Post 107 - Rhett

Meet Rhett, our new dog. In fact, he is the best dog in the world!

Here he is:



He was part of a litter abandoned when they were only 6 weeks old. They went to an animal shelter in the district they were found (not Palmerston North) and most of the litter were re-homed. Unfortunately, Rhett and his brother Raffles were not homed and ended up with foster parents. The foster parents have given him some basic training - he sits when told, seems to understand 'no' when told and so far no 'accidents' in the house (although its early days yet!).
Rhett and his brother were brought to Palmerston North SPCA about a week ago as there are more people looking for dogs. We loved him and his brother and after a week of ooming and ahhing decided it was about time we got a dog! Raffles had been homed earlier this week but we were lucky Rhett was ready to come home with us! Apparently he has been around a 2 year old child and livestock without problems but had a scary encounter with a horse so is now afraid of them.

More photos later...if you're lucky!

Post 106 - No monkeys allowed

Turtles - it seemed appropriate!

I went down to Wellington this week for a work thing. It was a talk by the Immigration Service on how recruiters can use people from overseas and how they can get them here. It was fairly interesting and I feel I learnt a few things.

Being an 'imported pom' myself (which my boss decided to declare to the room of 40 or so people, cue Kate's rosy red cheeks!) I knew a fair bit about the visa process. I was fascinated by a booklet we got in our info packs - aimed at those wanting to immigrate to New Zealand, lots of useful facts and interesting statistics. And a booklet I hadn't yet seen. (Hard to believe with the moutain of literature I had on NZ prior to coming...it must be new!)

The one thing that has fascinated me the most is that if you immigrate to New Zealand you cannot bring your monkey with you. Or your turtles or birds come to that. What a tough decision that must be - the monkey or the new life in New Zealand....what would you choose?

It was an early morning...in my opinion - I got up in the middle of the night! We had to leave Palmy at 6.30am to ensure we got through the traffic to Wellington in time. The drive to Wellington (and back) is a gorgeous one though. For part of the journey you drive right alongside the sea. And we could see South Island as it was quite a clear day.

We stopped in Otaki on the way for a Hot Chocolate (lovely and comforting at 7.30am) and I got my lunch in a nice cafe place before we headed back so all-in-all not a bad day. I have no idea how people travel with work on a regular basis though. I was a zombie on Friday!

Luckily they have monkeys at Wellington Zoo so if you did have to give yours up, all is not lost