Wednesday, October 05, 2005

one of those days

I'm sorry, all I've got today is the transcript of an email I sent last night, bad grammer and all, I was in a bit of a flap so go easy on me:

....It was fine until this evening, just, well Tuesday,
work, shopping, walking the dogs...I was late home and
I thought I'd give them a bit of a treat, so instead
of the usual walk I took them Forte Hall, one of the
places we'd normally go on a Sunday for a longer walk.
And I lost Toffee.

It's a park, maybe 2 miles from the house, not a
swings and roundabouts park but lakes, and woods and
lots of little pathways that back on to local
farmland. He's good now, he goes, disappears from
sight, he just loves undergrowth, but when I whistle
he comes back eventually. It wasn't always like that,
he used to disappear for ages and we’ve had a few
arguments, you know, but he hasn't done that for the
past 2 years.

Except tonight. He went, I whistled, we (me and
Charlie) carried on whistling, I clapped my hands,
shouted his name...by this time, if he's within
earshot he knows I'm annoyed and generally creeps
out of the undergrowth looking peevish and sorrowful.
But tonight he just didn't show up at all. We walked
for ages, then went back to the spot that we'd left,
just in case. I'd walked us down one of the footpaths
through the woods. And it goes dark now at around
7.30, seriously dark. They shut the park gates at
sunset...so I took Charlie back there and sure enough
the park keeper was hovering around the car looking
surly. I explained, and then parked the car outside, I
left Charlie in there, poor sod in the dark in the
car, and went back in.

It's cold too, I'm in a T-shirt, wandering around in
the dark in the woods, just calling and whistling. By
now he'd been gone for nearly an hour and a half.
There's a lane through a hedge, bordering one side,
and I was terrified perhaps that he might have been
run over, but there was no sign, I walked the entire
length and then pushed back through the hedge. I
walked two full circuits of the park, every path I
knew, and off the beaten track and ended up back in
the car park...where I'm sorry but it was well after
nine by now I just sat on the kerb and cried, I really
thought I'd lost him.

I thought I'd give it just one more go, there's a
stream that he loves, and I walked back down through
the woods to there, more in desperation than
expectation, but, well, you know? But he wasn't there
either. By now I was thinking almost as much of
Charlie locked in the car, when - yup, just when you'd
given up, the little bastard, sodden, mournful,
covered in brambles, just 10 feet off the path.

I couldn't do angry, I was so, so relieved, (I really
thought I'd lost him this time ######), just a
"c'mon", and I think he felt the same way too. We had
a very quite walk back to the car, and he went no
further than 3 feet away from me, he didn't wag his
tail until we got through our own front door, and he's
flaked out on the settee.

sigh, I mean big "sigh"

5 comments:

Wendy said...

Oh my heavens! I was on the edge of my seat the whole time I read that. I was praying and praying your dog would be fine. I've lost my own dog more than once, in our woods. He gets his nose down and just gets onto something, or he sees a deer or something and takes off like a lion on the hunt. (he's 26 lbs) So I'm EVER so glad you all made it home safely.

AJH said...

It is so heart wrenching when pets go missing. I've spent hours looking for mine. I once had a particularly clever Corgi who could escape a max security prison and now my mom has a small border collie who likes to take herself for walks in the park after clearing the 6 foot fence.
Thank goodness Toffee is back! Unhurt I hope.

Blondie... said...

Ah Colin... I'm sorry you had to go through this. I don't have any wonderful words to convey...I just wish you hadn't had a scare like that. Poor Toffee...Poor Colin.

Hugs & Kisses to Toffee for being ok... Hugs & Kisses to you and hopes that today is better!

I just know how close a pet gets to my heart and only a hug & kiss can console the scares like that.

Miladysa said...

Sigh!!!! I too was on the edge of my seat! I am soooo pleased Toffee is OK (& Charlie too). Quite appropriate post too because I have a little Jack Russell pup who is going to be 'chipped' tomorrow. (£23 I think it will be worth it.)

Wendy said...

I think I'll get my Simon chipped too. It's $75 in the states ... but I'd feel better. Simon is a Corgi/Sheltie cross. Curious little critters.