8. Ah Bless!

(Apologies! Blog numbers 8 & 9 got left behind and only discovered when posting No. 10! So this one should have been about 5th Jan 2012!)

         This is getting a little monotonous. After Bella’s excursions into the school playing fields (during Christmas break – no children harmed in this trespass) and her escapades into the neighbour’s garden, she’s been under house arrest for long enough to make the punishment more than the owners can bear!

         After being woken up one morning with dog Handler Number One shouting out of the bedroom window: “Hey! That’s not your garden!” I just knew it was going to be a long day.

         With one fence raised and no (visible) means of entry to the school playing fields, Bella wasted no time visiting the neighbour’s beautifully laid out flower beds among the well manicured lawn paths. Not exactly the good impression one would like to make among the neighbours in a new village! But they were both very calm and continually told us not to worry and that we could fetch our doggy anytime! 

        The frustration is that we cannot just let Bella out into the garden at regular intervals, but we now have to take her for wee walks a few times a day (I love that pun!)  Not that we don’t take her on regular walks anyway – Handler Number One is up and out before the sun rises each morning and one of us tries to take her another longish walk during the day – if it’s not raining cats and dogs!

       Walks are good times any time of day. It’s good to be out in the country (winter) air, suitably clad with thick socks, wellies, jacket, scarf, hat and gloves. January seems to be the windy month and trees, grasses and clouds all seem to dance to the wind’s tune as it roars, whistles and whispers along the pathways. During the daylight walks there’s many a casual conversation with other dog walkers usually including the “What breed is she?” question everyone asks about Bella (A bit of Chow, a bit of Staffie and probably a bit of Husky.)

      While prowling the streets as the sun was setting (just before 4pm) looking for one light coloured, free-running female hound, I was waylaid by another neighbour who asked in jest, “Have you lost him?!” Well yes, I replied, have you seen my dog?! Twenty minutes later, having learnt neighbour’s name, address and previous address over twenty years ago, he gave this useful piece of information about the Suffolk natives:  “Their favourite saying,” said he, “is: Ah! Bless! Doesn’t matter what’s going on! The TV could be sailing through the lounge window on to the pavement and they would simply look and say Ah Bless!”  This was an attempt at explaining the unfazed attitude of the country folk here in the east of England! However, I still feel uneasy and unhappy that Bella would visit the neighbour’s manicured garden without permission!

       Walks are good times any time of night! The wee walk at the end of a day when the wind is blowing the clouds away reveals the stars as bright and unfazed as the villagers seem to be. So what if it’s 5ºC, with an evil wind dancing through my hair and pinching my exposed hands and nose until they glow red! The parish lantern (another local saying I really like!) is shining bright and the stars add a winter sparkle to the dark mysterious sky.

Google Images

O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! …… When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him….? (Psalm 8 v 3)

How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to praise him! …. He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name. (Psalm 147 v 4)

Thanks Megs!

 (The fence will be fixed by the weekend!)

5. The Rise & Fall of Bella Houdini

It was a beautiful Christmas morning. The lights were twinkling on the tree, the shiny Christmas paper was waiting to be torn off, and we were relaxing for half an hour before heading off down the road to the Christmas day service. Ding-dong Ding-dong. No it wasn’t the church bells or the ‘merrily on high’ ones! The neighbour’s half smile and Merry Christmas wishes held that tone that said there was a problem.

I just wondered if you knew that your doggy is running around the school playing field.

Oh! Ah! That’s why she hasn’t been coming back when we call her!  Fortunately by the time Mrs Neighbour had called, Bella had returned. We would need to investigate the back fence – after church, after opening of presents, after Christmas lunch, after post Christmas lunch snooze, by which time it was dark. This event occurred in England, in December, ‘in the bleak mid-winter’, when the sun rose at 8.03am and set at 3.48pm.

