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Hmm ... , checking inspiration level for this issue on the trusty inspiration meter. (\ . . . . . .) Yep, just as I thought. Dangerously low. Is this what they call burnout?
Well, you can put away those violins. Fortunately plenty have chipped in and helped me write Merigal this time. :-) Thanks everyone. What a big issue (and, in an era when everyone, possibly even the ABC is becoming depressingly commercial, still no ads to pad it out)!
By the way, for those who visit and get the impression I've no heart or soul, I put it pretty much into Merigal so that's where it's all gone.
Well most of you have been pretty good with renewals this year. Um, perhaps that's the problem. Blow me down if we haven't just gone along and spent all the money!
We've been able to get yet further ahead with improving grounds and starting on upgrading visitor facilities, and heaven knows, they need it. I had one rather depressing comment on this the other day. Having told someone about the money spent on the place, he just said, "Yeah, but where's it gone?"
Well, there's been twenty years of maintenance needing to be done, and the current work not only replaces the clapped out former works, but has upgraded them, so they'll last much longer this time.
There's plenty of landscaping to do, and we've had good numbers of plants donated, so work is proceeding well on this front. Trees, plants and mulch will take away the look of the area having been recently mined, and as the labour, etc. is being provided by members, this is something we can continue with while we raise more dough.
Just when we get out plants in, the weather turns dry! Typical. (And when I go and write that, it rains just to make a liar of me
The grass is dying, the nights are getting cold. I think we're getting the new plants in just in time.
We've been playing canine musical chairs lately. I thought Nardoo might be getting close to being in season in the last couple of weeks and she has been moved in with Snowdrift. Actually, they have since mated several times (Dingoes are exhibitionists and are noisy when they mate). The puppies are destined for Western Plains Zoo where we expect them to continue with any socialisation we begin here.
Jedda moved in with Dusty. Black Magic was moved in with Lasca and Mandawuy briefly, but she and Lasca both came into heat, so 'Magic (who is trying hard to be a Dingo, I think) had to be moved again into the old Wooleston enclosed accommodation, while Lasca has been given contraceptive.
Well, almost! It happened on a recent Sunday just on dusk and after a Board meeting as we were all winding down from Dingo Sanctuary's regular weekend open days.
Nardoo must've displayed herself to Remus and he made the mistake of showing interest. An enraged Zoe pounced on him, grabbed the side of his head and shook him like a rag.
By the time I got to Remus, I could see torn tissue on the side of his head and I desperately looked for an eye. Fortunately, this was not damaged and it seems to be healing adequately.
So, more canine musical chairs. Black Magic, who has now finished her first season was moved back with 'Dusty, Snowdrift and the flirtatious Nardoo to their "love nest" where 'Magic was and Jedda is back where she had been living with Snowdrift in her old run, keeping the peace.
Remus now sports what looks a little like a black eye.
Poor Koori is on his own at present, and wasn't complaining to begin with. When we took Nardoo away from him, he had already been treated with MPA (synthetic progestagen - essentially a six month long "cold shower"
While we're on the subject of Koori, I must say he looks very much like a drawing of a Dingo from the Endeavour River when Cook was exploring the eastern coast of Australia. The black coat is distracting and makes it difficult to pay attention to this dog's underlying conformation. At first he appeared rather lippy (odd in a predatory breed) and somewhat low on the leg and his coat seemed a little soft, but he is turning into a very interesting specimen indeed. Koori was rescued from northern Queensland by member, Jan Eymann.
So nick-named, because of her former predatory behaviour on our telephone lines which pulls the plug on our 'Net connection. She seems to have settled down and is being angelic for the time being. See what a little judicious libel can do for a Dingo's behaviour! :-)
Kimba and Willie have a new house. With much grunting, a little swearing and some plain brute force, the Reid family and I shoved their new accommodation through a gate which was barely wide enough. Kimba and Willie both thank the McConnells for this generous donation. So do the "Wild Mob", who have gained an extra house (Kimba's and Willie's old one).
There's been a little scratching in the Dingo enclosures lately. Having seen Amber, Gunda Snowdrift and 'Magic chewing themselves recently, I gave all the dogs and enclosures at the top of the property another spraying with diazinon. Commercial spraying for fleas cost us three hundred dollars last year, but has been worth it. With a disastrous flea season, the Dingoes have come through relatively unscathed while I've heard rumours from doggy people of some kennels being overrun with fleas.
We also had a big blackberry spraying effort, organised through the person who did the place for fleas. We seem to have had a good kill.
Flies have also been troublesome with earlier humid, weather. We were worried about Bloomfield, who is choosey about who can catch him, but is becoming less so. Danielle, Mary and Linda can now handle him and Mary has followed up the recent ear treatment applied by Jan Eymann recently. It's good that this dog now has a few people he can relate to.
