Linda

This was my little mate. Here frolicking in Doggy Paradise. Actually busy looking for rabbits and foxes.

Dudley, the part fox terrier / corgi mongrel

This little dog was a real devil. When out hunting or walking in this bush he never wanted to leave and when it was time to go would go and hide. Calling and calling, sometimes I drove home (he could find his way if he wanted to) and came back an hour later and again hooted the horn and called and called. Eventually spotting his nose peeking out from behind a log a hundred metres away.

His most evil act was to attempt to murder a sheep dog pup we had whom he was jealous of. Normally he growled and snarled at the puppy but one day he was all friendly. He was spotted leading the puppy off about 100 metres from the house where a river flows. So he was followed up to see what he was up to. He walked the puppy following him right along a sheer river bank until the puppy lost its footing and fell down the bank into the river. He then trotted off wagging his tail home. The puppy was resued to "Dudley's" chagrine.

Being part fox terrier he would also crawl down rabbit and fox holes where he could be heard barking under the earth. One day another of our sheep dog's who was his best mate being busy digging at the holes on the surface managed to bury and close the entrance. Digging where his bark could be heard unearthed him.

Other pursuits he loved included biting cows tails and being swung through the air as the cow attemted to dislodge him, sometimes using a fence post. Dudley would grunt and in a minute or two he was game to go at it again.

Luckily for him he has the white tip on his tail, else he might have been mistaken for a fox, especially when he played with them in the vineyards.

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The area in the photograph is where my soul resides. No big game unfortunately, but a patch of bush not many kilometres from my home. The creek has the name of "Duck Ponds Creek" and was named by the explorer and surveyor Colonel William Light who passed through the area in the 1830's. He wrote in his journal about the abundance of game in the area, the plentiful kangaroos and ducks. Riding through grass that came to a man's waist when riding on a horse.