A weekend of fresh air and fun

Oh my woof, what a weekend I have had! It was, wonderfully, very busy. It all started on Saturday morning when Zena and Simon arrived and we went off for a walk through Hilly Fields. We didn’t follow our usual route along the path into Tylers Close field, we went across the haul route and on up to the Orpheus Centre. The field on the other side of the haul route has sheep in it and some rather tasty poo that everyone seemed to be trying to stop me eating! My friend Sue works at the Orpheus Centre and they had an open day. It was really good. I wandered around in there and lots of people came and said hello. Sue was busy when we arrived but when she finished doing what she was doing (I don’t know what it was but she got a good round of ap-paws!) she came out to see me … it was lovely! Sue used to have a dog called ‘Nookie’ so she understands me. I didn’t know this word so I looked it up in my doggy/human(English) dictionary but it wasn’t really explained in there. Then I Doogled it and I found this explanation, ‘the act of getting it on, making whoopie, doing the horizontal boogie’ which I think is a little bit saucy! I have sort of wondered what it must have been like for the neighbours when she was walking along calling “Nookie! Nookie!”, they might have got the wrong impression of her!

There are no photos from the Orpheus Centre because, once again, he forgot to take any – sometimes I really do wonder if I made a wise decision when I chose him! Richard is OK but him … When we got back from the Orpheus Centre, and seeing Sue, we went home for a very short while before we went around to meet Bren. It became clear we were going out in the car which I wasn’t all that impressed with because it was very warm, but I hopped in anyway. The good news was that it wasn’t a very long trip (about 3 minutes) and we arrived at my newest best friends Pamela and John’s house. It is lovely and very paw-sh! It transpired that we were there for a barbecue but, frankly, I didn’t much care about that. Most important was that I met another Monty! Monty is a slightly smaller dog than me, although he is the same age, he is a Jack Russell but boy can he run! We had an absolutely wonderful time running around the garden. Monty did get a little confused and try to mount me a few times, but I didn’t mind. Richard rather unkindly called him ‘Mounty’ which I don’t think was at all nice! And anyway, I regularly try to ‘hump’ my beige bed (in fact anything beige is usually OK) and I have absolutely no idea what I am doing or why I am doing it!

It wasn’t just Monty that I met either … I met the ducks too! I think they weren’t that happy to meet me (paw things), but I did try to get to see them a few times. My friend Monty doesn’t seem to bother them much but I guess they’re used to him. We had such a lovely afternoon though and, although there weren’t that many people there (which was a shame), everyone really enjoyed it. The humans were supposed to have a game of ‘boules’ but, in the end, that didn’t happen because some people had to leave and others weren’t too keen. I have never heard of ‘boules’ so I looked it up on Fidopedia but I am really none the wiser … it says something about throwing your heavy balls at a ‘cochonnet’ (which I have looked up in my doggy/human(French) dictionary and means little pig), so I have given up as the game didn’t involve me anyway.

When we came to leave on Saturday afternoon, I wasn’t at all happy about it. I didn’t want to leave my new best friend Monty and I didn’t want to go back in the car. In the end I decided to walk Richard home via Church Lane and Green Lane. I have walked past Pamela and John’s house before, so I knew the route pretty well! It didn’t take that long and when we got home Alex had managed to make it back before us in his car, so he was there to meet us. We weren’t home many minutes before Peggy and John arrived. They are Richard’s parents and they are really nice. They all had dinner in the garden because there is nowhere to sit in the house at the moment. I was, frankly, a bit bushed after all my running around with my new best friend Monty so I lay down and (don’t tell anyone) I might have secretly pushed out a couple of ?s! Just before Peggy and John arrived Alex nipped out to buy a new kettle. The old one had packed up and he knew they would want a cup of tea with their fish and chips. When he got home and plugged the new kettle in he discovered that it wasn’t the kettle after all, it was the socket it was plugged into (which Alex had put in quite a few years ago) that was faulty. He didn’t need a new kettle after all! (See below is all I will say on the subject!)

After such a busy Saturday, I didn’t thought that Sunday would be quieter, but I was mistaken. Having had my breakfast, I did try to hint that I might like to go out for a walk. I sat by the door with my harness on and kept winking at Alex to let him know I wanted to go out. Nothing, absolutely nothing seemed to get him to take the hint. I may have mentioned this before, but he isn’t all that bright … a few cards short of a full deck, if you get my meaning. Eventually he did put my lead on but instead of going out for a walk, we got in the car. Honestly, I do wonder sometimes! Which bit of walk did he fail to understand? How someone can be that dense is im-paws-ible to me!

Anyway, we went off to a place called Tilgate Park where we went to an event called ‘Bark in the Park’ which was all about dogs. I guess I sort of had to forgive him for being so dense when we came across a stall from Hydro Hounds and my personal therapists Emily and Katie were there! Hydro Hounds (for anyone that has missed it) is the place were I go for hydrotherapy. They are all so nice and I had a great time when I went there last Friday. I have another appointment on Wednesday, which I can’t wait for! There were other people there from Hydro Hounds too, but I have forgotten their names. Alex says I have a terrible memory for names, but if you think I’m bad, you should see how bad his memory is! It was pawfully hot though, so I took shade from one of the stalls.

