Christmas Newsletter

The year kicked off dramatically enough. Sharon and her partner Bill came over from Sydney to stay with us for Christmas 2004. The Tsunami hit on Boxing Day and within 48 hours Bill, who works for Médecins San Frontieres, was on his way to Sri Lanka to help with building shelters and temporary homes for the victims. He was away for the next three months.

Tracy was also with us as her partner Tim spent Christmas and New Year with his family in Western Australia.

In February, our old (as in long-standing) friends from school days, Greg and Chris came out to visit at long last as part of their post-retirement round-the-world trip. Highlights of their visit included an Aussie back-yard barbecue for them to meet a group of our friends, a few days on Kangaroo Island admiring the scenery and wild life (in between unseasonable downpours), a very funny day wine-tasting in the Barossa Valley, and a few well-lubricated evenings playing Trivial Pursuit.

Other travel highlights for us during the year included a visit to Sydney for Maz and Mike’s combined 60th birthday party. And a long weekend in the Barossa with Father Greg and Sister Rae in adjacent cottages was very pleasant. We had booked it months previously for the Barossa Music Festival. The Festival was cancelled with only a few weeks to go, but we kept the accommodation booking and went anyway.

A sad occasion was a one-day visit to Brisbane to attend Sandy’s funeral after she lost her long, brave battle with many complications following a kidney transplant. Sandy was the partner for some years of Lady Fogg's brother.

Sharon finally decided she had had enough of working for the New South Wales bureaucracy and took a separation package in August. She and Bill began an epic journey to South America. First they spent some time in Europe. Then, interrupting their journey from Amsterdam to Madrid, managed an unscheduled two-day visit to Birmingham to visit our UK family: my sister Ruth and Aunt Else, and Ruth’s daughter Mandy and her family.

Sharon and Bill then spent some time in Cuba, around the time Hurricane Katrina was heading towards New Orleans, then they flew to Buenos Aires in Argentina. Sharon took some Spanish lessons while they rented an apartment there. Now they are in Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego at the southernmost tip of the continent. Soon they will be heading back to Buenos Aires. In the New Year, they will spend a month working as volunteers on the turtle conservation project at Karumbé in Uruguay.

Tracy's year was also eventful. Tim, an RAAF pilot, was deployed to the Middle East for a three-month stint in the early part of this year. Tracy lived in his house during that time. Shortly after his return, Tracy began her own long-awaited European trip after quitting her job. She was away for two months, seeing parts of France, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Italy, England and Scotland. She also spent some time with Ruth and Aunt Else, so they got to see both of the girls during the year.

On her return to Australia, Tracy moved back home. She is now undertaking the NEIS scheme which trains young people to set up their own small business. She will build on her former freelance work to establish her own graphic design business.

Our biggest event of the year was Lady Foggs's retirement. She finished on 22 October after 22 years at the Council where she started as Chief Librarian and ended as Director of Community and Recreational Services. The Mayor gave her a farewell reception in the Town Hall. All six mayors with whom Lady Fogg has worked were able to attend. It was a great send-off and acknowledgment of her career achievements.

Lady F is enjoying retirement more than she imagined she would. Continuing her involvement with the PLAIN Central Services steering committee, she also has recently taken a Board position with the Seniors Information Service, a not-for-profit, non-government organisation. She is also regularly going to exercise classes and rediscovering her talents as a cook.

2005 was my first full calendar year as a retiree. Most enjoyable. I joined the Board of CISA (Community Information Strategies Australia) in the latter part of 2004. It’s another non-government, not-for-profit organisation which provides information and IT services to the community sector. Also I’ve managed to pick up a few consultancies here and there, with a focus on professional writing. Father Greg and I have just started a joint consultancy to review the operation of the Development Assessment Panel for a local Council.

Meanwhile the band is playing well but struggles to maintain a consistent line-up. Anybody know any good bass players? We keep losing them. As well as rhythm guitar, I also do a couple of numbers on keyboard and sax. I took some harmonica lessons during the year and also give that a go on a couple of songs.

