31 Aug 2020

I know people who are able to accurately predict the weather, according to various bodily aches and pains.

It’s a handy skill to have – the rest of us have to keep an eye on the meteorology websites to know if we should bring the washing in!

There’s another way of telling that rain is coming – old family tales tell that when you see the black cockatoos flying, rain is coming. It does beg the question about what the black cockatoos do in Western Australia for the eight months or so of the year when there’s no rain. Do they just sit in the same tree and politely wait? Or do they do their flying under the cover of darkness when no one can see them?

There’s an accurate way in our house of identifying if someone (and by someone I of course mean me) is planning to go away on holidays.

The dog will get sick.

We are leaving tomorrow to travel a little bit north, looking at wildflowers and gorges and at a nephew getting married. There have been no overt signs around the house that anything is happening. There hasn’t been any packing happening, there’s no movement of stuff that may need to be packed (bottles of wine and camera gear), nothing…

But yesterday the dog started to show signs of lethargy, even to the ‘red alert’ stage of NOT jumping on the bed to lick my husbands ears before bedtime. By this morning she was not walking, not eating, not showing any sign of the normal happy little dog we know. She did not move.

And then I found the lump in her neck.

In between having my grandson visit for the morning, we managed a trip to the vets who attempted to examine the sweet little animal, who immediately showed the most sign of life in a day and a half, and carried on as if the vet was personally trying to remove her lymph glands with her teeth.

I tried to explain that my dog is not a princess and is an extremely gentle soul, but it’s hard to make that point when the dog that barely weighs 5kg is taking on three adult humans.

Drama (eventually)over, we have a couple of types of medication to get down the dogs throat (don’t get me started on the joys of giving this dog tablets 🙈) for a couple of weeks. Fortunately we have a handy ex-vet nurse in the house who will be looking after the princess/bare knuckle fighter/dog while we are away.

On other occasions when I dared to leave on holidays we had all sorts of health issues, conveniently occurring within a week of my intended departure date. You name it – ears, bum, skin infections, and now infected salivary gland – the dog knows when I’m going away.

If she could just apply this skill to letting me know when rain is coming, I’d be happier.