Ultimate Epic - Binnie
Binnie has concluded her journey, she lived the last 12 months with a heart murmur, and had slowed down a lot. She was put to rest on the property at Bermagui.
I started this post a few months ago when the old girl disappeared for two days, missing breakfast twice. It was abandoned when Dad got a call from a neighbor about a kilometer from home, stealing water out of a bird bath. She was a little hungry, but generally indifferent to the concern that she had caused.
It was around 2002 when Binnie came to our family, somewhere around when I started high school. The conditions of dog ownership were that she wasn't allowed inside, and would get a walk every morning and afternoon, and that Rhys and I were to feed her and clean up after her. While I can't promise that there weren't a few missed walks, walks cut short, and other conflicts with teenage priorities, we mostly held to the bargain.
She was a failed sheepdog, we always said she was too smart for it, and chose the comfortable family life. She was easy to train, and always well behaved off-lead, she knew not to come inside, and was happy sleeping on the verandah in Cooma, choosing the sun or the shade as she wished. She enjoyed the space on the property there and was a constant companion for fort building, bike track construction and other mayhem in the bush. If she couldn't be with one of us, she was content with the car, she knew that we couldn't go far without it, and she'd never be abandoned if she stayed with it.
Binnie loved to chase birds, as far as we know she never caught one, and probably didn't really try. She regularly baited magpies with her dried food before chasing them from the ground, and once cleared the seagulls from an entire sandbar, and wouldn't let them land again.
She was a fan of water, but after an incident with a swan she wouldn't go past shoulder deep. She was happy on boats, provide the surface wasn't too slippery or rocking too much. It's hard to paddle a kayak when she was sitting on your lap. But it was possible, she did the Murray River with Dad one Christmas.
But the thing she loved most was long mountain bikes, she was more than capable of running for 4 hours keeping up with the bikes, and would still chase a 'roo if she got the opportunity. She had many rides around Cooma, Brown Mountain, Sparrow, Majura, and Mt Stromlo, the old Deeks Forest as well as several others further afield. On one memorable occasion she chose to 'drop' instead of move when Murray was approaching rapidly down the trail. On another, Dad remembers her licking him after he fell and broke his rest. I had several incidents where she licked, or attempted to lick blood off some cut or other.
She was less capable of keeping up on the road. On two occasions she ran the pas off her paws, one on a rail trail in Victoria when she met a few dogs, after covering 20km on tarmac. The other was more memorable for me; we rode from Beecworth to Yackandandah, leaving at about 2am. She seemed to slow down as we approached the town, and was reluctant to step off the grass when we stopped to get her a drink in town. I checked her paws, and several pads were damaged. Unfortunately we had to wait for dawn in the cold before we could get a lift.
In Cooma she made a bed in the herb garden, over the years she crushed the thyme and packed the dirt beneath it. Eventually she moved her little nest to another spot where the poor plant still grew with the vigor it had before she moved in. She would curl up at the bottom of a cliff after she had explored it's smells, occasionally looking up at me climbing as if to say 'what the hell are you doing? You know we can walk up right?'
She joined us on a trip to the Kimberly caving in 2013, and loved the freedom and the hot weather, though she picked up some grass seeds that we were still pulling out some months later.
Backyard cricket was improved by the addition of a trampoline keeper, and Binnie in the outfield. She wasn't a fan of catching the ball on the full, even when it was an easy catch. She would need a sprinkler, and a water bowl, and would steal the balls when she'd had enough, or just wanted to slow the game down. It would start with taking it to the heavy grass behind leg slip, but when she really wanted a break she would take it up to the house, then return to lie in the grass. Forcing someone else to walk up and get it. She never grasped the idea that she didn't need to chase every ball, but that did make her a great outfielder. She loved to chase balls thrown by trebuchet too, and returned them from 100m away, the water bombs were a bit disappointing for her, but she loved the motion and noise of the treb.
Watching her drink at a run, or run down to a puddle and jump in was always a delight. There isn't a dam at Sparrow that she didn't love to wade in. She loved ice, especially in summer, liked frozen yogurt and learnt that the best way to get food was not to beg, but to sit down and stick your paw out to shake. That was a trick she even taught maddie over the last year, despite being unable to balance on 3 paws anymore.
She used to hate being picked up, and would always jump into or out of the car if possible, even when there was only a tiny, dog sized gap left for her (we presume she broke her tail when she didn't tuck it in on one of those occasions). But in the end even the tiny golf was causing her trouble, so she learnt to accept it, the back drivers windows of all our cars will bear the scratches from hard teeth as she chased and snapped at cars.
In March 2015 Veronica and I got Maddie, and given that Mum and Dad's was just an our or so up the road from the farm where we got her, we visited them on her first weekend with us. Binnie was great with her, quite tolerant of the silly yappy puppy, but very much the subdued old queen.
Over the last few years she slowed down a bit, but still greeted us with love, even when she could barely see us, and was either deaf, or pretending to be. As Maddie grew up Binnie was less tolerant, and Maddie has some scars from barking too close to the old girl. She still showed flashes of the young dog she had been, playing with the puppies in the dog park.
Over the last few years I've watched a number of my friends say goodbye to longtime companions, and for the past year we've known that it wouldn't be long, and every time I stroked your velvet ears as I said goodbye I wondered if it would be the last.
Thanks for all the runs pup, thanks for always being there. You saw me through my teenage years, were a comfort and a companion through several breakups, and always great with new people. You always greeted me with joy when I came home, and were always up for a run.
