Monday is menosukhi day - the one in which I go all sentimental. For a while this means you are sharing my memories of two darling creatures, Jade Dog MacWoof and Jasper Cat MacMeow.

Two Mondays ago Jade, Mac2 and myself were enjoying the bucolic scenery of the Woko/Stroud area of NSW.  The elder dog had a marvellous time and we humans just tagged along for the heck of it.

The day came, though, for departure.  That is when we found a certain someone was reluctant in the extreme!  Who knows, really,  how dogs (cats too of course) know what is about to happen… but Jade clearly got the signal during breakfast of our last morning, before we had even begun packing, that there was something afoot.  She took off outside and down to the river and despite all best efforts, she would not come to her name call.

In the end, I had to leash her and almost force her into the back of the car.  Each day there had been an outing in it and she had jumped in willingly.  This day?  No way!

"....just one more grass-bath pleaeeeease??"

Once in, she resigned herself to the inevitable.  At every junction when we stopped, her head would pop up to see if there was to be a picnic halt or toilet break.  Eventually she settled properly as we took off over some gorgeous hills and through some delightful dales.  We were returning by first going across to the coast and heading down to the towns of Foster and Tuncurry.  Here we were to have a late lunch and a jaunt along the strand.

Jade made the most of this and the soft hearted 'aunty' Mac2, who had not cottoned-on to my wily old pooche's journey delaying tactics!!

It was quite comical but it delayed our trip rather more than we had wished, so a good four hours of night driving became the issue.  It was exhausting.  However, it was one of the fondest memories I will ever have of not just the incredible country of Australia, but of a very special time re-connecting with my little sister and seeing how my elder dog adapted so wonderfully to the country life.  

She was never to travel away from home again.  I did, however, ensure the hiring of a car a bit more regularly during her twilight years, to take her out on day trips to country places.  One of her favourites was up at Parsley Bay and Hawksbury river.

Times of joy.