The Dog

 

Right now I am exhausted!

I couldn’t find an alarm clock in my friends’ cottage where I am staying, and I was so frightened that I would oversleep, and not have time to walk their dog that I’m looking after, before driving the twenty miles to get to work on time, that I kept waking up throughout the night.

When I finally woke up, later than I’d planned, I did manage to walk the dog, before dashing off…but had no time for breakfast.

I got lost of course along the little lanes but managed to get there in time.

All the time there I was worried about the dog being on her own.

School was fine ( I was only there for the morning.)

I dashed back at lunchtime. Negotiated all the lanes the right way this time, and there was the dog sound asleep on her bed quite calm and unperturbed.

So I thought I’d take her for a quick walk as a treat before I had anything to eat or drink myself.

Off we went into the village and I allowed her to choose the direction she wanted to go.

Big mistake!

I had a terrible time.

I lost Witchy.

She was right by my side, not on the lead, and then when I next looked she'd walked back some of the way we'd just come. I called her and walked on a few more steps. Usually she would catch up with me, the trick had always worked before, but this time when I turned she'd gone.

Vanished!

I ran all the way back to where she had been but there was no sign of her.

I call but there is no sign of her.

The scruffy village fields did not have a border collie walking amongst their nettles. There was no sign of her behind or inside the nearby barn. She’s not wagging her tail as she investigates the farm yard machinery.

She is not to be seen.

I walked back to the cottage three times taking different routes that she might have taken and… no sign.

On my third trip back to the cottage I’d leave the gate open so that if she does find her way back she could at least sit on the patio.

I am by this time absolutely frantic. I’m stopping everyone in the village to ask if they'd seen a black and white Border Collie but no one has.

I even asked the chaps who were sitting in parked vans on the High Street munching their sandwiches if they'd seen her...no joy. I asked fellow dog walkers, builders, a woman carrying a guitar, an old man on a bicycle. I asked every single person I met and there was no luck at all.

Nobody had seen her.

I then heard a horn blare on the road, ran to check, so terrified and frightened you would not believe.

And there was still no sign of her.

By this time I’m imagining her getting knocked down by the drivers that speed through the village. I’m trying to imagine what my friends will say when they discover that their dog is missing, hurt or dead.

I’m imagining cars swerving to avoid a collision with her, crashing.  People getting hurt. Cars getting smashed. Huge insurance bills. Angry car owners. And a dog lying in a heap of white and black fur by the side of the road.

I’m beside myself with worry.

I’m absolutely terrified.

I’m shouting…shaking the village from its very foundations as I call out her name.

Panicking, I managed to reason with myself that I should go back to the cottage again, try to calm down, make a cup of tea, formulate a plan, and catch my breath before taking the car out this time to check the little side roads in the village. I’m thinking that perhaps I could cover more distance that way.

I’m a gibbering, blubbering wreck.

And on my fourth return to the cottage there she is.

Safe and sound, barking and wagging her tail.

Phew!

 

I'm going to kill her now!