York meets Sally

We moved to York! In a whirl wind experience we found ourselves packing up home and lifestyle in the North West and moving back to our glorious home county of Yorkshire when a new job landed on Tony's lap just before the end of the summer term in the splendid city of York. Its been a little crazy - having to find somewhere to live, trying and failing to sell our house in a dead housing market and finding a new school for Joseph to go to as he starts his GCSE years. Nerves have jangled along the way but its all good stuff and there have already been lots of encouragements. We look forward to what this new chapter in our lives will bring. And now to Sally.

We were a little concerned about how our new surroundings would turn out for our dear dog as we have been spoiled for countryside in the North West and now we find ourselves in a city - a beautiful city - but still a city! We needn't have worried. Within a week of landing in York we had been blown away by the variety of walks, countryside and dog friendly areas at our door step, phew!!

For a couple of weeks it even seemed that Sally had become a more tame creature as she readily came back after being thrown a ball. I naively thought that maybe by the lack of distractions (woolly and feathery things) in our new environment we may have banished our perpetual problem of a run away pooch - dream on!!

We have a beautiful recreation area close to a park and ride bus station just a few minutes away from our new rented home which is frequented by all the local dog owners. Its actually quite an attractive place as it has wooded walk ways, a little pond area with seating and is connected to a nature reserve area, grazing land and to the picturesque riverside walk which runs through the city and beyond. Its there that I have met some of the friendly residents of the neighbourhood and have already made some good friends. Sally loves this place and pulls on her lead with all her might whenever we walk in that direction. It was all going so well - too well really - I should have seen it coming!!

I had noticed that Sally had become more confident, had got to know every section of the park and that it was taking her longer and longer to come back to me. I should have seen the signs, I should have heard the warning bell, I should have, I should have! One morning I had been waiting for Sally to return to the bench from where I had been throwing her a ball when I noticed her fly into the wooded area. It took her around 10 minutes to return before she ran off again. I was just happy in the knowledge that where-ever she was I knew it was definitely somewhere in the fenced park area. That's when I just happened to look over my shoulder and glance beyond the fenced area into the bus station. Guess what I saw - you guessed it. It was Sally just about to catch a bus into York!!

I jumped from the bench and shouted for her to stop. Like a child caught in the headlights she stopped stock still then decided her course of action. She chose not to catch the bus after all but to bolt for the car park andaimed to take cover in a thicket in there. A game of hide and seek took place before I cornered her - once again and took the scoundrel back in hand.

Maybe we still have work to do. The lesson I learned that day: You can take the dog out of the wilderness but you can't take the wilderness wonderlust out of the dog like Sally!

Sally at the Motorway Service Station

Its been a while. The adventures have not abated but life has been so full on that there's been little time to get out the traffic to share our real life Sally stories. I have some time now so here's a new Sally instalment. This all happened a couple of months ago just at the end of the summer holidays.

We just came back from a visit to see my brother and his family in sunny Milton Keynes. Had a fab time, wonderful warm company and delicious food,a walk in the woods and Nerf gun fights (don't ask but no one was hurt!)- thanks guys.

As you may imagine we managed an escapade on our way back home. We called in at Stafford service station where there is a lovely lake to walk and sit by. We thought we'd be kind to Sally and give her a walk around the lake. Thats where we came unstuck - or should I say Sally came unleashed! She slipped out of her halti which I had obviously not put on properly, and jumped straight in the lake and chased ducks and geese managing to bite the bottom of one goose while lots of people came to watch! There was no way she was listening to us so in the end out of desperation both Joseph and Tony waded in after her and managed to catch her only after trawling backwards and forwards across the lake to a crowd's horror/delight and me cringing behind a bush! Tony lost his sandals such was the thickness of the mud and they were up to their necks in the water. Tony was fuming with Sally and I had to keep her away from him once she was out of the water. Both Joseph and Tony had to strip off to get in the car and as we'd only stayed over night they'd decided only to take the clothes they had on. Both of them had to travel back in nothing but undies - I'm still laughing at the thought!! Tony is still murmuring.

All three have had good showers since we returned! I think they'll live.

Sorry I was too stunned, shamed and embarrassed to take a photo at the time - we have to live with these regrets in life!

A Dog's Life

Happy New Year to You Too!

New Year was fast approaching, Christmas fast disappearing. We'd had family round, we'd met up with others in Yorkshire and we were now making our way up country to Scotland to see New Year in with good friends at Barcaple, Dumfries and Galloway.

