Mystery Photo: Answers you may not want to hear
Oh dear… how I have loved reading your clever, witty, silly and downright crazy takes on what events lead up to this strange and mysterious photo:
The lid comes off and I peer in to see – instead of something chocolate and powdery and delicious – something ginger and furry and slightly funky coiled up inside. My stomach tilts a little as I identify what looks remarkably like a dog’s ear.
Jeanie gasps in my ear!
You guys are loopy, you know that?? THAT would be why I like y’all so much, I guess. We drink from the same crazy trough! (That would be a chilled chardonnay, regardless of label, thanks!) And the winner:
Too funny ladies, I coudn’t split it! Well done – you are all sufficiently loopy to be part of my team!! Email me your what your favourite picture is and I’ll get it printed and into the post. And for anyone who hasn’t participated, please read the comments section from this post. It’s very, very funny reading!!
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So, in the name of actually answering the question proper, here is what actually went down here at Granite Glen:
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Jeanie and I were on the phone. We were chatting (as sisters are wont to do) about weddings and school P&C’s and various other things when I asked her to pause mid-sentence. We do this a bit with each other – luckily we have known each other for a few decades (only three I’m admitting to here!) and we cut each other some slack in the cut-you-off-mid-rant department.
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I had spotted my two offspring out of the corner of my eye… and they looked, well, furtive, as they dashed into Dash’s bedroom. Something wasn’t quite right. So I interrupted Jeanie, but kept the walkabout phone with me and investigated…
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Dash, what are you doing?
Nothing Mum, just playing with my sister…
TLW, what are you guys up to?
Nuffin Mummy!
Dash, why are you sitting in your wardrobe?
Nothing. Just playin’
Hmmmm… Can I have a look?
There’s nothin’ there Mum!
OK, then you won’t mind if I look then?
Whatever!
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Dash stalks off offended that I won’t quite take his word for the “nothin” going on in his closet… I look into the gloomy depths of the space as he stops in the doorway and half-turns to watch what I’m doing. I lean in past the shoes and hanging shirts and there in the corner is… a Milo tin.
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Hmmmmm…
What’s in here Dash!
Nothin’.
Nothin’.
Really?
It’s MINE!
Can I look?
OK then. But’s it’s mine, OK.
We’ll see…
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So with me following my son clutching his lurid green Milo tin, we all trooped outside and investigated the find.
Dash, can you pop the tin for me?
The lid comes off and I peer in to see – instead of something chocolate and powdery and delicious – something ginger and furry and slightly funky coiled up inside. My stomach tilts a little as I identify what looks remarkably like a dog’s ear. Jeanie gasps in my ear!…
TLW: It’s a dead puppy Mummy!
Me: What??
TLW: Can we keep it?
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Suddenly I have a flash. My father had killed a dingo the previous afternoon. And he had mentioned briefly the possibility of taking its scalp to town the next time he went in. Dad had asked if Dash wanted to see the dead dingo being scalped… I replied I didn’t really think he was old enough yet to be part of that. He gets a bit squeamish and has the worst gag reflex of anyone I have ever met (a hangover from his early health dramas)… he throws up when he coughs too hard or gets a whiff of a bad smell. So I said No thanks! to Dad and thought no more of it.
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For those of you who have lovely mental images of our ‘native’ wild dogs roaming the edges of the desert, I should explain. Dingoes are prolific throughout rural Queensland, and they prey on the baby calves that are now arriving in force here at Granite Glen – while in small numbers we don’t worry too much about them, they breed up and begin attacking stock. The government gives a bounty to people who bring in a scalp – the top section of the hide (including ears) to prove that a dingo (and not a domestic dog) has been culled.
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So anyway, I had completely put the conversation with Pagi out of my head til I was on the phone to Jeanie, disovering my son stowing a Milo tin stuffed with dingo scalp into his wardrobe. We both thought through the potential outcome had I not been standing facing Dash’s room as he and TLW raced in there with their ‘treasure’. We are about to be away for a few days, and it’s warming up here as we hit Spring. The very last thing I would have been thinking, when the aroma of rotting meat permeated the house, was a dead dog stashed in a beverage tin in a clothes cupboard. It could have been weeks before I worked it out. And Dash would not have been the only one retching I suspect! I’m almost dry retching now just thinking about it…
So there it was. A day-old dingo scalp. On the lawn. At least it was better than rotting in our house!
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And I said to Dash: Please wash your hands when you’ve put that disgusting thing away where Pagi can find it. And I said, you know: Pagi wanted to show you how he scalped it, but I know you don’t like that stuff…
And Dash said: Ohhhh Mummmmm… why didn’t you let me?? It’s not fair!
Can someone please tell me what happened to my citified, gag-sensitive kid? Cause he’s no-where to be found round here!
And the moral/s of the story?
Always check your Milo tin, and the corners of your kids cupboards!
8 Comments
Kate
Oh that is awesome!!!! I was leaning towards a dead animal of some sort but i never would’ve guessed a dingo scalp! Oh the stink of that thing rotting in the closet is turning my stomach from clear over here in Utah! And did i really win with Jayne!?!?!?!? Wahoo!!!! Thanks a bunch, i’m really excited as your images are ALL amazing! Sorry about the massive number of exclamation points in this post. Egads Kate!
Debby
Oh, my good golly! I am very glad you caught him. I could always tell when they were up to no good. They got very quiet. I could picture the furtive look very well, although it’s been years since I’ve see it. Now that they’re older, they just tell me what they’ve done whether I want agree or not. And I’m not sure this is an improvement over the furtive looks.
Jenni
You know, I’ve heard of there being bounties for coyotes in some places in the U.S. I think it’s ears you have to bring in and I don’t know for certain that it’s still done. BUT that was my first thought when I saw that can the other day. I wondered, “Do they do that with dingoes?” Ha, I was right! Too bad I didn’t dare guess “out loud”.
Jayne
Oooooooooooooo thank you!!!
Congrats to Kate, too!
A very well done to Bush Babe, yourself, for finding the offensive scalp before your house was drenched in Eau de Dead Dingo!
Portia
Oh my, you were right, I would never have guessed what that was and now I understand what a corker is.
YUCK!
How much is the bounty for a dingo pelt anyway?
Portia
Tracey
I really couldn’t have dreamed up something like that. Call me unimaginitive, hey… Talk about classic blog material. But I’m trying very hard not to imagine the potential result had you NOT spotted him!
steviewren
Laughing out loud! This reminded me of the time we visited friends who lived on a farm. It was early January and their pig had had piglets that morning. One was dead. Our friend took it out away from the house and left it…don’t know why he didn’t bury it or something…the kids played happily outside all day. It was only as we went outside to leave that we discovered what had kept one of their daughters and our youngest son so happy all day…they had been playing house…with the dead pig all wrapped up as their baby!
rhubarbwhine
Oh, that was so *snortworthy*. LOL!