Literacy – BUSH TRACKING
The sun had just cleared the horizon as Butch jostled with his station sheepdog friends Ginger, Spike, Sandy and Ringer for the best position in the back of 4WD to catch the cool morning air which lulled his tongue sloppily along. A few minutes later Rex pulled into his next-door neighbour’s station to be met with the familiar “G’day Rex - the Billy’s on. Better have a cup of tea”.
Butch and his friends bounded from the Toyota and playfully growled and gambolled with Ray’s station dogs while Rex and Ray discussed the stray sheep to be picked up. “Fine looking pup you’ve got there Rex”, said Ray. “Yeah Ray, Butcher by name and butcher by trade”, obviously referring to Butch’s enthusiastic herding of the sheep when sometimes he might have a little taste-test. Jumping from the Toyota once again as they arrived back at Grassmere Station, Butch ran to the rainwater tank and lapped thirstily from the drip-tray, pleased with his little outing for the morning. Later that day, Rex was surprised to see Ray coming through the bushes in his 4WD as all the dogs rushed out to bark at the approaching vehicle. Then – disaster! While lunging for the best position to playfully bite the tyres Butch found himself pushed off-balance by Spike and thrown under the wheels of the fast moving vehicle, breaking his hind leg.
Rex was horrified to see Butch disappearing into the bushes, obviously badly injured by the extent of the poor animal’s terrified howls. “Jeez. Sorry Rex - I didn’t see him”, said Ray. “Not your fault Ray, I think Butch will think twice about doing that again. Hell, I hope he comes back though”, said Rex - almost as an afterthought.
The hot afternoon wore on and there was still no sign of Butch despite much searching and calling. Rex became more and more despondent when Butch still hadn’t returned the next morning before he had to leave to collect stores from the country town of Broken Hill, 100 miles away. As Rex drove home in the evening to find Butch had still not returned to his chain and water dish, he was almost in tears.
The next morning, while descending into the creek bed with the rest of the dogs in back of the Toyota, Rex suddenly hit the brakes simultaneously yelling to the dogs to “stay”. For once the dogs where obedient! Rex jumped out and ran forward on the road to study fresh dog tracks. Sure enough, there were 3 x clear paw prints and a drag mark – “Mmmh. This looks to me like tracks of a dog about Butch’s size”, thought Rex to himself. Carefully following the tracks through the bushes under the gum trees Rex followed the tracks in the sand for about 200 metres before they disappeared into a fox’s den hidden in a thick bush. Crouching down, Rex peered in and sure enough there lay a sick and sorry Butch. At the same time as kicking the bush aside, Rex removed his shirt to carefully wrap around Butch’s head so he wouldn’t get bitten when lifting him into the truck (and thereby unintentionally causing him considerable pain). After laying Butch on the front seat (which is a huge privilege in station dog life!), Rex turned the vehicle around and headed back home.
“Yeah Bob, his leg’s broken in three places I reckon”, Butch heard Rex say from his comfortable position on the lounge room couch. “So, if you are flying out to Texas Downs Station this afternoon, maybe you could call in here about 4 p.m. to take a look at Butch’s leg”, Rex said to the flying vet.
Butch contentedly finished off his once in a lifetime ice-cream bowl and thankfully lay back against the couch, knowing that he would soon be made well again by the dog-doctor. With this reassuring thought he slowly drifted back to sleep.
John
Suggested Learning activities: Creative Writing. Write a creative story of around 300-400 words about tracking an animal in the wild. State what animal it is and why you are tracking it.