Check-in Post and Challenge Update

So, I’m a bit late to post this month, everything fell by the wayside on the 26th of March when my furbaby Suki, who you were all introduced to in February went missing. (If you want to skip to the book part scroll down) .I came home from work to find she’d jumped the fence and when she couldn’t get back in the must’ve panicked and run. My poor girl was lost in the bush for 9 days, and if you know the Australian bush, then you’ll know this is a scary concept. Below is a clip of where we were looking for her.

I engaged a service called K9 Welfare Mission which is run by volunteers to help people get their dogs back who are lost in the bush, the lady I worked with was amazing. From advice to support whenever I needed it, she was there. And though her advice went against what I wanted to do and what others were telling me to do, I chose to listen to her, she was after all the expert. I’m so glad I did because I honestly don’t think I’d have gotten Suki back if I hadn’t done everything she asked of me. This involved many cold nights sitting in the bush cooking sausages, setting up food and scent stations and laying my scent trail to hopefully lead her home.

She ran a fair way from home, at least 4.5km south from home and another 4.5 km north, there were 6 days between sightings and I had just about lost hope.

The final night; a brief story: Last night I went out and laid my scent again, I set up the food station with a tiny bit of food. Then I walked from my house with hot sausages, to where I’d left a cushion the week before that she’d found and moved, I sat in the dark for an hour, she came down the hill at one point, stopped when I said hey Suki you coming home, then ran off, but not a full-on run. I sat for another 45 minutes then left a sausage on the pillow, I walked home with the rest of the sausages, where I heated them up at the front of my carport and put the container on the roof of my car. She followed my scents home, she’s so clever.

I couldn’t believe it, I was sleeping and heard her cry outside the window. I opened the back door, said hey baby and she ran through the gate and into the house, so excited to see me.

She was so happy to see me, she was covered in ticks, had lost weight and was so tired and I couldn’t stop crying. Happy tears obviously. She got some love, and a bit of food and promptly fell asleep on the couch she’s still sleeping. We’ll go to the vet later after some tick medication.

I couldn’t have done it without them, and without the community behind me.

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So, now to the books, I’m a bit behind in some of my reviews, as you can imagine, reading was not my priority, even if my brain had allowed me to concentrate. But I did read a good amount of books up until Suki had her 9 day misadventure. I read 18 books and listened to 2 audiobooks.

This month I didn’t cross anything off of my challenges other than my Goodreads challenge which I am now on 64/150 books for the year. I don’t do TikTok and one of the things to cross off is a book trading on #booktok, so if anyone has a suggestion from there please let me know.

Here’s hoping April is full of reading and no dramas.