Critters

As most would know, we are the owners of two dogs. We got Charlie (the lab) as

a puppy back in 2001. The reason: I've been totally phobic of dogs my whole life, it stemmed from when I was about 2yrs old and was bitten by a dog at a house where mum was babysitting, I was also scratched by a German Shepherd when i was 6. These two incidences, coupled with my parents dislike of dogs compounded on me to be point of phobia. I would prefer to walk down the middle of a street rather than next to fences in case there was a dog. This is a trait I still possess. I won't walk down new streets without being on guard. I will definitely never walk the dogs down a new street just in case there is another dog to bark at us. It was a scary childhood, living in fear of a dog attack.

When Mark was about 3 years old. He was very jumpy around dogs. He wouldn't go up to dogs, something I encouraged because of the danger of the animals. Jamie told me this is ridiculous, he can't grow up like this, LIKE YOU! So with encouragement I agreed to get a puppy, and the nicest dog I could think of was a lab. She was adorable, I was a little wary to start with, so was Mark. Started by looking through the glass sliding doors and ended up snoozing together. Lots of photos of his early childhood - when we lived in Tullamarine of Mark and Charlie together. Then we moved to Newcastle, got a rental which didn't allow dogs inside. Poor things have been outside dogs ever since.... So how did we end up with two dogs. In my new grad year, one of the nurses I worked with had a biggish dog that was lovely and they were moving to a small apartment in Sydney and couldn't keep Skye. I knew Charlie was lonely with us either at work or at school, so we quickly adopted Skye and he's been in our family for almost 7 years now. They are both quite middle aged in their temperament, which is good for us. They are great at being a doorbell and letting me know when it is 5pm (Charlie starts barking for food). Once these two leave our family, I will not have another dog. It prevents you from going on holidays, and we are just not pet people the way others are.

I'm not really fond of any animal, small things scare the bejesus out of me. Mice, lizards, bugs and this week we even had a frog in the back yard. There was a turtle in my driveway once, I called animal rescue (should the dogs attack it) and they said to pick it up and take it to the Wetland Centre... no bloody way am I picking up a turtle. I don't touch animals. Cats I don't care for. Our friend's son wanted me to pat their cat... ummm no thanks. Ferrets - ick.



Chickens scare me, but I want them for eggs when I get my farmlet along with some sheep or goats. They can be ignored and fed each day. I don't need to feel guilty if I don't walk or play with them.