Missed Dog

I’m gritty eyed from three hours’ sleep last night. No, not from a night of wild and passionate sex but due to an overactive brain and Himself coughing for most of the night. Now I feel light headed and other worldly. My brain is in there somewhere, but it’s far away, gone on walkabouts. I don’t expect it to reappear for a while.

I was tempted to lie in a bit this morning, but we had to collect Annie the Old English Sheepdog at 8am. When we got there, Betty’s gate was locked and there was no sign of her car. This seemed a bit strange but I figured perhaps she’d already gone up to the castle (I didn’t consider how she might have got out with the dog when she’d locked herself in which shows the state of my brain).

Thinking that she’d misheard the arrangements, we drove up to the castle which is a 10 minute drive. It was a beautiful morning, the sun was warming the dew and there many dogwalkers about – but no Betty and Annie. Himself swept round the car park and silently and at considerable speed, drove back here.

This time her gate was open so I ran down and knock on her conservatory door. Nothing. I went in and knocked on her locked kitchen door. Silence. No barking from Annie.

I returned to the car where Himself glowered silently. We drove back to the castle, again in silence. Hoorah – Betty’s car was there, though no sign of her or Annie. We walked Mollie round the castle, figuring that we always meet them somewhere along the way – she likes to go anti-clockwise, so we went clockwise, walking faster and faster.

Himself’s cough did not improve with all this activity, and as we got back to the last part of the walk, we saw Betty in the distance get back into her car and drive off.

A lot of muttering followed which I’m sure you can get the drift of, and we drove back here to find no Betty. I wrote her a note explaining what had happened and asked her to ring us.

She did, half an hour later, very contrite when she realised she’d locked us out, and that we’d been driving round Falmouth for the best part of an hour. Unfortunately the whole point of the exercise was to get Annie used to our car and us before Betty goes away. Sometimes the best laid plans just don’t work out.

But we have a friend coming for the weekend who’s a professional dog sitter with a passion for big dogs. I foresee love at first sight.

And now - is it bedtime yet?