A Dog Gets you Out!

How many times have I heard the statement - “a dog gets you out”? Many times for sure

but when I think about it I have to agree - a dog DOES get me out. Walking with Dolly -

even in not so good weather - is a total joy and a gift to me. Dolly came to me from an

elderly lady who couldn’t look after her any more. She had just turned four and suddenly

a whole new big world opened up for her - and me. In the seven months since my

previous dog, Honey, had died I realised that I really didn’t get out walking as much as I

had when she had been around. Now just a few days before lockdown, here was this little

gift just bursting to get out there and have adventures. And that’s exactly what we did.

For the first time in many years I heard the dawn chorus as we stood in the early morning

garden while Dolly got used to her new routine. Then we walked in the morning through

meadows and paths I had never been on before and I discovered wonderful flowers and

plants that I had never noticed before. We watched the dragon flies hovering over the

reed beds and the heron standing still like a statue on the river. We picked pussy willows

from a fallen willow tree which still grace a jar in my kitchen. We ran our hands (or paws!)

over the mosses we found and we foraged for wild garlic from where we both emerged

smelling like someone’s dinner.

We explored the woods and adopted a tree watching it move from spring into summer

spreading its leaves which sheltered us from the rain on more than one occasion and

we delighted in its acorns scattering on the ground around us. When we got tired we lay

on the grass and felt the ground underneath us, breathing in the scents of Mother Earth

as we watched the clouds moving and taking shape in the blue skies above us.

Dolly greeted anyone we met - human or dog - with the same delight that she has for

everything and never for one minute did she think they wouldn’t like her! She ran like a

little wild thing through the rain and mud and nothing could stop her. She ran for the sheer

joy of running and being out with me. She still does. When we leave the house in the

morning we know that there will be another adventure and something new to see in this

big world of hers. At a time when we were struggling with Covid lockdown and all the

uncertainty,

Dolly “got me out” and helped me to rediscover the wonders of nature all around me at that

moment in time. That was such an essential part of my well being then and still is now. I

once asked her “How did I find you Cavapoo?” She replied “You didn’t find me - I found you!”

I’m thankful she did!