10 comments:

hrugaar said...

Gorgeous dogs ... and Gretel's ears are magnificent.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Satima Flavell said...

Yes, I think she has the most impressive ears of any dog I've ever met! I've never met a Miniature Pincher before but if Gretel is any guide I'd recommend them. She's a good companion and quite devoted to whoever feeds her:-)

Outlaw is more independent. He's a Kelpie - an Aussie breed of sheepdog that is now found world-wide, I believe. They are (usually) less highly strung than border collies while being equally good workers. However, Outlaw is a townie and wouldn't know what to do with even one sheep, let alone a hundred!

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

hrugaar said...

Doesn't Outlaw still have a natural herd instinct though? We had a dog that was part border collie and she would attempt to herd most things, especially seagulls in the fields or on the beach. But not cats.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Marilyn Z. Tomlins said...

Satima -- I've lost track of your travels. I thought you were home now.
Marilyn

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Satima Flavell said...

Marilyn - HI! No, I'm still in Perth and will be here until November, doing a series of house-sits for friends. Right now I'm staying with my son for a week and then I have a one-week sit just a suburb away. After that I have to cross to the south side of the river (isn't it funny how all cities have Great Divide?)for a two month stint for another friend who is going on long-service leave for two months. From mid-October I sit for a month for another couple of friends who are off to India. All this house-sitting is enabling me to avoid winter in Mount Gambier, which can be cold, wet and bloody miserable. Hey, Perth's bad enough! I don't do cold...

Hrugaar, you're right. There is a distinct lack of cat-herding Kelpies. We should try to breed the right strains in order to produce more. I'm sure there would be a market for them:-) Actually both Outlaw and Gretel used to chase ducks but their owner went to a lot of trouble to talk them out of it! Now they just ignore them.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Jo said...

Glad the video is working. Yes I do see the trotting action - just. I agree, we should definitely produce a cat herding dog, although we already have dog herding cats.

Sounds like a good way of avoiding winter Satima, although we don't usually do wet and miserable in Canada, cold and snowy more like. So long as my home is warm and I don't have to go anywhere.... although once upon a time we used to wait for the snow to go cross country skiing.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Satima Flavell said...

Have you seen the funny You Tube video about herding cats? Someone must've gone to a lot of trouble to fudge that one!

When I lived in Massachusetts I used to admire my friends who used cross-country skiing as their mode of transport in winter! I quite liked the cold there. Once the snow's on the ground the air becomes dry and crisp and quite invigorating. (I imagine Canada is the same.) As long as I was well rugged up I didn't mind going out it in at all. Mount Gambier's winter, however, is like a Manchester November, only it lasts for about four months with an October and September on each end: i.e. April and November are like and English September and May and October are like an English October. The period from December to March is lovely, however, and I'm looking forward to being back in the Mount then, because Perth can be quite disgustingly hot in summer. It can get day after day in the high thirties or low forties Celsius. (For those of you who still measure in Farenheit that's century and above.)

The downside of winter in southern Australia, really, is that central heating is rare in private houses and given the energy crisis we're coming into that's probably a Good Thing. It's not nice to wake up to a cold morning though, because even here in Perth the overnight temperature in winter can drop as low as two degrees sometimes.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Anonymous said...

Re the Miniature Pinscher trot, it's called a 'hackney gait' and little purebreds are supposed to demonstrate it in the show ring. I guess the name relates to horses pulling a hackney cab and picking up their feet neatly at each step.

Re Outlaw, his father was a working farm kelpie. The right instinct is certainly there in Outlaw, but he never learned what to do with it. Sheep excite him greatly and he cannot be trusted anywhere near them. However, he does a wonderful job of guarding small children.

Gretel's ears: yup, there's a wallaby, gazelle or alien somewhere in the ancestry.

For those who don't know me, I am the human servant of this menagerie.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Satima Flavell said...

Aha - a child-herding Kelpie! Thats even better than herding cats, methinks. Outlaw is certainly good with littlies. A tiny boy ran up and hugged him once when we were out walking. My heart was in my mouth but Outlaw barely winced, even when the kid tried to investigate his eyes. Fortunately the lad's mum called him back just as I was trying to disuade him from getting too personal.

I reckon Gretel is part Alien. She comes from an off-world race of trotting wallabies that were used to pull carriages and sniff out a kind of truffle that smelt like sausage!:-)

I'm looking forward to reading your blog on The Trip, Juliet. If you let me know when it's up I'll post a link here as I'm sure other people will enjoy it, too. It's not often anyone from this part of the world does a trip to the Baltic!

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Jo said...

Love your menagerie. Wish I still had one of my own.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008