The perfect day - or so it would have appeared!
Tony had been away all the previous week, having a whale of a time in the Lake District doing lots of outward bound activities. He had also been preaching on Sunday and out every evening this week. I needed a little of his attention!
So it was decided that after an early morning assembly in a nearby village primary school he would return home and we'd go out for a walk with Sally and then pop into our favourite coffee shop for a light lunch before we both had to get on with our working day. What made it even more idyllic was that after a couple of very dodgy rainy weeks the weather had finally turned, the sun was shining and birds were singing cheerfully in the tree tops. All was well. Not for long!!
We drove to a rural village about 5 minutes away and got our wellies on ready for a walk up a steep field and into some woods towards the 'Fairy Steps'. We've done this walk a few times so could judge that we would be back out in about half an hour in time to get some lunch at Beetham Nurseries. (The scones there are second to none.) We walked and chatted all the way up the field and into the wood. That is me and Tony chatted and got into the wood. Sally never quite made it, preferring to skirt the edge of the wood in the fields running parallel to us. Tony was not very pleased. Rightly so, Sally was not responding to our calls for her to join us. Time was against us. We had to get Sally so we came out of the woods and shouted for her. By now she was nowhere in sight. We thought we could get her to show herself by playing the reverse pshychology card. It usually does the trick. We both walked back to the bottom of the field as if we were leaving while shouting: 'Bye then Sally, we're going.' It had no effect. Tony was getting cross. I was getting worried, where on Earth could she be. By now we had run out of time for our lunch date.
I went to fetch the car while Tony returned to the woods. When I got back I imagined seeing him dragging her out of the wood but I was wrong. I couldn't see either of them, I could only hear Tony's distant calls. Eventually he returned without his dog. My heart sank. When he got down to me we looked at the time and decided that I would go one more time into the woods and he would shout me when it was time for us both to go to work. I was frantic. By this time I didn't care what my anxious calls sounded like or what I would look like to anybody walking through the woods. I just wanted Sally back safe and sound. I ran through the woods, first of all sticking to the paths then, when I thought I might have heard a dog bark I headed towards it off the beaten path. To no avail. Eventually I turned back and heard Tony, the only one of us with the time on us, calling for me to get out of the woods and head back home and to work. I realised I had lost my sense of direction and was in a private part of the woods. This was ridiculous. Then in my hast I slipped, got covered in mud and cut my hand. I was feeling pretty desperate and quite pathetic by then. How could this day have gone so wrong?
When I found my way out and back down the field to Tony we both decided we would knock on a few doors to let people know about our wandering dog incase anyone found her, then we would both return after work to search for her once again. Just as Tony knocked on the first door a Range Rover drove up to us and the passenger wound his window down.
'Have you lost a Border Collie?' 'Yes' came Tony's swift reply. This guy had got both our full attention. The conversation went like this:-
'Where have you been?'
'In the woods'
'Did you have your dog off the lead?'
'Yes'
'Why?'
'Why what?'
'What is in the woods?'
'Nothing, I thought there was nothing so it was OK to take her off the lead.'
'There's pheasants in the woods, our pheasants and they are worth a lot to us.'
'Oh, Sorry, I honestly didn't realise. I thought it was OK to have her off the lead in there.'
'Never take your dog off the lead in woods again, ever!'
At that the big burly driver got out his side of the vehicle, opened the boot and brought a very sheepish and familiar looking dog round to us by the scruff of its neck.
All I could say was a pathetic 'Thank you'.
Most of me was relieved and amazed at having Sally, almost given up for the afternoon, back with me. Part of me was dazed at finding myself, again at the end of someones wrath. I thought we had it covered after our escapade with the angry farmer after Sally rounded up his sheep. We won't be letting that happen again in a rush. Now its dawning on me that its not only sheep I have to consider, but most other living things too. I reckon its another lesson learned but I'm sure that I'm not at the end of this very steep learning curve.
I'll keep you posted!
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