Wine Dog Adventures — Mellyben — Wine Dog Adventures

Wine Dog Adventures — Mellyben

We’re not from Melbourne, but we’re going there today. I only know it’s spelt like that because I saw it on a sign, in my mind I call it Mellyben. I don’t know where it is, but we have to catch a plane. I’m not sure about planes. I see them in the sky sometimes and I bark and bark and bark at them. But they never bark back.

We get out of the car, at the house where the planes live, and Smithy snaps a lead on me. Uh-oh. That usually only means one thing. Needles, and that guy they call “the vet”. I go ballistic, barking at Smithy, sometimes I think we’re mates, but times like this, I don’t think he even likes me. He drags me through the car park, I’m biting the lead all the way along. They have a box they want me to get into. A box. I dig my claws into the ground, I rock right back on my haunches and put my head down. I growl. Deliberately.

Smithy chucks something in the back of the box. Not sure what it is, but there is a certain aroma to it. Well, I will not be bought with food. Not this time anyway. My pride is hurt, buy me with food? Who does he think I am? I’m a wine dog, that’s who I am, and I can’t be bought with a simple dog treat that he’s pulled out of his pocket. There are other dogs around too, all with boxes to get into, some of them even have cushions or toys.

Smithy calls one of them, and it wanders over to him. What’s he doing? He’s coaxing the dog into my box, to go to Mellyben with him. I stroll casually but purposefully past the other dog, and sit in the stupid box, with the stupid dog treat. I think I catch Smithy smile, and he says to me “I have a very important job for you, you have to mind this wine, don’t tell anyone.” With that, he slides a bottle covered in plastic stuff into my dog box. Then he hoists me over the counter to some random.

Me and another dog get walked out to the plane. I bark at it a lot, but up close, it’s really big. After a few goes, when the plane doesn’t bark back, I just give up. There’s a big noise, like a motor, and I assume we are flying, because even though I’m a dog, I know that’s what planes do. Wine dog is in the sky.

I wake up with a start, there’s a sudden drop and I hit my head on the top of the box, not hard, I’m OK, but that wine bottle I was guarding has broken. It’s still wrapped in the plastic but I know it’s ruined. I lick at the plastic, it’s got red stuff on it. I lick a bit more, it tastes like blackberry, bramble and black cherry. I pull back the plastic, and I can tell there’s acidity there. There’s a thing Smithy raves on about something called tannins, I can taste them in this wine too. It’s not thin like a white wine, it’s a bit more filling. I really feel like that dog treat now. Actually I feel like about ten dog treats. And a nap.

When I wake up, I’m not in the sky any more, I’m in Mellyben. Smithy wasn’t that upset about the broken wine. He’s good like that, we’re visiting friends in St Kilda, and I think he’s just excited to be here. We get in the car and drive away from the house where the planes live. He lets me stick my head out the window and I can see the white lines rushing past. I can also see funny long cars on tracks with wires on top of them. I think they’re called trams. I quite like this place called Mellyben.