Mandawuy (aka "Mongoloid" since certain people don't seem to be able to remember his name) is in the bad books. He stirs trouble on the fence with other dogs over bones and I suspect it was he who took a piece out of Blackdog's ear. Grrrr.
Both Lasca and Mandawuy currently relate well to visitors, and we hope to maintain this.
PR Dingoes
Dusty, Aussie-Host and Ozy Clifton went with assorted handlers to the Sydney Royal for the breeders' stall day again, this year, in the Dog Pavilion. Aussie-Host has been showing the benefits of her early socialisation at Aussie-Host presentation days where she got used to large gatherings of people at an early age.
Of course, Ozy Dingo Clifton performed well, as expected. He is an extremely well socialised Dingo and a credit to his handlers, Dennis Clifton and Linda Wyncoll. Snow-Dusty did well too for what was pretty much a first time.
We did have problems with children rushing the dogs at times. We'd present a dog for handling and explain to the children present how to approach, and then a pile of others would appear from nowhere and overwhelm the animal.
OK, soapbox time! There's been a lot of debate about measures to control irresponsible pet owners and pets, but I haven't heard a lot of talk from the government level about education, although I know there are a number of programs in the community which aim to teach children how to avoid dog attacks. But then, in the long run, if a kid gets a fright, I guess it will act like prey no matter what training it's had. OK, it was just a thought.
The bright spot of a long day for Dingoes and handlers was winning the prize for best educational display. I could (and did
A big thankyou to the Royal NSW Canine Council which provided one hundred dollars for a prize.
After the big day out at the Show, we didn't put Aussie-Host back with her sisters and half brother until the following day. There were some raised hackles and wary circling, which have been evident on several occasions since, but no major problems when we put 'Host back with the mob the next day. In fact, poor 'Host suffered the worst injury when she was kept away from the rest of the mini-pack the night before the Show. She sustained a small gash behind her shoulder.
The "Wild Mob" has indeed been quiet this season. Being their second season, we expected fireworks, but they seem to be very settled.
Romulus, Remus, Bindi and Jedda have all been desexed. The entry of Romulus and Remus into the world was unplanned, so I guess that's the price they've had to pay! :-) We know Bindi is a hybrid, so we don't plan to use her in our breeding program ...
... and I probably don't need to remind you all of Jedda (but I will anyway
Jedda mated, we waited. Was it a phantom pregnancy? We hoped so. It got closer to time for Jedda to whelp ...
On the morning a seniors group was due to tour, we heard a scream of excitement. An escape, a fight? No, it was cause number three - a mating! So it had been a pseudopregnancy all along - what a way to let us know! At least they had the discretion not to flaunt themselves lustfully in front of the oldies.
Actually, someone asked us why we would breed a ten year old female. That person must have been thinking in the back of her mind something like "puppy-mill". I nearly died.
Anyway, Perth Zoo got Durka and Tingo, and we got Snow-Dusty, who replaces Jedda as a breeding bitch. Jedda is still doing well for her age and still has a spring in her step. Sorry, Jedda, but we're not taking any chances this time.
I've been thinking this might make a good competition. Harry has developed a paunch, and we want to diet him, but this means that he'd probably just stop his co-resident, Yindi, from getting her fair share of the food.
Yindi, BTW, looks pretty good for her age (thirteen, I think). She looks like she'll live forever.
Like Harry, Paterson is looking a little cuddly too. He likes to be called Patto in the best, ocker, 'owyagoin' type of voice. If I remember rightly, Lana (Langdale) says this is the way he was addressed at the zoo, so he's used to it. Usually this turns Dingoes off and would have them diving for cover, but Patto seems to like it!
Wattie is back to her usual breeding season "bitchiness" and gave Patto a beauty on the foot recently. But he was over it by the next day.
This girl is difficult with her contraceptive injections, managed to come into season, and has been flirting with Humpty-Two (because he's the son of Humpty-Do, get it?
We had trouble earlier with inflamed, swollen muzzles on some of our Dingoes, namely, Amber, Nardoo, and my Blackdog (Dwezel). The girls' muzzles improved quickly with topical anti-inflammatories, but poor Blackdog had lost most of the hair on the top surface of his muzzle and this and the areas around his eyes were very swollen and itchy.
We suspect allergies, exacerbated by mouthing which causes trauma to the skin of the muzzle and have blamed the cursed paspalum on which we have declared war. It's probably too late to spray this year, but we're plotting its demise for next year. Any takers for operation "Bye Bye Paspalum?"
Shadow, Zoe (definitely Zoe - I'm sure you can guess why), Wattle, the "Wild Mob" girls and Daintree (aka Ms Sexpot) have all had second contraceptive doses. And was that you singing last night Teena? OK, you're next!
