Freaky February

Monday18 Feb our little dog Pip was bitten by a snake. We didn't see this event. I was home, no orders to pick, oddly, so I was catching up on bookwork and waiting for Gord to come home from his dentist app. When he did come home, about 1pm, I heard him say, "There's something wrong with Pip."

Lib was on the deck reading a book, and I was inside at the computer. I went out to find Pip panting, salivating and quivering. Her whole body was tensed, she was greatly distressed. I took her straight up the street to the vet. Fortunately a lady vet Belinda was in attendance, she said straight away, "This looks like a snakebite." I had thought maybe Pip had eaten some snail pellets I had put out on some broccolli seedlings the day before.

There was no way of knowing until the result of patholoy blood test came the next day if in fact it was snake bite, by which time it would be too late, she would have died. I gave them permission to administer antivenin, which they promptly did.  When I enquired later by phone I was told she had an amazingly quick response to the injection and was doing well, but would need to be kept for a couple of days to monitor progress. How lucky were we, firstly that we were right there, secondly that there was a vet in attendance two minutes away, and thirdly that they had the antivenin on hand which I believe is not always the case.

Beautiful little Pip has survived and it seems fully recovered.

But February amazed for many things. Reknowned horse trainer Darren Weir was suspended for three years. Over a decade I had watched his career explode to be Victoria's most successful and perhaps Australia's leading trainer. Then suddenly gone.

February also saw Cardinal Bill Pell found guilty of sex crimes against minors and jailed. What can I say about that, given my position of not knowing the truth? But the jury found him guilty, that I do know. And there's anecdotal evidence going back two decades before these crimes were alleged, that Pell as a senior in the Ballarat diocese, covered up similar criminal activity by paedophile priests in northern and western Victoria for many years. Thes priests were ultimately found guilty also, the evidence eventually overwhelming.

The floods in North Qld apparently wiped out the cattle industry. I have listened to the appeals for the Australian government to assist in its rebuilding. I have serious doubt as to the validity of this. When I visited my mate Dave Dickson at a property west of Charters Towers some years ago where he worked on a cattle station as a property caretaker. He said to me me then, "I don't know why they raise and farm cattle here, it's not good for cattle, they struggle and it's hard. But fruit trees grow so well, and with plentiful bore water you can grow almost anything." He loved his garden and his plantation was a veritable oasis. So my thought is, Why would you rebuild the cattle industry there when history has shown that it will be destroyed again by flood?

Now despite the above mentioned surprises of February, of greater alarm to me is the front page of the Pakenham Gazette of mid Feb. Officially, due to EPA restrictions, Cardinia Council has no way of dealing with our recyclable rubbish and it's all going to landfill now. I'm disgusted. All our efforts to diligently sort our refuse, in my case to the extent of collecting all plasic bottletops and putting them in a plastic container till it's full, likewise with metal tops into tin cans, seem to have been useless. how pathetic is this? Our managers, planners and governments have been and are appallingly negligent. It defies my understanding. My thought is- if it can't be recycled, reused, or biodegraded easily, its manufacture should be banned. No exceptions, ifs, buts or maybes. Banned. Outlawed. at present we are trashing the planet to the detriment of those to follow.

What about the massive fish kill in the Darling River?

Freaky February.
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