It’s been a year of sometimes precipitous ups and downs, but one of the definite ups has been beginning to work professionally with the lovely Sarah McKenzie! Not only is she a very smart and supportive agent, she also has excellent taste in Christmas cards - thanks for everything Sarah! 📕 ✍️ 😇 📚

Delighted to be the incoming President for the Australasian Conservation Dog Network (ACDN)! 🐕‍🦺 Today, the dogs and I celebrated these new responsibilities by heading into the field to sniff out random animal body parts, and by playing a little scat hide’n’seek 🐦 🦇 💩

Are you looking for a christmas present for a creative person? Hoo boy do we have the auction for you. Hundreds of creatives from 20 countries are raising funds for people fleeing Genocide in El-Fasher, Sudan. Huge names, huge items! Bid here! app.galabid.com/creatives4su... Art by @raafaye, insta

Brisbane Friends! Book launch party alert!🐨🐶📕🥳 Rom and I are beary excited to be launching "Bear to the Rescue" at the excellent Where The Wild Things Are Bookshop on December 3 from 4.30pm! 🐕🐨 Reserve a spot via the link👇 Hope to see you there! 📚🐕💕 wherethewildthingsare.com.au/pages/13509-...

Tiny, senselessly broody chickens will never not be hilarious 🐥 🐥 #NoRoosterNoProblem

Have nicked into Fullers Bookshop, Hobart, for a spot of arts and craft 📚🐾 As of this afternoon, you’ll be able to grab copies of “Bear to the Rescue” that are not only scrawled on by me, but also signed by Rom, Sylvia and Bear! 🐾 📖 🐨 🐶 🎉

Meanwhile on Facebook…

Queensland is trying to kill me. Dogs and Bob cat similarly unimpressed.

There’s a Bear in there! 🐨 🐻 🐶 On the road to Wildlife HQ with the dog himself! 🍍 🐨 🐶 📕 🥳

“Twelve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have died in custody in NSW so far in 2025 – the highest number ever recorded in a single year, with more than two months remaining in the calendar,” O’Sullivan wrote. “This is a profoundly distressing milestone.“

🚨We're officially launching “Bear to the Rescue” this Friday 17th October at 4:30pm, at Fullers Bookshop, Hobart!📕🥳 Expect all the usual tomfoolery – face-painting, costumes, animal fun times & themed snacks - as well as a special appearance from the Tasmanian Story Dogs. Hope to see you there! 🐨🐶

Kidnapped in international waters, extraordinary rendition to a genocidal state, and then imprisoned indefinitely. You'd think this would trigger the immediate expulsion of the Israeli Ambassador for these inexcusable actions against an Australian citizen.

“Bear to the Rescue” is officially out today! Well, technically, it was officially out yesterday, but we were too busy trying to smash out our field work before the river got too high and flooded us in! ⛈️ 🐶 You can order a copy from your local book shop here 🐨🐶📚  yourbookstore.io/p/bear-to-th...

A cartoon from my new book PHYSICS FOR CATS which comes out a week tomorrow! Preorder at you local bookshop or online: www.tomgauld.com/comic-books-v2

Eeep! Today, I had my first, entirely unexpected sighting of “Bear to the Rescue”in the wild! 🐨 🐶 📕 I didn’t expect to see them out so soon, so got completely over-excited and made Sophie and Tim pose holding them. Unbelievably, they are available in store at Fullers Bookshop RIGHT NOW! 🐨🐶📚

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09... Just incredible that any government could under fund an eradication program for these things. Long term cost is going to be many multiples of the cost of an eradication program.

For anyone venturing anywhere near the Tasmanian Central Highlands, it is absolutely imperative you stop at the Bothwell Post Office. Not only do they make the most delicious cakes and GF “glamingtons”, they also provide a little snack for the doggos so they don’t feel left out 🍰🧁🍥🥮🐶🦴

This week, my Very Good Dog Gromit turned five 🖤🤍🎂🐶 🤍🖤 Hard to believe, also a bit scary how fast the time goes. Which is why it’s important to pack in as many good times as we can. According to Gromit, good times are generally improved by the addition of water, sand, pond slime, or snow.

Again and again: free speech silenced at the behest of an organised pro-Israel lobby group by weak-kneed management. If people don’t stand up to this pressure there won’t be a single institution left in which anyone can talk about the genocide in Gaza.

They know the climate chaos coming, they know their decision will make it worse, and kill any hope of mitigation, but they did it anyway - for their own benefit. Not a principle among them.

BEAR TO THE RESCUE has landed! 🐨🐶📙 Stoked to get our paws on our first copies of the new book! Got the dogs to help with unboxing - mixed results. Gromit was politely interested. Morello tried to eat the packaging, and fell off the bench. But Zorro is an old hand, and showed them how it's done!

