our list of 'borrowed pets' doesn't end here, it seems to be a real friendly island with matching sociable pets. This is 'Dozer', who spends time at the sports and workers club with his owners, we see him when we take the kids for a drink and play on the playground there, he is a real well trained dog who tolerates our children's attentions well.

I forgot about Peter and John's pigs too.(I could only find an old photo of little Teddy with Peter's baby pig from 2004, but John's latest two who are soon to become bacon strips are named flippy and floppy, because one's ears stand up, the other's flop down.


Teddy was enjoying visiting them, but was suspected to be overfeeding them.

We also have many goldfish and brown fish(I don't know what their real names are) in the pond by the office, which we feed a couple of times a week.

And of course, there are always the many cows that roam around the roads, which Sienna and Teddy still take great delight by calling out ' mooooooo' out of our car windows as we drive past, slowly of course, as cows have right of way on the roads here.

(The Kids sitting on Culla's clydesdales and feeding the ducks here at watermill valley)

So, for now, we don't think we need to buy a family pet!