Lucinda Dyason – “ I was born in Ingham in Far North QLD and we lived on Orpheus Island. My mother was estranged from her family but she did ring them when I was born and they said which one of us are you going to call the baby after? She happened to be in the phone box in Lucinda Point so she looked up and said I’m calling her Lucinda. That was the last contact she had with them for a long time. Mum’s mother was a Victorian society lady, they owned 220,000 acres in Melbourne, Victoria. There were 11 brothers and sisters who married and took over Victoria so there was only my parents and myself in Pioneer Bay, which is now the James Cook Marine Biology Bay. I grew up on boats and the water. I didn’t have any siblings.
There was a time when I could run faster than my parents and I would refuse to go to town so when I was 5 years old my parents had the dilemma of what to do with the 5 year old when they went to do the shopping. They used to leave me at Lucinda Point with friends. It worked until one day I was standing on the sugar wharf to see the boat heading home without me. They got home and realised they’d left me behind. I can’t remember being upset about it. I was independent from day dot. Unfortunately I went to school in St Annes in Townsville which was pretty archaic and miserable. I went to boarding school when we moved to Townsville.
When I was 4 years old the rescue work started. Our local post office told us that someone had thrown a red cattle dog out of a moving car and it had been under the post office steps for a few days. The building was low and my mother couldn’t get under so I was sent in to get the dog. I came out bleeding and bitten, with the dog. We took her home and she was 21 years old when she died. She proceeded to bite most people. My mother had that rescue thing about her so it was in my blood.
We bought boarding kennels in Townsville in 1969 and only sold them in 2000. We also had a pet shop for a few years. Our local vet sent me 2 kangaroos which I didn’t know how to look after so I ended up doing Wildlife Rescue for 20 years in the Atherton Tablelands. I was advisory to the local National Parks and Wildlife and to our local Vets with Kangaroos, Wallabies, Possums, Green Possums which are beautiful but they smell like hell, Echidnas, Anticlines, Bandicoots, birds and all out of our own pocket. I’d get call outs at 3am and some nights I wouldn’t get to bed before I went to work. I had up to 16 joeys on bottles every 3 hours through the night and a day job.
I got married up in the tablelands but unfortunately he wasn’t a great support…in anything (laughs), so we parted company. My ex boss Barry was working here in Lismore at Norco so he offered me a job. This was about 28 years ago. I was interested in a pet shop here in Lismore called Dillons Animal House in Keen St and 2 weeks before GST the fellow called me and said I could buy it but he wanted it all done in 2 weeks so there was a mad panic to get everything organised. I called it Pets and Saddles because my partner here was a gentleman called Bill Thorsby who was the Saddler at North Side Saddlery. Sadly Bill died of a heart attack at 53. We’d been together less than 2 years. He was an absolutely beautiful man.
In 2013 I formed Kitten and Cat rescue to be an official incorporated charity. It was called Kats In Traumatic Times Emergency Network – KITTEN rescue. We formed up because I nearly sent myself bankrupt paying for food and vet bills. We take in unwanted, abandoned, abused cats and kittens, the occasional sheep, horse or pig. A lot are badly abused. We have a no euthanasia policy unless the animal is in agony or dying. If it’s saveable we save it. At the moment I have great big walk-in catteries at home with shelves and lino on the floor so they are all very clean and comfy at home. At one point we were taking in 300 cats a year because people wont desex. When we adopt out every animal is microchipped, desexed, wormed, vet checked and we are a totally preservative free shop so they have fresh meat to give them the best chance. Sadly some people go back to crappy supermarket food which is full of crap. There should be compulsory desexing in Australia. When we adopt out we always ask what their Plan B is. You can’t be sure what life will throw at you. Even if you own your own home, your relationship may break down, you may lose your place to flood or fire, no rental is secure. You need a Plan B because the animals lose out.
I’ve recently taken in a 14 year old working dog. The people had sold their property and the wife said the dog is not coming…shoot it! I had a very distraught person come in here in tears and the end result is the dog is now at my place. I have 4 dogs, Pykea, Edward, Pennywren and The Old Fool. Penny was brought to me by Lismore Pound who I must say is wonderful. There is no euthanasia there unless the animal has attacked and killed. They work to save everything. They brought a cattle dog to me 5 years ago who couldn’t stand up from Arthritis but with her good diet she can now get up my stairs and chase the others. Pykea came from Laidley where the elderly lady was in hospital and everyone said to put the dog down. The dog had no hair from the worst skin condition. She was literally a bleeding sore. The lady went on a hunger strike because she didn’t want the dog put down. I took her in and she now has all her hair, she’s about 18 and now deaf. She really is the most unlikeable dog but she plods around and gets her medicated washes and good food. Edward is a Great Dane/Boxer/Wolfhound and he was an unwanted dog who’d been through several homes. Edward and I clicked. I sent him out on trial but it didn’t work out. I was miserable without him and he was miserable without me. Edward became my fourth dog. I also have 2 rescue arthritic old sheep that Edward is totally in love with. I have about 10 cats of my own and recently lost 2 to old age which has wrecked me and I have 40 rescues I’m trying to rehome to suitable places. All cats should be indoors and it’s so easy to build a cattery for them.
