I do seem to have this curse that causes me to lose my pets well before their time and for me September has now become the hardest month for me to deal with all the loss.
One by one I lost the chickens from suspicious attacks, an indefinate dog attack, an olive python and suspected poisoning of some kind. As crazy as it might seem, all my chooks had names and personalities. Gloria went first before we had moved here. She went early on via an olive python. Next was Bloomer not long after we arrived and she died as a result of a suspicious attack. Suspicious as in though the dogs generally got along really well with the chooks it was quite a shock to have found Bloomer crouched behind the chook shed minus nearly all of her neck feathers after we returned from walking away weaners one day. She lived for three days post-attack. Henrietta was next, my favourite chook. And it is yet another suspicious attack. Damian thinks that it may have been a feral cat that took her life due to the way she died. The dog that could have been the culprit was mostly tied up at this point. Then Ebony went thanks to a visit from yet another olive python. Lightening Pup, my early Christmas present to Damian, took the life of Henny Penny and as a result Damian took his life as his theory is: It starts with a small animal then builds up to a horse. We cannot have animals that chase horses or cattle. Only managers and owners dogs get to live to see another day if they do. So for over a month Annette was the only chook. She became more outgoing towards us because of it and even didn't mind chilling out with Lacey though Lacey did. Then on March 1st we lost her too. Damian found her dead underneath the house. Signs from a bare patch in the gravel showed where she lay whilst thrashing about. I suspect a spider bite and Damian suspects cane toad poisoning but we'll never know for sure. I loved having chickens. I adored them. But sadly they didn't even reach 2 years old. Annette's last two eggs have been blown and are ready to paint as a memorium to my poultry friends.
Of the 3 dogs I came to Providence with Lacey is the only one I still have. Rastus, my blue heeler, went on the 1st of September 2011 after being bitten by a whip snake. I felt my heart break as I found him thrashing under the house and foaming at the mouth. Damian relieved him of his suffering while I bawled my eyes out with my other two dogs in my arms on the lounge.
Gidget, who is one of Lacey's daughters, was next... only five days later. I wasn't there when she went. I was in town. Damian rang me at 2:30am to break the news to me and I spent the rest of the night crying. With how Damian described her final moments I knew straight away that it was cane toad poisoning. Gidget was a fiercely loyal and affectionate dog. On some levels she out-did Lacey but certainly not on obedience. I had Gidget cremated and I wish I could have done the same for Rastus and my other dogs that I have lost and have caused me to loathe the month of September.
It was only 2 years earlier that I lost my red heeler Knuckles and her son Buddy. He went on the 9th of September after licking a cane toad and Knuckles went on the 13th after digging him up and eating him. The most horrible thing is to witness a dog suffering the effects of poisoning and not being able to do anything about it at the time. Two dogs in too short a time and it's no wonder I hate September.
But I still have Capone, my weaner bull and my horses Charger and Diamond and I believe that Chief is out there in the paddock with them in spirit though we said goodbye to him in October 2010 due to colic. And of course I still have my Little Lady Lacey. She's been there by my side through thick and thin for almost five years. She's by my side right now, ever loyal, my friend when I feel I have none, my sidekick, my handbag dog that outgrew the handbag, my little Princess. So then there were four...
The chooks at about a month old. This was their first night in the chook shed. Mataranka 2010.
Rastus enjoying himself at the dam only 5 days before he died.
Miss Gidget. Loyal and affectionate beyond words.
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