[warren brown]

Yes Mike - it's so damned fiddly. I you don't have a shooter's licence nowadays it's even fiddlier! You choose what you're after at the gun shop and pay for it (they keep it) - in this case a single barrel .410 - present your licence to the shop owner who gives you a form to fill out, you post that off to the firearms registry in Murwillumbah with your credit card details for $30 and in three weeks if you don't turn out to be the bloke from Wolf Creek they post you an approval form and you go and pick it up. If you already own a firearm they say it'll be sent to you in two weeks - but two weeks has gone and I rang the firearms registry who told me ...'It's in the mail!' Meanwhile we're on tenderhooks! It was a tossup between the .410 and a chainsaw - the chainsaw was winning until we saw a particularly angry, big brown snake on the road to our place - Tanya just said "That's it - we're getting the .410". Which surprised me know end. She'd never picked up a firearm before but handled the shotgun in the shop like she'd been a Navy Seal for thirty years. And thanks Keith - it is a great relief to have the old girl running so well again - I just took it for a spin about 20 minutes ago and it's pulling up hills in fourth gear. As for the cats - the vet didn't slug us the $1600 anti-venene for the first cat - she'd been bitten on the ear and knocked flat -truly weird to see - he didn't think the cat had been badly bitten - more of a fleeting thing - but as he said - it took more than two weeks for old puss to show improvement. As for Minnie the tough old farm cat we inherited - she's been bitten at least twice before apparently - and even though she had the same symptoms, she pulled through - her previous owners think she's become immune - describing her as a 'great snaker...'. I dunno - but I wouldn't get in the way of Minnie for anything. Tough. Bush tough. There's a woman in town and if there's a snake at her house she picks up the cat and hurls it at it. Complete success rate!