sunshinecoast – Kiwis Do Fly

Sunshine Coast August – October

It has been 3 and a half months since we left Thailand. I remember my Mum saying that time will go faster and faster the older you get, and I am seeing how right she was! Where has this year gone?

Since Thailand, we’ve been on a roll! We’ve rocked 2 house sits, 1 camping trip and had a blast hanging out with friends and family. No dull moments thats for sure!

I took a week in NZ on the way back to Australia to see family and friends. My youngest daughter Tay, flew back to Australia with me to see her sister. It was so good to have two weeks with her and to have my two beautiful girls together, even for such a short time.

We did a four week house sit in a small village at the northern end of the Sunshine Coast called Pomona. We usually like to stay on the coast and be by the ocean, so this was a change for us being in the hinterland. We thoroughly enjoyed the peace and tranquillity of the area. We had 1 dog, 4 cats, 4 geese and 2 chickens to look after. There were kangaroos regularly visiting right into the back yard and the bird life was amazing. King parrots, Cockatoos and Kookaburras to name just a few. The Australian bush is so unique with the smell of the gumtrees and is so full of life. We spent a lot of time walking with Redley around the outskirts of the village through the bush. We did not see any snakes, that would be taking the wildlife a little bit to extremes!

Redley is a beautiful girl, an Australian Kelpie with a gentle nature, we both fell instantly in love. She was such great company and constantly entertaining.

The Geese were a new one for us. We could let them out in the afternoons about 4pm and they would run around in a line, flapping their wings squawking or is it honking?? eating up all the oranges that had fallen to the ground. Redley would round them and the chickens up, it was so funny to watch, around and around the house they would go, bums wabbling, wings flapping. The chickens, John and Jon, laid eggs most days but we had a mystery on our hands. We would find broken eggs in strange places, outside of the coop. There was one wooden egg in the nesting box to encourage laying, that egg ended up in all sorts of weird places too, then it would disappear for a couple of days then turn up again. How is this happening? The coop is fox proof, there were no markings on the dirt of a snake or lizard. Turns out it was a crow! Chris did some temporary crow-proofing and we started getting more eggs for the pan. Those crows are clever though and found a way in, again! The geese started to lay, the crows never picked any of these big beauties up! Very cool to have goose eggs which were made into bacon and egg pies!

Though we loved being out in the country, the time came for us to leave, it was good to be by back on the coast. Chris stayed at his apartment in Marcoola, and I went on to look after my dear friend Shelley’s cat, Mr Peanut, while she went on holiday.

Shelley’s house is out in the hinterland, so I am back in the country. Kookaburras start laughing even before it is light around here! Again, so peaceful and pitch black at night showing up the beautiful stars in the sky.

The health and wellbeing of the pets we care for is always a very big concern for us when house sitting. What is normal behaviour for these pets? and what is out of the ordinary? As we don’t have that “parent intuition” it can sometimes be a bit of a guessing game. We are learning more and more what a huge responsibility this is and how much trust our home/pet owners are putting into us to do the right thing for their beloved pets.

Mr Peanut had an adventure a few years ago where he got lost and did not return for 3.5 years. It is quite a miracle really and a story we will never know fully. If only Mr Peanut could talk! Since then, he has been a bit of a “scardy cat” One day he got such a fright he took off under the house and out the other side toward the paddocks. He stumbled at the fence then ran, hell for leather, down toward the bush. Leigh (my daughter) was there at the time and we tried to find him. We called and called and traipsed up and down the paddocks and even into the bush, no sign. Oh boy! I am hoping it is not going to be another 3.5 years until we see him again!!

He didn’t come home that night, Leigh stayed over and we searched again the next day. I made a flyer and got my cousin to print it out to distribute around the neighbourhood the next day if he didn’t turn up. Late that second night he meowed at the door. He was filthy and hungry, my relief was unmeasurable, he was back!! But he was broken! Something very wrong with his face, and he was dribbling and couldn’t eat, but he was purring and he was back! I couldn’t figure out what had happened, I tried to think of all scenarios even thinking he may have had a stroke as the side of his face was droopy.

Leigh and I took him to the vet the next day and were hoping that the vet would be able to solve the puzzle of what could have happened to poor Mr Peanut. He was none the wiser other than the fact that his jaw was dislocated, and as he was examining him it just popped it back in! That looks better already! But an Xray was still needed to check the rest of his face. After consultation with his Mum, Mr Peanut stayed in overnight and had surgery the next day to wire his broken jaw. Poor boy! What a thing to go through.

He came home and was so brave. He hated the big blue collar he had to wear and didn’t much like the runny, soupy food he had to eat, but otherwise all fixed. The wire would come out in 6 weeks. Now he is shaved we think we know what happened. As he ran through the fence, the bottom wire went between his teeth into his mouth and that is why he stumbled, pretty much stopped dead in his tracks, the momentum dislocated and broke his jaw. What a freak accident.

Poor Mr Peanut.

Our last 3 weeks on the Sunshine Coast was filled with lots of friends visiting from NZ and spending as much time as possible with our friends and family who live here. We are heading to Europe and are not entirely sure when we will be returning to Australia. We have been having a very social time thats for sure! who would ever have time to fit work into this very busy schedule!

We did managed to squeeze in a quick 2 night camping trip with Steve and Shelley at Inskip Point. This is a favourite spot and never disappoints. A roast pork in the camp oven, lots of beach time and of course plenty of wine.