S T A T I O N

BOOK 2

Meet the Animals

GROW WITH JOE CHILDREN’S BOOKS

Written & Illustrated By JP Stratton

Copyright © 2016 JP Stratton

All rights reserved.

ISBN-10: 1539341070 ISBN-13: 978-1539341079

For Alannah and Little Joe. My inspiration ☺

Love always and forever.

BOOK 2

Meet the Animals

Welcome to Minnamoolka Station ☺.

Hey, my name is Joe.

This is my Mum and me.

My family live on a remote cattle station.

We have many furry, hairy, scaly, spikey and

feathered friends on Minnamoolka Station.

Though, it’s best to remember some of the animals

are not so friendly too.

Introducing Kai, the dog.

When he was born, he was the runt of his litter.

So small and ugly looking that others thought

he wouldn’t live.

But my Mum took him in and gave him love

and plenty of food.

He loves his food! That’s how he got his name.

He grew big! The biggest of his litter and now he is

the leader of the pack at Minnamoolka Station.

All of the homestead animals look to Kai as their

leader and protector.

Kai is my protector too.

This is Soot, the dog.

She is all black and is hard to see at night

when the lights are out.

That’s when she likes to play the surprise game.

She sneaks up behind Mum and rubs her wet nose

on Mum’s leg!

Yeehar, it always makes Mum jump!

This is Tag, the dog.

She is black with white patches.

Tag is Soot’s sister.

They are both from the same litter,

even though they look and act different.

This is Blue, the dog.

She is what’s called a stumpy tail.

That’s because she was born with a stumpy tail,

just like all the other dogs of her breed

which is a Smithfield Blue Cattle Dog.

Their tails have not been cut off like other breeds,

their tails are naturally bobbed.

Introducing Wattlebar Golden Folklore!

He is a young gelding horse.

He follows Kai around everywhere.

I’m sure he believes he is a dog too.

We call him Billy for short!

This is Romeo, the cat.

He is in love with my Mum and is jealous of the

attention she gives to all of the other animals.

He knows he has to share her attention

but he would prefer not to.

He follows Mum around the house and garden.

As do most of the other animals.

It’s so funny to see Mum walking around with cats,

dogs, chickens, goats and Billy

all following along behind!

This is Tiger, the cat.

She is a lovable, playful cat who is

constantly with Romeo

but she keeps a little distance between them.

Her favourite game is when she crouches down low,

waiting for someone to come passed, then she jumps

out with her arms and claws stretched out.

Then there is Lucky, the cat.

She is lucky to be alive, being born a wild cat.

My Mum found her as a very small kitten.

She took her home and cared for her.

Now Lucky is part of the family!

This is some of our chickens.

We have a total of 10 hens and 1 rooster.

Mum rescued each of the chickens

from an egg production farm.

When the chickens first arrived on the station

they struggled to stand on their feet.

They were so used to being caged they didn’t know

how to use their legs and feet.

Each day on the station, under Mum’s care,

they grew stronger.

Now they run around free and happy but when

Mum is outside they follow her everywhere.

We have happy chickens who lay lots of eggs

for us to eat.

We also have 2 ducks.

Daisy and Dolores.

Daisy is the white and black duck and

Dolores is the grey and white one.

They usually hang out together and

love swimming in the pond or getting wet

under the sprinkler.

Their eggs are hard to find because

they like to hide them.

So we have to follow them around the yard

to find out where they lay them.

This is William, the billy-goat.

And his mate Kate, the nanny-goat.

We use the goats for milk and food.

The goats eat all of the weed areas

throughout the station.

These two oinkers are Pea and Ink, the pigs.

They are both females.

A female pig is called a sow.

We breed the pigs for food.

They have a good life and boy do they love to eat!

Pigs aren’t fussy eaters,

they eat everything we give them.

This is Bangerang, the bull.

Mum hand reared him from a small calf.

His breed is an Ultra Red.

He comes when his name is called

and he will follow Mum around if she

is in the paddock with him.

He loves to rub his head up her back

and when Mum scratches his ears

he leans so far to the side

he looks like he will fall over.

COWS!

We have lots and lots of cows, calves,

steers and bulls.

We have breeding stock that

are sometimes given names, like Bangerang.

