I found myself baby sitting my 4 year old granddaughter unexpectedly this afternoon. We had a lovely time in a simple way. She playing and me doing a bit of catch-up on some outstanding jobs. Around dog walking time I said let's go and take Lady for a walk. Ella loves Lady to bits but is a bit wary of her in view of her size and the extraordinary length of her tongue. Also circumstances mean she has never been out for a walk with just me and Lady; it's always been with the family in tow. Two pairs of socks, a nice warm coat, gloves, woolly hat, gloves and wellingtons duly put on. Lady appears just on cue and makes it quite clear she is very pleased Ella is coming too. Much wagging of the tail! Off we go out of the garden down the road to the railway crossing. On one side hand in hand with Ella; on the other side Lady trotting along and all the while looking at Ella obviously interested that she was coming too. In fact a couple of times Lady stepped in front of me nearly tripping me up and put her nose up to Ella and just looked at her without touching and then trotting on again. Most endearing. We walked across three fields, climbed four stiles and crossed one bridge. We splashed in some muddy puddles. We did some retrieving practice and I showed Ella how Lady could track a tennis ball upwind over quite a distance even when she didn't know where the ball was. Lady quite clearly loved being with Ella and she kept going up to Ella and giving her a long penetrating gaze, but didn't touch or lick her. We lost the lead and had to search for it. We got mud on our trousers and inside our wellington boots. We jumped on mole hills, and we crossed 4 stiles without help! To round it off we had good fun getting mud out of Lady's paws with a towel when we got back. It was a lovely end to the afternoon and it quite suddenly struck me that Lady was a lovely gentle family dog and I lover her to bits. Marvelous.
4 stiles without help! I bet Lady was proud of you managing all on your own! Sounds just lovely. I bet you were proud of SBD.
Thank you for sharing such a lovely post. I'm sure your granddaughter will cherish the memories. What a good girl Lady is.
What a lovely read! Made me smile and wish I could borrow a four year old...maybe not, the results may not be quite as endearing,...
Ella is busy making fairy cakes with Granny at the moment. Then we are off to Brighton for lunch and a play on the beach. Have to leave little Lady at home unfortunately - frightened she'd get stolen if we left her in the car at lunchtime, but I'll make it up to her when we get back!
