you just can’t trust anyone nowadays!

Posted on March 13, 2019 by patinkingsheath

 

 

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

 

Wednesday March 13th 2019

 

To set the scene: it’s two weeks ago, and, yes, we’re in Highbury again.

As usual, Isis leads us through the woody strip. Now she’s settled herself close to its edge. It’s like a small doggie lay-by. She feels very safe here.

I straddle one of my favourite roosting spots, the fattest branch of a fallen tree about a hundred yards away.

She’s found something. It’s sticking out either side of her mouth. It’s a thick stick, I think. She’s mouthing it, giving it a good chew, pinning it down and picking it up again.

It looks safe enough.

 

 

 

She’s very engaged with it.

I drift off into a myriad of fleeting thoughts.

Suddenly, I’m aware of the approach of two dog walkers with their six charges. They’re frequently in the park. They always keep a close eye on the dogs which are well behaved and friendly.

Penny, one particularly sweet little cockapoo, approaches Isis, as she has before. She sniffs Hairy One gently, hangs around for a minute or two and then trots off to join her group.

All seems well.

But then I become aware that the Hairy One is doing something very odd. Very odd indeed. Instead of distancing herself from the other dogs, she’s following them.

My first thought is that the wind is blowing in the wrong direction so she is unable to pick up their scent. I shadow her closely, ready to comfort her when she suddenly becomes aware of the proximity of the multi-dog group.

But I’m wrong. She must know how close they are: she’s within sniffing distance of Penny now.

Oh my dog! She’s sniffing around the whole group. She’s almost mingling.

This is unheard of. I can’t believe it.

Suddenly, I spot Hairy One’s snake. It’s in Penny’s mouth.

I tell one of the dog walkers that the snake belongs to Isis, the lady offers Penny a treat and retrieves the snake.

I walk a few steps away from the group before dropping it a few feet away from Isis.

Her sniffing now becomes almost frantic. She falls on snake, picks him up and trots away, well away from the other dogs, back to her lay-by.

Then dozy person remembers …………………….

Two or three days ago, while Isis was playing in her lay-by with her snake, another dog approached. As always, poor Isis dropped her toy as soon as the other dog came up to her. She does this even if the interloper is only a puppy.

I always feel sad when this happens, sad that she accepts so readily that she is comes at the bottom of the heap.

Today, though, I am immensely impressed with her determination to claim her treasure.

Now, she doesn’t want to hang around. She’s keen to get back to her car. Usually, we make our way in loops and leaps. Today, though, she trots along close by my side.

She can’t wait to get into the car, and when she sits down she drops the snake on her blanket with an air of huge relief.

 

Oh my dog! Snake’s safe at last.

 

 

Phew!

 

 

Oh dear, it’s obviously very risky playing in the park with something as precious as her snake.

Obviously, it’s all too much for a dog.

I’ll take her tugger to the park instead. She’s doesn’t rate that.

 

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

Posted in clever girl, clever Isis, dear little Isis, Highbury Park, I'm off my lead!, poor Isis, scenting, strange behaviour, walking in the park | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

with apologies to Wordsworth

Posted on March 10, 2019 by patinkingsheath

 

 

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

 

Sunday March 10th 2019

 

It’s Friday. As soon as she’s crossed the little road from the car park and run onto the meadow, I let Isis off her lead. Immediately, she makes her decision and heads towards the fallen tree – the one which has the burry plants growing under it in the summer.

She knows exactly where the tree is. It’s one of her favourite places.

She’s thrilled. I admit she’s not exactly saying it, but she could be:

 

‘And then my heart heart with pleasure fills

And dances with the daffodils.’

 

 

 

 

 

But enough of this sentimental anthropomorphising. Before I can stop her she’s danced on a particularly appealing clump and felled three of them.

Today she chooses a decidedly less salubrious spot.

It happens like this.

When I walk over to the poop bin, instead of trotting off to her dancing area at the edge of the woody strip, Isis ambles along by my side, then crosses the main path onto the field opposite.

