The Year of the Dog

About a year ago, we had Trixie successfully covered by a young chap, Tintin, and at the end of July our 6 beautiful puppies were born. What a highlight! However, it really has been rather downhill from there on the dog front.

Firstly, one of our puppies tragically died at 3 weeks (if you keep up to date with my blog, you would have read all about it, so I won't bore you with the details again!).

Secondly, we took Gemma, the puppy we kept from the litter, for a walk last November to watch Carl ride the 94.7 Cycle Challenge, and she got attacked by another Jack Russell.

A couple of months ago, the kids and I bravely took our 3 dogs (kids each had a Jack Russell, and I had Lucy, the retriever) down to our park, and had a mostly successful trip (other than our poorly trained dogs on leads, which has to be said is our own fault for not taking them a) to training and b) out more on walks).

So now, I was on a mission to get out more with the dogs, and our evenings now are just so beautiful that it is the perfect time to get out.

2 Sundays ago (our 3rd walk in 6 months!), the kids and I again ventured past our gates with the 3 dogs off to the Park. Carl opted to stay at home, and the less I say about that, the better. On our way there, one of the people in our road opened their gate to let some visitors out, and their enormous Staffie came charging out the gate straight for us, with a look to kill.

I yelled at the kids to pick up the JR's which worked perfectly for Gemma, but Trixie was NOT going to be held and wriggled straight out of Ali's arms into a fight. I just started SCREAMING my head off, hoping like crazy that someone would hear us and come and help (I was hoping Carl would hear, but he was watching Cricket, and the less I say about that the better). The Staffie started tearing into Trixie (who thinks she is a Rotweiler, but sadly is not), and Lucy alternately. The kids and I were screaming and kicking this dog with all our might and this dog would not stop attacking. At one stage, a man came running from the house of the dog and came toward us. I assumed it was his dog, but it turned out, that he was just a visitor there. He took one look at what was happening and refused to help as he thought the Staffie would attack him, and he ran off!! Leaving me still on my own with the 2 kids and a dog fight. Ali was a little hero in trying to pull the Staffie off Trixie, but I was so worried that he would get bitten that I told him to stop. I was trying to pull Trixie away and then I realised that she had her choke chain on, so all I was doing was choking her. I then turned my attention to the Staffie, grabbed his collar and started twisting. Quite by instinct, as I assure you, as my brain was not working at that stage. Eventually I succeeded in choking the Staffie enough for it to let go of Trixie, who was lying limp and half dead on the ground. My poor little Ali had to scoop her up and walk with her in his arms back to the house. Traumatic! Fortunately, another neighbour heard the commotion, and came out in time to see the kids walking the JR's back up to the house on their own while I was still holding the now subdued Staffie, so he took Trixie from Ali and walked them safely home.

In the meantime, the not-so-gallant visitor had returned with a set of Wooden Cricket Wickets in his hands. Quite what he was planning on doing with them, I can't say. So I just asked him to take Lucy from me (who I had on lead the whole time this was happening) and walk her home. The owner, a young lady who was 8 months pregnant, eventually appeared, apologising profusely, and finally another neighbour came and took the Staffie from me so I could get back to the kids.

To say it was traumatic would be an understatement!

Trixie was in terrible shock, with some serious bite wounds. I briefly checked Lucy, but didn't see anything. So we all rushed Trixie off to the Bryanston Veterinary Hospital where she spent the night and had about 19 stitched in various places on her body.

It was only when we got back home that we noticed that Lucy had indeed been bitten - a puncture wound on the upper section of her right front leg. I tried my best to clean it and treat it myself, but eventually had to take her to the Vet too, as it was just not getting better.

So, 3 walks in 6 months, 2 of which resulted in traumatic dog fights. This does not bode well for the future of dog walking in our family. How very sad that we are now trapped even more behind out high walls and electric fences.

Eco-Challenge 2010!

Those who know our family would know that we are NOT the rough it/camping types. However, this year we signed up for the Eco-Challenge (an adventure race), organised by the kid's school. The fact that winter has arrived rather abruptly, and we've seldom had such a wet April, was not enough to deter the intrepid adventurers. Needless to say, our team's name was MACK ATTACK, and I did rather a fine job (if I may say so myself!) of painting our name onto T-shirts for us to wear.

I must also add that we were told that we had to have seconders, so I roped my surprisingly enthusiastic parents (who are hovering on either side of 70!) in for the job.

The venue was The Spirit of Adventure Camp near Rustenburg. Unfortunately, we only arrived after dark (but fortunately after a massive cloud burst!), so it was quite weird trying to find our way around and settle down. We had the choice of either camping in tents, or using the dormitories. The fact that we don't own a tent, and are camping averse made it an easy choice - dormitories it was! We first landed ourselves into enormous girls/boys dorms. However, cunning Carl managed to secure us two very cosy little dorms adjacent to each other (which meant my one night away from Carl was still spent listening to him snoring. Or was that my dad????). We had our dinner, a race briefing, and then off to bed.

An early start at 6am had us breakfasted and ready to race by 7am. Another briefing, and we were off by 7:30am. We ran the Junior Race which was open to children Gr 1 - 6. We basically completed one 10km route, with activities along the way. We had to choose what we thought was the best route, then using a map, orienteer ourselves around. And at each 'checkpoint' we had to either do something and get a stamp, or simply take a rubbing off a marker as proof of our having been there.

The activities were:

Go-Karting -

With Ali driving and we three pushing, in the thickest, sludgiest mud ever. Will our takkies ever be the same again?

Swimming -

Yes, today is the 1st May, yes it has been freezing and rainy for two weeks, and YES the water was freezing. And YES, only 3 people had to do it, so Carl and the kids went in!!! I sound flippant, but it was over 200m and bone chilling cold, and each of them had to really find the strength within themselves to complete it. Brrr, I was SO glad I got to watch!

Rock-climbing -

Ali did this task, by choice, and truthfully, Carl and I had our doubts about whether he would manage it or not, but we let him have a go. Well, let me tell you, he blew us away, and shimmied up and down that rock face like a champ. We were SO proud of him, you have no idea, and it proved to us how easily we can under-estimate our children.

Obstacle course -

I volunteered for this one, and like to think that my running/gymnast past helped, but I'm not so sure. It was a very strenuous course of climbing through barrels, walking on ropes, hopping pole to pole etc. By the end, my muscles were shaking! A good work out, but I'll feel it tomorrow!

Tower jump - Carl did this one (none of us even offered!). A scary climb up a huge tower, and then a leap to catch a handle, and then get lowered back to terra firma.

Throughout the race, we had been neck and neck with another family team, 'White Wash', and it was only at the very end, that they just beat us to the Tower Jump, and raced home in first place. The fact that the father of that family has done this Eco-Challenge six times (in fact he is the teacher who organises it!!) put them at a huge advantage, and we, the rookies, did extremely well to come in Second place!


You may be asking what was the role of our seconders? Well, turns out, not much! It seems that the junior race has only one continuous leg, and as a result, we didn't really need them. However, being who they are, they made the best of the situation by finding jobs - cleaning up our breakfast things, tidying the dorms, and then going for a walk and reading their books. They assured us that they enjoyed it, even though they didn't turn out to be needed very much, and we really appreciated their enthusiasm!

After a quick clean off, and loading the car, we headed back home, only stopping for a fabulous lunch at one of our favorite eating spots in the Cradle of Mankind. We had to thank our sacrificial seconders somehow!

As Arnold Schwarzenegger says......'we'll be back'.