Sunday 13 January 2013

Bryce

Oh, whew... this summer is certainly making up for the cool ones we had over the last couple of years. Night temperatures have been staying up around 25 minimum (75F) and humid with it. Thank you so much Mr Carrier for inventing air conditioning when you did! Anyway, we are scheduled to have a couple of cool days starting today (what time today, I ask?), so I might actually go and do some major food shopping; and I need some new walk shorts as the ones I have are starting to go threadbare (I'm, er, not what you'd call a keen clothes shopper).

Yesterday morning I drove into Allora (5 mins away) to pick up the weekend papers early, like 7.30 a.m... Well, how cheeky can a snake get, a smallish brown merrily making its way up the drive. It took one look at the car and swished into the undergrowth - unfortunately on the dog paddock side rather than the open country on the other side. Yesterday I walked the dogs around while wearing gumboots (me, not the dogs). It's a worry having the horror serpent around. Zelda the Pigpen dog kills any snake she sees, after her best mate Bryce was killed when she was a pup, but I worry whether there will be a day that the snake will be faster.
This was Bryce, a beautiful dog with too short a life...

He was found wandering along a road near Kingaroy at about six months old. A lady saw him as she drove along and he wandered in the road looking lost. She picked him up and took him to Kingaroy Pound. Even though she was very taken with his gentle demeanour, she could not keep a dog. 

A week went by but no-one claimed him, so Bryce's time was up. The lady had asked to be notified, and promptly went and collected him, taking him to the RSPCA shelter. There he spent four months waiting for someone to want him.

I saw him on the internet with a note that he had been waiting for a long while, and arranged to adopt him and collect him through Toowoomba RSPCA, who drove him halfway to meet me. Poor Bryce, he didn't have good memories of cars and being dropped off at different places. As I started off for home his nerves got the better of him and he pooped hugely in the back of the car. Luckily I had put an old rug in there for him, so it was unceremoniously dumped before I died from the pong!

He was now about ten months old, nervous and slow to settle in. However, as time went by he gradually showed his quirky character, helped by the adoration of the aforementioned Zelda, who had come as another special case. Apart from always being a little timid, he was super-polite, learning his mealtime manners in a matter of days. He also was a clown, his favourite trick being to play submarines, encouraged by us falling around laughing at him. He would wade into the dog dam and then slowly, slowly disappear underwater, blowing bubbles until he ran out of breath. He would emerge with a big grin on his face, playing to the audience.

After about 18 months he had advanced to coming inside during the day, was adored by children for his sweet nature, but unfortunately he found it fun to jump on anything that moved. No amount of pulling him away or telling him to leave things alone made any difference. 

One day we went shopping, returning to find a hysterical Zelda and a collapsed Bryce. He had killed the snake, but the snake also killed him with a hefty bite to the head. Zelda hid for close to a week, and for ever after was a sworn foe of snakes. We now have snake repellers right around the dog paddock, but they are not 100% effective against a determined snake; a constant worry.

Roll on the frosts of winter, say I!!

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