She runs about happily in the middle of the field before gravitating to the thick hedge. Here she seems to be playing tag with herself and using the hedge as a safe touchdown.

A crow screeches as it flies overhead and I turn for a few seconds to watch it.

And I mean a few seconds.

When I turn back, there’s no sign of Isis.

Panic.

This is ridiculous. I know that she can’t have trotted the length of the hedge in the time I’ve taken my eyes off her; even so, I dash along the hedge and turn the corner. Not a dog in sight. Then I catch a blur of white through the hedge.

Oh no!

She’s on Highbury’s old bowling green. Enclosed on three sides by the thick hedge, it’s a perfectly safe area. That’s O.K. then, isn’t it?

No it damned well isn’t. In one corner there’s a deep and stagnant drainage ditch.

She’s been in it once before. That was in the summer, and there was only smelly mud in it. But it’ll be brim full after all the heavy rain we’ve had. I must get there before she rediscovers it.

I dash along to the end of the hedge.

There she is, killing a stick.

 

 

 

 

 

Phew! Only one muddy leg. But she’s much too close to the ditch.

She gets closer. Now she’s skirting the edge.

Oh no!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Four muddy legs.

I rush towards her, hoping to grab her before she decides to jump

SPLOSH! SCLERGLE!

It’s too late.

I’ll not go into the details of the bedraggled sight of her, and I’ll certainly not dwell on the disgusting stench. Suffice it to say that not only her legs but her underbelly too are now covered in slimy mud.

And after two dips in the stream, plenty of dancing in the the strong, drying wind, and a journey home on her absorbent blanket, she still looks like this.

 

 

 

 

 

*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

Posted in deaf/blind dog plays, Highbury Park, I'm off my lead!, walking my deaf/blind dog | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Wednesday, Wednesday

Posted on March 6, 2019 by patinkingsheath

 

 

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

 

Wednesday March 6th 2019

 

Thank goodness the days are growing longer.

Poor Isis has been getting short shrift over these winter months.

Now that she is confident enough to brave the sun for the very short distance between the car park in Highbury and the comforting woody strip, she can, at least, have a morning walk.

As we know, she’ll not walk in the dark. More inconveniently still, she’ll not walk even when there’s any suggestion of the commencement of crepusculer activity.

This means that on week days it’s very difficult to fit in a later outing. So unless it’s dry enough for a lunchtime sojourn in the lane at the bottom of the garden, she only has one walk a day.

Isis doesn’t complain. She’d not make a fuss even if she wasn’t taken out at all. She is very well behaved when left on her own in the house. She always has been. Mostly she sleeps.

Her expectations are very low, and I find this sad. One walk a day isn’t enough, and I feel very guilty. Especially on Wednesdays.

Wednesdays are R.A.G. (Ruskin Art Group) days.

The group runs from nine thirty to four. Isis and I have an early morning walk: it can’t be too early, of course. It needs to be light before we reach the park, or she’ll not get out of the car.

I come home at lunch time, and, as long as it’s not too muddy for her to dance in the lane or, at the same time, too bright to deter her from a road walk, she has a brief outing.

Then off I go again for another three hours.

Today, though, is good.

It’s raining heavily, so Isis enjoys every minute of her hour’s play in the park.

At lunch time it’s still raining and off we merrily go on a road walk. She dances past what, in dry weather, are stop and refuse spots. We only sploosh along the pavement for fifteen minutes, but she enjoys it immensely.

And when I return just after four, it’s still light so back we go to Kings Heath Park for another hour and a half’s romp.

 

 

 

 

 

Oh happy dog!**

 

 

 

 

 

Oh happy Human!**

 

 

*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

** These are library images which I’ve used before. Sorry. I have images for today but have computer problems: refuses to import! *!!**! !* ! **!*!!.

