© irene waters 2014This petmoir can be commenced at the beginning by going to the page labelled Trog and Other Animals.

Mungo responded well to the glucosamine injections which I gave him once a month.  I hated giving these needles which surprised me because as a nurse I had jabbed countless people without batting an eyelid. He was good though and just stood as I threw the needle into the back of his neck. On some occasions I was so reluctant with my administration that I did it slowly and nervously and at these times he responded with a yelp which only made me more nervous of hurting him the next time. We also bought some glucosamine tablets at Woolworths and administered this to him twice a day.

His improvement with the treatment was remarkable and he was again heading off through any hole he could find in the fence to visit his neighbourhood friends and happily walking on our evening walks , playing ball and best of all no longer yelping when he lay down.

The shop was going well. We were extremely busy but when a local woman asked if I had duck or goose eggs, as no-one in town stocked them and they were the best eggs to make a very light sponge cake, I determined that I would corner the market for the sponge makers and have a supply on tap. We already supplied the shop with chicken eggs.  I managed to buy some geese from another customer and ended up with one goose and one gander. This was not enough to supply the shop but I managed to buy some duck eggs to tide me over until my production satisfied my needs.  It would be some time before I was self-sufficient in goose eggs as geese lay around fifty eggs a year from spring to late summer. I prolonged this time as I decided to increase my flock and allow the goose to sit on her clutch of eggs.

The geese also needed to have a pond to swim  so Rod made a pool out of black builders plastic using the vegetable garden borders to give the sides height. I was never going to have time to work the vegetable garden although I would have liked to supply fresh vegetables to the restaurant.

© irene waters 2014

Trog was happy spending most days on top of the computer in the office. Jerry was becoming increasingly fixated by me and during our shop hours lay so that he could continually watch for me from his vantage point in the house.

Walking him was a bit of a danger though. For some reason Jerry was panic  ridden that on our return to the store we would all hop in the car and leave him behind. I don’t know why he worried about this  as it had never happened , yet every day it seemed more of a concern. He would heel perfectly during our walk but as soon as we were in sight of the shop he would start straining at the lead until pulling me along behind him. Then he did literally pull me over. We had just reached the tarmac of the petrol bowsers and over I went. Flat on my face and he pulled, managing to graze and bruise most of my body.  The time had come for him to have a halter harness.

All was well in our animal world – for the moment.