Aprils’ dog of the month is Roxie – not your average farm dog.
Name: Roxie
Description: Heinz 57 accidental acquisition
Position: Preferably flat out asleep on the couch!
Roxie would not have been the first choice of dog for any of the Coolana team. In fact, her origins and breeding are unknown. Thought to be about 18 months old when she first made contact with Ben, she has now been part of the family for 9 years.
In 2007 Ben was working on the film set of the Spielberg/Hanks collaboration, Pacific – a mini-series being filmed near Port Douglas in Queensland. A British lady working in special effects found Roxie and fell in love with this not exactly pretty dog, but one with a beautiful nature. Never judging someone on face value is very appropriate in this situation!
Once filming had finished in Queensland, the whole crew moved to Melbourne to complete the project. Roxie’s owner was unable to keep her in the apartment she had rented, so Ben offered to “house” her until the end of filming. However, that arrangement changed; Ben was asked to give her away. Unfortunately, nobody took up the offer.
Roxie was extremely lucky that Ben had been the one to offer her interim shelter – many have said that she had won the “doggie lotto”!! Thus, Roxie took up residence in the kennels at Coolana and, after a few days of finding out what this place was all about, she decided the house was the best bet! She was “allowed” by Milo, Anna’s chocolate Lab, to share the dog couch at the end of Anna’s office. This became her palace.
When Milo passed away no other dog was permitted to set paw on “her” couch. Until recently that is; Mark acquired a chocolate brown Vizsla puppy (pointer-retriever) called Whisper, who, after serving her “apprenticeship” with Roxie, has now been given the ultimate honour – a spot on the couch! We wonder what the attraction is, in Roxie’s eyes, to chocolate brown dogs?
Roxie is a much loved and respected member of the family. She is fiercely loyal to family members and friends. Over the years she has been a wonderful nanny to puppies and visiting small children alike – a role that seems to come naturally to her. She has been known to comfort a crying child – sometimes both being found asleep together some time later.
When she visits the beach she can make people look twice as she bounds up to them, but she just wants to say hello and pat their children. She loves going out on the motorbike with Anna, her chin resting over Anna’s shoulder, checking that she hasn’t left any stragglers.
There is however a conundrum with this canine – she is terribly gun-shy, even hides when a gun comes out of the cabinet. How on earth did she survive on the film-set, where over two million rounds of blanks were fired in the filming of Pacific! Over-exposure maybe?
Roxie is a beautiful, calm, friendly, loyal, empathetic and sometimes cheeky dog. She’s happy to get down and dirty with the rest of the canine team, but also very lucky to be on the couch or by the fire with her humans in the winter. She will sit on your foot while you have dinner at the table, then move to the fireside and hold your hand while you watch a movie – nothing with guns though!