Water, Water Everywhere

A really strange thing happened to me overnight. I went to sleep last night and while I was sleeping someone installed a swimming pool around my house and took the trouble to integrate it with the two waterfall features from each of the water tanks. Now that’s great, I love swimming and so do my dogs and I can’t afford to install a pool so a big thank you to the thoughtful person that did this for me. It could feature in house and garden as a natural watercourse integrated with a house complete with a mud floor for the bottom of the pool.

BUT…………… and it’s a big but……………….

I can’t get to the gate without having to swim across the yard and that really isn’t very convenient when I am going out, especially with my computer, diary and handbag in tow. So it will just have to go.

Alright I know it is just the ridiculous amount of rain we have had over the last two days and all that water has nowhere else to pool up. When my rain gauge fills to 100 mls (4 inches in old speak) I no longer bother to empty it and it did that sometime yesterday. I have just driven to Nambucca Heads and back with the back being a long detour via the only remaining road of five that is not cut by local flash flooding. A 30 minute trip took an hour and a half.

That brings me in a long winded way to the point of this animal blog today.
Slowly driving the scenic route, due to all the water, I was amazed to see how the animals I passed were coping with so much water, not only on the ground but still falling from the sky. The cows were standing out in the open happily munching on sweet well moistened grass. Content to slowly graze whilst chewing their cud and not one of them was looking at the sky and moaning about how wet it was and how they could not go outside because it was so wet or thinking about getting an umbrella or rain coat. It is not that cold right now, the trusty Weatherzone tracker on the computer is telling me it is 17.6^oC, it is also finally flashing up warnings about flash flooding on the mid north coast of NSW (bit late as that started early yesterday). A number of the cows were having a nice time investigating the new streams of fresh running water flowing through their paddocks. Luckily this flood event is pretty minor by Mid North Coast standards and all the farmers had plenty of time to ensure stock were safe.

What was lovely to watch were the younger animals. It is spring here in Australia and so there are lots of young animals around and they were having a great time, running around investigating all these new water courses in their environment, catching drips off trees and running through the wonderful mud. I could hear them saying to each other “Wow watch how much this splashes when I jump in it” Their mothers were content to let them get very dirty and they were unconcerned about all the muddy wet coats. I did not hear one mother saying “get out of that puddle you will get dirty” In fact the mothers were looking on benignly with big smiles on their faces as they watched the youngsters playing and getting dirtier and dirtier. Even the horses at the stud I passed were enjoying the water, running up and down kicking their hind legs high in that playful way excited horses do.

I got home finally but had to leave my 2WD car 100 metres away from the house at the top of the driveway as it is just too wet to bring it close to the house. Well I could but Magna sedans don’t do wet slippery mud that well. I had to back it the whole way up to the gate yesterday to get it off the place. That will teach me to get the 4WD fixed as soon as it breaks down. Yes it’s my fault the rain is so heavy, I need the 4WD and this is karmas way of saying ‘Har Har we warned you to fix things in a timely manner”.

I got close to the house and was greeted with the 7 older pups and their dad, currently in the front yard where I moved them yesterday to ensure they had a dry sheltered spot out of the rain to lie in. Well so much for that as they have been having a great time playing in the mud puddles, rolling each other around and they are all dripping with mud from head to foot, so much so that it is hard to tell who is black and who is brown. They also had big grins from ear to ear and the excited chatter was all about how much fun their water logged yard is. It makes me wonder about all the rules and regulations that the authorities insist on regarding shelter. Hah these dogs don’t want a bar of any of that shelter. Even Mistral their mother, who has the entire back veranda to stay on is also dripping wet and keeps running out in the yard to chase frogs. The only dog showing any sense is Alexia who just every so often pops her head out of her shed to see what all the fuss is about. She is not so keen on all this water. The funny thing is I know from experience that these dogs will be bone dry without any mud on them in about 2 hours, after it stops raining due to their wash and wear coats. That is if they stop playing in the mud puddles which I don’t think is likely to happen.

I think as humans (2 legged animals) we should take a lesson from the joy and delight that animals get from ………….. rain…………….They don’t moan they don’t complain about what they can’t do they just enjoy it and take it for what it is, a part of the natural cycle of our earth. As parents we could do with taking a lesson from the parents of these animals who are happy to watch their offspring get muddy and dirty and above all else have some honest simple down to earth fun. Kids can be washed is what the motto should be.

Anyway bye for now I am going to go back to gazing out the window at the rain falling down and listening to the frog choir that is serenading this rain event. I look forward to seeing those who can make it at ProAg at Macksville showground this Friday and Saturday. Come and see me in the Dining Room where I will be lecturing on pet care and training. Bring your gumboots as you are going to need them out there, especially as there has just been about 300 RV’s camped out there for the last week.