But the rest of the cattle are bred for food

so when they grow, big, strong and healthy

they are sold for meat.

Their meat is made into steak, roasts,

hamburgers and sausages

that can be purchased at your local butcher or

supermarket.

This stock breed is Brahman.

All Brahman have droopy ears,

a hump above the shoulders

and the loose folds of skin hanging down

from their neck is called a dewlap.

Brahman cattle like tropical humid and

subtropical dry areas so they do well

in the hotter areas of Queensland.

These are pademelons.

They are a native animal to Australia and are

much smaller than a wallaby.

Pademelons are marsupials and just like wallabies and

kangaroos, they have a small pouch in the lower part

of their belly where they keep their babies.

The pademelons live very close to the homestead.

Some of them have made their home

under the homestead.

Pademelons are supposed to be shy but we see these

guys out and about on dusk, eating the grass and

trying to get into Mum’s garden.

We also hear them at night, running around and

playing on the roof of the cottage.

When danger is near,

like a snake, fox or bird of prey,

pademelons use their back legs to thump

the ground so they can warn others

in the group to stay alert.

There are also kangaroos and wallabies that live

on the station but not close to the homestead.

There are all sorts of reptiles on the station.

Snakes and lizards, big and small.

Dangerous and not so dangerous.

Mum has placed solar snake repellant vibrators

around the yard. The vibrators send pulses through

the ground which seem to keep all of the dangerous

snakes away from the homestead and cottage.

The vibrators don’t work on the pythons

because they climb through the trees

and structures above the ground.

Mum finds the baby pythons everywhere and she

occasionally finds the real big ones too.

She catches them and relocates them

far away from the homestead.

This is a carpet python.

They can grow very long here.

The biggest Mum has caught was almost 4 metres.

She says their favorite food is the pademelons.

This is a blue tongue lizard.

And, yes, they have a blue tongue.

This is a goanna.

They grow to about 2 metres in length.

Their tail is longer than their body,

and is usually about 1.4 metres long.

We often see one hanging around the chook shed.

Goannas love to eat eggs.

So it’s important that we collect the eggs each

morning before the goanna comes looking.

In north Queensland we don’t have four seasons.

If we are lucky, we have a wet season over the

summer and the rest of the year is dry and warm.

During a good wet season the Minnamoolka lake

becomes full. It has had very little water in it

over the last couple of years because there has

been a drought.

The lake attracts all manner of water birds

and insects too.

The birds line the shore and the trees

to hunt for food and nest to have their young.

The lake and its visitors also attract the

fresh water Crocodiles.

Have a look at the Australian wood cockroach

Mum caught the other day!

They sure are big!

This is a blue winged kookaburra.

We like the kookaburras and butcher birds because

they kill and eat snakes and other nasty critters

around the homestead and cottage.

When we have baby chickens, it’s important to

keep them safe because the

kookaburras and butcher birds like them too.

This is a galah.

They are one of the many types of cockatoo

we see at the station.

The galah, like many cockatoos,

hang out in large groups.

This is a red tailed black cockatoo.

They live up in the trees, spend most of the day

feeding and can be very noisy.

This is an Australian bustard, also referred to

as a plains turkey.

They are a ground bird (like the emu)

that grow to 1 metre tall.

We see lots of them roaming the station paddocks.

We also see all manner of pests that endanger or kill

our animals, eat our grass and feed. These animals

also have an adverse effect on the environment.

Feral pigs, wild dogs, wild brumbies, feral cats, and

cane toads. We also see quite a few dingoes.

This is a feral boar. See his big tusks!

They use them to gore anything

that threatens them

and gets close. They

can be very dangerous!

With all of these guys gathered around,

Mum must be close by.

Maybe she is looking for me?

It’s time to go!

Goodbye, from Minnamoolka Station ☺

ALSO BY JP STRATTON

Grow with Joe Children’s Books

MINNAMOOLKA STATION SERIES

- Say G’day (Book 1) - Count with Kai (Book 3)

Books for Grown Ups

SERENITY – A BOOK OF POETRY AND PAINTING

Paintings and merchandise by JP Stratton Refer to websites;

www.pixels.com/artists/joan+stratton/grow with joe children’s books

www.paintingsbyjoan.com

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