Tiffany's last post

 Tiffany had a good life that kept her interested in all things. She loved the water and would prefer to swim rather than walk. We had many adventures together, travelled all over Australia and competed in almost all the states, Her Master Agility title was from qualifications in SA, Vic, ACT Qld and NT.

Tiffany was a very independent dog that knew her own mind. Good sometimes, like when we were tracking, and bad sometimes when we were in Agility and she wanted to run her own course but we always liked to work together. She loved Retrieving, but her love for the water meant that she would leap into the water, retrieve the dummy and then swim in circles until I went in the water to drag her out,

At 11 years old she was diagnosed with bladder cancer. The vet gave her 6 to 12 months, but she lasted over 600 days on chemo treatment because she was so tough. 

Throughout the chemo, she never gave up her independence. She would be first in the swimming pool, always ready to fetch her ball, and was the first awake in the morning, telling us "The day is here, let's get on with it.'

Sister Hannah would follow Tiffany's lead and join her in her escapades, maybe not quite as enthusiastically but she was ready to aid and abet Tiffany, They were very close and did everything they could together, Often when they were sleeping you could not tell where one ended and the other one started,

Then one day in April 2022 Tiffany lost the use of her back legs. She would still try to run, dragging her legs behind, still trying to be active. The vet gave her some medication which worked and for a while, she could walk unsteadily and be her normal self. Unfortunately, it lasted only a week before she lost her legs again, and this time Tiffany gave up. The cancer had spread to her spine, and several lumps developed on her body and face. We were left with no choice but to end her suffering,

On April 20th 2022, Dual Champion (Tracking) Sherbrooke Tiffany Ale, ADM, JDM, RAE, SDE, GDE, SPD, and CD left us.

Tiffany would have been 14 years old today. She has left a mark on my soul that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. Her impact on everyone that knew her was profound which means that Kathy, Hannah and myself were deeply impacted by her life and the love that she gave us,

Christmas 2021

 

Merry Christmas to all our friends and their humans.

We have been very quiet for a long time due to many reasons. The pandemic stopped us from travelling, Keith had his feet operated on which also kept us home, and then Tiffany has cancer in her bladder that has caused us lots of problems. 
Tiffany has been on chemotherapy for 400 days now, which is much longer than the vet expected. She is good at the moment. Apart from a need to pee frequently and getting tired quickly, you would not know there is anything wrong with her.

I have had a brief spell in the Vet Hospital when I had a melanoma cut off my nose. They got all of it so there should not be any further problems.

We are both retired from competitions now. Our hobbies are chasing the feral cats on the block, barking at the Garbos when they pinch our rubbish and reminding KnK when we are due for a feed.

Tiffany and I hope everybody has a safe and happy holiday period and that next year is better than the last.

Taking Life Easy

Here we are on guard at home, ready to leap into action the instant a noise loud enough to wake us up occurs.
It will have to be a really loud noise because we have both gone a bit deaf.
I have retired from competition because I can not hear Keith's commands when I get in front, I limp a bit after exercise and Keith cannot run as fast as he used to.
Hannah has also retired as her hearing is failing and she cannot hear Kathy's commands, her legs are not as good as they used to be and we both prefer to lie in the sun these days.
We have had a quiet life for a while, not many trips away, although we do have some weekend trips coming up soon. Hopefully, we will be able to visit our interstate friends next year because we love to travel.
Have to go now, it looks like Keith is going to clean the swimming pool so we should get a swim then.

Its nice to go traveling.......

but its so much nicer to come home. We enjoyed the Cape, meeting old friends from Cairns, Atherton and Townsville, we had a good time with Maggie, Tessa and Stella. We have seen lots of new sights, travelled down some remote roads and seen the terrible effects of drought first hand.
Being home after the travelling means we can stretch out in the sun in our own backyard, play games and do what we want when we want to. It's nice to visit all these places, but it is nice to be home.

Cape York Revisited

What a difference 8 years makes. The top picture shows me at a rest area on Cape York when Hannah was only 4 weeks old in August 2010. Then I brought Hannah to visit the Tip of Cape York and on the way back we stopped at the same rest area in August 2018.
The sign has faded, they put in a drop toilet and a bin. They paved the road up to it and made a big parking area.
 The view from the top was the same, and I enjoyed showing Hannah around all the sights on the Cape, so now she knows what I am barking about when I remember the previous trip.

