Sunday, February 21, 2016

Walk to Kosciusko


We had a weekend away with our family and my brother and his family. We hired a house at Jindabyne, My main goal was to do the walk from Thredbo to the summit of Mt Kosciusko. Over the years I have had several false starts at getting there, but finally the stars aligned, it all worked out and we had a beautiful day to do the walk. Amy was not planning on doing the walk so 7 of us set out up the chairlift from Thredbo and then the 6.5km walk to the summit. Bindi turned around shortly after the chairlift, realising she wasn't up to it so she went back to the house and went out exploring with Amy, the rest of us made it to the summit.



Lachlan, Bill and I at the top.

 I like this shot of the three of us
 Charlie at the top- he was much happier once we got to the top and he only had the walk back down to go.
 Mountain country is just so lovely and so different to what we normally see.
 Bill and I at the top
 Lachlan taking photos for Simon
 Wonderful scenery
 Setting off on the path, later on it became a wire mesh path and then eventually a stone path up to the summit.
 Don't get too many photos of Lachlan so need to the make the most of any opportunity.
 Me at the top of Kosciusko 


 Lachlan looking happy!

Here we are ready to head off.


 After the walk we called into the Wildbrumby Distillery and Cafe for some afternoon tea and then the following day for lunch it was so nice. It was a beautiful setting lovely outlook and great food, it was a great weekend.

Saturday, February 6, 2016

RIP our Beautiful Benji


Very suddenly on Thursday we had to say goodbye to our beautiful wolfhound Benji.it was all very sudden and has left us sad and missing him so much, he was such a lovely part of our lives. Bill has been away all week in Perth so I have been getting up at 5:30am and taking both dogs for a walk separately which is what I did on Thursday morning. I always take him second as he waits at home patiently and doesn’t get up to mischief like Luna, I always put my hand up and say I will take you when I get back, as he always looks at me like he is hopeful I would take him first. I took him when I got back and he charged out he door as he usually does, barks as he usually does at some point almost for the sake of barking and hearing his own voice! He was his normal beautiful Benji self. 

I went off to work, when I got home about 5pm he didn’t come out to meet me or say hello, which is unusual, he was asleep down in Amy’s room, Amy and I commented on this and a few minutes later Amy came down to my room to say she thought Benji wasn’t well, she brought him down to my room, we talked about him for a bit and she decided to ring the vet and see if she could get an appointment, they were booked out but told Amy to bring him up and if she was prepared to wait someone would have a look at him, I think she told them that she was worried because his gums were pale, which evidently is a sign of internal bleeding . They took him in pretty quickly and soon Amy had called to say he wasn’t well and they were going to do x-rays, then she called again to say he would probably have to go to the emergency vet to be monitored overnight, then she called to say it looked like he would have to be operated on because he had a tumour which had ruptured, by this time I said I would come up and be with her as she was starting to sound distressed and it was all more serious than we thought, I said I would be about 15 minutes, sent her a text to suggest it might be worth calling Jakob from work, which she did.

By the time I got there she had come to the decision herself that the best thing for Benji was to say goodbye and have him euthanised. It was so quick and sudden, we were all in shock. Jakob had told Amy that they could operate, no guarantees and it might prolong his life for a few weeks then with chemo a few months, it would have been a hard recovery and we would have been doing it for our sake and not for Benji.

 I was very proud and impressed with the maturity of Amy with the decision, she had had him since he was a puppy, he was her dog, we got him from Gordon our next door neighbour, when her depression was diagnosed so he means the world to her, and to all of us. Lachlan came up to say goodbye has well, it was so sad, we were all with him to the end. In a matter of three hours he was gone. At least he had a happy last day, going for his walk, doing all his normal things, being with everyone and Amy was home with him all day as it was her day off, and it all happened quickly so there wasn’t a lot of suffering or much pain. I had been talking with Bill on the phone so he was in the loop and knew what was happening, a very sad day in our lives.


 Poor Benji - Amy was always dressing him up somehow!
 He loved sleeping on the couch with Bill
 Amy brought him home from work after a bath with this pink bow in his hair- how embarrasing- but he did smell nice. She even painted his nails once.
 Relaxing on the lawn with Amy
 Dressed up as an apprentice electrician.
 Can't believe he was this tiny once!
 One of my favourite shots- he would wait up near the fence and guard the property for us!
 He had a mighty jump on him!

Another one of Amy's dress up times!
 Such an elegant dog!

RIP Beautiful Benji- our giant teddy bear!