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

Wednesday December 30th 2015

The weather is wild. Screaming winds  and then, tonight, driving rain. So Isis and I have had only short road walks? No way.

Isis is at one with the wildness, galloping in the wind, cavorting with giant twiggy branches, splashing through the puddles which cover the grass. Since we’ve been back home, I’ve tried to find the least muddy grassy spaces for her to spin on, and have made an effort to arrive in the park before it gets dark so that at least I can attempt to avoid the thickest mud patches.

When she’s caught her twiggy prey, she likes to lie down flat to dissect it. Being a dog, she, of course, doesn’t care how filthy she gets. But Human, wishing to avoid bathing her again (and again) seeks out the least swamp-like patches for her to lie in. These little ploys, along with trying to remain upright for the running hour, pass the time.

Tonight she comes across yet another broken off branch. But this one is thick, smooth and slippery and has no twigs attached. It also curves fluidly through the grass.

I recall that Jan and Kerry told me that Isis is likely to have come across snakes in Portugal. I think that she she must have as she approaches this branch with great caution, creeping up to it low to the ground and jumping smartly backwards as soon as her nose is a couple of centimetres away. She walks round it several times, each time slinking up to it suspiciously, each time snapping herself away just before her nose reaches it.

Not for the first time this week I wish I had brought the camera. But then again, the conditions are not ideal for photography: the retractable lead is threaded onto a wide, elastic running belt which stretches and distorts itself like a crazy hoola-hoop as I dodge about attempting to keep the line clear of canine and human legs and to anticipate Hairy One’s next move so that I don’t follow her abruptly like a badly launched rocket.

Except for a small group of youths hanging out under the covered veranda of the bowls pavilion, the park is deserted by the time we leave.

At least there is no-one to comment, as other dog walkers do, “Well at least she keeps you fit, Pat.

“Yaaaarse”, I think to myself.

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