 

Posted in deaf/blind dog plays, I'm off my lead!, Kings Heath Park, poor Isis, walking my deaf/blind dog, we don't like bright sun, we don't like the dark | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Isis meets Sid

Posted on March 3, 2019 by patinkingsheath

 

 

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

 

Sunday March 3rd 2019

 

Strangely, since I finished the last post thinking it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that one day Isis might have a friend, on Friday, we meet a very well qualified candidate.

Isis and I are in Kings Heath Park early. She’s not been here for a while and she’s delighted with all the new smells. After a sniffing circuit of the park, we make for the old bowling green.

All is just as she likes it. The sun’s not out yet, and the green is empty. Not a dog in sight. Wonderful.

She launches herself into a prolonged burst of running.

She’s still running when B. arrives with Sid.

Sid, a gentle, affectionate dog, potters around the green. He trots towards Isis. Being a polite animal, he doesn’t shove his nose in her face, or sniff her lasciviously. He stops a few inches away from her, sniffs her briefly, then wanders alongside her for a minute or two before returning to B’s side.

Isis, aware that another dog has encroached on her space, slowly retreats to the level above.

Through the hedge, B and I can see Hairy up on the grass happily prancing, and we continue to chat.

But Sid is worried. Several times he looks up towards the hedge then stares meaningfully at B. and me.

“Where is she, Sid?”, asks B.

After a brief glance at his person, Sid runs up the bank to Isis. As before, he doesn’t rush at her or bark: he just circles her, then, when she takes off, he pads alongside her. When he perceives that she’s about to veer off in a different direction, he moves just ahead of her, blocking her way.

B. is very intrigued. This, he tells me, is exactly what Sid does when he’s with the young grandchildren. He’s very protective, always stays close to them, and heads them off if they try to wander. We think he must have sensed, as most adult dogs do, that there is something different, not quite ‘right’, about Isis.

Most dogs watch her briefly, then run off and continue with their doggy affairs. (Unusually, Cinnamon – featured in last Wednesday’s post – stayed around although she didn’t interact with Isis.)

Sid definitely does.

I ask B. if it’s O.K. to take a photo of Sid and B. tells him to sit.

He sits, but he’s not happy.

It takes me a while to get this image

 

 

 

 

because he keeps squirming around to see where Isis is.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then, when Isis disappears into the Colour Garden, Sid dashes in too.

“Sid, where is she?” asks B. again.

At this, Sid pops into the flower bed and joins Isis under her fir tree.

From then on, Sid shadows the ungrateful Hairy.

I am delighted to see that, although she keeps moving, she’s not afraid. She doesn’t run. She doesn’t cower. She doesn’t back into the bushes, and, even more surprising, her tail stays up.

She walks onto the old tennis courts for more prancing, and remains unfazed when Sid follows.

We decide it’d be good for them to meet up more often.

So watch this spot!

 

*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

Posted in I'm off my lead!, Isis meets other dogs, Kings Heath Park, park dogs, running running, the dogs of King's Heath Park, walking in the park | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Rosie, Cinnamon and Sherlock…………………………

Posted on February 27, 2019 by patinkingsheath

 

 

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

 

Wednesday February 27th  2019

 

Isis continues to be very apprehensive when other dogs approach her. If she is out in the open, her usual defence is to walk away, or, if she deems it necessary, trot away.

If she is close to, say, a hedge or a low growing  shrub, she will take cover among the greenery, and stand still until the dog has gone away. Once the perceived danger is past, she’ll scramble out and continue her dance – or whatever else she was doing before the canine interruption.

She is not, of course, afraid of dogs she knows well, like Nancy and Rufus, Bertie and George. She does take a few steps back when the former pair greet her by shoving their snouts into her face, but she knows they’ll not do anything nasty to her. They have always been very tolerant of her barging into them, and she happily walks alongside them when off her lead on the woodland walk in Highbury.

Albert and George are usually calm and self-possessed. She knows this pair well too, after months of walking with them when I was unable to get out. She doesn’t even turn a hair when one of them is having his amazing ‘greyhound’ energy spurt and whizzes past within inches of her.

