Here in Waikanae it’s been a beautiful warm, still day; literally the calm before the storm.
It’s hard to believe that there’s a cyclone barreling towards us, but I do believe it because meteorological science is a thing.
If I can be bothered I’ll take the dogs for a walk on the beach later. Between the two of them, they’re a bit of a handful, since Goofy is a misanthrope and Ratdog is a dog hating psychopath, bless them.
In the middle distance you may be able to see the beach where my daughter and I were walking them last week. As we were on the other side of the river to the main beach, and there were no people or birds around, we decided to let them off briefly for a run around before swimming back across. It was a lovely day, and the dogs were happily splashing around in the water when a man shouted at us across the water. “Your dogs aren’t allowed here! Put them on leads or someone will shoot them!” We were quite dismayed, and as we made our way to the dogs to get their leads on, a woman followed up with “Go on! Call them! Get their leads on!” Meanwhile, some young children, presumably theirs, were out on the water in a couple of kayaks, with no life jackets on, looking on with interest, no doubt learning at first hand how to talk to strangers that you don’t agree with.
We got the dogs leads on and swam back over the river, muttering under our breath of all the clever things we should have said, while still quite afraid that they might follow us and tell us off at close quarters. It was a quite disturbing encounter really. There was really no way in the world that anyone was going to be out shooting dogs in broad daylight, in an area full of people. I’ve seen people on that beach with dogs off the lead many a time and haven’t seen a single firearm.
A few weeks before, my daughter and her mother in law, who was visiting from Canada, went for a kayak around the lagoon. At one point, a woman came out of her house and shouted at them”Get out of the water! You’re scaring the birds!” At first Samantha’s mother in law thought she was shouting a friendly hello but it must have soon become clear she was quite agitated, so they paddled away and left her to it.
Well you know, I love nature as much as the next person, but these sort of loonies aren’t doing anyone any favours. It must be possible to advocate for wildlife without losing your humanity.