Showing posts with label dog walking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dog walking. Show all posts

Wednesday, 19 November 2014

What a crock of ....

...Poo.

People fascinate me.  They amuse me.  They annoy me and they totally grate on my nerves like nails down a chalkboard.

Walking Iz and Defi this morning, the sun is struggling to show its face, but its a worthy cause, its not too wet, more damp after a lighter than light frost so the grass is dewy but the cobwebs on the hedge haven't got that sparkle, the birds are chirping loudly to each other and flying in clouds of feathers and noise, its an idyllic country walk through the orchards.  The apples lying on the ground rotten and mashed, their perfume rising through the dead leaves and still letting the passing thought of apple pie and cider give life to their otherwise decaying mass, so why, oh why, do some people find it nigh on impossible to smile?

I wear the classic dog walking attire, jeans that I wore the day before usually with a dried muddy dog paw of someone else's dog that has jumped up in greeting, wellington boots that have a dab of Gorilla glue down the back seam on the right boot; this dab looks like dried slug snot but it works and as long as I don't go wading in the swollen river Wye I will be ok to walk through the mud and leaves.  My jacket, rain mac - call it what you will - is covered in muddy splatters from the down pours of last week, I haven't bothered washing it, what's the point? its winter and it will be the same next week when the rains comes again, besides I am out of water proofing 'stuff'.  I do sport my lovely snuggly hand crocheted fingerless mittens and my old battered once purple now a faded spectrum of weak lilac and puce bag that holds my doggy poo bags, dog biscuits, two spare balls as Iz keeps losing them amongst the apples and with their lime green colour now replaced with a concoction of cow poo doggy saliva grass stain colouring they blend into the undergrowth too well and become lost for a few days - we do usually find them again, this morning we found the two we lost last week.....

So I am a catch, a sexy, dog walking female with red hair, blown into a wind swept style with rosy country cheeks and a smile - more walking wardrobe disaster, mud splattered and scowling at Defi rolling in a muddy puddle, BUT, I always smile and say good morning to few people I meet.

They came towards me in clean and almost new, so new I could see where the tags had been attached on their matching red jackets with blue trim, their waterproof trousers and very swanky walking boots, they even had those walking sticks that I covet each time I slip and fall on my arse in the mud but the husband tells me I will look old, like wellies with slug snot glue doesn't have the same effect?  Defi goes one side of the older couple and Iz walks the other side, both dogs shiny clean - I raise my eyes to the heavens and thank the Lord for his kindness this morning - and I smile at the smaller of the couple, the woman, whilst two golden tails wag slowly and up right past them. The scowl from the old hag as she flinched from; I am blaming the dogs here but I feel it was me in my ancient water proof jacket, once white now an off ivory mud stained colour with my dirty jeans and mad hair and the look she gave me would have floored Satan and put out the fires of damnation with their icy glare.

I mean, really.  Do people really expect to not see dogs on a river side walk, when they have walked past the cows in the field, the sheep in the field on the lanes?  When they have spied the dog poo in all its glory from the 70's styled white dried out look to the more modern, but none the less well known, fluffy white with mould mounds?  Are the manky tennis balls, discarded by faithful hounds chasing tails not a dead giveaway that dogs might actually be here amid the plethora of squirrels, badgers, foxes, hedgehogs, wild birds, birds of prey, farm animals and such like?

Would it have a devastating effect on her walk if she had smiled?  At least her matching husband acknowledged me although he failed to comment on my attire as he straightened the blue trim of this jacket.

Thursday, 9 October 2014

Bereavement.

 
The hardest part of writing this particular blog, was thinking of the beginning, which is odd as bereavement is about the end.
 
 
I was walking this morning, down in the orchard, we didn't visit the river bank due to the face whipping rain and ankle twisting mud, so instead I chose to wait for a break in the weather, which lasted as long as it took to reach the gate before the heavens once again opened, my dogs neither noticing nor caring that the sky was in need of a plumber to tighten the stop cock; so in the pouring rain, whilst they ran between the trees and checked out the hiding places of the squirrels, I pondered the question of bereavement, mainly because I will be at the beautiful Norman church that is on the edge of the orchard, that we pass everyday on our dog walk, and tomorrow around 2pm, I and some other dog walkers will join the family of Sarah, her last name neither known nor needed, but her dog is called Bea.
 
I first met Sarah a year or two ago and we were not great friends, more passing acquaintance's, meeting once in a while in the middle of a field of waving wheat or under a big oak tree in the orchard sheltering from the weather, we never had coffee nor discussed great topics of interest, we talked about our dogs and how she was.
 
Sarah had cancer.  Breast cancer. It was her second time around.  Her son, the youngest one was either a year above or a year below my daughter, I forget which, either way that makes him no more than 20 and no younger than 18, too young to lose your mum.  I believe she had two boys but I can't be sure.
 
Bea, is a Pointer, her white soft belly contrasting with her deep brown short fur that lies flat on her back.  Her eyes are deep brown and she was a nightmare to train, preferring a good chew on a leather shoe to a comfort blankie or teddy like Defi.
 
 
I last saw Sarah around August time, we were both in the field near the woods, a different walk to the river one.  It was a clear, blue skied, hot day, I was wearing jeans and a strappy top and Sarah was wearing a head scarf, brightly coloured, to cover her balding head from all the chemo treatment and a soft flowing white gauzy top that hid the fact she had had a breast removed.  She told me that she was having the other breast removed, she was quite fine with this, 'even's me up' she had said, as Bea, normally running wild through the waving wheat stood quietly and patiently at her side.
 
Bea is 2 or 3.
 
We passed the time for a few minutes, I wished her well in her treatment, she was very upbeat and talking about when it had all finished and how she had had to slow down for now and it was driving her nuts as she is normally a busy and well driven woman.  Defi found a big muddy puddle and wallowed, a cooling mud spa for hot paws.
 
Sarah had laughed at my grimace and Bea had stood.  Quietly and still.
 
I never saw Sarah again but I kept up with the news from other dog walkers, our passing of news and messages working better than the Post Office with a full compliment of staff.  I heard that Sarah was terminal.  The cancer had spread to her bones and her time was limited.
 
She died last Tuesday.  She was 50.
 
A few of us dog walking ladies are going to support the family and show that we will always remember Sarah, the tall laughing woman with a great sense of humour, and of course to say goodbye.
 
You never know whom you may meet in life, people come and go, walk past with their dogs and touch a moment in time that you will always share.