A post should appear every Sunday

Sunday September 3rd 2023

Not until this week does Isis become restive, and even then all that she does is stand at the front door hopefully each day, and push her little damp nose behind my knees to prompt me to open the outside door. When I don’t, she stands in the porch looking quite crestfallen before plodding sadly back down the hall.

Oh dear. The poor little dog wants a walk.

She’s ecstatic when Bev visits. Bev clips on her lead to see if Isis will accompany her on a short pavement walk, but they soon return. All Isis wants, reports Bev, is to get into the car. She really, really wants a walk.

We both feel very sorry for her. Poor little Isis: there’s another two weeks to go before I’m allowed to drive. It’s a long time for a dog. She’s so good and so patient. But she wants to go to the park.

Bev tells Isis that, very soon she’ll drive us to Highbury one morning where she can sniff alongside Nancy, and, hopefully, I can sit on a bench and drink coffee while Bev takes them for a walkabout.

K and Y tell me that they would gladly take Isis out, but, of course, she’d not go with them.

Oh Isis, why do you have to be so obstinate?

Sigh.

In only just over two weeks, I tell her, we’ll be able to walk again every day.

But three weeks is a very long time for a dog to wait.

One day, I venture out into the front garden and carefully pick my way to the gate which someone has left open. Isis wants to join me, so as soon as I’ve closed the gate, I let her out. She’s very pleased, and sniffs at the plants along the edge of the little wild flower meadow raging tangle of very high grass, overgrown oxeye daisies and tall, tall clovers which now overhang the path.  Next, she has a very thorough sniff at the scent which a human or animal visitor has left in the middle of the drive. Whoever left it, she is not impressed: she scratches at it crossly, as though she is attempting to erase it, then barks at it loudly.

Soon she ambles to the gate and stands facing the pavement. If a person walks by, trespassing  on her frontage she’ll bark at their retreating backs as soon as she picks up their scent. For some time now I’ve been aware that she would attack them if she had the opportunity, and I’m very careful to restrain her when we cross to the car. It’s only the exact length of her territory which she guards; anyone who is walking a foot either side is perfectly safe.

Interestingly, when a friendly dog pokes its nose through the gate’s bars, and she realises how close it is, she jumps back. If it were poor Blitzi, of course, she’d yap and threaten him.

She stands at the gate longingly for at least ten minutes. I have to go to her and tap her under her chin before, she plods her reluctant way back in.

“Only two more weeks before we can get into the car,” I tell her. It must be very disheartening for a dog.

But she remains uncomplaining, tolerates my constantly shifting around at night, trying to find a comfortable position, and only growls at me if I accidently poke her with a wandering toe.

What can I do to mitigate the monotony? Her greatest pleasure in life is sniffing, following scents, pushing her curious nose into every clump of grass. What else does she revel in?

Ah! She loves mouthing her little bear and making her tiger squeak. I bought the multi-squeak tiger years ago and, even after all this time, one of his eight squeakers still works.

There’s an idea.

He isn’t stuffed but flat, with dangly legs and tail, and when Isis shakes him vigorously all of his limbs dance. He’s made by Gorpet, I recall.

Let’s see what they have available now.

Quite a choice, it appears, in the multisqueak ‘Wild’ range: squirrel, rabbit, monkey, cow and raccoon.

It’s a close call, but eventually I decide to order a cow and a squirrel.

They could arrive as soon as tomorrow.

And, all being well, we’re going with Bev and Nancy to Highbury on Wednesday.

Things are looking up, Isis.

Isis came from Aeza cat and dog rescue in Aljezur, Portugal. For information about adopting an animal from the centre, contact kerry@azea.org or go to http://www.dogwatch.co.uk.