no.10

Yesterday morning was quite eventful - and had a happy ending. A lost dog was spotted by Tim as he headed up our lane to catch a train to London at 7am. He phoned me once he'd persuaded this very frightened, beautiful, pointer bitch to come to him and get a lead around her (collarless) neck - using some old Sky biscuits. I ran up the land and took over so he didn't miss his train, and spent a good half an hour persuading this poor trembling, muddy dog to come back to our house. It took a dog bowl full of tinned ravioli to get her inside - she was starving.
After an hour of drying her off, giving her water, a slice of bread, lots of love and a bit of peace and quiet while I dived in the shower (having to leave at 9am to do some high level interviewing), she settled on one of Sky's blankets, even gave me a wag, and looked exhausted.
Stupid me didn't think to take a picture to show you all - doh!!!
I rang the farm nextdoor - Lynn said the hunt had been through the previous day.
I rang the dog warden's office and they contacted Ann, our fabulous dog warden, who came on her way to work.
She stepped through the door and like Cesar Milan (the Dog Whisperer) this dog sniffed her, looked happy, and was later seen trotting off with her to the car with a totally different body posture than 2 hours previously.
She took one look and said "she's not a pointer, she's a fox-hound" (have a look on the internet dear bloggers - not much in it!). Oh, it's Wednesday - the Atherstone hunt came through here yesterday. She picked up an ear and found a tattoo saying "10", and said she'd have her back home in no time!
Tim's very proud of himself as she says fox hounds are notoriously hard to get to come to you - they are outside, pack animals, who get very frightened when separated from the pack and will only respond to very familiar people.
So a happy ending all round - I checked this morning and the dog was returned to its owner.
Yes you can guess the next bit. Ffion had spent 2 hours thinking this was an omen from God and if the dog was unclaimed on our return from Mexico in 2 weeks' time (going in 40 mins' time and need to stop prattling on on this blog) - then this beautiful creature was destined to be ours.......
I felt strangely unsettled all day yesterday.
Anyway, today is different - off to do sea kayaking and camping in a nature reserve in the Sea of Cortez with (hopefully) close encounters with whales and dolphins and sea lions. I am like a kid at Christmas!
Wonderful Pat will be hen, duck and house-sitting for us.
Got to go!