I hope you enjoyed your time right up until the end.
I started this post a few months ago when the old girl disappeared for two days, missing breakfast twice. It was abandoned when Dad got a call from a neighbor about a kilometer from home, stealing water out of a bird bath. She was a little hungry, but generally indifferent to the concern that she had caused.
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| 2013 - Kunnunurra |
It was around 2002 when Binnie came to our family, somewhere around when I started high school. The conditions of dog ownership were that she wasn't allowed inside, and would get a walk every morning and afternoon, and that Rhys and I were to feed her and clean up after her. While I can't promise that there weren't a few missed walks, walks cut short, and other conflicts with teenage priorities, we mostly held to the bargain.
She was a failed sheepdog, we always said she was too smart for it, and chose the comfortable family life. She was easy to train, and always well behaved off-lead, she knew not to come inside, and was happy sleeping on the verandah in Cooma, choosing the sun or the shade as she wished. She enjoyed the space on the property there and was a constant companion for fort building, bike track construction and other mayhem in the bush. If she couldn't be with one of us, she was content with the car, she knew that we couldn't go far without it, and she'd never be abandoned if she stayed with it.
Binnie loved to chase birds, as far as we know she never caught one, and probably didn't really try. She regularly baited magpies with her dried food before chasing them from the ground, and once cleared the seagulls from an entire sandbar, and wouldn't let them land again.She was a fan of water, but after an incident with a swan she wouldn't go past shoulder deep. She was happy on boats, provide the surface wasn't too slippery or rocking too much. It's hard to paddle a kayak when she was sitting on your lap. But it was possible, she did the Murray River with Dad one Christmas.
But the thing she loved most was long mountain bikes, she was more than capable of running for 4 hours keeping up with the bikes, and would still chase a 'roo if she got the opportunity. She had many rides around Cooma, Brown Mountain, Sparrow, Majura, and Mt Stromlo, the old Deeks Forest as well as several others further afield. On one memorable occasion she chose to 'drop' instead of move when Murray was approaching rapidly down the trail. On another, Dad remembers her licking him after he fell and broke his rest. I had several incidents where she licked, or attempted to lick blood off some cut or other.
She was less capable of keeping up on the road. On two occasions she ran the pas off her paws, one on a rail trail in Victoria when she met a few dogs, after covering 20km on tarmac. The other was more memorable for me; we rode from Beecworth to Yackandandah, leaving at about 2am. She seemed to slow down as we approached the town, and was reluctant to step off the grass when we stopped to get her a drink in town. I checked her paws, and several pads were damaged. Unfortunately we had to wait for dawn in the cold before we could get a lift.In Cooma she made a bed in the herb garden, over the years she crushed the thyme and packed the dirt beneath it. Eventually she moved her little nest to another spot where the poor plant still grew with the vigor it had before she moved in. She would curl up at the bottom of a cliff after she had explored it's smells, occasionally looking up at me climbing as if to say 'what the hell are you doing? You know we can walk up right?'
She joined us on a trip to the Kimberly caving in 2013, and loved the freedom and the hot weather, though she picked up some grass seeds that we were still pulling out some months later.
Backyard cricket was improved by the addition of a trampoline keeper, and Binnie in the outfield. She wasn't a fan of catching the ball on the full, even when it was an easy catch. She would need a sprinkler, and a water bowl, and would steal the balls when she'd had enough, or just wanted to slow the game down. It would start with taking it to the heavy grass behind leg slip, but when she really wanted a break she would take it up to the house, then return to lie in the grass. Forcing someone else to walk up and get it. She never grasped the idea that she didn't need to chase every ball, but that did make her a great outfielder. She loved to chase balls thrown by trebuchet too, and returned them from 100m away, the water bombs were a bit disappointing for her, but she loved the motion and noise of the treb.
Watching her drink at a run, or run down to a puddle and jump in was always a delight. There isn't a dam at Sparrow that she didn't love to wade in. She loved ice, especially in summer, liked frozen yogurt and learnt that the best way to get food was not to beg, but to sit down and stick your paw out to shake. That was a trick she even taught maddie over the last year, despite being unable to balance on 3 paws anymore.
She used to hate being picked up, and would always jump into or out of the car if possible, even when there was only a tiny, dog sized gap left for her (we presume she broke her tail when she didn't tuck it in on one of those occasions). But in the end even the tiny golf was causing her trouble, so she learnt to accept it, the back drivers windows of all our cars will bear the scratches from hard teeth as she chased and snapped at cars.
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| Maddie and Binnie, that first weekend |
Over the last few years she slowed down a bit, but still greeted us with love, even when she could barely see us, and was either deaf, or pretending to be. As Maddie grew up Binnie was less tolerant, and Maddie has some scars from barking too close to the old girl. She still showed flashes of the young dog she had been, playing with the puppies in the dog park.Over the last few years I've watched a number of my friends say goodbye to longtime companions, and for the past year we've known that it wouldn't be long, and every time I stroked your velvet ears as I said goodbye I wondered if it would be the last.
Thanks for all the runs pup, thanks for always being there. You saw me through my teenage years, were a comfort and a companion through several breakups, and always great with new people. You always greeted me with joy when I came home, and were always up for a run.
I hope you enjoyed your time right up until the end.
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| Thanks for everything Bin |
I'll miss you Binnie!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful, Dane. I'll go down to her berm and share it with her.
ReplyDelete