Friday, February 13, 2009

Fires in Australia - 1st Person Account - Chapter 3


By Guest Blogger Adrianne Newman who lives in the south of Australia, in the Australian state of Victoria. This is near Melbourne. Ms. Newman is an American who has lived in Australia for about 30 years. Glenys and Ms. Newman are partners.

This was date marked 2/13/09 at 4:51 PM

Hi Everyone,
This photo of fire fighter and the Koala was splashed all over our
newspapers this week and I thought it was such a lovely image - at
least one little koala survived the horror - god only knows how many
animals perished.

I thought it was my turn just to say hi and thank you all for your
kind thoughts and well wishes as we have battled on through this very
long week.
I had a good sleep last night - actually slept through the night
without waking to the sound of helicopters buzzing overhead and in the
distance
as I think things are pretty much under control for now.

We woke this morning to a very red sun and smoke haze all around and
there is a definite smell of smoke in the air. I have to admit I am
feeling
very drained today and still very teary as I reflect back over the week.

It was very hard to lose Tanya, her death notice is in the paper
today, she was such a lovely person. Clint absolutley loved Tanya. He
could be such a little horror of a dog when he was around other dogs
but Tanya knew how to keep him under controll. He would race up to her
and lick her to death and she would just smile and say "yes I love
you too Clint" then he would bark at all the other dogs and there was
a tremendous racket.

She liked to get all the dogs in together then close the door and get
cutting so the first fifteen minutes were pretty noisy as 10 or so
dogs sorted themselves out - our Clint being one of the worst I have
to admit.

Chloe is the exact opposite. She headed straight for the corner under
the desk as she wasn't into all the action. Tanya said she was so good
to
groom as she just stood there and let Tanya do her thing. Chloe will
miss her to and who knows what will happen now but we will let things
settle
before we think of that.

Today I am going to clean the house it is so dusty and I am very
grateful that I have a house to clean. There are 7,000 homeless people
and it will
be a long time before their life can get back to normal.

Chloe is sitting at my feet with a pleading look - isn't it walk time
yet? so we had better get it done as it is going to be 28 today and
she's a bit like me and likes to hide from the sun if it gets anywhere
near 30.

Thank you again for thinking of us - it is comforting to know we are
cared about.

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