🌳🐨🌳 I'm never sure if we should say "Happy" for this particular annual event, but something we can be happy about this Threatened Species Day is that the NSW Government just announced a huge new park - the Great Koala National Park! 🌳🐨🌳 Read all about it here: www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Good news for Threatened Species Day! A great big new park! 🌳🐨 🌳 Also nice to see that significant commitments have been made to support the people in the region who have relied on forestry for jobs until now — no real progress without supporting local communities 🐨 🌳💚🧍‍♂️

Here's me in Guardian Australia on the total debacle with Meanjin. www.theguardian.com/books/commen...

How do we feel about the old bit of Tasmanian bush wisdom "When the echidnas are out, the snakes are out"? 🐍🦔 Especially keen to hear opinions from either snake or echidna researchers on this one - if you can identify yourself as such, that would be fabulous!🐍🦔 #snakes #echidnas #dangernoodles

A tiny chicken meditation for those who need it

Just coloured up a small batch of the platypus prints and they are now available to buy. www.kudelkashop.com/product/ornc...

Book giveaway to celebrate International Dog Day! 🐶📕🐕📚🐩 Show and tell me why your dog is the best dog*, and I’ll send whoever writes my favourite dog story a copy our new book, “Bear to the Rescue”, signed by Rom, Syl, Bear and I! 🐨🐶📕 Dog love stories: ready, set, GO!

First thing you learn is that you always gotta wait

Living with a sprollie means you never need experience the terrible boredom of bathing by yourself 🛁🐶

This is terrifying. Of all the invasive threats Australia is facing, fire ants may be the worst. Their impacts if they are allowed to fully establish have the capacity to absolutely decimate native fauna populations and associated ecosystems 🔥 🐜 😡 www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08...

For the cynics who think it doesn’t matter, that the compensation for authors whose work was stolen will be so low it’s not worth fighting, I personally think it’s worth making the monetary punitive damage these companies suffer as big as possible to deter similar theft in the future.

Sound on! 🌊

Wanna come chat to me about conservation dogs? I'll be one of the many Roving Scientists at Beaker Street Festival today at the Hope and Anchor Tavern from 3:30PM. I can't promise not to talk about owl spew, but I do promise to talk a lot about dogs! 🦉🤮🐕 tickets.beakerstreet.com.au/Events/ROVIN...

If you want to support all the writers boycotting Bendigo Writers Festival, borrow their books from your library. They get paid and libraries buy more of their books.

His Royal Highness, Princess Oliver the First, is in the house! 👑

Once you decide to live with a sprollie, your socks are no longer your socks 🧦 #oursocksnow 🐶

Calling all First Nations Australian authors! I'm taking pitches for Bundyi Publishing, either in person in Hobart, 22 and 23 August, or online. I'd love to hear from those writing romance but happy to hear any commerical fiction ideas & non-fiction. willorganise.eventsair.com/2025-romance...

Have just finished Jane Rawson‘s splendidly odd “From the Wreck”. It’s one of those books that’s a bit tricky to describe, a key feature is that one of the central characters is a shapeshifting alien refugee who often takes the form of an octopus, which makes perfect sense under the circumstances 🐙

Very excited to see this launched and proud to have helped shape the list. www.abc.net.au/news/science... What’s Australia’s most underrated animal? Get voting!

On the morning of July 31, Israeli military forces, accompanied by bulldozers, arrived at the site of one of the two propagation units of the Palestinian National Seed Bank in the West Bank city of Hebron. They then used bulldozers to demolish the structure. www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

Eight bat researchers mostly from Asia and Africa refused entry into Australia to attend global scientific event - @petrastock.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Have been at the International Bat Research Conference in Cairns all this week, trying to cram as much information about bats into my brain as possible. I was going to go out to find some local fruit bats, but thoughtfully, they have decided to rest in the tree outside my accommodation. 🦇🦇🦇🦇🏡🦇🦇🦇

Over 300,000 people marched across the Sydney Harbour Bridge calling for an end to Israel's genocide of the Palestinians & for participants to be held accountable for crimes against humanity. FYI, @albomp.bsky.social @senatorwong.bsky.social @chrisminnsmp.bsky.social, it's aka SOCIAL COHESION.

BIG STICK

🚨Arooga arooga! 🚨 Excited to share the cover of my very first picture book: "Bear to the Rescue"! 🐨🐶📘🔥 Co-written with Romane Cristescu, and illustrated bySylvia Morris, our book tells the true story of Bear as he goes from being a bit "too much" to saving koalas after the 2020 mega fires 🔥

First Dog on the Moon Homewares are finally here! Years in the planning, designs from First Dog cartoons on beautifully hand crafted plates by Hey Saurus - available now. I am so delighted by these. firstdogonthemoon.com.au/product-cate...

ZOMG, thanks SO MUCH for my new toy! I know you were hiding it from me, maybe so you could wrap it and surprise me, but I caught a whiff of it, and just HAD to dig it right out of the bottom of your field bag that you had mostly zipped up but not quite, so I saved you the trouble — you’re welcome! 🐾

Shoutout to whoever subtitled this article over at @merriam-webster.com

We have sneefed all day, we have sat on our beds, we have colour coordinated our toys with our blankies — the least you can do is cough up the peanut butter Kongs, human!