SHATTERED SERENITY

I JUST can’t fathom it - words repeated over and over by Jez Kalloway since his pet Jack Russell terriers Sassy and Buzz jumped into a ute travelling a quiet Loddon bush road.

The dogs “always keen for adventure” were later found dumped, dead, 6km away beside the Wimmera Highway.

“They were with me in the yard where I had a fire burning, they heard a car door open and ran down ... I saw their little legs jumping in and the ute speed off,” said Jaz on the verandah of his Moliagul home a week after the Sunday morning dog snatch.

“They loved adventure. If they heard me jingle the car keys, they were beside themselves.

“I still can’t fathom it,” Jez says again. “We live right at the end of a road and we’re lucky to see a couple of cars a day ... people don’t have a reason to come on this road.”

Leading Senior Constable Mick Balazs, of Bridgewater police, says: “There was no need to kill them. There’s no rhyme or reason as they weren’t stolen to breed or to keep someone company.”

He arranged for the RSPCA to collect the bodies of Sassy and Buzz from Jez’s home on Monday. An autopsy will be determine the cause of death.

Senior Constable Balazs is continuing investigations and has again called for public assistance in finding a white utility that may have been used

By CHRIS EARL

in the dog snatch. “It’s really concerning that something like this has happened. I have never struck it before,” he said.

Jez moved to Moligaul from Geelong three years ago for the serenity of bushland overlooking Kooyora State Park. “It’s a beautiful place for solitude.”

“I got Sassy soon after for company and then Buzz six months ago,” he said.

Thanks to friends, Jez already has a new companion. He’s called the Jack Russell terrier Nuggy. “That’s short for nugget and hoping I might find (a gold) one, one day,” Jez said.

And Senior Constable Balazs has also told Jez of an offer of a pup from a litter born last week in Avoca.

“There’s a bit of light at the end of the rainbow,” Jez said, cradling his new friend Nuggy.

WHAT is tradition? Bradley of Boort has gone for the deep and meaningful message on his Treemendous Sign this week. He’s says tradition is peer pressure from the dead. Is this his way of letting people be free and unshackled spirits?

WE NOTICED one volunteer goal umpire at the weekend who certainly fitted that category with a gavel-waving style of the flags in a junior footy match. Visual appearances had him doing a better job as replacement for Luckless Grills a couple of weeks earlier who was certainly asserting peer pressure on the field umpires (as tactfully reported in OTF at the time).

LUCKLESS Grills might avoid peer pressure if he lives to a grand old age. A reporter was interviewing a 104-year-old woman and asked “And what do you think is the best thing about being 104?” She simply replied, “No peer pressure.”

WE WERE glad to stumble across one young mother in the weekend football meandering around the Loddon. She was sipping on a latte coffee. “Last night it was the gin ... a natural progression to coffee the next day,” she quipped, encouraging others to make it a fad. No pressure!

BEING smack bang in the middle of kangaroo country, this peer pressure anecdote will get a few chuckles. Why did the first koala fall out the tree? It was dead. Why did the second koala fall out the tree? It got hit by the first koala. Why did the third koala fall out the tree? Thought it was a race to the bottom. Why did the fourth koala fall out of the tree? Peer pressure. Why did the kangaroo die? Got hit by four koalas.

CHATTING to the Cockerell last week and he was certainly not going to give into peer pressure when The Oracle was charting a cross-country trip from Newbridge to Charlton. “He wants to go up backroads, dirt tracks and traverse paths not travelled since the days of Cobb and Co. I’ve told him, the fastest way is into Inglewood and up the highway.” We hear The Oracle buckled with all the ease being displayed by his beloved St Kilda.

AND to finish this week, there’s been a report about the departed Bill Collins, the weather forecasting spider, still haunting the inaccurate barometer of the BOM. The pressure could become too much for our official forecasters!

PUB’S NEW MANAGERS The community-owned Railway Hotel in Dingee has new publicans with former dairy farmer Mick Kerkman and wife Tabitha taking on management of the enterprise that re-opened last year. Mick has also been a truck driver and part of the support crew for singer Daryl Braithwaite when he performed at the Melbourne Cup and Neil Young on his concert tours. Mick, pictured with son Kody and Tabitha, said: “I had been working in a hotel in Lismore learning the ropes of pubs while looking around for an opportunity to run our own. We liked the Dingee pub because its owned by the community, it’s got character and is a great little country pub.” LH PHOTO

Councils get Active message

RURAL local government leaders have been told a healthy and resilient agricultural sector fostered a sense of community and wellbeing among farming families.

The message came from Bridgewater Active Farmers’ leader Claire Harrison in a presentation to this month’s Rural

Councils Victoria annual forum in Echuca.

Loddon Mayor Dan Straub and councillors joined local government representatives from across the state.

Other key speakers highlighted the need for collaboration between councils to amplify their work and voice.

In Brief

Voice ‘radical’