Thursday, 23 June 2016

Monkey Mia - Cats, Dogs and Emus

When we arrived yesterday at the Monkey Mia resort I confirmed we were travelling with 2 dogs and mentioned we also have 2 cats. The woman serving me then said that cats are not allowed anywhere in the World Heritage Area. This would have meant that we had travelled over 400kms including 160kms off the highway and would have to turn around and drive back at least 160kms until we could find a roadside stop.

Eventually commonsense prevailed and we were allowed to stay on the condition the cats remain in the van the whole time. I paid $200 as a bond - $50 for each dog and cat but nothing to tell me what might cause the bond to be forfeited.

The issue regarding cats as it was explained to me is there are feral cats in the park, the surrounding area has been baited with 1080 for wild dogs and cats, and no cats are allowed anywhere in the World Heritage Area. The town of Denhan is about 20kms away and I was told that no one in the town is allowed to have cats. I noted that there had been no signage advising visitors that cats are not permitted in the area.

This morning I was walking the cattle dog and saw a cat under a car and rubbing up against another traveller's legs. I asked if it was his cat and he said no but the cat had adopted them from the time they arrived last night. It was a very friendly feral cat.

I then walked both dogs being vigilant they not pick up any scraps because crows have been known to drop baits in areas not otherwise baited. Number one dog was busy doing her number twos when an emu came striding towards us. The information provided to dog owners was to keep away from emus as they will attack dogs. I stepped forward and yelled at the emu in an attempt to chase it away but it kept coming towards us. The cattle dog wasn't going to sit idly by watching me deal with a monstrous bird he had never before laid eyes on and he gallantly growled and barked causing the emu to quickly have a change of heart and take off in the opposite direction.

I rechecked the website for the Monkey Mia resort and confirmed it advertises itself as "pet friendly" without any suggestion that pets only means dogs. I also checked the website for the local shire of Shark Bay which covers Denhan and it refers to registering cats so the information given to me about cats not being allowed in the World Heritage Area seems to be incorrect on several counts. I will save my complaint till after we have left because I don't want to run the risk there will be a change of heart about our cats staying here.

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