A post should appear every Sunday

Sunday October 15th 2023

I decide not to worry if, despite encouragement, Isis doesn’t want to walk; consequently, of course, she gives every indication of enjoying all of the walks we have from Monday onwards.

Well, perhaps like her human, she has her off days – although she hasn’t just had covid!

My post viral lethargy has to be seen to be believed, but even this pales into insignificence compared with my forgetfulness. Very often, it seems, I can’t remember what I’m doing from one minute to the next.

In this mode, I hardly manage to get through a day without losing something. First it’s my keys which still haven’t resurfaced. Then, two weeks ago, I drop Hairy One’s harness, and despite retracing my footsteps several times, enquiring at Highbury Hall, and putting up  a notice on the park’s main notice board, I am disappointed. No-one hands it in.

Hoping it might yet be returned, I use the heavy old safety harness which was employed to restrain my previous very acrobatic dog from zooming round in the car. It’s heavy and clunky, not only unsuitable for poor Isis but also very cumbersome for me to carry when she’s off lead.

After about ten days, I accept that I am not going to get it back, so on Friday, I take her to the pet shop to buy a new one. It’s quite a long way from where I park, and I expect her to be reluctant to walk.

But she isn’t in the least unwilling. She soon sniffs out the distant pet shop smells, and walks on cheerfully. Like most other dogs, she likes coming here, even though she has to be reminded that it’s not organised on the basis of  dogs’ self service.

A pleasant young assistant comes to help us find the correct size and fit, for although Isis is a medium sized dog, she has a deep chest and needs a ‘large’. The harness is one which doesn’t go over the head, but over the front paws and up the legs, over the chest, and fastens at the back of her neck. To my surprise, Isis stands angelically and allows the lady to fit the harness, front paws and all!

Afterwards I can’t imagine why I decided on this one, since Isis doesn’t mind a harness being put on over her head, but dislikes intensely having her paws or legs messed with. Never mind, it’s far from being the most stupid decision I make over this past week or so, and Isis soon gets used to having her paws lifted and poked through the holes – in fact, after a week, she helpfully inserts her left paw herself.

Unfortunately, when I attempt to lift and pop in the second paw she dances up and down, and dislodges the first one.

Oh joy!

She carries on as she always does when we’re in the porch, preparing to go out: she dances, twists, turns, growls and yaps while vigorously wagging her tail. And several times this week she completes the performance by lifting her head and emitting her delightful podengo howl.

As soon as the porch door is open, she transforms herself into a sensible dog, and off we go.

I think she looks very sweet in her new, red harness, even when there are bunches of long hair standing out along its edges.

On Saturday, I remember the pretty red and black striped lead which is lying around in the boot of the car (just in case we come upon a lost dog who needs rescuing).

We have a good long walk in Highbury. I still keep a lookout for the lost harness, but it doesn’t materialise. Oh well, this new one seems strong, soft and comfortable; it also looks very swish with the red and black striped lead.

A very satisfactory outcome, I think.

Like the excellent podengo she often is, Isis, who is walking just ahead of me, stops when she reaches the row of short, concrete pillars at the end of the path, and waits for me to attach her harness. I pat her head, tell her what a good dog she is, and am about to clip on the pretty red and black lead when I discover that it’s no longer round my neck.

**!!  **!!  **!! **!!  **!!  **!! **!!  **!!  **!!

There’s no way that Isis will be persuaded to walk back with me to fetch the lead, so she will have to wait in the car.

Without a lead, the only way to keep her safe on the pavement is to hold onto her harness, and that means hobbling along bent double – perhaps I should have adopted a nice, tall, Irish wolfhound. Fortunately, the car is parked close to the entrance. It’s a warm day, so once Hairy One is secured to her safety belt, I leave the door next to her open wide, and scurry back for the lead.

I remember where I let her off the lead. It shouldn’t take long to find it. It’s only about a couple of hundred yards away, on the grassy slope just below the beech wood.

And being red, it’ll be easy to spot.

Famous last words, as they say. There’s no lead in sight.

Unbelievable.

Look again: it isn’t on the tarmacked path, so it must be here.

But it isn’t.

Some  *******  must have picked it up. Perhaps it’s joined the harness I lost two weeks ago, or the one which went missing in the spring. Maybe someone is setting up a harness store.

Come now, let’s not be hasty. Most likely it will be handed in to Highbury Hall, or hung on the rail below the main notice board.

Several times the following week, I drive into Highbury to see if the lead has surfaced. Bad news. No, it hasn’t.

But there’s good news too. Over my back door handle hangs a very long lead which a fellow dog walker gave me years ago. It comprises two leads fixed together and was useful for taking Isis into the lane at the bottom of the garden, in the days when she preferred to run off and scrape bald patches in the lawn.

I take a careful look at it. Yes, one of the leads is quite attractive. (It’s the one she has on in the above photo.)

Problem solved.

For how long, is anybody’s guess.

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.