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

Wednesday April 6th 2016

Isis is flat out. So she should be. She’s just returned from her evening dash – ‘walk’ doesn’t convey her energy and enthusiasm – in Kings Heath Park.

Both yesterday and today we are caught in blustery showers. Isis, who loves rain, adds another meteorological  phenomenon to her favourite. It’s hail. Even though the hail is face stingingly icy and we are both soaked, her delight does not diminish. She dashes and leaps and swerves, chattering her teeth, capturing the drops in her mouth and tearing around with utmost joy.

When the rain stops, she begins sniffing around for sticks. But stick avoidance has led to great things. The ball-no-longer-on-a-rope has been put to good use and Hairy One has been sharpening her scenting skills.

It’s time to retrieve the now oval rubber ball from my pocket. I hurl it as far as I can and urge, “Find it. Find it.” I don’t know what, if anything, she can hear, but I can’t help vocalising.

She sniffs in wavy curves which morph into zig-zags as she gets closer to her prey. She passes the ball, then stops. She turns and lowers her nose to the ground. Yes! Got it!

She trots a triumphant lap before lying on the grass for a contented chomp. After a few minutes, she’s up again.

Tossing the ball aside, she’s off again at speed, running, running as fast as she can go, her legs a blur of white. Then the gallop slows to a trot, and the trot to a walk. She drops her head and begins to sniff for her ball.

And off we go again.

What a clever little dog.

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