It’s a Dog’s Life!

Tutukaka Adventures with Suzie

Running on the beach, exploring the countryside, chasing balls, getting muddy in the mangroves and going on fishing expeditions. Does that sound like the best ever dog life?!

Meet Suzie, the Whangarei Rescue Dog that we love to bits!

She lives in Tutukaka, a beautiful part of the coastline of the North Island of New Zealand. We are lucky enough to get to stay with Suzie when her owners want to travel. She knows us well, and greets us when we arrive with her ball in her mouth, wagging her tail and ready to join in on what ever adventure is planned for the day.

This week’s adventure included a road trip to Whananaki. Suzie jumped in the car as soon as the door was open, we checked we had her favorite ball, a dog lead, the requisite poop bags and we were off. We followed the winding gravel road from the turn off at Sandy Bay (oopsie, time to wash the car when we get home!).

Our first stop was Whananaki South beach - a beautiful sandy bay with miles of space for Suzie to run and play, and she ran and ran for that ball until she was panting hard with her tongue hanging out! So back in the car to catch her breath while we drove on to the longest footbridge in the Southern hemisphere….

The Whananaki Footbridge

The 395 metre footbridge was originally built by locals in 1947 to span the estuary between Whananaki North (where the school is) and Whananaki South. Prior to this bridge being built, the school teacher had to row across the estuary twice a day, ferrying the kids to and from school! The bridge also forms part of the Te Araroa Trail, a continuous 3,000 km walking track stretching from Cape Reinga in the North, to Bluff in the South. We loved walking part of the local history, watching the herons wading in the tide, and we treated ourselves to an icecream from the local dairy. Suzie had a minor drama, dropping her ball off the center of the bridge - which was waaay too high for us to be able to climb down and rescue it. She was so determined to get her ball back she jumped off the bridge at the end, and then swam the estuary back to the middle and managed to locate her precious ball. Well done Suzie!

On the way back across the bridge to the car, Graham decided the mangroves looked a promising spot for some oysters, so we took our shoes off, rolled up our trousers and waded in to the mud. You only find oysters if the mud is oozing between your toes and up to your ankles. Suzie didn’t care, the muddier the better. Unfortunately we had no luck with the oysters, so we dried Suzie off, and made plans for a fishing expedition closer to home.

As you can see from the pictures - the fishing expedition was more successful than the oyster hunt. We can follow a trail from Suzie’s home down to a rocky beach which is a perfect spot for fishing. We caught a snapper large enough to keep - Suzie was very excited to see it’s flapping tail, and she made sure the seagulls were not allowed to get too close! We then wandered our way home to cook it up with Fog Dog beer batter, and made a side salad to go with it. A successful end to a wonderful doggy day out.

Suzie is tired, too tired to play...

..... oh wait, no she is not!

We hope you loved this vet “tail” of adventures with our 4 legged friend, and we hope that you will follow us on our upcoming adventures full of animal encounters! We have a challenge for you too, see below….

Where is Suzie?

Your challenge for today is to spot Suzie in this photo!

I think the ball is a giveaway….

Heard of a Teacup Chihuahua….

Then what about a Martini Rottweiler ??!!

Having survived the venomous centipede (see the previous blog post) our veterinary adventures on the island of Vanuatu continued

One afternoon a petite Frenchwoman arrived with a very large Rottweiler. Him one bigfella Rottweiler!  It is not uncommon to have a canine patient weight more than me – the heaviest dog I have seen was a 105 kg Saint Bernard.  The problem here was that all 70 kg of Tyson was grumpy.  Very grumpy!  Tyson had a large hot spot skin infection that really required clipping and cleaning.  But he would not let me near it, even with his owner smothering him with kisses on the lips and whispering “Je t’aime”!

Tyson did not like being at the Vet Clinic!

So we gave Tyson a sedative and then proceeded to attend to the problem.  The area was shaved, soothing cream applied, and antibiotic tablets prescribed. We also took the opportunity to apply an Elizabethan Collar – A.K.A “the Cone of Shame”.  To add insult to injury, his owner delightedly decided she wanted to add a couple of giant olives on a stick to his cone, because his cone looked like a martini glass!

That was when the real problem started….Tyson needed to get back in the car.  A Teeny Tiny Convertible Suzuki Swift, that was small enough to be swallowed up by the average Vanuatu Pothole.  Somehow, with his owner pulling from the driver’s side door, and me shoving from the back a growling, grumbling, indignant Tyson was eventually shoehorned into the passenger’s seat, cone and all.  The little car disappeared off into the island sunset with the owner craning her neck around the collar to see where she was going.  Bon Voyage! Lukim Yu!

Lukim Yu - Bye!

We now know why James Herriot wrote so many books…you are guaranteed to have an interesting day when you work at a vet clinic!

Thank you for taking the time to read this veterinary story of ours - we hope you enjoyed it and hope you will follow along on our future adventures!