Pictures - page 8 - Cairns - August 2005

	Making the house Chinese.
	Our dogs get quite much exercise. In the afternoon Nancy brings them for a walk in the beach where they can chase waves and get used to other dogs. Maxi often wants to fight with other dogs. He's too small for it, so he might get hurt. He also loves to dig every hole he sees in the beach near water. In the morning Timo gets up at 5 and bring them for a walk or run. It's still dark when they go out to the bush or to cane fields. Timo has his "Nordic walking" sticks with him. They give a bit extra work out and speed to a walk. Though Timo already more runs than walks.
	He doesn't keep the dogs in leash because there are practically no cars there that early and the dogs have learned to avoid going near cars. At first Maxi used to go too near them but now he is much better. Usually they go for a walk in a liitle island near our house but lately since Timo is running more and more, he likes rather go to the cane fields towards the Captain Cook Highway. Behind the highway there are some very interesting mountains.
	On August 8th he left home a bit earlier than before because he wanted to explore a new longer route. They needed to go close to the highway for about 50 meters. He was very worried because he couldn't see the dogs because car lights were blindfolding him. He didn't have any leash with him but he was looking for something to tie Maxi up. He stopped to grab a long cane leaf to be used as a leash.
	He saw in the corner of his eye Maxi running to the wrong direction. There were 4 cars going very fast. Non of them did brake. May be they saw nothing. He already knew what had happened. When the cars had gone there was silent road and Maxi lying in the middle. There were no external injuries but when Timo carried him to the side of the road to resasitate him he discovered there was nothing to do any more. Maxi had cone instantly probably without feeling any pain, without knowing what happened.
	The following few pictures of the houses are those from our area Machans beach There are only a few modern luxorious houses here. Most of them still are old working class cottages, log queenslanders. Even in the prime area, beach front, there are still old style houses left. There are no tourists like in neighbouring beach. That's what makes our village unique. Our beach is much better for cats and dogs to roam too.
	There is no dog like Maxi and now there is no Maxi. We buried him in the backyard under the duck pond. Both of us are extremely saddened and miss him so much. Makes it a little bit easier to think that he didn't have to suffer. Though he suffered last year when he was bitten by a dingo (or whatever bigger dog it had been). He was so brave little fellow. So happy and full of energy. He was working so hard to learn the new pace of life with us. And he indeed was progressing. Don't tell us it was just a dog. No, it wasn't. It was our Maxi and we love him so much. so does his previous family, Cavills in Woodstock.
	One should think that there was enough horror with what happened to Maxi. But no... About 3 weeks from his passing on 21th August Timo went for a walk towards the mountains. Still a bit empty without Maxi but Bluey was still there. Then in the middle of the sugar cane fields they saw a man with 2 dogs. Man told Timo not to let Bluey come near because his dog is mad. Timo started bringing Bluey further though they weren't even near the man. Then the dog attacked.
	It bounced straight on Bluey. She tried to expose her belly to show that she surrenders. That's what she usually does. But the other dog just tried biting his neck and kept scratching with his claws. Timo told it was a nightmare seeing somebody killing Bluey and the owner didn't do anything. So Timo took his sticks and started hitting the dog.
	It took several minutes for the men to take the aggressor away from Bluey. The man just said he's sorry and that Bluey will be allright. Just needs a wash in the river. No way, we brought her to the vet and paid over $250 for stitching here up. Cuts were quite deep but luckily bites were not. The man told to Timo after the dog had finished that it was an old dog without teeth.
	And Timo lost his dear walking sticks that he had brought from Finland to Singapore (and used them in McRitchie and Bukit Timah). In Australia he also had been using them a lot. Luckily he has another pair of trekking poles. In the picture there is Machans Beach tiny post office.