Dogs ! Who would have 'em!

Elaine here (Paul is too over-adrenalised to be writing the blog tonight !) ...

We set off at our usual early hour this morning ... the first lock (just around the bend) was chockers full of boats waiting to go down and come up ... plus there had just been one boat stuck across the bottom of the lock plus someone (C&RT man) had fallen in the cut ... dramas !  We were there for about half an hour - helping to lock boats up and down 'til it was our turn !

I got Bombo pushing the lock gates for me ... pathetic effort I have to say but he did try ....


Eventually we got going and we did another couple of locks just before Fradley junction, which were not so congested !  We went past the Swan at Fradley junction ... it looks quite empty in this pic but there were loads of boats going every which way !


Paul took this pic ... of a landing strip being mowed ... 

 

We decided to stop for the day - just beside the Plough at Huddlesford

... and then decided to take the dogs for a lovely walk - this is a pic of Sammy (off lead) enjoying his run along the tow path ... 

 

While we were walking along Paul noticed this 'orphaned' train engine - Paul felt sorry for him as he felt he had lost his wagons ...  

 

Just after this we decided to turn around and go back the other way ..

Bombo and Sammy were both off their leads (a rare occurence) - and the last time I looked they were both walking behind Paul, who was behind me ...

Paul said "Where is Sammy?"
I said, "He was behind you".

Bugger!  There was no sign of Sam - we assumed he had gone through the Hawthorn bush to chase a rabbit |..... and then, just to add to the drama, Bombo went through the bush into the field beyond to chase the unseen rabbit, also !

So - the wails went up ... "Sammy - Sammy - Sammy" ... no sign of Sammy !  "Bombo - COME!" ... he did but still there was no sign of Sam.  We found a place to get through the bush and entered the field beyond ... calling and calling him but there was no sign of him ANYWHERE !  We walked through the field calling him for a while ... no sign of him, so Paul said he would go back to the boat to get our little (PAYG) phone and also to see if he had made his way back there ...

I continued to walk around the fields, around a farm yard and ... along side a train line ... wondering if he would have gotten through the metal railings that led up to the train line ...

Bombo and I found our way back to the road at which point we met Paul, who had been back to the boat and gotten his little phone but not found Sammy - Paul said to me (I thought) "My phone is not working" - so I thought that meant that his little phone was not working .... anyway, we both went our separate ways looking for our little lost boy ...

I went up to the towpath again - no sign - so went the other way down the towpath.  I talked with a few of the boaters along the way, asking them if they had seen a little white dog .. no-one had  but everyone was  very concerned and one boater took all my details and said he would ring me if he found him !    I got back to the boat ... still no sign of him.  At this point Bombo was getting knackered so I let him back in the boat and continued on my way - looking around the adjoining fields.  (The boat behind us had just lost their cat also ... so I was looking for 'Ging' and 'Sam' at that point).  I went back down the original road and back down into the 'strictly-no-admittance-private-property farmyard ... yelling out 'Sam - Sam' ... when the lady of the farmhouse came out and told me that my husband had, in fact 'scooped up' the dog from an adjoining field. I thanked her and returned back to the boat to wait for them ... and waited .

So, there was no sign of either of them ... so Bombo and I decided to walk back down the towpath to look for them ... we met a man in a boat who said my husband was on the next bridge up looking for me - so I thanked him and carried on ... further on we met all the people we had previously met and told them that the dog had been found but that now I couldn't find my husband !!  The lovely boater man who had taken my details earlier said I should go back to the boat and when he saw Paul and Sam he would tell them ... so I did.

Bombo and I went back to the boat and waited again ... no sign ...

I thought to myself that I would get the bike out and go looking for them, so I called Bombo down off of the roof.  Instead of just jumping down off of the roof, down onto the seats, onto the rear deck and down the steps as he usually does - he instead took a flying drop down the whole lot - which is well over 6 foot!  At that point Geoffrey had just also decided to climb up the steps so Bombo kind of dropped, landed on the bottom step - and Geoffrey - twisted and stated wailing and howling ...

Bloody hell, I thought .. how much Rescue Remedy can I get through this week?  I jumped down and held Bombo til he stopped howling, got some Rescue Remedy - sprayed it in his mouth and continued to hold him   - also doing Reiki for him - as his eyes were all over his head and he was shaking like a good 'un!

All of a sudden Bombo was fine again ... so I thought it was safe to leave him and go and find the other two! I dragged my little bike out of the cratch .... I had only gotten a couple of hundred metres up the road when I found them  .... phew - both walking and still alive!  (I had had horrible thoughts that Paul had found him and then fallen in a ditch somewhere ... or had found him half mangled and then fallen in a ditch in grief .... etc. etc).

Paul was a little bit cranky when I found them, saying "I have called you a hundred times" ... what the?  I thought he had said his phone wasn't working ???  Anyway, I looked at my 'big' (Android) phone and it said that the Sim card was removed .... What the????  That phone has never, ever done that in the year or so that we have had it ... it was completely 'ga-ga' !!!  It transpired that Paul and the woman from the farmyard had gone looking for Sam (with her dog), found Sam and then Paul went looking for me ... not been able to contact me and thought I had fallen in a ditch somewhere etc ...

Anyway - lessons learnt today ...

• Don't let Sam off lead - ever !
• Don't have hatch lid open with Bombo on top of it - ever !
• Always go out with two fully charged, fully functioning phones !

... and always have a pub handy that you can fall into after dramas have passed ... which we did !  There were a few locals in there who were very concerned about Sammy but were pleased about the outcome!

So, tonight we have had a lovely dinner, a few more drinks are are all present and correct - if not a little knackered !!!

At the time of writing, I just saw a Ginger cat come to the side window ... "Oh" I said, "this must be Ging" (from the boat behind) - so I grabbed him and went back to the other boat but it wasn't their cat !!!  How many ginger cats are wandering around these parts!!  The drama continues .... !