Kali

Hi. My name is Kali, and since it is pretty quiet around here at the moment, I thought I would tell you something about myself.

As you can see, I am a border terrier bitch. I will not bother to tell you about my family, because I do not know a lot about them. To be honest I do not think I ever met my father, and I left home so early that my mother and siblings are no more than a distant memory. What I do know is that my family lineage is impeccable, and I have the My Ancestry papers to prove that no interloper ever besmirched the purity of my breeding. I am afraid that I have very little regard for lesser breeds, although I concede that they may have attributes of value in certain circumstances.

I live in an apartment in the city with my human. He has been with me since I left my family, and he is in every respect more useful and obedient than they ever were. For the first year of my life we lived in a cottage on a bush block high up on a hill. This experience was good for me I think, as I learned about other creatures who live outdoors, and thus to appreciate the fine life I live by comparison. I also developed my athletic prowess by training in bush and long grass, up and down steep slopes, and in all types of weather. I learned never to be separated from my ball, and how to retrieve it from the most difficult places.

As a consequence I am sleek and fit, and can out run almost any other creature I have ever encountered. Only birds and rabbits seem able to evade me. The one has the ability to lift themselves out of my reach, and the other to disappear straight into the ground. I tried disappearing into the ground once, but I got stuck in a drain pipe for quite a while, and had to wait till my human came and rescued me. I am disinclined to repeat the experiment.

Anyway, I am very happy to have become a townie, although I still enjoy my visits to the bush block to check that everything is under control and to fine tune my fitness on the hilly bits. In the apartment block I much prefer to take the lift, but occasionally I have to take my human up the stairs to ensure he does not become so unfit as to become a burden to me. I also take him out several times a day to walk and throw the ball for me, but I notice he never runs after it himself. Even so, he is reasonably mobile for his age, and I do not foresee the need to replace him anytime soon.

There is another human in my apartment. Although she can be relied upon to keep my water bowl clean and topped up, and will respond to basic demands such as “open the door so I can lie in the sun on the deck”, she is quite frankly more of a nuisance than anything else. She gets in my way all the time, has been known to accidentally step on me, needs to be accompanied every time she uses the bathroom, and demands time and attention from my human. I would get rid of her, but he seems to like her so I can put up with it I suppose. Although the situation on the sofa at night when we are watching television is getting out of hand, and I may have to relegate her to the chair in the corner soon.

I have lots of human friends in the apartment block, but I do not like any of the dogs that own them. In fact I prefer the humans that have yet to be adopted by a dog, because they are the most appreciative of my company and responsive to my needs. At the moment I am missing my friends because they are not around and about as normal. We are not even going out in the car, which I love. I am sacrificing my social life to protect my humans because it seems they are uniquely vulnerable to a disease that is circulating in the community at present. I do not understand why they are not all vacinated like me with a card from the vet to prove it, but it seems they are slowly getting this sorted. The sooner the better, I say.

It is really very inconvenient not to be able to go out visiting. I particularly like to go and spend time with my cousins Luna and Gypsy, who live on a farm block at Matakana with their own humans. Quite frankly, I can take or leave Gypsy, and I do not like the other dogs that come to the house. But Luna and I are best friends. She is a bit bigger than me, but I can easily best her in a play fight unless she sits on me. That is the only way she gets the advantage. Sometimes I stay there for a few days and let the humans there look after me for a while. They do a good job, but I am always pleased when my human arrives to chauffeur me back to the city and my own bed.

I have a number of beds because you never know where I might want to take a nap. There is a bed on the apartment deck in the sun, a bed in the car, a bed in the cottage on the bush block, and the bed I sleep in at night. Of course that one is in the main room of the apartment. The one with all the couches, mats and rugs, and the big window onto the deck. The humans have a bed in a smaller room, that I sometimes sleep in when my human seems lonely or it is very cold. The other one does not seem to appreciate this as much, but I really do not care what she thinks. I look after those who look after me, and it seems to work pretty well.

I am also missing my visits with the small human who turned up a few years ago and who has the ability to make both my humans very happy. At first I did not know what to make of him, and could not understand why he got such a lot of attention. But now we are friends – he is always begging me for kisses – and I am training him to throw my ball. Perhaps he could take over that role one day, because he is getting bigger and stronger, while my human is slowing down a bit. He lives in a big house not too far away with a couple of bigger humans, but none of them have been adopted by a dog yet. There is a very stroppy and unpleasant cat that keeps them in check for now, but naturally I dismiss him the moment I arrive.

Anyway, the sun is out and it is time for me to go and nap on the deck. Perhaps I will tell you more another time. Bye for now – Kali.