I don't travel with a pet myself, but always enjoy meeting those who do. I remember meeting an old feller near Gladstone who travelled with some sort of parrot. Not sure how many words the bird knew, but I swear the two of them would have more in-depth conversations than I've ever had with my other half! I also remember running into a lady camping at Coronation Beach near Geraldton in WA who travelled with two dogs and a goat. I think the goat actually thought it was a dog and she certainly treated it like one. Absoluately amazing to see. She was a middle-aged country girl and an incredible character. Does anybody out there know her? Anyway, there's my travelling with pet stories. I guess I'll mooch on back to the general forum now.
Parrots are amazingk... My grand father had a ****atoo that used to sit on a T in his "front room" in his Bondi house (long time ago, trams still used to shoot through to Bondi then) but I digrees anyway this ****y used to know every record that Pop had in the pile of records near the gramphone that Gracie sits next to <<<... I use to get into strife because I use to put on a record on and the bird would chime in with an as I recall brilliant rendition (Peter Dawson or Mario Lanza) and I'd lift the needle of the record and the poor bird would sing away BUT at the end when all you heard was the shhhhh shhhhh shhhh of the needle in the groove the poor bird would keep going until you came into the room to lift the needle (that had already been lifted). I must have been a terrible grandchild.... Then at Croydon FNQ we were sitting at the shop that is the oldest still working in Australia having mornos and in wakls this guy with a snake around his shoulders..... Ok but the snake was a python of enourmous size and named, yes you guessed it "Monty"... I can see our censor at work, I'll have to say a parrot with a sulfur crest to defeat it....
-- Edited by Basil Faulty at 18:35, 2008-08-29
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Don't take life too seriously.... No one gets out alive
KIA Sorento CRDi EX ( Ebony black) with 5 hex chrome plated tire air valve covers, Coramal Sunsheild, Elcheapo GPS, First Aid Kit, full KIA toolkit & Yellow lenses on the Foglights......
Great story, Bazza. However the lack of parrot in your current avatar is noted. Has he perhaps been traumatised?
Ahhhh the Gramophone lives on as do the records alas the parrot who went by the name of "Master" ( I suspect Pop was a staunch freemason) passed away in 1969 at around 70 years of age!!!!! Pop had owned the bird since he (pop) was 10......I've got a B&W pic of them somewhere, I should dig it out and post it....
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Don't take life too seriously.... No one gets out alive
KIA Sorento CRDi EX ( Ebony black) with 5 hex chrome plated tire air valve covers, Coramal Sunsheild, Elcheapo GPS, First Aid Kit, full KIA toolkit & Yellow lenses on the Foglights......
we took our 2 miniature foxys (wimpy and fuggles) with us once, settled down right next to an idylic bubbling brook under a big old gum tree, went for a wander upstream with the dogs having a ball sniffing this and piddling on that and barking at something else, found a couple of decent billabongs threw the yabbie nets in and within 2 hours had about 3 dozen decent size yabbies, returned to the fire boiled them up with the usual garlic and eleven secret herbs and spices, well chucked a bit of salt in there anyway, munched about half a dozen, dogs watching, lips, tongues and mouths going, feet with a mind of their own stomping away, constantly begging and well O.K. I gave each of them a couple of yabbies, with their own little cup of beer each, they lapped it up, loved every second of it, we had a few beers and a couple of whiskeys and all of a sudden it was really late (nearly 9.30) so time for bed, fell asleep straight away, awoke about 11pm, BAD SMELL, checked to see if it was the dragon, got a smack under the ear so looked elsewhere, oh, oh, dogs dont take to yabbies too well do they, the rear ensuite was literally awash with sloppy doggie accidents and rising by the minute and our 2 little mates couldnt even so much as move and it would attack them again, little tails trying to stem the flow, but it just kept coming, the look on their faces was "sorry dad but it wont stop, honest it wont!!!" spent the next couple of hours cleaning up after our little buddies, and when we got home, spent the next week scrubbing the smell out of the camper, so not too keen to take them elswhere, the doggies are fine of course it was a matter of repulsing the enemy within
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me, the dragon, & little blue, never stop playing, live long, laugh lots, travel far, give a stranger a smile, might just be your next best freind. try to commit a random act of kindness everyday
Similar thing happened to me Dave last year before I bought my van. I was going to see my parents who live 700 kms away and I decided to go the back way as I have been down the highway so many times in the last 3 years it is just not funny. I have a Mirage and Mirages do not have very big boots, so I decided to put the back seat down and put in my rather large suitcase and all the other bits and pieces I really must travel with, and I put my pillows, doona, and spare blankets over everything, and my puppy of 4 months and fully housed trained I may add, decided these made a nice comfy bed and that was ok with me as he was over the back and out of my way (I have since bought a doggie harness that fits into the front seat belt, which he loves). Well the little fella slept and play with this toys and seemed to be having a good trip and we were toodling along nicely and were 200 kms from the next town, when like you I smelt this horrible smell, looked around and the little fella had almost covered the whole of the back with doggie do, it was everywhere and you have not lived until you are 200 kms out in the middle of nowhere with a little puppy and all your bed linen covered in runny doggie do. I had a litre of water and thank goodness a garbage bags. I clean up the puppy best I could, as a litre of water does not go very far under those circumstances. I shoved everything in the garbage bags until I reached the next laudromat. The worst part was how distressing it was for the puppy, he was just so ashamed. Turned out it was all my fault as I had given him a little chinese food the night before. I have since learnt never ever change your doggie's diet if your thinking of travelling. And no, I did not rouse of the little fella, as it just could not be helped and not his fault.
In other post's to Dave, where he indicated that the weather in QLD is good, BUT, mouldy. He neglected to mention the "critters" that have a habit of meeting my mate, then transferring to me, given a chance.
I am one of those that will not use "prescription" rather choosing natural. Well the ticks and flea's here, for my mate, are bad, so I use Tea Tree and Eucalyptus, mixed with organic oil.
On a bad season, I will wash him twice a week, just i have to wash the bed covers the same amount of time, as "Slick" leaves a film on them
Last week we were at Tathra.... Gracie loves the surf and loves diving in to chase rotting seabirds thrown into the waves. Unfortunatley during a retrieve of a dead penguin Gracie got dumped and was not impressed.... Took a lot of coaxing to get her back into the surf...
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Don't take life too seriously.... No one gets out alive
KIA Sorento CRDi EX ( Ebony black) with 5 hex chrome plated tire air valve covers, Coramal Sunsheild, Elcheapo GPS, First Aid Kit, full KIA toolkit & Yellow lenses on the Foglights......