MACEDON Ranges resident Faye Foster turns 90 years tomorrow and one of the greatest gifts will be meeting her great-granddaughter Delphi, still a baby, from Darwin for the first time.
“I’ll be clucky,” she said.
Mrs Foster looks forward to the celebration at the families’ favourite mid-way meeting point Byron Bay on April Fools Day.
Born in 1936, Mrs Foster attended public primary and secondary schools in Essendon. A short career as a dental nurse followed from which she retired to marry and begin a family.
Family is important and gardening is a labour of love. Mrs Foster’s garden features 70-odd roses, an abundance of magnolia trees, and dozens of rhododendrons and azaleas.
She made a career breeding Australian and world class champion Jack Russells with such a high pedigree that buyers around the globe prefer to purchase pups from the progeny of Inverbrae-bred Jack Russells.
Mrs Foster said she became smitten with small dogs since her parents gave her an Australian terrier.
“I loved every one of my dogs and they loved me. I bred [Jack Russells] for temperament. I am world famous for my dogs. Its pedigree needs to be faultless to begin with.”
Mrs Foster has made many dog-friendly friends across 30 years of breeding Jack Russells alone and many keep in touch and invite her to visit them. Her well-worn passport stamps include visits to Germany, Mexico, Italy, Luxembourg and Russia and on her 80th birthday, she saw tombs of Pharaohs in ancient Egypt, a bucket-list item.
All creatures great and small have star appeal. The largest animal Mrs Foster has called a pet was a rhinoceros. Here’s why: “My daughter Lynette had three girls, and they needed my help. Eventually the man who owned the Darwin property they lived on, Tipperary Station, decided he wanted to create a zoo and my son-in-law [Ross Ainsworth] became the manager,” Mrs Foster said.
“The rhino was most interesting to me. You see them on television charging [at people] but they are really quite nice. We tamed him like a horse.”
Lynette and Ross have three girls, Zealie, Louisa and Pippa-Jane. Zealie, who also has three children, lives in Melbourne. Louisa is in Byron Bay.
It’s Pippa-Jane’s first newborn Delphi that Mrs Foster is most eager to cuddle, and they are coming from Darwin.
Louisa has one boy and one girl, which makes up six wonderful great grandchildren for Mrs Foster to adore.
Happy birthday Mrs Foster from the Review.