New Year and Lizzy got a Job

Well, I have to tell you I’m SO proud of our adorable Lizzy!!

Lizzy is the pup, I ‘acquired’ when we first moved into our piece of paradise, here on the block. When I say first moved, I really mean, just moved in.
It was literally, our first morning in our new home and as things go, we had nothing to sustain us for unpacking.

So we headed to our favorite town, called Raglan, in the North Island, New Zealand.
We arrived, about sunday brunch time and sought a parking space, as we did, we happened to pass the pet shop and Donna (my partner in crime) commented on the lovely puppy in a pen outside the pet store… well, having three dogs already, I duly nodded and made nice noises and steered her quickly away to the local cafe for brunch.
After eating, we thought a local paper would bring us up to speed on events in our new area, so off I went, in search of a paper and low and behold, the paper shop was next to the pet shop…

Yes! you guessed, I went over and introduced myself to ‘Lizzy’ who, was snuggled up to a rabbit… then the owner of the shop came out, he commented on how friendly I was with Lizzy and said ‘If I want her, you can have her’
I said something along the lines ‘of course, you are a pet shop after all’ but it was HIS next reply that made me act, he looked at me and said ‘No, I will GIVE her to you, as I cannot afford to feed her anymore and all the others from the litter have gone’

Well, I scooped her up without a second thought and went back to Donna and announced ‘I’ve got the paper’ and she just adored Lizzy, even after the poor girl threw up last night’s dinner of raw fish in her lap on the way home.. it took MONTHS to remove that particular odour from the car…

Well, the initiation into the pack went remarkably well and Lizzy thrived on the block, but as she got older and wiser, she grew fixated on things of interest to her, first it was ‘Emma’ our alpha dog, then the rams who would ‘visit our paddock’ from time to time to chew it down.

So interested was young Lizzy, in her surroundings, that she had escaped out of the laundry window by ‘opening’ the catch with such dexterity, that my partner and I were blaming each other for leaving the window open, but, all was revealed one day.

We arrived home from work to find Lizzy attached to a piece of rope on the gate. It turned out the sneaky girl could ‘open’ the window lock and jump out of the window and our neighbor caught her in the paddock.

She even had a go at herding… all on her own one day, she leapt the fence and rounded up our neighbour’s yews who were waiting for the stock truck, she had them in a tight pack I can tell you. If one moved, so did Lizzy, she had them where she wanted them, NO problems Mate!!

They were all hiding around the back of my neighbour’s woolshed and I went over and got the halter lead on Lizzy and squared my shoulders to make me, look like an alpha dog and duly began leading her away from the crime scene.

What, I didn’t see, was the yew’s Lizzy had herded, had their alpha, come sneaking around the corner of the woolshed, to see if the coast was clear. She, obviously determined the coast was clear, and one by one the herd, crept around the corner. I only saw Donna crying from laughing so much and pointing in a helpless way over my shoulder, when I turned around it was like a ‘Wallis and Gromit’ movie.

But, the poor girl had begun to run herself ragged, counting all the neighbour’s sheep in their various paddocks, she has run a moat by the perimeter fence, so she needed a job… ASAP.

Well, the new year has come and Lizzy has herself a job, on a neighbouring farm, so we will see her lots, she can run and herd sheep to her hearts content, and I have to report, she is doing her job well and loving every minute. We visited yesterday, and boy oh boy, it she having the time of her life, she ran up to us with all of her usual excitement, but she had been out in search of the ‘pooh-fume’ only dogs like and goodness she stank… she wanted us to share in her wonderful smell.!!

So I’m proud of our Lizzy and only a little sad she is not with us any more. We love her so much, but she wanted what we could not give her, now she has it.

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