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

Sunday February 17th  2019

Thank heaven, the new monitor is set up and I can use the PC again. Trouble is, we old timers – as American friend R. calls his contemporaries – don’t take easily to changes in our IT equipment.

What with the monitor dying at the same time as Google removes its support from Windows 8.1 phones so that everything stops working, my mind’s been spinning.

I am lucky to have Adopted Niece’s old iPad and have been using this for my last few posts but, of course, it has a very different layout from the PC and the phone.

A. N. wrote down very clear instructions for downloading images from phone to i-Pad and I worked out how to upload them to the blog, but by the time I’d managed to write the blog, I was too tired to deal with the images.

Logic is a very useful facility for a human to have, but, unfortunately, it seems to have by-passed me.

To celebrate our return to ‘normal’, whatever that might be, I’m about to try to retrieve some Highbury images which paint a picture of Hairy One’s activities over the past two weeks.

On Saturday she has an exceptionally good time.

It comes about by chance.

As Isis is in transit from the car to the grass, I become aware that I’ve forgotten to put my walking boots on. No, I’m not barefooted, I’m not that absent-minded yet. I’m wearing light trainers, quite inadequate for the Highbury mud.

Damn. Isis will not be happy to be dragged back to the car.

Dilemma.

Isis is unlikely to return to the little car park road; even so, I check to make sure that no vehicle is approaching, then unclip her lead, lunge towards the car, tear off the trainers and pull on the boots.

Quite a challenge as I have one eye on Isis,  her lead in one hand and the car keys in the other.

I don’t have time to lace the boots. Why? Well, ask yourself what a dog is most likely to do when its person has both hands fully occupied.

Yes, of course. She crouches purposefully and sticks out her tail.

Ew!

Anxious not to loose the location of the untimely deposit, I fumble with my key hand for a dog bag and stumble to the spot.

By now Isis is heading off in the direction of the fallen tree she loves to play under.

I trip –  literally  – past the dog bag bin, whip open the lid, and drop in my noisesome burden before stumbling after my unhelpful canine companion. Although I am certain that she’ll make her way to the fallen tree, I can’t risk her getting too close to the main road.

Fortunately, she pauses for a long sniff and I’m able to pocket the keys, secure her lead round my neck and tie up my laces.

She makes her way in clever sniffing loops to the tree, and settles down to re-acquaint herself with its delights.

She sniffs all around it. This takes quite a long time.

I am perfectly content to sit on the tree trunk and watch her. I’ve had my twenty minutes of healthy, pulse raising exercise, I decide.

Then, suddenly, she stops, lifts a paw ………………..

and decides that it’s time to celebrate her wonderful rediscovery.

She rears up

hurriedly abandons the tree

and flings herself into a wild,

wild,

dance

Round and round she races, in huge loops and curves. She knows that there are no obstacles in this area and she’s claiming more space than she ever has before.

It’s uplifting to watch her, and I stand there grinning with delight.

There are more Highbury adventures to follow!

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