Friday, February 25, 2011

Moving day!


I thought I would write another update this morning because I think this weekend is going to go “poof!” and disappear before I know it. The title says it all…it’s moving day! It couldn’t come soon enough for Iain and I. It was another day in the low 40’s yesterday, and another night with no air movement in our room (as well as another night of being woken by screaming fights across the street, but I digress). Our new place has air con in our bedroom (!!!); to say we are looking forward to that is an understatement. We have a new mattress being delivered today but other than that, our house is completely bare. Like, not-even-a-fridge bare! We’ll have to build up to what we need a bit at a time.

The only thing more exciting than moving, is the dogs’ homecoming tomorrow! We are driving out to Byford with Karen, who’s boyfriend has generously lent us his ute (utility vehicle) in order to transport both the two dogs as well as their alarmingly large crates. I CAN’T WAIT!! I haven’t seen them now in over two weeks, since school started, because there are no visiting hours on the weekends. Iain has, though. I’ll make sure to write a little update when we get them back. They are going to love the house (and the air con, no doubt!), the huge yard, and the lovely park down the street. As soon as we can find a cheap little car, they will love the beaches too! Fremantle will only be a 20-minute drive from our house.

This past week was incredibly busy (I’m pretty sure I’ll sound like a broken record soon enough). I have a lot to catch up on this weekend. It seems like I can’t work hard enough right now to get myself to a place where I feel really good about what I've done. I leave at 7:45 AM, and get home anywhere between 5 and 7 PM, depending on whether I have to stay at school to work or not. Iain makes dinner, we eat, I start work again, but I am not yet able to stay up past 10 most nights. I am still so tired in the evenings, so there is a sense of panic as I work to get things done before my body fails me, haha. I am not alone- a lot of the people I speak to in my program seem to be experiencing the same kind of thing. I am sure as I get adjusted to my schedule, things will feel less frenetic and more balanced (shh…let me have my moment!). I also need to do at least one non-uni activity each week to de-stress, and I have decided that it will be a dance class of some sort. I was really excited to see that there is an active burlesque troupe in Perth (might be a little far, but we’ll see once we have a car), and there is also a belly dancing school in Freo! I will likely pick one of those things to do one evening per week. Also, I am joining the gym at Murdoch, and they have a bunch of different group classes, including modified ones during the day so that students can go between courses. I think that this will help to keep stress in check, as well.

Iain and I celebrated his birthday on Wednesday, so I worked extra hard on Monday and Tuesday to get my work done so that I could take the evening off. We went out for dinner in Freo, then went to watch the sun set on the beach. Afterwards, we went to Baskin Robbins so that Iain could have his favorite chocolate chip mint ice cream, and then we decided to have a long walk home in the darkness. It’s been really muggy here in the past few days, which is uncommon for Perth. That combined with the excessive heat makes it feel more like the tropics. At any rate, it was a really nice evening, and it felt really good to have made sure that we could spend it together with no anxiety on my part about schoolwork. Iain capped off the night with a phone call from Judy and Isla (his mum and sis), which was so great for him. It’s still kind of surreal that we can be 15,000 KM away from our families and still be able to have a conversation on the phone with them.

Last weekend was mostly spent studying, and in between, I did clicker training with the neighbor’s kelpie. Chili is smart as a whip and the kind of dog I wish lived with any number of my dog sport friends back home! She took to the clicker like every other dog does, with glee, once she got over her initial hesitation and unwillingness to offer new behaviours (likely in the event that she would be punished, I think). I never thought I’d say that if I could, I would have myself a lil' stock dog! I will miss Chili and Mandee’s dog, Tama. They have been good little surrogate dogs, but this time tomorrow we will be reunited with the real deal!! Did I mention that I am ecstatic?!

One other interesting note about living in Western Australia for dog nerds is the presence of so many dogs with intact ears and tails. The practices of ear cropping and tail docking are illegal here and may only be performed for medical reasons by a registered veterinarian. Despite the fears of opponents to laws like these, there has been no increase in breeders just doing it themselves, though that used to be legal. There is a very hefty penalty, and it is enforced. Seeing Weimaraners and Vizslas with tails is refreshing, and I just saw my first Rottweiler here the other day, with his lovely long tail wagging happily. I always marvel at Dixie’s gorgeous goofy ears, and wonder why anyone would want the first months of the relationship with their new puppy to include pain and discomfort for their new companion?

An interesting side note for my pit bull peeps: There are breed restrictions here on American Pit Bull Terriers, but NOT American Staffordshire Terriers or Staffordshire Bull Terriers. Back home these are usually lumped together under the “pit bull” umbrella.  The restrictions here do not involve mandatory spay/neuter, and you can still sell them provided you inform buyers that they are restricted. This means that they must be muzzled at all times and wear a special collar that identifies them. This law, in contrast to the docking/cropping laws, is poorly enforced…when everybody’s grandmother is walking her little Staffy Bull or AmStaff X down the street, and the dogs here frequently look so non-descript, I just don’t know how this would be expected to work. Breed specific legislation is useless and discriminatory anywhere you go in the world.

On the other hand, ex-racing greyhounds have a terrible reputation and must be muzzled under law in public. How’s that for a shocker! These dogs are generally very placid, gentle, and quiet. Some come equipped with a substantial prey drive, and are not safe with small animals, cats, and/or small dogs, but you can say this for individuals of all breeds. Greys have this kind of dignified elegance that I really appreciate. Still, they have suffered some of the same PR issues as pit bull-type dogs, which is to say that when a greyhound kills a cat or small dog as the result of an irresponsible owner, people wring their hands and cry out “won’t someone please think of the children!” There is a massive greyhound racing industry here in Australia, and WA is no exception. I have heard that the industry spits out dogs to the tune of 90,000 per year. Yikes. So who’s really the victim here?

Oops, looks like I went off on a bit of a dog tangent there! Shocking, I know. What else…I have a weird bite on my foot that I got at night. It was really painful, and then itchy. I’m not sure what’s worse- seeing something bite you, or discovering a nasty bite and not knowing what inflicted it, or when. As long as it’s not from the ubiquitous but dangerous redback spider, I’m happy. Anyways, I should get back to packing here. I also want to mention that I am behind on responding to emails from people, but that I will get to them! I appreciate the correspondence so much. Thinking about all of you back home and sending lots of love. Until next time!



1 comment:

  1. It's especially odd, as cross-breed dingos are entirely legal.

    Also, redbacks don't really come out from their hiding places. It's more likely to be a whitetail, or any other number of insects that want to kill you :|

    ReplyDelete