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

Sunday August 7th 2016

B. next door, who is very fond of Isis, watches her through the fence as she buffaloes her way round her favourite spot on the lawn. This, naturally, is the area of grass which is the most sparse, the part down by the bottom fence. The reason it hasn’t done well, I think, is that it is overshadowed by B.’s large fir tree and my hazels which, characteristically for an ‘I’ll do it tomorrow’ person, have been allowed to grow to about ten metres tall.

B. observes that Isis is scuffing up the new grass and suggests that it might recover if it were watered. When I explain that my new hosepipe doesn’t appear to work, he tells me to pass the business end over the fence. While he twists the control section this way and that, I, in my usual sensible way, turn on the tap to prove it doesn’t work.

Predictably, water suddenly shoots out of the end, ricochets  off my house wall and covers us with a fine mist. Well, it works. But now, irritatingly, we can’t turn it off.

Never mind, the ever resourceful Bob has another idea. He recalls that he has a lawn sprinkler fitment. He doesn’t know why  he owns one, he reflects, since he’s never had a lawn, but, as always, he knows exactly where it is. He disappears into his lean-to and reappears seconds later with the sprinkler.

It has a spike which goes into the ground so I trot up to the end of the garden and shove it into the lawn on which Hairy One is happily snuffling. Then I rush back to the tap and turn it.

Isis, as we know, does not enjoy having water tipped on her. How will she react?

As you see, Hairy One is absolutely ecstatic. Hours after the hose has been switched off, she romps and swirls, still clicking her castanet teeth, as though she is reliving the moment.

It’s wonderful to see her enjoying herself so much.

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