When we started our travels we only planned to visit Broome for a week or two, now 6 months later and we are making heaps of friends both human and canine. Sassy has met more dogs in the last 6 months than ever before, between the dog park and the beach the options are endless for playmates.
We had agreed to housesit for a couple we met at the park with a gorgeous pair of dogs that we will miss dearly, however during the housesit ex tropical cyclone Ellie hit nearby and essentially cut Broome off from the rest of Australia. The roads to the north were washed away and the only bridge across the mighty Fitzroy river collapsed under the weight of the water.
Fitzroy river crossing underwater, picture from fb group
South of Broome is enormous floodplains that stretch in every direction and after the heavy rains the road has been underwater for over a week. Given the circumstances we figured it would be a good idea to look for another housesit. We found a lady looking for someone to care for her garden and dog for 3 weeks and figured that would be ideal. Since we had no idea how long the roads would be closed for we figured that was a good amount of time.
The lady we are housesitting for was flying to Perth to see her daughter and hopefully drive back up with her. Nala the dog belongs to her daughter and is just the sweetest little pup. She is 3 years old and is a Shar Pei X Red nose Pitbull. A few people warned us that both breeds can be a little aggressive and unpredictable (though we have been around a lot of dogs and are usually pretty good at determining that sort of stuff) it did get us a little worried as Sassy is quite a small dog and a fight would not take long for her to be seriously injured.
But just look at that beautiful face. She is so so so sweet. Super well behaved and listens to everything you say, she is somewhat excitable when you first meet her but just has some energy to burn and calms down fast. The first day we took them to the beach to burn off some energy and then we took her to visit all our friends at the dog park.
The lady admitted she doesn't get her out as much as she should so I think Nala was quite happy to go on an adventure.
She did really well at the park too and even when an on-leash dog snapped at her she didn't react and ran back to Lydia for safety which makes me very comfortable having her around Sassy.
She isn't allowed on the furniture but she has her own beds around the house and seems to just want to be close to you. If you go to the couch she lays next to the couch, if you go to the bedroom she comes and lays in the bedroom and if you go out to the car she follows you out and just sniffs around.
Her face looks like she swallowed some bees and got stung but that is her natural face. She is super sweet and likes to give kisses but is surprisingly not very slobbery unless she has just had a drink or is very hot.
We have another couple of weeks with her so hopefully can go on lots of adventures and get lots of cute pictures but I already know we will miss her when we leave.