Around the domestic scene, we demolished then rebuilt our old front garden wall. We re-used the old sandstone in the new wall. The stonemason told us that it wasn’t local stone, it came from Sydney. Probably as ballast in a cargo ship. You could see that the faces of the sandstone blocks that had been facing into the old wall were originally the outside faces of a house or other building. So we have a part of old Sydney town in our garden wall. Once the wall was done, we had the front garden landscaped – we got rid of the old lawn and replaced it with a garden of mixed natives and exotics complete with sub-surface drip lines for water economy. It’s the last stage but one of our 20 year renovation program – only the laundry left to do now.

The year ended on a sad note as dear old Tessa, our 14 year old miracle dog, left us. A diabetic for the last three years, her quality of life deteriorated in the last few weeks and we asked the vet to put her to sleep.

Looking forward, we will have Christmas lunch at our place this year, with Lady F's sister and her family and their mother, Agnes, now 92 not out. Then we have Sharon and Bill coming back sometime in March. Also in March we have booked for several shows in the Festival the Arts and at the same time that we’ll be busy with the State General Election.

Hope you have a peaceful and enjoyable festive season and a happy New Year.

Tessa has left us.

Tessa went peacefully last night.

The whole thing took about 40 seconds. Megan and I were with her right through. Ann said goodbye a little while before and fed her a treat but didn't want to watch her go.

Yesterday was one of Tessa's good days. She only grazed at her food during the day, but had a good chew on a couple of bones and a few dried liver treats.

Lots of cuddles and brushings throughout the day. At one time she forgot she was an old lady and tried to jump up to Megs like in the old days, but her back legs gave way and she sat down with a bump, looking surprised.

During the afternoon I dug a grave for her under the pear tree, next to Pepe. As usual there were moments of farce amongst the sadness. She was very interested in the hole. You could almost hear her thinking, "Ooh, digging! I like holes. That's a nice big one. I'd like to be in there."

The vet and his nurse came about 7.40. We decided to do it on the lawn just outside the back door, where she is used to having injections and so on. I cuddled her head and fed her liver treats while the nurse steadied the rear. The vet cut a bit of fur away from her front leg to expose the vein. The injection is a massive dose of concentrated barbiturate. It acts like an instant anaesthetic, putting the dog to sleep, then into a coma. Then breathing stops and then the heart.

Almost as soon as the injection started, Tessa began to lose consciousness. We eased her into a sitting position then lowered her onto her side before the syringe was empty. By the time the vet had got his stethoscope out of his bag she was gone.

He and I carried her down to the grave. More moments of farce. He had warned us that her bladder might give way, and it did, over him. Then I realised we had her the wrong way round. As I dug the hole, I'd pictured her lying on her right side, head towards the shed, feet towards the house, like she used to lie in front of the fire. But we were carrying her on her left side.

As if it made any difference now! But I wanted her lying as I wanted to remember her. So I had to get in the hole, lower her onto her back and roll her over. At one stage her head flopped and her jaws came together with an audible snap.

I got her lying nicely, ears sticking up properly and not folded back on themselves, legs and tail neat and natural-looking and so on, until she looked comfortable like when she was asleep in the lounge. Then without thinking I gave her a pat and said "Good dog".

I covered her up gently and Megan found a flat lump of rock to lie on top. Then she made a posy of flowers to put on it.

Megs was brilliant all day and during the vet's visit and the burial. She spent a lot of time with Tessa too so the old girl had someone with her most of the day.

It was very sad, and tears were shed, but it was definitely time. Tessa's heart was still strong but the rest of her was failing. She would have deteriorated throughout the hot Australian summer, getting distressed. There were also signs that her kidneys were beginning to have trouble coping.

So, a sad day, but the last kind thing we could do for her, leaving lots of happy memories.

Tessa Has a Bad Day

I think the time may have arrived for Tessa to leave us.

