Station Pets

With nearly one million acres of land to kick around on, it gives us plenty of opportunity to keep a few pets.  Indeed it is certainly one of the joys of station life to have plenty of pets of various shapes and sizes.  

The obligatory pets of course are of the canine variety.  We have a little boxer called Taylor (after Taylor Swift although she is much cuter).  

We have a peacock called Fowl.  He is a refugee from Sandfire Roadhouse and enjoys playing with the chooks.  Speaking of chooks we have plenty of them who in addition to being pets also provide us with eggs.  

No station would be complete without a few horses to ride on.  With most mustering now carried out by helicopter, the horses are for recreational purposes.  

One of our more interesting pets is our pet camel "Chewy".  She was rescued as a calf and brought to the homestead. She now wanders about and looks after the poddy calves.  Research has shown that cattle can gain a benefit from grazing with camels.  Camels are ruminants like cattle and generally have a broader spectrum of bacteria in their rumen allowing them to more fully digest plant material.  These bacteria can pass to cattle if they drink from the same trough or graze in close proximity.  So it is obvious that Chewy is much more than a pretty face.

There is also the odd unusual pet like Charlie – the black headed python. 

And last but certainly not least are our cattle herd.  With about 15,000 to choose from, there are always some friendly ones amongst them.