A People Story:
While I was sitting working on the computer I could hear a dog start crying behind me. I went for a sticky and found a Staffie tied to a picnic table near by. A well dressed and well spoken man in his mid sixties appeared out of the dark from down the road and claimed the dog. The dog was obviously very happy to see him.
He told me he had walked his one armed lady friend home from a trivial pursuit day (with a few beers) and was back to settle himself and the dog down for the night. Without any real encouragement I was soon hearing his life story. He just told it the way it was and was not looking for sympathy or any response really. It was very colourful but punctuated with sad episodes.
Home was a swag and his belongings under a tarp on a slab of concrete in the park. Dog shared the tarp. The local SES had strung up another tarp in the space between the conveniences for him and he had a gas stove and chair in there under cover. He and dog read well into the night before they crawled under the swag.

The next morning he appeared looking fresh and clean, keen to chat again but this time about the man in his seventies who had turned up in town a year ago, kept to himself and was restoring the house next to the park - which could only be described as a shadow of its former self! The verandahs were gone leaving a weatherboard box on stilts with slightly lopsided windows and doors and a faint hint of paint on the grey bleached boards.
Everyone was a buzz because a team with a Bobcat had turned up to drill holes for a verandah that was to go right around the house and no-one knew "who the hell they were or where the hell they came from".

To John's relief I resisted the urge to wander over and chat with this man and his very cute shaggy dog. One day I will find an excuse to go back through Mutta and see what happened to that house. Hopefully old mate, his dog and tarp will have moved on.