Then there’s little Rosie. A quiet and gentle dog, she never dashes at Isis. Nor does she follow her with intent! She is definitely not an in your face or up your rear end dog.

 

 

Little Rosie

 

 

Rosie is nearly two and belongs to my friend M. He hopes to be able to register her as an emotional support dog.

One day, a few weeks ago, Isis and I are strolling around in Highbury when, in the distance, I spot the fuzzy outline of a puppy. Naturally, I can’t resist a closer encounter.

Who could?

 

 

 

 

He is, I learn, three month old rough collie Sherlock.

His companion is elder ‘sister’ Cinnamon. Their human provides dog day care in her own home, so Sherlock isn’t short of canine socialising opportunities.

Better still, as far as I am concerned, she is keen that he has a chance to socialise with people outside of his family circle, so yes, she’d be delighted for me to make a fuss of him.

I ask how Cinnamon is dealing with the puppy addition. Her person tells me she thinks that at first Cinnamon assumed that Sherlock was a day care dog, and was a little doubtful when she realised that he had come to stay.

Being a very tolerant dog, she has accepted him and is teaching him dog etiquette.

 

 

Cinnamon and Sherlock sharing a stick!

 

 

Naturally, I explain Hairy One’s strange leaping and dancing, and tell her story. Then we walk over to watch her.

Cinnamon, who is a lovely, friendly, laid back dog, walks over to Hairy One’s space, gives her a gentle sniff and begins to check out the scents. The two dogs are very close, no more than a couple of feet apart most of the time. Sometimes they are within inches of each other.

But, to my surprise, Isis shows no sign of anxiety. She carries on with her routines without even flinching.

I guess she is picking up the gentleness of this sweet dog.

I begin to wonder whether, given time, Isis might be able to have a dog friend.

 

*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

Posted in Highbury Park, Isis meets other dogs, park dogs, poor Isis, relationship building, walking my deaf/blind dog | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Isis finds a way ……

Posted on February 24, 2019 by patinkingsheath

 

 

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

 

Sunday February 24th  2019

 

A sunny week and Isis continues to enjoy herself in Highbury Park.

Lately, several people have told me that they remember when she flattened herself against the back seat of the car, ignoring our cajoling, and only today  Ji. and I talk about the times when we returned home without Hairy One even setting a paw on the gravel of the car park.

Even when we managed to get her out of the car, it was sometimes impossible to persuade her to walk to, let alone across, the few feet of tarmac path which lay between us and the grass.

On occasions, when we managed to access the grass, she was still so  frightened that we had to give up and take her home again. (Once home, of course, she would trot happily into her garden and play there until dark.)

Her past behaviour makes perfect sense now, of course, and I can only marvel at her bravery. I doubt that she had ever been taken for a walk before Kerry took her at Aeza.*

Bright light still makes her visibly fearful, but her desire to play in Highbury is very strong too.

Today, even though it’s February, the sun is blazingly bright. The car is parked as close to the nearby woodland as possible. I open the car door on the shady side, and unclip Hairy One’s safety strap.

She emerges eagerly, but once outside, she shrinks against the car and sidles round to the boot.

She stands nervously for a moment or two while I stroke her. Then, eventually, one paw at a time, she creeps to the edge of the track and begins to move slowly towards the meadow.

What is motivating her to walk into the dangerous space of sun and shadows?

Ah, she has now worked out a route which she feels is safer than any I choose. Clearly determined, but still creeping, she makes her way towards a small gap between the hazels.

She has only recently discovered the wavy paths which walkers have made in the little woodland strip, and she loves them.

Over the past two weeks, by a dogged process of trial and error, sniff by sniff, she has tried to follow one of these paths. It is clear that she knows that the path leads to the field she currently likes to play on, but finding the exit is a huge challenge.

Often, she takes a wrong turn and finds herself off piste.

