Posting days: Sunday and Wednesday and, sometimes, maybe, extra ‘news flashes’!

Sunday December 6th 2015

On Saturday and again on Sunday we walk for over two hours in Highbury Park. Actually, that’s not accurate: for the most part we run in Highbury Park.

Gone are the days when persuasion, bribery and manhandling had to be employed in order to get Isis to leave the car and then again to get her to emerge from the car park. Now she whines, even sometimes gives impatient little yips when I take too long to sort out her leads and to open the car door.

This transformation has taken place over the last two or three weeks. It is, I think, partially because she is no longer able to spend hours every day trotting round the garden; additionally, she seems to have had a sudden surge of confidence.

Over the last week, at least half a dozen people have remarked that they’ve never seen her so animated and relaxed.

She now explodes into the park like an errant rocket, dragging me behind her as she twirls in wide loops, snapping at the wind and rain flies.

I have my camera and try to capture her enthusiasm, but this is extremely difficult: time after time she zooms in and out of the frame. I am astonished to discover that I’ve snapped seventy images today. I am less than astonished to discover that most of them comprise the end of her tail or the tip of her nose.

She appears to trust me implicitly. While touching, this is quite scary as she continuously puts herself in danger, galloping full on towards huge tree trunks, scrambling into patches of brambles and careering over the banks of the stream. So trying to exert some control in order to keep the furry fury safe is demanding enough, without attempting to take photos of her at the same time.

On Saturday we’ve been galloping around for about an hour when a stranger approaches. I reel Isis in before she amputates the lady’s legs just below the knee and decapitates her little Tibetan Spaniel.

This lady is fascinated by Hairy One’s rabbit ears and is very interested in her story. She runs Love Underdogs, a centre which homes hard to place Romanian dogs, and is delighted that Isis has a forever home.

I ask about her little dog. She was found close to Dracula’s Castle and is called ‘Draculina’! She has one long fang which overshoots her bottom jaw. Apparently she had a pair of fangs when she was found and looked quite like a vampire. She’s a sweet, happy, affectionate little dog and I say I can’t believe she’s called Draculina!

It would have been nice to have continued our conversation but Isis is becoming restless.

She’s anxious to resume her crazy dance.

She enjoys herself immensely and, uncharacteristically, sleeps like a log when she gets home.

In fact, she takes herself upstairs to bed well before her usual time and I have to wake the poor little creature up to take her out for her late night pee!

Isis came from the Aeza cat and dog rescue and adoption centre in Aljezur, Portugal. For information about adopting an animal from the centre, contact kerry@aeza.org or  www.dogwatchuk.co.uk