Zoo at Home

FERNTREE GULLY, MELBOURNE - 30th December 2009

Just before I depart to Sydney, I thought I'd put some photos up of the collection of animals resident at Trevor and Tina's house (where I've been staying since coming back from the Great Ocean Road). They both love animals (and Tina is a veterinary nurse), and their house is home to the following:

Oscar (6) and Shayla (13/14) - collie dogs:



Moochie the cat:


Panda the rabbit:


and, the ruler of the roost, Newman the cockatoo:



Guest appearances are also made by Jasper (8 months), David's little cavoodle (cavalier-come-poodle) - seen here with 2 of his hundreds of toys:


Watching them all interact with one another is great entertainment, not least because the seniority, for want of a better word, between them seemingly contradicts what you'd expect! The cat, which you'd expect to chase the rabbit and the cockatoo, gets chased by everyone: Newman dive bombs her, and Panda the rabbit will square up to Moochie, stare at her, and then chase her around the garden! The rabbit also has a tendency to chase Newman - and hasn't been in the least bit perturbed after getting a good whack from the cocky a couple of weeks back - but has to run her little legs off when Jasper, David's dog, comes round to visit - Jasper likes nothing better than chasing Panda like a maniac... or indeed chasing anything like a maniac. Taking him, Shayla and Oscar to the park with an Aerobie Ring (right) provided the entertaining sight of Jasper hounding after the ring with Oscar, but veering away at the last minute instead of catching it in his mouth... and then come sprinting back just as quickly. Totally clueless, but infinite in energy!

Newman is the King - when the dogs start barking because of someone arriving at the door, he'll bark as well, but if the dogs get over-excited he'll turn around and shout "Shut up, Oscar!" at the dog! He dances - not quite as well as Frostie, but in a similar way - particularly to his favourite song: Lady Gaga's "Just Dance"; occasionally he'll just start talking complete jibberish to himself for about 10 minutes, wandering around shaking his head. His most classic moments come when he does something naughty (like hurling bits of wood and people's faces), because he'll sit there looking at you and produce this evil little chuckle laugh. Brilliant.