My partner got a job in Melbourne. We packed up and removed to a new city. City? What is this? Billy asked me. She got used to it. She never did get used to the idea that the city was not a place of pats and chat. She still lay under my piano while I practised and eventually prodded me into passing serious music exams.
We moved againk this time to Sydney. Billy sat in the back seat of our Renault10 for hundreds of kilometres, learned to stay in a motel when she wasn't supposed to be there, didn't complain and didn't throw up. Not once. Lucky for me.
We stayed with my partner's Mum. It was good to have a place to stay, but, Billy found it hard. She had to sit still and straight on a towel on a mat so as not to spread her black hair over the white carpet.
She would stay on that towel, stiff and straight while we watched telly at night and never said a word. (she used to huff, snuffle and set her burning glance upon me when I did things that she didn't approve of). We found our own house.
We all lived together in our house for a long time. I got a job that took me out of the house everyday. The story goes that Billy waited for me by the front door everyday till I returned. Every day she received me with such joy that you would have thought I must have gone missing for ten years.
Billy ran with us, cleaned, cooked and mowed the lawn with us, and i know that it isn't really true, but it seemed to me that she thought of all my best ideas. She was horrified, along with everyone else present, when I announced that I couldn't stand working in the graphic arts industry any more and didn't care if I never saw another piece of artwork. All conversation stopped. All present, including Billy, stopped and stared. Making art was my thing. Something was wrong.
Sunday, September 2, 2007
Friday, August 24, 2007
billy the immortal
What the best dog in the universe was doing in Brisbane RSPCA Pound I'll never knowl tiny black kelpie cross puppy announced, 'I an your dog, take me home.' So I did.
She come to live with me on the farm in the avocado grove. For long hours she lay under the piano while I practiced scales without end.She sat by my side while I worked, hanging out washing, driving to and from Brisbane, into town and back. I learned later that our bright green Carrolla sporting a pair of pointy black ears in the passenger seat was a familiar sight for the locals.
Ticks, toads, carpet snakes, rats, bandicoots, spiders, too much water, not enough water, thunder, lightning, fire flies, falling trees,hurricanes, we experienced them all. Once I even stuffed her into the basket on my push bike, (no available car), and peddled up hill and down dale 10 kilometres to the vet to get life saving antidote for tick bite. The other farmers said she would die. They didn't know that I loved her and that I would spend the next few days and nights pumping yer full o salin solution carrying her around the farm, keeping her close to me to monitor her progress.
She survived.
My dog became a legend.
She come to live with me on the farm in the avocado grove. For long hours she lay under the piano while I practiced scales without end.She sat by my side while I worked, hanging out washing, driving to and from Brisbane, into town and back. I learned later that our bright green Carrolla sporting a pair of pointy black ears in the passenger seat was a familiar sight for the locals.
Ticks, toads, carpet snakes, rats, bandicoots, spiders, too much water, not enough water, thunder, lightning, fire flies, falling trees,hurricanes, we experienced them all. Once I even stuffed her into the basket on my push bike, (no available car), and peddled up hill and down dale 10 kilometres to the vet to get life saving antidote for tick bite. The other farmers said she would die. They didn't know that I loved her and that I would spend the next few days and nights pumping yer full o salin solution carrying her around the farm, keeping her close to me to monitor her progress.
She survived.
My dog became a legend.
Monday, August 20, 2007
In the beginning there was billy
Meet billy. My beautiful girl. The best dog in the universe.
This is her story, her strong shining spirit.
I thought I would tell you in instalments, to get the story underway and to show good faith. To begin with, let's get the real life sad bit out of the way. Then the story that lives on and unfolds year by year, as revealed by the Christmas dards, will follow. It may seem that one does not affect the other but billy changes everything, she was one spedial girl. She stayed with e a long time. I was very, very lucky that she chose to arrive.
I will endeavour not to make the story too long. Most of it is written down alredy. I felt it needed a little background to make it intelligible and... like most stories it began with... 'I fell in love' and moved interstate. That was when I meet billy.
This is her story, her strong shining spirit.
I thought I would tell you in instalments, to get the story underway and to show good faith. To begin with, let's get the real life sad bit out of the way. Then the story that lives on and unfolds year by year, as revealed by the Christmas dards, will follow. It may seem that one does not affect the other but billy changes everything, she was one spedial girl. She stayed with e a long time. I was very, very lucky that she chose to arrive.
I will endeavour not to make the story too long. Most of it is written down alredy. I felt it needed a little background to make it intelligible and... like most stories it began with... 'I fell in love' and moved interstate. That was when I meet billy.
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