When we were young, our father decided to purchase two young kelpies, with the intention of training them to be sheepdogs. He certainly didn’t possess the patience nor, in hindsight, the expertise, either.
Therefore, it wasn’t long before he was throwing stones at them, in fits of rage.
This led to my younger sister and I taking it upon ourselves to display our pity for them by showing all of the love and affection we could muster. Something that was also to displease our father.
Some months later we arrived home from school, only to learn that we could not find the dogs anywhere and received the news from our parents that they had, indeed, taken it upon themselves to run away!
Not only were we brokenhearted, we found it to be incredulous that two animals that had loved us so dearly could have taken it upon themselves to suddenly depart from our lives.
Years later, Mum confided in us that our father had, indeed, taken it upon himself to convey the pair to one end of our farm, where he had proceeded to shoot them. Prior to burying their carcasses.