Sooo – a full 90 minutes after departing the homestead, myself, Mr Dawson (our 6 year old manic black lab) & Ms Bessie (our 13 year old, very temperamental Jack Russell) crawled back through the front door. Low & behold who should be waiting to greet us? Yes, ’twas ‘Hindsight’! Smirkin’ n chucklin’ behind his rancid claws with that evil “told you so, told you so, should’ve gone the short way” glint in his nasty wee eyes!
Why, just why, does he continuously, nay, relentlessly taunt me at every turn?
Background
Woke up to yet ANOTHER glorious Summers’ Day – yayyyyyy Britain’s havin’ Summer, Britain’s havin’ Summer!! 🙂 Sorry, just that Summer & Britain are not generally two words that appear in the same sentence in a positive form. The excitement & happy faces here (mostly) are a joy to behold!
Anyway, I digress. So, I thought it’d be a great idea to take our 2 four legged members of the family out for a wee, gentle stroll through the countryside & perhaps they’d even enjoy a dip in the stream half-way round to keep ’em cool. Oh, the joy & delight on their upturned furry faces signaled that they too thought this a fine plan.
Off we went, practically running for the first 10 mins (Mr Dawson, Daws for short, tends to be a tad mental if he hasn’t been out for a day or so). Round the narrow country road, over the railway & down to the path leading us into ‘the secret garden’ / countryside. Lovely. No probs so far, excellent. Was secretly hoping we would not come across any sheep, cows, horses, God forbid, loose chickens/hens or indeed any other form of farm animal! Seemed to be a bit hotter than I’d gathered, prior to leaving the house & I don’t think I had the energy to deal with any ‘scuffles’ involving Daws & another beast! We were in luck, the farms seemed to be very quiet & peaceful. Phew. Now, I, in my wisdom, decided it was so nice, that we would all manage to go ‘the long way round’ (they needed a good walk) & indeed, there was a refreshingly gentle breeze to keep the heat at bay & plenty of shady parts en route. Yes, lets do it I thought. Decision finally reached (‘cos I did have a bit of a debate with myself whether to do it or not!)
And here is where the fun began (oh yes, Hindsight, scoff as much as you like)
Thirty minutes further on, Daws pounding his way through the short burst of ‘woods’ (well a spattering of approx 8 trees!) to the second stream & I can’t spot Bessie bringing up the rear. Screaming out her name n whistling to no effect – she didn’t appear. Damn, I’d have to re-trace my steps to find her. The heat was starting to get to me by now. We were almost an hour into the ‘trek’.
And there she was, sitting under a tree with her paw held up (one of the front ones!) looking ever so sorry for herself n a tad hot. Panting going at full speed. Well I rushed over at the speed of light, my poor baby was injured 😦 To be honest the thought ‘my poor baby is injured’ collided with ‘F**k, we’ve got MILES to walk to get back to the homestead n only mine n Daws’ legs to transport us’!! Oh where are the bleddy tractors when you actually need one for a lift home??
I carried wee Bessie up hill n down dale for what seemed like weeks. At one stage I thought I was in a desert, so delerious from the heat was I. We finally arrived home, wet with sweat & dehydrated to the hilt (who takes water on a gentle stroll with the dogs??) On a positive note, I probably lost a good few pounds, Daws is tired & deliriously happy from having a walk & wee Bessie, Bless her, seems to have made a full recovery judging by the speed she got to the kitchen in for her dinner…….Alas, all’s well that ends well eh?
cazaredd 