Posting days: Sunday and Wednesday and, sometimes, maybe, extra bits in between.

Wednesday November 7th 2018

What a difference a day makes, as they say.

We’ve had days and days of ‘mostly sunny’. Isis hates ‘mostly sunny’. The humans can’t see any sun, but she knows it’s up there behind the clouds.

Bev, Gra., Rufus and Nancy wait with infinite patience just outside the car park exit as I tap, push, and exhort Isis to move.

Centimetre by exasperating centimetre, she creeps along the fence, nose to the ground. Persuading her to walk past the basketball court is not an experience to relish. On the other side of it is her favourite stamping ground. She heaves herself towards the fence as I attempt to keep her on the path.

When we eventually reach the slope down to the old bowling green, she persists in attempting to walk backwards.

She’s not in the slightest bit put out by our struggle. When I set her free she rushes off towards the old tennis courts where she bounces around enthusiastically for the next thirty minutes.

I lean against the fence and watch her. Unlike Isis I’m exhausted.

Today it is pouring. Hairy leaps around the car park grabbing gleefully at the  raindrops. She can’t be bothered to sniff but dances merrily past the basketball court and walks briskly down the slope. This time she is facing forward.

At the bottom I free her from her lead and off she runs to prance on her mound.

After a dash around the Colour Garden, she is happy to join the others for a walk round the park.

Still not recovered from yesterday, I trudge along beside her.

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