Dingo

[dalekboy]

As mentioned in a previous post, moving back to mum's brings with it the advantage that I get to be with my dogs again. Dingo and Karl. Dingo is named for being part dingo, Karl is a bastardised shortened version of "kaled mutant" because as a pup he spent a lot of time with his head stuck in tin cans.

Back to Dingo. Ding is around 17 now and deaf as a post, but still fit. He's lost a little weight over the last year or two, but still loves to chase his ball all over the back yard. He's at a disadvantage these days because if he doesn't see where the ball lands, he has no hope of hearing it, either.

Dingo was one of our work dogs, back when dad and I were droving. Dingo is quiet, it's rare that he barks and when he does it's deep and sounds like it comes from some sort of monster hound the size of a rhino, rather than a normal kelpie sized animal. His barks are partial howls that run into one another. Usually when he makes a noise he tends towards howling, a weird aching lonely sound that can travel a fair distance. His usual time to howl is when I take mum shopping.

Dingo is a very timid dog. Never fought with other dogs, has always been nervous around humans but had no fear of cattle or any other livestock. He had terrible trouble when we went to work at Dandenong abattoirs because of the wire there. They had wire down in the pens so that all the sheep crap fell straight through. Most dogs had no problem on it, but Ding's paws have small pads for a dog his size and they used to catch in the wire and would end up very raw and sore. Dad made leather booties for him. He chewed them off. He made more, they got chewed off too. In the end, Dingo got rested every week or two for a few days to let his pads heal. He hated that.

I'm glad that dingo is still alive and fit at this age. His muzzle is greyer but his energy levels are still those of a dog much younger. Hell, he has way more energy that Karl, his son.

He's also the final link to my droving days. I miss droving. Miss those days with my father, working in all sorts of weather. Miss the outdoors and the occasional dangerous bit. Miss the people. Miss my dad. Droving is hard work, however not droving is really hard.

But I look at Dingo, pat him, play with him, and it's like I'm still there. I don't know how much longer he'll be around, hopefully years, but I'm glad we'll be together for that time.

Comments

[deborahb.livejournal.com]

Would you go back to droving?

[dalekboy.livejournal.com]

I'd go back in a heartbeat.

I left because I was physically infected with leptospirosis, a cattle disease, twice. One of the things about it is if you get it treated, it's not so bad, but if you leave it it rips the hell out of you. Problem is, the symptoms are pretty generic in the early stages and when I first caught it in the late eighties, they could only find it in your blood during one of its brief active periods. So they didn't really do much in the way of proper treatment because they didn't want to start treatment until they had confirmed that I had it. I had a bloodtest a week for a year, which totally failed to cure my fear of needles, but did eventually find lepto in my system, by which time I was recovering anyway. *grin*

After the second infection, which left me off work for twelve months, I was warned by the docs that as far as they know, half the people who get infected a third time die. I still would have stayed droving if I had no family. I left because I didn't want mum, dad and my girlfriend worrying about if I was going to get infected again.

Most recently the doctors are blaming scar tissue in my brain on lepto, mainly because lepto can cause meningitis, but I think it's simply become a handy hold-all for the docs. "hmmm... your leg has fallen off... it may be a delayed side effect of the leptospirosis..." *sigh* Though it is a fact that I rarely had headaches before infection and after infection started getting headaches and migraines... So maybe I'm just being a whiney bitch :P

And I still want to go back to droving. I don't care that incidents of lepto infection are increasing and that it took years to get my fitness back from the last dose. I love the work and the pay is glorious. Every now and then I still look at droving jobs at various sheds and consider it. Shaz always knows when I've found a droving job by accident, because I throw the paper across the room :P

But I love Sharon and it's not worth worrying her. Going bush is a way to give me a chunk of what I need without going back to droving. Finding excuses to drive over the Nullabor are another way. If the move to the red centre goes ahead (and there's no reason why it shouldn't) that'll put me in the sort of environment I love with mimimal chance of reinfection.

I don't have to be a drover, but it's the outdoor work I'd most like to do. I'm thinking of trying out for a guide position if we get established at Yulara.

*whew* Long reply.

[deborahb.livejournal.com]

Wow. OK.

That's it. Short response. ;)

Thank-you. Loved reading this.

[dalekboy.livejournal.com]

I nearly turned the response into a post actually, but figured LJ had enough people posting about their weird diseases. A few folks have heard me talk about lepto over the years but all the detail just came whooshing out.

And you're welcome and thank you :)

[tikiwanderer.livejournal.com]

Marra sent me a post from a national mailing list called Cooeeads, with job postings around the country that are environment-related. Near the top of the list was one for an eco-tour guide working out of Yulara. I note that they provide most of the training, assuming you already have any background in the area. I also note that as with most tour companies they look most favourably on people who already have some sort of 4WD driving/maintenance experience. Maybe you should ask the RACV if they run 4WD courses.