Pets in the simple life

Recently, one of the regular readers, I'm sorry but I've forgotten who is was, asked me to write about my dogs, Rosie and Alice. They are two aging Airedale Terriers now 12 and 11 years old. Rosie is a rescue dog that had been badly treated by her first owners. We found her after our first Airedale, Murphy, died of auto-immune disease at the age of 18 months. When I phoned the breeder to order a puppy, she told me about Rosie because she was the same age that Murphy was. I ordered the puppy but decided to buy Rosie as well. Alice came along about three months later, she is Rosie's niece.

Rosie had a lot of pain in her hips when she first arrived here because she had been ridden like a horse by two little boys. In those early days she growled at Hanno and our sons, if they touched her around the back legs. She never growled at me so I think it was only men and boys who mistreated her. We started treating her with emu oil in her food and after a while it looked like she got over the soreness and eventually came to trust all of us.

Rosie

When we started to live as we do now, I wondered how non-working dogs could fit into our more frugal lives. The cost associated with the dogs - good food, vet bills etc, might be seen as an unnecessary expense. If Rosie or Alice got sick or injured, we would face hefty vet bills. They were our responsibility and we required of ourselves that they be looked after as well as we possibly could. How could we justify the keeping of them? Could they fit within the framework of a simple life?

Yes, definitely.

I thought about this quite a bit early on and came to the conclusion that not only did they fit within our new philosophy of life, they would help us live to our values. I believe the way I live is not only about reducing the complexity of my life but also about finding joy and beauty in the ordinary and mundane things I surround myself with. I believe that we must find our own happiness not in the shiny high cost items on sale in our shopping malls or European holidays, flash cars or large houses, but in what we already have in our life. It is our responsibility to make ourselves happy with with less - much less. I find a lot of joy in natural things - our garden, the chooks, and of course, Rosie and Alice.

Alice

Our dogs are not working dogs in the traditional sense, but they do help protect us - they're excellent guard dogs, and they also protect our chickens. They have been taught to live with the chooks and although Alice will round them up for us when told to, they would never harm the chooks.

Their main value however, is that they make us happy. They make us smile. They jump for joy when we come home. They play with us and and make us laugh when they chase each other like a couple of clowns.

They don't cost a lot for their food and care. We make their daily food for them and I often make them treats. The other expense is for tick/flea medication. We live in a paralysis tick area surrounded by bush where the ticks sit on leaves or are brought into the back yard by native animals like bandicoots and possums. We use Advantix for large dogs which costs us about $50 for three months. I dose them with that six months of the year - so they're covered for the tick seasons and six weeks both sides of it. In the past we only covered them over summer and they both got ticks in Spring, they were both very sick and almost died. It cost us $900 in vet bills to save them. They don't often go to the vet, but when they recovered, he said they were the most healthy Airedales he'd seen in many a year. He asked me what we feed them and was pleased we didn't give them canned food. We learnt a valuable lesson about ticks that year and it was a great confirmation that we are feeding our girls well.

Simple living is not about deprivation. It is about finding joy in the ordinary and living well within our means. Our lives are made better by sharing our home and our resources with Rosie and Alice. We have found a way to keep them in good health without it costing too much but above all else we love them and they're part of our family. I would find it difficult to live without a dog at my side.