The grass is getting pretty long around the edge of the local playing field at the moment. We often cross, to reach the woodland on the other side, and there’s a fairly well trodden path, which is handy in the mornings when the grass is wet with dew and I’m wearing shorts!
The dogs however will always grab a blade or two for a munch, if I’m not paying enough attention, they’ll even try and have a feast!
I have two ball obsessed dogs, they love to chase balls whenever we go out for a walk. To be honest it’s great exercise for them, but can occasionally be a little hard on my pocket when we loose balls in the bushes or long grass.
A few weeks ago I bought two new balls for Ruby. She’s particularly fussy about what she will and won’t play with, and so the new ones were of a particular type that she likes. Bright orange and they have a slightly unpredictable bounce, thus making the game a bit of fun.
Within the first week, I lost one of these balls in a bramble bush on one of our regular walking routes. That unpredictable bounce can be a killer when it comes to keeping track of where they end up. We looked for a quite a while, I knew it was in the bramble bush somewhere but I just couldn’t see it, nor could Ruby find it. Eventually we gave it up for lost. Sometimes you just have to accept loosing one, normally the ratio of balls lost to balls found is quite constant, but in this case I think this was about the third one I’d lost between Wilson and Ruby in a week, so my account was way in deficit.
Anyway; skip forward to this morning. We were on the same route and I had the other ball of the pair with me, as well as a different one for Wilson. Once again I threw the ball for Ruby, and it bounced and landed in the same bloody bramble bush as the last one! I thought probably we’d lost that one too, but as I looked into the brambles I could see it, although I couldn’t actually reach it from where I was standing. The bush is on a slope and I had to walk down the slope slightly, and use the ball launcher to extract the ball from within the brambles, being very careful not to scratch myself in the process.
As I was reaching in I also spotted something else – the other ball that we’d lost weeks ago. Feeling pretty chuffed with myself, thinking that we were going to retrieve not only the ball that had landed in the brambles this morning, but also the one that we’d lost in their weeks ago, I got the recent lost ball out and gave it back to Ruby.
I changed position on the slope and reached in to the brambles with the ball launcher once again. I had to stretch to reach the ball, and in doing so was leaning on an old (and somewhat rotten as I was about to find out) tree trunk.
As I managed to scoop the ball up with the launcher there was a loud crack and the tree I was leaning on gave way, I managed to get enough momentum up from the trunk of the tree, but in doing so overbalanced and fell backwards – fortunately away from the bramble bush, but I did end up on my bum in the mud. Ruby did come and check I was okay.
Apart from my pride there were no injuries – and I had the lost ball from a couple of weeks ago, so I returned to the path triumphant, or at least I tried to. My wellies however couldn’t get a grip on the muddy bank and I couldn’t get back up the slope down which I’d come. In the end I did a slight detour and rejoined the path (and my dogs who were waiting for me, they have four wheel drive and couldn’t work out why I was having such problems getting up the slope).
Taking inventory I made sure I hadn’t lost anything in my fall, e.g. phone, housekeys etc. All was well, apart from the fact that we didn’t have the ball that we’d lost that morning. I had the other one in my coat pocket, but in all the fuss of my falling over and trying to get back up the bank, we’d re-lost the ball that had gone in the bramble bush moments earlier.
I sent Ruby down to look for it, but she just ran up and down the bank and didn’t manage to find it. Resigning ourselves to finding an old lost ball but loosing another one, we carried on with our walk.
I wasn’t going to be defeated however, and as we returned I decided to have one final look for the ball. I looked down the slope, but couldn’t see it. It’s surprising sometimes how something bright orange doesn’t show up against the autumn leaf fall.
I decided one last ditch attempt was in order and sent Wilson in. “Find the ball!” I told him. He went down the bank exactly to the spot where I’d fallen, and started casting around searching. Then his tail started to wag. Soon it was going like a helicopter rotor. He was on to something. Of course this could just be something good to eat, but on the other hand I was expectant that we might find the missing ball.
Whatever he’d found it seemed to be under the tree trunk, that I had so unceremoniously managed to fell earlier, but he couldn’t quite reach it. He tried one side and then hopped over and tried the other, but whatever it was he couldn’t reach it. Eventually he tried the old commando technique of getting right down on his belly and crawling underneath, and out he came with the missing ball in his mouth!
Queue loads of praise from me, and dog biscuits for Wilson and Ruby. We went home triumphant.
So some days you loose a ball and sometimes you find one (or even one that you lost some weeks ago)!
I walk the dogs every morning (& evening). Sometimes it feels the same as the previous day, often we meet the same people each morning. Sometimes something happens that’s different. Wilson found a falling autumn leaf this morning, in a rather unorthodox manner. A different aspect to my morning walk.
I got used to my new life really quickly and actually quite liked the cage that I had to sleep in, particularly because it had lots of toys, blankets and cushions and so was really comfortable.
In fact I spent lots of time in there, even when it wasn’t time to sleep, although I did a lot of that too!
Alan and Ann said that I grew really fast, and was a quick learner, particularly when it came to becoming trained in the house.
I still wasn’t allowed outside of the house and had to go and see someone called Vet. He was very nice and made a real fuss of me. I didn’t really notice the first needle that he put in my neck, but then he gave me something called a chip, and that was a BIG needle and it hurt a bit.
Alan said that the chip was a good thing and would stop me getting lost, so I guess the pain was worth it.
Vet said that I would be allowed to go out of the house a week after my needles, but that was to be a long week!
I did enjoy the car trip. Alan put my cage on the back seat of the car, he said that it was so that I would feel safe, but really I think he just didn’t want me sitting in the front with him, even though he did let me sit on his lap in the drive for a bit until we were ready to go.
Sparky and I were starting to get on much better now. I think Sparky was just showing me a tough exterior but really he was a gentle giant. He would play with me from time to time, and he played with me a lot more when Alan and Ann weren’t in the room, so I think the act was as much for their benefit as for mine.
I loved being out in the garden, there was so much to see and do, and I was always able to find things to keep me occupied. I did however have one small incident, which I think got blown out of all proportion.
You see; there is a pond in the garden. Alan and Ann had both said to be careful around it and to make sure that I didn’t get to close to the edge. However it looked just like an extension of the lawn with the pond weed floating on the top and I thought it would be really easy just to walk across the top of it from one side to the other.
Boy was I ever wrong, and did I get wet!
Not just once though, but twice because Alan made me have something called a bath, and he washed off all of the weed and the smelly mud with something called shampoo, in the bathroom sink.
It was a very humiliating experience, and not something that I ever plan to repeat. At least not for a while, anyway.
I was finding out a lot about my new home, it had all the mod cons, and great parents and a step-brother.
Wilson’s Story is an occasional series of posts charting the first year of my dog, Wilson’s life.
Part One of Wilson’s Story can be found here.
All of the parts so far, can be found here.
I was born on 28th March 2010, at Netley Marsh in Hampshire. I’m a mongrel, or so my paperwork says. That means that my parents were two different breeds of dog.
My mum was a Border Collie, and my dad, a Jack Russell Terrier.
Alan says that I take after my mum for my colouring – black and white – and after my dad for my size.
Alan said from the first day that I came home with him that I would probably take after both my parents for my temperament – smart but stubborn.
Electronic Scrapbook 