Skip to content

Mishap in the field

2020 December 8
tags: ,
by Josette Garcia

Four weeks ago, I took Dylan for a long walk in the fields as we do every morning. Joy! We usually meet lots of wildlife: partridges, pheasants, red kites, squirrels, rabbits and two types of deers – the little muntjacs and the beautiful roe deers.

Dylan and I enjoying the fresh air, the changing of colours and dreaming of sunny Autumn days – I think called Indian Summer. Dylan ferreting for a field mouse – never to be caught.

In general people do not understand my dog. When walking on a lead and he sees a squirrel – there’s a big battle of wills, tightening of the muscles, digging the heels in the ground etc. (that applies to both of us!). And then somebody will say “Don’t worry, he will never catch it”. I know that, but what that person forgot or did not notice is that I held the other end of the lead and I do not fancy running around a tree or being pulled in a bush. Oh the joys of having a hunting dog.

…and sometimes patience runs out and so do the deers. I would love to show you a video of them running away with their little white tail bobbing up and down in the long grass, but that will be for another day when I have mastered the art of displaying videos in WordPress.

Unfortunately, instead of the dreamt-of Indian Summer, we got rain, and rain, and more rain, which made the paths very slippery. And, you guessed it, I fell down about a mile (1.5 km) from home. I heard a little pop and thought, here we go, a sprained ankle! So I picked myself up and started to hobble back home, through the fields and woods, and, for once, Dylan was superb – he did not pull – achievement! My husband drove the car to the entrance of the woods and home we went.

Next day we went to the hospital and were told that I had broken my ankle. Since then I have been wearing that awful black boot – day and night.

I will not be dancing this Christmas but I hope that in a couple of months Dylan and I can resume our walks

Leave a Reply