We got warning there was going to be a flood. When I left the shop the word was it would peak less than the 2017 flood on Monday so we moved all the birds, rabbits and guinea pigs to Goonellabah to be safe. I went to the shed in Terania St that only had a metre of water in the bottom floor in the ’17 flood. I put all the stock and 23 cats up on the Mezzanine floor and was proud that I was organised. I had a camp bed and a pillow, an esky and a little camp stove and some food. I thought I’d be back in the shop by Wednesday. At 4.30am it was a foot below the mezzanine floor. I rang the SES saying I needed to get out. There were no windows or power in the shed and it was pitch black. By 5am it was in the mezzanine floor. We had all the cats in collapsible crates so I pulled them all out and put them into carry cages on top of the crates and stacked everything I could on top of the crates. It got worse and worse. It was so dark and the water was swirling. I tied a chair to the top of the stairs with my belt so I didn’t lose my chair to climb up on. It came over the chair and then over my waist. Every time a cat fell off a carry case I swam to put it up then all the stock and bedding was floating by. I tied all the bedding to strapping on the roof. I was pulling the cats out of the water and putting them up on the bedding. As the water rose I stuffed the cats onto 4 inch wide beams up in the roof. It was still pitch black and pouring rain. I still had power on my phone and the SES are saying..Don’t ring us, you’re logged, but they didn’t tell me they couldn’t get through anyway. I finally got onto one of my wonderful supporters Sandy Mack and a great guy called Jason and his girlfriend Morgan who had helped us move over to the shed. Eventually somebody contacted him and he was one of the Tinnie Brigade. By that time I had felt a milk crate float by so I was standing on that on top of a chair with water up above my boobs and a centimetre clearance of my head in the apex of the ceiling.
I lost one cat. We think he jumped back into the carry case and it fell into the water. There was a cat that’s now called Maui who’d come to us from the pound and I’d only met him a few days before. He hit the water and at one point I screamed…Swim to me, swim to me and he did. He sat on the beam until it went under so I put him on the highest one near my head.
Jason came in a boat with a reciprocal saw and a grinder. He listened to what he was told that I was right at the top of the steps. He cut in so close I got metal in my eye but the battery ran out so he used the grinder and that battery went. He got through and he put his foot on the railing and I could get my foot onto his knee and his 2 mates lifted me out. I was hyperthermic, shaking and crying and I didn’t know who was alive and who was dead. They threw me in the boat and the sopping wet cat jumped out onto my lap. They took us to a friend in Modanville. I didn’t have the energy to shower, to get dry clothes on, nothing. (we take a break in the interview here) I was just a mess. Jo came and she said, there’s 8 cats coming. I said, Who’s cats? And she said..YOURS. I said, What do you mean? And she said, Jason went back, dived into that water and he felt around to find the carry cages in that dark swirling water. He got what cats he could see in the darkness and he wrestled them into those cages and brought them out to Dunoon to me. He is a hero!
We found a cat who’d survived the flood we called Terania because we found him in Terania St very traumatised but is now a beautiful re-homeable ginger cat. Maui now lives in a very luxurious house down near Maclean by an ex from way back in my past and his lovely wife. Maui was an amazing support just being by my side through that whole ordeal.
I’m not the big strong person I was before the flood. The ’17 flood was traumatic but we came through fine. This one….I don’t sleep anymore, I panic when it rains, I cry a lot, never used to. I’ve lost 25 kilos through stress. We lost the op shop and the shop so that is why it’s combined in here.
I want to sell the shop, the Opshop can be moved out. I can hand KITTEN over to the committee after we regroup but I desperately need to rehome about 30 cats. I am working with AWL. I’ve just bought 3 acres with a little house in Tasmania near the beach to retire, whether I retire or not is a different matter. I’ve been doing rescue for 50 years and between wildlife and domestic it’s never stopped. I’m worn out. I can’t cope with the people who wont desex, who are proud of breeding more and more. It’s going to break my heart to walk away in 12 months but I have to. I’ll be taking all my animals.
It has crossed my mind when I go to perhaps have a 10 cage cattery and taking cats from older people who have to go into care who have elderly cats. Most people say to put the cats down but for these old folk to have to go into care and then have their beloved animals killed is not on. So maybe I can set up a home solely for old cats to live out their lives so the people know that their cat is loved and safe.
Lastly our whole street here, Union St, South Lismore is being resurfaced. Council will be closing the street on and off for several months. This will kill our businesses which have struggled through Covid and flooding. We will all suffer and we need as much trade and support as possible so please come and shop here and help us all out during those months”