The Tip of Cape York

Four Tollers and a Havanese made to the Tip of Cape York, the most northern point on the Australian mainland. It has been a good trip so far. The road is much better than when I came up here 8 years ago, at least we could sleep for most of the time until corrugations in the road woke us up. It was a long walk across the top of the ridge to get to the tip, but we all made it easily, just having to wait for the humans to catch up. Someone suggested we take the lower path back and that was difficult and took us close to the mangroves. No crocodiles there so nothing to worry about. The pic shows me, Hannah, Tessa, Stella and Maggie posing under the famous sign.

Bush Dogs

Here are the 5 of us at Brunette Bridge on the Tablelands Highway. We have moved on since this pic was taken, one night at Hells Gate (pretty good really) then on to Karumba for a day or two.
We have had some good runs and plays, but we are restricted as we are in the bush with lots of open spaces to get lost in. Crocodiles live in the creeks and a dog makes a nice snack for them, so we don't get many runs unless it is safe.

Alice Springs

We are on our way north to the warm weather. I know it is a long time since our last blog, but I have to get Keith to type. Lots of things happened since the last post, we both have had birthdays, we have been on short trips away and spent a couple of weeks at Maggie, Stella and Tessa's new block.
The pic shows us at Cadney Station posing under our photos on the back of the caravan. We got to Alice Springs yesterday and will be moving on up north on Monday.
I am retiring from competitions, I have gone a bit deaf and cannot hear commands. I was a lot faster than Keith so I relied on my hearing to get directions, so now we just do fun courses. Hannah is also retired as she has slowed down a bit and much prefers to walk than run.
More posts as we move on, Maggie, Tessa and Stella are with us so it will be fun all the way.

Starting out for 2018 trip

Starting out for the next big trip, well staring again. We went to help friends build a shed before we set off, but the shed, weather and various other considerations caused some delays. We came home for a couple of days rest before starting out again. The van is at Port Broughton and we should be there for a few days subject to the weather before we head north to the warmer climate.
We have had a few smaller trips not recorded here. A trip to Geelong was a bit of a disaster when the wheel studs failed on the caravan. Fortunately, the RAA Insurance paid for the majority of the damage, and Gawler Caravans bent over backwards to get the van ready for this trip.

Merry Christmas

We had Christmas at home this year, with Kevin and Molly. Molly is not very well so she was sleeping most of the day, but Kevin Hannah and I had a great time. There were humans there too, which meant that we could scrounge treats everywhere. When it got warm some of the humans got in the pool and we did too. It was great fun, Nate the young human played with us all day. I towed him around on a noodle, we splashed and I jumped into the pool to splash him. After a while, Hannah and I had to go and have a rest and then, later on, we went back in the pool. At the end of the day, we were exhausted. We had our dinner and then just flaked out and slept while KnK cleaned up the mess.

The Pool

We have our own Pool! We went in it today for the first time, and it was great. I got in first while Hannah ran around the outside barking and then she got in too. We swam and swam until we were exhausted, We quickly found the steps at each end so we could get in and out easily, and I can sit on the top step and still be in the water! After a while, we were kicked out so that Kathy could dry us off and Keith could clean the dog hair and dirt out of the pool
There is still work to do, Keith has only just finished building and painting the back fence and we have a temporary front fence. There is a lot of paving to be put down too, which means the pool is surrounded by paving sand and that makes for lots of dust in the pool so we may be limited in how much time we can spend in the pool.

Back Home

We got home a couple of days ago, welcomed by cold wet days but warm nights in front of the wood fire.
The picture shows us at the Tree of Knowledge in Barcaldine Queensland. It was the centre of the Shearers Strike in 1891 and then in 1892 where the Labour Party (when they could spell labour) manifesto was read and which later became the Australian Labor Party (when they couldn't spell labour).
It was a quick trip home. We got in the car in the morning, went to sleep, woke up for lunch, went back to sleep, woke up to set up camp at night and have dinner then slept for the night. Next day was the same, so we were home in two shakes of a dog's tail.

Townsville Tourists

Here we are on top of the Castle Hill in Townsville. It is nearly 300 metres high and we started at sea level. It was a long slow climb up to the top. We passed a group of school children on a school outing but we did not have time to stop for a pat, we just kept plodding on up the hill. It seemed like ages until we got to the top and then we had a drink of water and got out of the Landcruiser for a walk around the top. (Surely you did not think we would walk up the hill?) The pic shows us at the lookout taking in the views. We will be here until the weekend and then we will start the long drive home.

