2020 November – What really happened when Mum met Saffron, Me Now, Ryan & Wrexham

What really happened when Mum met Saffron

This is a picture of me out in the wild woods.

It’s nice out today.

I’ve come a long way since I first met Mum.  At least I think so.  In fact, have I told you what happened when we first met?  I don’t think I have, have I?

Here goes.

Mum was approved by the dog rescue people and then invited at short notice one Saturday to meet me.  It was quite a drive.  Mum was told to bring a lead, £200 cash (as you do) and a tennis ball.

She wasn’t told anything else about me except my age – about 3 years old.

We were introduced in an outside paddock but of course I had no idea who this human was.  So I completely ignored her. I took the tennis ball though, thank you.  I’m not that silly. But I wasn’t sharing.  Or remotely bothered.  I couldn’t have cared less.  No eye contact.  No contact at all really.  Minimal interaction, thank you and leave me alone.

I’d been in kennels for about 3 months after being rejected from another home.  Before this is a bit of a blur but Mum has worked out I must have had quite a few different habitations (starting in Malaga and via a stint at a puppy farm) before being rescued.

So, although physically I was now recovered and in fabulous, gorgeous shape, mentally I wasn’t really in the best place to be honest.

Then Mum and I went for a walk.  I had a horrible muzzle thing which Mum wasn’t keen on because it seemed too tight and didn’t allow me to open my mouth to breath / pant properly.    Mum said as much but was told it was this or nothing.   Mum sort of growled a bit under her breath.  I heard her.   I gave her a bit of a look.  Only briefly.  Not that I cared, you understand.

So Mum ended up walking really slowly with me.   I wasn’t very interested either way.   I just sort of plodded along not paying any attention to Mum at all.   Or to anything  at all.  Compared to me now, Mum says I was extremely ‘shut down’.

When we got back to the car park, the rescue lady removed my muzzle and took hold of my lead.  Only she didn’t hang on to it tightly enough.  Another solid wood gate across the car park opened and I saw a load of free range dogs inside the walled off area.

I got my timing exquisitely right and took off like a rocket.  I’m really, really, Usain-Bolt-fast over short distances and really, really deafeningly loud.

But you all know this by now.

Rescue lady looked completely shocked and frozen to the spot.   Fair play to Mum, she took one look at her panicked face, decided no help was coming from that direction and took off after me.

By the time Mum arrived all hell had broken loose.  There were about 8 large bull breed / cross breed dogs (apparently part of a training class) and golden me in the middle yelling my head off and jumping about like a fruit loop.  All the other dogs were going off at the deep end too.  It was a maelstrom of teeth and fur.

No hesitation (and I think we’re all agreed impulsive and stupid, not brave) Mum waded right in, grabbed me and my lead and eventually after a protracted and unceremonious struggle, hauled me out of the way.   She had to get her arms under my shoulders to move me which meant her face and arms were right in the mix.  Not an especially smart move, given what was going on at the time.

She got shouted at (a lot) by the other humans.   Like properly shouted and sworn at.  Mum says she couldn’t really blame them.  She also reckons it’s a bit of a miracle she didn’t get bitten.  Not by me of course but accidents happen don’t they?  Some of the other dogs were bigger than me by quite a lot.

And I’m quite big in the first place.

So you can just imagine.

Eventually we got back to the car park and the rescue lady said to Mum it was just as well Mum was there wasn’t it.     Eh..??

Mum was all hot and bothered by this stage so she opened the back of the car to put her coat away.  I was hot and bothered too, so I jumped in and settled down.    Rescue lady said, well she seems to have made her mind up about you – do you want to take her?

Now, what do you reckon most normal, sensible humans would have done at that point?

Yup.

To this day Mum says she has no idea why on earth she signed the paperwork and took me home.

And she forgot to go back and get the new tennis ball.   Hopeless.

 

Me now

But look at me now, how could anyone resist?

Mum says this is now and that was then.  The landscape looked very different back then.

Well, it’s all worked out fine hasn’t it?

Mum says she feels it has worked out especially fine for me.

Unfair.  Everyone knows I give more than I get.

(….oh, and I can see her, don’t think I can’t, Mum’s smiling to herself but she’s pretending not to).

 

Ryan & Wrexham

Another unexpected partnership.

But hey, go Ryan.

and go Wrexham FC.

 

 

Saffron’s recommendations this month – we’re going all-in this month for commitment – geddit?

Music: Most excellent cover versions of some fab tracks from the film.  Take a listen to The Commitments.  You won’t be sorry.  Nice.  Yessss.  If you only listen to one track try ‘The Dark End of the Street’.  If you don’t like this version, lose yourself in the 1967 original by James Carr – rich and just sublime. 

 

Reading: The Commitments, by Roddy Doyle is part of a 5 book series centred on a family – the Rabbittes – from Barrytown, Dublin.  Other books are The Snapper, The Van, Paddy Clarke ha ha ha, The Guts.  

 

Film: The Commitments – based on the novel by Roddy Doyle, a musical, comedy drama, with some genuinely funny moments and a fair amount of bad language.  Andrew Strong’s vocal’s are stunning.

 

In the news:

Jo Biden elected President of the US

One of the most complex ‘big number’ problems, Protein Folding is solved by AI Deep Mind based in London

Dominic Cummings resigns

Jeremy Corbyn is re-admitted to Labour’s bosom after accusations of anti-semitism

Playstation 5 released amid unsurprising supply problems