Bella was restricted to going out in the back garden on the extender lead – to give her a little privacy if necessary! She was not impressed. She did benefit from one or two extra walks down the road at which times the desired result of bladder relief was attained.  But how did Bella Houdini get on to the school playing field. With one of us climbing over the school gate (that’ll give the villagers something to talk about ‘that new Baptist vicar….’!) and the other bundu-bashing among the fir tree branches, berry twigs and other indescribably prickly thick vegetation at the bottom of the garden, we found the three foot wire fence in good nick, no holes, and firmly secured into the ground.

Phase 2 – let Bella Houdini into the garden and see where she goes. While I was clearing a pathway between the fence and the sheds under the fir trees, Bella came and lay innocently next to me, ahh sweet!  And then she disappeared and was seen tearing around the beautiful green grass of the primary school!  Argggg! How did that happen!!

Fortunately Bella still loves us, and dogs do have a conscience! After 20 minutes of haring around the field and definitely a contender for the Dog Olympics, she was quite content to have the lead slipped over her head.  She refused to show us how she returned to home base so had to be lifted unladylike over the fence – with no thought of the pin and plate inserted in her broken back leg just three months ago!

Tuesday 27^th December 2011 : Bella and handler went for their regular early morning, before sunrise walk. We live in a beautiful part of the country with fields through which there are footpaths, a pretty tidal river, country stiles etc. Dog + water + soil = one very, very muddy dog!  She returned from the walk with the legs and underbelly of a black Labrador. Anyone could see that she’d entered the house by the back door into the red slate-tiled conservatory, and on to the lino-floored kitchen. Much rubbing down didn’t seem to make any difference, but when she escaped to her bed, the green Blue Cross donated blanket turned black with green spots. The hosepipe sprayer will have to be engaged. (Has anyone invented a dogwash like the carwashes? One that can be installed at the back gate? complete with all-over spray, doggy shampoo, gentle brushes, rinse water, and blowdryer?) Spraying Bella down is not usually a one-man operation, but one man tried it anyway keeping Bella on the lead with the gentle spray nozzle massaging the mud off her underbelly. Once inside again, the lead was accidentally dropped making a sudden clanging on the slate tiles, Bella took fright, knocked the child safety gate being stored in the conservatory crashing to the floor and Bella spraying dark water on the white sofa, the white painted door and the glass door panes! 

This was the day Bella would be left alone with the family ‘visitor’ in the house – scary option for Bella, until said ‘visitor’ took her on a loooooooong walk, after which she became Bella’s best friend!  But before we could leave the house to drive Grandma back home (3 1/2 hr drive) after Christmas, the floors should really be de-mudded.  Oops! We’ve run out of floor cleaner. A spray clean-and-polish can was called in for the emergency. Bad idea, as we discovered later – don’t go into the kitchen or conservatory in your socks! (hint: "polish")

Wednesday 28^th December 2011 : Back to a more or less normal daily routine – except that Bella Houdini is still restricted to indoors and like a cat, was following my every step around the house.  So Wellies were donned and in the pretence of Pooh Patrol Bella and I stepped gingerly into the back garden. So far so good. She lay, seemingly happy under ‘her’ bush and watched me go in and out of the garden shed, waiting for her chance! I saw her at the school fence, shouted NO, then realised she was squatting, sorry!  Next blink I could see her rear up like a polar bear on Frozen Planet and she was over the fence! Success – for both of us! She got over and I got to see how!

In previous excursions to retrieve her from the school playing field, one of us had a mobile phone to call for help from the other. This time it was just me. I had to clear the make-shift barrier we’d put up where we thought she could get over – and she didn’t – and with Wellies four sizes above my shoe size, I clambered over the fence.  By this time Bella Houdini was halfway through the course and was not going to come back to the finish line until she was ready! But once again it wasn’t a hectic chase across fields and she did slip back into the lead quite happily. Of course I felt the need to explain to another neighbour hanging her undies out in the wind to dry that I was not taking my dog for a walk in the private property school playing field, but having discovered how she got there, would now be making plans to prevent it happening again!

Bella Houdini has fallen. As will our bank balance once we get a new fence fitted. But we still love our Bella!