She pushes through groups of saplings crowded together among tangled  undergrowth. She stops abruptly when confronted by stiff, low branches or   impenetrable clumps of brambles. As we know, she is a persistent little animal, and she usually manages to turn herself round and struggle back to where I am standing on the path.

At other times though, especially in the first few days of her explorations, because she is unable to see the dog-sized gap to the right or left of her, she thinks she’s trapped and there’s no escape. When this happens, she turns round and round uneasily until I show her the way out.

Sometimes she really is stuck. Then she freezes and stands stiff and immobile, until help arrives.

 

 

 

 

Many’s the time I’ve had to fight my way through ankle wrenching roots and armies of thorns to rescue her. These situations obviously frighten her, and when I reach her she greets me with relieved wags.

Today, for the first time, she follows the path to the field without any help from me. Although she stops now and then to check that I’m following her, she navigates all the hazards independently.

The exit is only about eighteen inches wide and framed by brambles, but she finds it and emerges triumphantly onto the field and her current dancing platform.

I admit that yesterday I bent back a particularly fat and thorny bramble which stretched itself across the exit at Hairy One’s chest height; even so, I think she’s done very well.

 

*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

Posted in clever girl, clever Isis, dear little Isis, Highbury Park, I'm off my lead!, scary shadows, walking in the park, we don't like bright sun | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

yipee!

Posted on February 17, 2019 by patinkingsheath

 

 

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

Posted in clever girl, clever Isis, deaf/blind dog plays, dear little Isis, Highbury Park, I'm off my lead!, walking in the park, walking my deaf/blind dog | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

a different dog

Posted on February 13, 2019 by patinkingsheath

 

 

Posting days: Wednesday and Sunday and, now and again interim extras.

 

Wednesday February 13th 2019

 

The more Isis and I learn about each other, the better we communicate. Which makes sense.

And the better we communicate, the more relaxed we are with each other and the more we enjoy each other’s company. At least, I know that I am enjoying being Hairy One’s human more every day. It seems an extravagant  claim, but that’s how it feels.

Whether the hairy delight feels the same about me is, of course, a matter of conjecture, but she appears to.

Our morning reunions are lovely. She can’t hear me getting up, of course, but by the time I’ve wandered past her open door a few times, gathering scattered items – keys, phone, a bottle of water, her collar -my scent has usually reached her and woken her up, and I can just sit down next to her.

Even as short a time as a few months ago, this would have startled her into an aggressive, barky leap.

Not any more. If she is still sleeping, before I sit down I hold my hand close to her nose and mouth until she breathes in my smell and wakes up.

Once fully awake, she anticipates my greetings. The first stroke sets her tail wagging – unless she’s lying on it, in which case I tell her to undo it, and release it myself from beneath a hairy leg.

Now at every touch her tail becomes a fluffy metronome. A kiss on the head sets off the most prolonged wag. Swish, swish, swish, swish.

She’s in no hurry to get up. She colludes with me in my sloppiness, even allowing me to wrap my arms around her and give her firm hugs.

Yes, I know, such exchanges are everyday occurrences in dog households. You expect your dog to enjoy being made a fuss of, don’t you?

No, not this once belligerent little animal. Her acceptance of physical closeness is still magical to me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

from the sublime to the ridiculous?

Posted on February 10, 2019 by patinkingsheath

 

 

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

 

Sunday February 10th 2019

 

It’s Saturday. It’s wet and wild and Isis is having a wonderful time in Highbury Park.

She achieves another first: she walks off-lead from just outside the car park to the edge of the beechwood.

Since Hairy One chooses the itinerary, we do not, of course, walk the usual route down across the meadow, over the bridge across the stream, up the steep tarmac path, past the secret garden and through the pine avenue.

Instead, we follow Isis podengo’s nose. Criss-crossing the wet grass, we visit the smaller of her rosebay willow herb patches. Here she pauses to follow what I assume are the scent tracks of little mammals and to send peemails to previous canine visitors.