When we left the ‘Bark in the Park’ event I assumed we were going home. Not a bit of it! We went to a place called Edenbridge where a member of the Godstone Gardeners’ Club had an open garden. Richard and Alex are both members of the Godstone Gardeners’ Club although I am not sure why because I have tasted pretty much everything they are attempting to grow and nothing tastes very nice! The garden was very beautiful but there were loads and loads of people there and it was very busy. As well as the garden there was a nice long walk through the fields which I decided that we should take because it would be much quieter. As we de-paw-ted several people told us that there had been some reports of people getting a bit lost because they weren’t sure where they should walk.

The markers for the walk did seem to be missing in the middle section so we ended up walking much further than was originally intended. I didn’t mind but Alex said his feet were aching – he’s always moaning about something! Apparently the ridges where a tractor had driven were quite difficult to walk on … I didn’t think so. It was when we reached a corn field that Alex said he didn’t think we were in the right place because we had had a change of crop. Paws-onally, I don’t know what he means by that, but it did appear that we were a little off track because we could see some people in the distance back where we had come from who seemed to be walking in a different direction.

It was very hot in the afternoon though so, when we reached a stream I took a little dip. I have to confess it was a little deeper than I initially thought but that didn’t stop me! I had a good soak for a few minutes before getting out (with a little help from Alex). When I had a good shake to get the water off my coat I shared it with Alex. As ever, he wasn’t very happy. I would have thought it was refreshing but he just moaned that he was wet. There is no pleasing him sometimes! When we went to go home I wasn’t too keen on getting into the car as it was paws-itively hot. Alex did open all the windows and the boot for a few minutes to cool the car down before we got in but I decided I would plant myself instead. I lay down in the meadow grass and refused to move – I haven’t played that game for a long time! I kept it up for as long as I dared before Richard lifted me up, so I walked slowly to the car and hopped in. It wasn’t as bad as I thought and before long we were on our way home. The journey was OK actually and I quite enjoyed sticking my face over the back seat and getting the draft from the open windows.

We weren’t home all that long before Alex got my lead out. Now, at this point, he had removed my harness (I don’t tend to wear it unless we are out walking as it is a bit hot in this weather) and he made no attempt to put it back on. I was, frankly, virtually in the nude … just my collar for modesty! I wasn’t sure about going out in this rather un-dog-nified state of undress, but I didn’t make a fuss. This unusual behaviour led me to deduce that we weren’t going on a walk as usual but we were probably going visiting. I attempted to turn right out of the drive but no, we turned left, that meant we weren’t going to see Zena. We walked down the High Street and crossed over at the crossing but we couldn’t be going to Hilly Fields because I had no harness on. That meant we must be visiting someone on Greenview. I have a number of friends on Greenview – there is Myfanwy and her mum Sara (Idris has now moved out and gone to his home on a farm in Wales … which is a very long way away so I’m not sure whether I’ll see him again, which is sad), there is Fran and Iain and there is my personal stylist Chloe from Waggies of Godstone.

I stopped at Myfanwy’s gate, but no, it wasn’t there. Then I guessed it would be Fran and Iain because I usually visit Chloe on a weekday (I am pretty clever at these deductions you know). As we approached I saw that the door was open so I marched straight in and said hello to Iain. I actually passed Fran on the way in but forgot to say hello to her until a bit later! It turned out that Bren, Richard and Alex had all been invited to dinner. It was such a warm evening that they decided to eat outside which I think was nice but a lot more work for Fran! The evening seemed to flow well (as did the booze which seemed to be going down rather too well) and, only when it cooled down quite a bit did we move inside. Eventually we left and Alex and Richard wobbled back up the road home – I think they may have been a little worse fur wear. They left Bren there but I think he was happy to avoid having to walk up the High Street at the breakneck speed that I do!

This morning I have taken Alex on a walk around Hilly Fields. Apparently this suited him as he had a package to collect from the petrol station for Richard, so for once I didn’t have to drag him across the road! Actually, talking of walking, Alex saw something on the human equivalent of Poochbook … I think it is called Face-ache or something … that Amanda from Happy Buddies has launched a new service of dog walking and pet pop-ins. Unfortunately it doesn’t cover Godstone, which is a shame because I miss her, but she does cover a large area of Merstham, Redhill, Lower Kingswood, Earlswood and Reigate. So, if you’re a dog that lives in any of those areas, you’re lucky and you can get a visit from Amanda! (Alex says I can see Amanda anyway sometime soon, so I’m definitely happy about that!) I didn’t think that Alex did Face-ache, but I think that secretly he is beginning to use it a bit. We saw Fran and Iain on our walk this morning but Fran had Lola with her who doesn’t really like other dogs, so we didn’t stop to chat. Now we are home I can push out a few ?s because I am still tired from our very busy weekend. Anyway, I have just done a rather smelly bottom burp, so I think I’ll pop outside for a few minutes. Must paws … ?