Back To Nature

Notwithstanding that our house is five minutes away from Australia's national Parliament House - less as the crow flies, not that any crows would want to fly that way, galahs more likely - we also have, practically outside our back door, a large slab of actual Australian bush (we had an echidna at the foot of our letterbox the day we moved in). I like to maintain a veneer of fitness by taking a walk up there every now and then. I did so on Saturday, when a bloody big kangaroo loomed ahead of me on the walking track, looking straight at me and seemingly not in the mood to get out of my way. So I turned around and went home. I went out again yesterday morning, when a very large black poodle (half as tall as me, almost) that was on a leash ran over to me and bit a large hole clean out of the shorts I was wearing. It happened so fast I had no time to be scared (that came afterwards). The owner of the dog didn't respond in any of the ways I would have liked. No apology. No checking if I was okay. They say that pets are like their masters. Let's stick with the guinea pigs.