After my last visit to the vet four weeks ago, Tessa stabilised somewhat with a Diastix reading of just over 'trace' on 22 units of insulin. However, in that time she has had three 'fainting' spells plus another two today.

When I went out this morning to feed her, she was lying by the side of the house in a sort of half sphinx-like position and was too groggy to get up when I called. I got some honey into her on my finger, then hand-fed her some of her canned food where she lay.

She perked up enough after about five minutes to get up and walk to her bowl, and ate about half of her normal feed. I then gave her 20 units of insulin.

The food was all gone by mid-afternoon, but I can't tell if it all went into her, or whether some got stolen by the birds who now regularly wait for her feeding time.

At around 5.45 pm this afternoon, (feeding time is usually 6.30) my daughter noticed her staggering and getting confused and trapped behind flower-pots and so on. When I went to her, she was standing as if dumbstruck at the side of the house half way to her kennel, panting heavily.

Again, I gave her some honey. While I was doing this, she sat down and wasn't able to stand up again for a while. I gave her some toast with a scrape of marg, just to get something into her, where she sat, and then some liver treats. I carried her water bowl to her for her to have a few laps.

She improved to the stage where she could walk slowly back to her bowl, but wasn't very interested in the food. She has now managed to walk back round to her kennel.

I haven't yet given her her evening insulin yet, but will do so when she's eaten a bit more.

It's getting pitiful to watch her falling over and getting confused, and it is beginning to get unmanageable. She is obviously not going to improve significantly and appears to have begun the inevitable decline. She can hardly see and appears to have lost confidence in getting around.

It's becoming a bit of a roller-coaster now, and I don't want to wait until it becomes completely hopeless and put her and us through unnecessary anguish.

I will once again ask the vet's advice.

Blue Tongue Lizard - a Love Story

Blue Tongue Lizards mate for life.
A pair lives, or rather lived, in our front garden.

Blue Tongue Lizards are good neighbours. They eat mice and other small vermin. It's rather flattering that a pair should adopt us as their landlords.

They are called blue-tongue lizards because they have bright blue tongues. It's quite startling to see this surprisingly large, sky-blue tongue suddenly poke out from an otherwise nondescript-looking lizard.

It's a warning to other creature not to mess with it. Not that it's particularly dangerous. Only about nine inches long, you still wouldn't want a bite from it. Apart from giving a you a nasty nip, you might get an infected wound because of what they might have been munching earlier.

I've never know anyone to be bitten. They worst thing they seem to do, if provoked, is to open their mouths wide and give a bit of a hiss while showing you their amazing tongue.

Usually they hide in dark corners, under logs or inside pipes. Occasionally you'll notice one warming itself in a sunny spot. We quite like them.

A few days ago, one of our pair met its fate in the road just outside our house. I saw its poor squashed body near the entrance to our drive.

Its partner has since been acting very strangely. He ( I think it was the male) hangs around in the open near where his mate died. Sometimes we see him on the grass nature strip by the footpath, occasionally on the footpath itself. Mostly though he lies in the gutter near where his mate's body lay until the street sweeper collected it.

Poor lizard, pining for his lost mate. He has had a few narrow escapes. Local dogs seem to have missed him. When the street sweeper came past with its steel brushes scooping everything out of the gutter, he was lying under Tracy's car. So the sweeper swung out to go round it and missed him completely. Another time, he was right up under the back wheel of my car and I noticed him just in time and was able to back out carefully instead of just driving off over him.

He disappeared yesterday when we had a sudden downpour. But I saw him afterwards, his nose just sticking out of the stormwater pipe that discharges into the gutter. A couple of hours ago he was in the middle of the footpath just outside our front gate.

He doesn't look well. I think he might be dieing.

I think he is just wasting away while searching for his lost partner. He is in the open nearly all the time near where she died and where he can still smell her. Usually they hide.

I've put a piece of drain pipe nearby as a hidey-hole for him. But I think that one day soon he will just disappear.

Poor lonely lizard.