After spending a 2 hour long journey in the car we thought it a wise move to stop off at home, freshen up, repack our cases and take Sally for a walk before reaching our destination. Tony opted to do the things that needed doing at home while I took Sally round the woods. I thought about keeping her on her lead but just one look into those amber eyes and I didn't have the heart. After all she had over 2 more hours to go before reaching Barcaple.

Everything went well for a while, that is until I called her and showed her the lead. At that sight she took 2 seconds to decide 'game on'. She ran towards me, I thought I had her but then she turned sharp left away from me and jumped over an old stone wall. She was gone! After calling, looking for her and waiting for around 15 minutes I ran back home to get Tony's help in finding her. I knew time was ticking away and Tony had to be on time as he was the guest speaker at Barcaple's New Year House Party. We both ventured into the woods sure we would find Sally frantic to see us but it soon dawned on us that she was not coming back. What could we do? In the end Tony had to set off, with our son Joseph to celebrate New Year without me; leaving me to find our wandering adventurer, our marauding chicken, rabbit, pheasant, & sometime guinea pig terroriser!

I didn't want to have to go tell the neighbours that Sally was on the loose but I couldn't face the consequences of not telling them and waking up the next morning to find half the pets and hens in the village missing or worse! I had to tell them. Thankfully our neighbours took the news the best they could and even advised me to phone the police and dog warden in their concern for our little stray!

I did phone the police, which is a central city police station, only to find that they had closed at 4pm on the eve of New Year's Eve! I left my pathetic little message on their answer phone and then called the dog warden. No news is good news and thankfully no news I got from them.

At about 8pm my faithful long suffering sister turned up to help armed with head torches, whistles and good cheer. We set off into the icy night and once again up into the woods. I was sure that by now I would hear the frantic howls of a very sorry and familiar doggy. No joy! The stark reality slowly began to sink in. Sally had gone, really really gone. There would be no Sally returning home tonight. Happy 2010, What a start to the year!

I had a very restless night. Now I really knew what it felt like to lose her. I wanted to know where she was and I wanted to know now! I was fed up of the wondering, going through scary scenarios, the danger she could be in, oh, the havoc she could have wrought in the night.

At 9am the phone went and I didn't get to it before it rang off. I rang 1471 only to hear that the caller had with held their number! I tried 1571 - there was a message! It was from the police. A dog fitting Sally's description had been reported found yesterday afternoon and had been taken to the vets. Oh no - had she been run over? Was she dead? No, as I listened I learned she had been taken to the vets to have her micro chip read. The police had been contacted yesterday but because the police had shut so flipping early both our messages had only been listened to the following morning. I rang the police who gave me the number of the people who had taken Sally in. It didn't take me long to get to her as she was only in the next village to ours.

These kind folks had been on a walk through the woods at the same time as I had run back home to find Tony when they found Sally whining by the steps of an old manor house on the edge of the woods. (This is a house that we usually pass if I'm taking Sally on our long route, she'd obviously sat waiting for me to catch up with her after her little game of 'hide and seek'. I had been searching in the other side of the woods!!!) They went to the pub for a drink but found, on their return that Sally was still sitting whining. They turned her Halti into a mini lead and took her to the vets. Not being able to get in touch with us through the police they bought dog food and took her into their home, even letting her sleep in their own room! Luxury on a grand scale for Sally who's usual sleeping quarters are in a dog crate in a hut in the garden. She was on best behaviour too, not making a peep all night.

I was very relieved to find her. It was so good to have her back in the fold. Once we recouped we got in the car and winged it to Scotland, I was determined to see the New Year in with my precious family and nothing was going to stop me now.

This experience has really made us think about Sally's routines. Its true that she has been running off more and more. Its as if its a big game with her, one where she can outrun and outsmart her owners and win a bit of free time.

Since that time we've let Sally sleep in the house - the aim to lessen her frustration. We've been playing more mind challenging games too - to give her brain something to think about other than running off. She works out every challenge in no time at all - a little freaky!

The other thing we've done that seems to work is to take her out on an extendable lead. This seems to keep her quite happy, her ears up and tail wagging. However its no substitute for a little real freedom...

...So on New Year's Day we decided to let her off lead again on a walk for a treat but it very quickly went wrong. She found an iced over pond with a little non iced bit with ducks in the middle. Needless to say I spent the next 20 minutes hiding behind a bush calling to Sally who was hurtling round the cracking ice chasing terrified ducks before she noticed I'd 'gone' and came hurtling after me! When will we ever learn?????

Happy New Year!

Sally had us in a flap!

Decided to meet up with hubby this morning to go on a dog walk before hitting town to find a new bath. The second part never happened!