The Chimneys

We were out for a drive when we came across these old chimneys out in the bush. They are all that is left of a homestead built in the 1920s when soldier-settlers built a sawmill and their home here. Not very interesting for us, so we went for a mooch around and found an interesting plant that had a funny way of spreading its seeds. The seeds have a sticky coating on them so that when an animal walks past they stick to its fur. It Worked. We were covered in green sticky things that took KnK ages to get off us. Ah well, it was a nice day out.

Cairns Success

We finally got to compete in a trial. KnK were judging Rally and Obedience so we could not do anything, but on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning it was our turn to play. We had not had much training apart from a practice on Thursday so we did not expect much but we did have some good runs with no passes on Saturday. Sunday was our day. Hannah started the ball rolling by winning and qualifying Masters Snooker at 7:00 am, then I came in 2nd and qualified in Excellent Snooker. The agility classes were not good as we both messed up the weaving poles (I said we had not had any practice). Masters Jumping was ours, we both qualified and I won 1st place and Hannah won 2nd place in our 400mm height category.  In JDO I got another qualification and 2nd place.
The pic shows us with our haul of prizes for the weekend.
We will be tourists again for the rest of the holiday as KnK are judging at all the other trials so we can not compete.

Queensland

We are on holidays again -at last. The pic shows us at Nanango in Queensland where we stopped for lunch today.
It has been a good trip so far, the first few days were wet, windy and woeful but when we reached Goondiwindi the weather turned beautiful.
We went to Susan's place on Sunday and had a great time running up and down her stairs, Tiffany found a box of soft toys but we were not allowed to play with them. We went for a walk then had to turn back because a snake was sunning its self on the path.
Tonight we are in Monto, where we went for walks around the town and along the old railway lines.
KnK plan to be in Cairns by Thursday night so we have about 1400 km to go in 3 days, not too big an ask for the Travelling Tollers.

Hannah's Birthday

Hannah was 7 years old on Sunday. We were at the Riverland Trial, KnK were judging so we were just looking pretty, having long walks around the grounds and saying "Hello" to all our canine friends.
Sue took the picture of Hannah posing by the blackboard used for trial winners to take snaps.
We have had a quiet year since Hannah's last birthday, the house we were in got knocked down and a new one was built so we could not do much travelling apart from a weekend away now and again.
All that will change as we are off on a big trip soon.

We are NOT dead.

The InTOLLERables are still active, just not had time to write on the blog.
We are having a new kennel built which has room for live-in humans. If you look carefully, you can just see us sitting on the front verandah. Hopefully, we will move in by the end of May, or June.....or July.
We have had a few travels since we got back from Queensland in August last year, just weekends away, with our next big trip due in July.
Tiffany had her 8th Birthday in March. Recently she passed a Novice RATG trial (Retrieving Ability Test for Gundogs) This means that she has Qualifications under 7 different rule books, she is a Champion in two disciplines ( Shows and Tracking) competes at Masters level in three (Agility/Jumping, Agility Games and Rally), Competes in Open Obedience and now has a Qualification in Retrieving.
Hannah is not far behind, with qualifications in six disciplines. She also competes at the same levels as Tiffany but has not done the Retrieving.

Atherton Trials

We both did well at Atherton. Hannah passed in Open Agility and Open Jumping then went well but without a qualification in Masters. I passed in Masters Jumping with a 1st in my height and also in Open Jumping. I messed up on the weaving poles in Agility so no qualification in that.The pic shows us with our prizes, 3 dog toys, a storage box and a solar lamp. KnK can have the last two but we will keep the others.
After Atherton, we moved down to Hull Heads for a night and then on to Townsville. KnK are judging on the weekend so we will not be able to run.
When the trials are over we will start heading back home, so this looks like the last few days of our holiday.

Far North Qeensland Touring

We are having a look around Far North Queensland, not right up to the very top, just around Atherton Tablelands and Townsville.
The top picture shows us at the top of Castle Hill in Townsville, looking over Townsville to Magnetic Island. It was a long steep climb all the way up, we were grateful the Toyota got there without us having to walk.

Later we were traveling past Crystal Creek where we have stayed before and the humans wanted to stop at the Frosty Mango for refreshments, Good idea because we were ready for a break too and we always get the end of the ice cream. There was a Big Mango there, so we had to have our picture taken to complete our set of Big Whatevers that we have had taken. Look back through the blog, there is a Big Koala, Big Olive, Big Lobster, Big Banana, Big Orange, Big Sheep, Big Sheep Bale, just about everything big you can imagine.
We are competing in Atherton this weekend, so we have to go and practice.