An American Doggy in Queensland

My bestest friend in the whole wide world is Dakota (@DakotaBDog) who lives on the other side of the world in the USA. His mama was going away and so let him come spend the weekend with me!

Raja, Elisabeth, Dakota & Me

We decided that we wanted to camp in our paddocks so we set up our tent in the driest spot we could find. Pop also helped us set up our very own BBQ for noms *drools*.

My brofur Raja and sisfur Elisabeth joined us during the days but they slept at night in the house with Nan.

In this pic of us all, my mama Sam & my Nan are in the background, checking for snakes & creepy crawlies. Dakota and I are brave members of the #BadBoyzOfTwitter but we draw the line at crawlies.

@doglvr4evr (Lori) tent bedroom

Our dear human friend Lori (@doglvr4evr) also came over to camp for the first night, but we didn't think she'd want to spend the night listening to me & Dakota snoring so we set up a tent especially for her. Very comfy.

Dakota arrived quite late that night so after a quick intro to the family, a whirlwind tour of the place and then some BBQ noms, we crashed in our tent. We both slept pretty soundly, even Dakota despite the unfamiliar creepy night noises. They didn't seem to disturb him - he snored his way through the night, hehe.

Elisabeth (left), Tom (back) & Dakota

As you might know, we've experienced a lot of rainfall here lately, so much in fact that our turkey dam filled to capacity and then burst a wall and the water rushed down the hill, eventually washing away the tarseal from the road at the bottom.

Pop decided to go ahead and rebuild the dam wall this weekend before more rain fell, and we pups of course had to help.

But we weren't of much help to Pop - we were having too much fun playing in the muddy water!

Dakota in his Aussie hat

It took most of the day to fix the dam and by the time we had cleaned ourselves up we were famished. Dakota & I got the BBQ going again and sat down to nommy sossidges while we discussed our plans for the rest of the day.

The weather was hot and sunny and as Dakota had forgotten to bring his cap, I presented him with his very own special Aussie hat. Not only does the Aussie hat protect you from the sun, the little corks help to keep the flies away from your face!

Me & Dakota on the RV

We decided that it just wouldn't be right if Dakota didn't get to ride on our RV so later that afternoon we went for a spin around our paddocks.

Dakota drove our RV like a professional - he has had a lot of practice driving his Mama's car and his neighbour's snowmobile, hehe.

It had been a long day for us, so we had an easy night after our BBQ dinner. Nan gave us her guitar and it turned out that Dakota was a natural and could strum out just about any tune you liked.

We spent the evening in sing-a-long around our campfire, our loud music-making and laughter competing with the angry noises the bats were making above us in the trees.

Dakota posing with a kangaroo

After another good night's sleep and nommy BBQ breakfast, we went for a walk through our paddocks. There were a lot of smells that were unfamiliar to my buddy so we investigated thoroughly - he was especially taken with the kangaroo poo and fox pee.

We were lucky enough to pick up the scent of a some local kangaroos and went off on the hunt, eventually tracking them down and getting a snapshot of them for Dakota.

Me & Dakota acting ape

We've got a lot of trees on the property, and Dakota & I climbed almost every one of them over the weekend.

Sure, we lost some fur and scraped some skin, and sometimes we were met by angry ants. At one tree we even disturbed a very unhappy and nimble goanna, but we met these challenges face on and conquered every tree we attempted to climb.

Me Dakota, you Jane

Some of our trees have vines weaving their way through them and we had great fun climbing and swinging on them.

Personally I think Dakota might be part monkey 'cos he was swinging through those trees just like Tarzan (or George of the Jungle, hehe).

Dakota holding a Koala Bear

While we were playing at jungle tracking in the paddocks a little later, Dakota spotted a lone bundle of fur making its way down one of our gum trees.

The little bundle turned out to be a friendly koala bear who was happy to take a picture with him. I was really pleased that my friend got to see one of our koalas because we don't get very many passing through - we don't have enough of the type of gum tree they feed on.

The afternoon was turning out to be rather warm for Dakota - not unexpected considering he was experiencing winter at his home and was therefore wearing his winter coat!

Dakota caught the one that didn't get away

Pop suggested that to cool off we go fishing or swimming in our dam. Dakota & I decided we wanted fish for our BBQ dinner that night so we tied a hook on and threw a line in. I got a few nibbles but it was Dakota who landed the big one!

That evening was my friend's last with us so we all shared the BBQ fish and sat around the campfire talking and laughing into the early hours of the morning.

Dakota as a Wallaby (Rugby Union)

We wanted to give Dakota something that would remind him of us whenever he saw it. And so after much debate between us, we got him an authentic Wallabies rugby shirt.

Early the next morning saw Dakota leave on the Google Earth Jet. I ran through the paddocks waving as my buddy zoomed away back to his home, knowing how much I was going to miss him. We sure had a great time and I sincerely hope he comes back again soon - but for longer! (we might keep him)