We took Sally off lead as soon as we got by the river. Other dog owners were doing the same, their dogs running alongside them. Sally did the same ... for about 1 minute then she spotted pheasants at one end of the field and made a bee-line. Then she spotted an open gate leading to a wooded area full of birds - and made a run for that too. We called, bellowed and whistled to no avail. We tried the reverse psychology card shouting 'Bye then Sally, we're going.' and walked ahead hoping she would run back to us. We walked for about half an hour then returned, cutting our walk short to find Sally. Sure enough we saw her in the area we had left her but she would not come to us. She just carried on running after birds. Eventually we walked back to the car park and bought hot bacon and egg sandwiches from a stand there before heading back to the woods to get Sally back. By this time she had run into the next woodland area, we saw her plainly several times but she just kept running away from us. Eventually it dawned on us that we had no time to shop for a new bath; we would have to leave her and go to our jobs for the afternoon.

We explained our predicament to the sandwich seller who took our phone number and the dog lead then off we went - albeit very reluctantly with nerves jangling.
I work about 11 miles from this place and don't visit the area often so it was a huge coincidence that I had a one off work meeting with over 100 people in the very place later that afternoon. At 5ish a colleague nudged me to tell me she'd seen my husband outside the doorway. He had come to tell me our son had had a message to say someone in the village had found Sally and wanted us to collect her. That was a relief. The only porblem was that our son had taken down the wrong phone number. I had to wait for another call to tell me the number. Eventually all was well. I met up with an old friend in the meeting who lived in the village and who let me use her phone and took me to the right place in the village where the woman was waiting. This friend even had a bunch of roses in her car that she gave me to give this person. How cool a coincidence was all of that? The poor woman had been waiting in the pitch black in a pub car park for over an hour with our naughty dog! She was very relieved when we eventually appeared to take Sally off her hands! I managed to get lost walking back to the car and thought the car had been stolen before I got my bearings - it was pitch black with no street lights and I don't know this place very well!!

When I got to my car I found the heater and fan had stopped working so had to drive home with my window wound down and was shattered and frozen by the time I reached home. Oh Sally!!!!

Sally's Early Christmas Treat

I'm hopping mad, spitting feathers and steam must surely be coming out of my ears! Why? Well you might ask! Sally is the culprit!

About a month ago I went to the shops armed with a very special list. A list of ingredients for our family Christmas cake. I chose only the finest ingredients, you understand. Fruit soaked in rum, only the best butter and off I went home to put the thing together. I worked away with a glass of port at hand, dreaming of a white Christmas. All was well in my world. I slaved for about an hour, forsaking my food processor and chose hand mixing instead. I was a little alarmed to discover I would need to bake it for 5 and a half hours, meaning that I would have to stay up till gone 1am just to turn the oven off. But never mind this was a labour of love, a little sacrifice that would hopefully reap the reward of seeing friends and family enjoying a seasonal treat in a couple of month's time.

Of course that's not quite how things turned out! The cake has been sitting, double wrapped with foil and encased in silicone paper on our kitchen work surface since it came out of the oven... until tonight! Sally left my side and went downstairs while we were waiting for Tony to finish his conversation on the phone. I heard the rustle of something and really should have gone downstairs straight away but never would have guessed what she had gotten up to - literally!

The first I heard was when Tony got off the phone, walked into the kitchen and shouted: 'What are you doing? Get down, what have you got? You have eaten half of the Christmas cake!' I was down like a shot and reeled at the total decimation I saw and half marvelled at the fact that Sally had actually managed to scoff half of the huge cake.

It looks like I'll be back at the shops this weekend and this time I'll start baking a little earlier - oh yes and I'll store the next Christmas cake somewhere well out of reach!!

Sally's One Year Anniversary

Well there hasn't been much time for blogging recently but it feels right to mark Sally's first year of Bower life with a little message. Funny really, none of us had much faith that this day would actually come. There have been so many times when we have thought 'today is the day we go home without finding Sally.' Somehow, though, we have managed to find her every single time. Talk about cats and nine lives. Sally seems to have had many more than that already!

Take the other Sunday afternoon for example. I took her into our local woods and felt she needed letting off lead. (Usually my downfall). Sure enough she went AWOL again. I waited, I shouted, I whistled and time marched on. I had a phone call from someone wanting to know the size of a tool box, of all things mid Sally hunt and then I realised I needed to be in town to pick up my son and husband from a weekend's camp. What was I to do? In the end I had to dash home, get the car, pick up the guys and then we returned, fretful to the woods. The daylight was fading fast. We got to the area where I had lost her and shouted her name. Sure enough she appeared like a dot on the horizon, bounding towards us. Oh boy!!! Here's to Sally and to another chapter of adventures as we begin year 2 together.