Satisfied with her rendezvous, she meanders towards the stream and walks carefully along the bank. It’s not until she has doubled back on herself several times that I realise she’s trying to find the little track which leads to the ‘clean pool’.

She persists – not one to give up, our Isis – until that black and pink spotty nose picks up whatever scents are emanating from the track, and off she goes.

She speeds up as she gets nearer to the pool, and I am forced to speed up too. Whoops! She’s about to launch herself over the boulders at the edge of the little waterfall. I snatch her back just in time and tap her in the direction of the stepping stones.

I want her to have as much freedom as she can but, of course, I don’t want to risk her hurting herself.

She’s a bright little dog, and I think that she will be able to find her way across; nevertheless I’m on tenterhooks as I wait on the bank watching her.

She’s very cautious. She extends a paw, allowing it to hover momentarily over the surface of the water, withdraws it and sniffs out an alternative move. Slowly, but very deliberately, she creeps from stepping stone to stepping stone, testing each foothold before putting her weight on it.

Now she’s scrambling confidently up the other side, crossing the path and heading towards the big rosebay willow herb swathe. Clever dog. She’s found her favourite playground herself from right across the park.

I follow her, a fat, proud smile on my face.

She prances joyfully around the boggy edges of rosebay patch. She must be jumping only in clear water as her pads are still pink and her sturdy little legs are only moderately splattered with mud.

I squelch carefully towards her. She stands quite still as I clip on her lead.

So she is most certainly not to blame for what happens next.

In order to avoid the murky puddle in front of me, I step back.

Not the best idea I’ve ever had.

I trip over a large tussock and land, seat first, in another puddle much deeper than the one I was trying to avoid.

Legs in the air, I wriggle in the icy water.

Isis turns her head towards me curiously as if to say,’Wonder what the hell she’s found to roll in.’

 

Isis came from the Aeza dog and cat rescue in Portugal. If you would like to see dogs in need of fostering, adoption or sponsoring, from Britain or from abroad, contact Dogwatch UK.

Posted in clever girl, clever Isis, dear little Isis, Highbury Park, I'm off my lead!, Isis in danger, scenting, walking in the park, walking my deaf/blind dog | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

ghost dog

Posted on February 6, 2019 by patinkingsheath

 

 

Posting days are Sunday and Wednesday.

 

Wednesday February 6th 2019

 

Isis does not appear to be affected by the cold. Her undercoat is as warm as a  Jack Wolfskin puffer jacket.

When I carry away a large ball of fluff from a grooming session, I can feel the warmth radiating from it.

Some lucky birds will make use of it during the nesting season, I hope.

She never shows any sign of needing extra bedding. Often, when we share the day bed she takes herself off to lie on the rug and cool down for a few minutes.

Her temperature control seems to work perfectly without interference; nevertheless, pets’ humans being as they are, I succumb to the temptation.

The temperature drops into minus figures. There’s a hard frost, and I can’t bring myself to creep under my warm duvet knowing that Isis is lying downstairs in the icy back room.

I sort out a dog fleece, make sure that she sniffs my hand to check it’s me and carefully cover her.

My thoughtfulness is rewarded with a low growl.

Thanks Isis.

A., Polymath’s friend from Barmouth is staying. It’s well past dog’s bedtime and there’s not a sound from next door. We settle down with the remainder of a bottle of wine. The overhead light was switched off earlier in deference to Isis, and now we sit back in the dim light of a standard lamp and r-e-l-a-x.

Suddenly, the whoozy ambiance is interrupted by a soft swooshing sound as the door is pushed open.

Yeek! Startled, we look up.

Someone doesn’t wish to be left out.

 

 

 

 

It’s a ghost dog.

 

Isis came from the Aeza dog and cat rescue in Portugal. If you would like to see dogs in need of fostering, adoption or sponsoring, from Britain or from abroad, contact Dogwatch UK.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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