DOUBLE WEIM TIME!
Alas, we have finally arrived back in the states. PHEW—and what a trip it was! I apologize for being a little out of the loop lately—if you take unreliable/expensive internet plus a PACKED schedule touring around Australia, you get one Mollie Shambeau who is simply unable-to-blog. That’s our math lesson for today.
Before I break the big news—WE GOT ANOTHER DOG!—oh, wow…I guess I couldn’t hold that in. Forget I told you that, and then when I write it again in a few paragraphs, act just as excited as you were now. (This is your cue to stop jumping up and down and clapping, and sit back down in your chair.)
Like I was saying…before I explain the new addition to our family, I will briefly touch on the highlights of our trip to Australia. In short, it was more fun that we could have ever imagined, thanks to a group of WONDERFUL Aussies who showed us the town.
Eight reasons why Australia is awesome:
1. We experienced Thredbo (one of New South Wales’ ski resorts) during a time when they’d had over 3 feet of FRESH snow—more than they’ve gotten in one weekend for over 50 years!
Imagine skiing through gum trees with fresh powder and blizzard conditions on the hill—that was us.
2. On said ski hill, Sean and I were riding up a chair lift, and lo and behold, right after we’d been discussing all the cool Australian animals we wanted to see, down we look, and ambling down the ski hill is a WOMBAT. A LIVE WOMBAT. If you have no idea what that is, we’ve been describing them as a bear cub crossed with a badger. We’re 86 percent sure that’s accurate.
(Click here for a little Wikipedia description)
3. One word: Live Kangaroos. Not only did we get to walk around with them at the zoos (yes, we went to two zoos), but we saw tons of them dead on the side of the road too! They’re like deer are to America. And, if that’s not exciting enough, we saw one live one in a field by itself on the way home from the ski hill when it was nearly dark out, so our pictures are crappy. Too crappy to even post here. The point is, we saw one in the wild. BAM! Check that off my bucket list…
4. Birds. Namely, parrots. Sean LOVED looking at the parrots that were flying all over the place. He would pull over, stop the car, demand I get the video camera out and then he’d go stalking into their turf with his camera, trying to communicate with them and take pictures. One time, he started throwing the leftover salt and vinegar chips at them (shhh, don’t tell Australia—they probably wouldn’t let us back), and that set off a chain reaction of madness. I have it on video, and you will see it at some point, after I learn how to edit out certain portions of it that are too embarrassing to post. For now, enjoy this photo of Sean, “communicating” like Ace Ventura would.
5. Parliament is pretty. We toured around their new Parliament building in Canberra and it’s gorgeous, with views of the city to boot. Here’s a cool view from one of the rooftop terraces:
6. Leaving Canberra to drive to Thredbo at 4am? Boooooo… Seeing the sunrise while driving through Cooma on the way? Yayyyy! Note here, there is actually snow on the ground where we are, which is quite a low elevation. That’s how intense the snowfall had been the night before.
7. The Sydney Opera House is breathtaking. Seriously one of the coolest pieces of architecture I’ve ever seen. Sean and I spent an hour one night taking crazy pictures with his fancy camera on the pier and a light-up pen we had. Behold, one of Sean’s creations:
8. What do seal shows, bird shows, gondola rides, cuddly koala bears and majestic lions have in common? Oh let me tell you—THE SYDNEY ZOO! Toronga is the most AWESOME zoo on the planet. I’m sure of it, and if you think differently, I will gladly debate with you until you see you’re completely WRONG.
They have gondola rides up to the top, and then the whole zoo is on the side of a huge hill as you walk down to the water. And we took a ferry from the harbor to the zoo, so that was doubly cool. Here’s the view looking back at Sydney from the zoo:
Sean and I spent 6 hours there, looking at every animal and trying to make it to as many shows as we could. We were absolutely being zoo nerds.
(These ears are made to scale—if I were that little guy in the photo behind me, that’s how big my ears would be! WOW)
My favorite were the seals. Having never been to Sea World, this was my first time at a water animal show. Shamu’s got nothing on these clever guys.
And now, I proudly introduce DEXTER MCDOUGAL, the weim in the orange collar—the newest addition to our family!
He’s a four-year-old Wimeraner (just like Daisy, in the purple collar on the left) and let me tell you something about boy dogs, as opposed to girl dogs. They drool like it’s their purpose in life. Dexter will be staring out the window of the car, and I’ll hear: Drop….drop….drop…. and I realize it’s drool hitting Big Jake’s leather seats. Excuse me while I accept the fact that my car might never be the same.
OK, I’m over it.
Today we took the pups up to a lake to see if Dexter could swim (Sean was really rooting for a dog that swims better than Daisy, who’s a little princess that only likes to get her feet wet). Turns out, we’re pretty sure Dex had never even seen a lake in his life. He was prancing around in the shallow water, but I think we’ll have to get him in a sandier lake before he decides to swim farther out.
Playing with shadows…
Other than the excessive drooling, we absolutely love our new boy. And even though we partially got another Weimeraner so that we could yell at the top of our lungs: “IT’S WEIM TIME!!!” and really mean it because we have two, Dexter is the perfect fit for us. I’m sure I’ll have plenty of Weim stories to tell as the weeks go by.
What is he doing right now, you may ask? Well, excellent question. He’s whining his heart out because we’ve put him in the yard (as opposed to inside the warm house). You know what he did?? Upon letting ole Dexter out to go pee this morning, he took the liberty of rolling in a pile of dog poop in our front yard. Daisy knew better…now Dexter has a large wet spot on his back that stinks like poo, and he’s not coming inside until he gets a bath. And DOGS HATE BATHS!
Sucka….
As for Daisy, she’s been working real hard on her tricks, including “Roll over and stay there, waiting for a belly rub,” “Act uninterested in what’s going on,” and my personal favorite: “Play roadkill.” She’s mastered that one, and often performs it without us even asking.
And to close this long overdue post, I’m going to leave you all with a photo in memory of Foxy Moo Cow—our beloved lab who’s no longer with us, but instead wagging her tail at us from Doggie Heaven. We still miss you, Fox!
