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

Sunday November 27th 2016

It’s Friday and off we go to Highbury, my beautiful dog and I. Her sweet, hairy face is soft and white as white; even her whiskers glisten like silver threads. Her very distinctive ears are silky, unblemished by cobwebs, soil or seeds.

I run my hands over this lovely creature, and release an adoring sigh.

Then her nostrils are assailed by lovely, leaf-mouldy scents. She quickly follows her nose and then poses on top of a heap of autumn leaves.

Must take a photo of the dear little thing.

Suddenly, she finds a little hollow nestling in the leafy heap. S-n-UFF! She’s sure someone is hiding here. She pounces and digs and pounces again. And again. And again. What a delightful heap it is. Not as tall as her favourite one around and over which she prances like a mountain goat, but this one exudes the most tantalising smells.  I smile indulgently as she sniffs and scrapes and snuffles and digs.

Deeper ! Deeper! Soil flies from her frantic paws. She works like a mechanical digger possessed. I stand dreamily at the base of the heap. Inevitably, I drift into a world of my own.

Twenty minutes fly past and it’s getting very cold. Isis is persuaded to move on to the next challenge. She leads the way, trotting briskly along the gently winding path.

Then she stops for a drink. Suddenly, she turns back towards me. She lifts up her head.

Errrrrrrrrrrk! What horrible apparition is this?

Soon, Dougie, Fergie, and then L. appear from round a bend in the path.

“Hello, beautiful Isis”, intones L. sweetly.

“Look more closely” I suggest.

And she does.

“Oh my god”, she giggles.

Time for another photo.

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