There's been plenty of noise in the mornings, including some "love songs". When we were on daylight saving time, the howling started at 5.30am. Needless to say, the Dingoes haven't been taking advantage of their extra hour in the morning and this is now 4.30am!
All this is a little bit of a worry. The other day, a plumber was having a look at the property next door to see where he could put in some piping from the mains. Yep, it looks like we've got a resident neighbour on the north-eastern boundary.
Fortunately, we hear that whoever it is wants to retain the bush setting. Presumably they know about the Dingoes, considered this when buying the block and won't give us a hard time about the singing. Hope it's not some smart lawyer-type who'll hassle us. Only two months of the breeding season left to go. Roll on mid-June!
As I said, Black Magic is now back with Snow-Dusty who sounds like she's currently "beating up" the cattle-dog again. It's interesting to watch the two play. I think 'Magic is threatened at times by the vigour of 'Dusty's play, even though 'Dusty is only playing as she would with another Dingo.
'Dusty has done a good job of keeping 'Magic in shape. I had 'Magic inside with me for a couple of nights recently. The first night, she had been locked up during the day (she'd just finished her season) and trampled on me all night - 47lb of cattle-pup transmitted through those compact little cat feet can make you yell! The second night, she had been run ragged by 'Dusty and went straight to sleep.
Mandawuy has not been too bad inside, Teena is pretty well behaved, but Lasca is demonic. I have tried letting 'Dusty sleep on the bed, but she tries to dissect my room. She has spent time at the Reids lately, so hopefully she has been learning some manners!
Well, we've sold a couple of books over the 'Net. One sale was "assisted".
I downloaded a desperate message from the mail server one day. A breeder of Australian Cattle Dogs in the US had borrowed another ACD breeder's copy of The Company of Dingoes ... and her twelve week old puppy, known familiarly as "Bean" (why the hell did she call him that?) had eaten the cover. 'Cause he looked like one as a pup - I later found out (thanks Mary). Well, that makes sense I guess ...
Needless to say, another copy was despatched and cheque for payment recently received in the mail. Thanks Mary (Wieland). Perhaps Bean was just letting you know you really should have your own copy of this fabulous book
My application to do a Master of Science degree at the University of NSW on the genetics of the Dingo, kindly organised by Society Patron, Dr Max Nichols, and under the supervision of Drs Alan Wilton and Bill Sherwin, was successful and I'm currently learning a few techniques. I've included a note from Dr Wilton about the project on the last page of this edition of the Journal. Thanks are due, too, in particular, to Mary Faulder who, has taken on extra kennel work to help out while I'm in the lab. in Sydney.
It has always been tacit "policy" here to view Dingoes in light of what is known of domestic dogs, which has sometimes drawn criticism. In any case, I've always been interested in comparisons with other breeds. That's why I included comment on comparisons of Dingo and Australian Cattle Dog hips in the last Merigal.
Sylvia Herbert has since written and comments, "... First, let me be clear, I was not inferring that the Dingo infusion in the ACD produced bad hips. I repeat, my theory is that the Dingo has a normal hip that is somewhat different from that of the domestic dog. A normal, heavy femur neck and normal flat spot somewhat larger than that of the domestic dog ..."
Well, I dunno, but if I misinterpreted anything, please take the above as a correction. Any comments? In the absence of any enlightened comment or new information, that's the end of the subject for the time being.
This is slowly getting closer to reality and we are currently looking at two sub programs at present. We need people to work with the Dingoes themselves, helping with their care at the Dingo Sanctuary, and we need people to assist with the guided tours. Training will help ensure our visitors get quality information and our Dingoes get standardised, quality care.
We hope to get a survey out soon too, so we know a bit more about our membership and what they want to do. This will be entirely voluntary, of course - no one is obliged to answer anything if they don't want to.
The idea is that people have offered help in the past and, unless we get the information down in structured format, it's very easy to forget who offered what, then people get put out, etc. Yes, you can pick fault with us if you like, but we are trying!
Thanks for the kind words some of you have had to say about the Journal lately. I usually feel as though I've been sweating blood by the time I've finished. I must point out though that the AGM report is entirely Berenice's work, though, and no attempt by me to bignote myself. Thanks again.
Livestock
Fatal Attraction
Koori
Teena (aka "Kill-socket")
Kimba and Willie
Fleas, Flies (and Blackberries)
Mandawuy & Lasca
The "Wild Mob"
Desexing
Guess the Weight of (Fat) Harry!
Patto and Wattie
Oola
"Noses"
"Contracepticising"
Black Magic & Dusty
Dumb Joke Time
Communications and Info. Technology
"Bean There, Chewed That"
Research
Hips
The Volunteer Program
AGM Report
Conservation Through Education