Now that my husband is just
in the fading stages of the massive attack of ‘Man Flu’ that struck him down
for a whole three weeks, it is now my turn. I never thought for a moment that
it was possible for me to escape, although it did wind me into its clutches
very slowly. It was only in the tickly at the back of the nose and a slight
sore throat stage when only last Wednesday, I attended the practice clinic for
my annual Asthma check with Nurse Lizzie, even then my peak flow was normal. Up
to that point, I had trained normally but then the cough took hold effortlessly.
I did swim on Friday morning and felt OK. I felt well enough to go out with
Steve on his first 5km run in several weeks and was fine during that too. It
did start coughing during the day and took extra inhalers and things to suck in
my handbag for the theatre trip on Friday.
Yesterday, which was Saturday;
I was coughing badly from early morning and so stayed indoors. Come late afternoon,
Steve made it clear in case I had any doubt that I was not going to the pool
for the club session.
My son in law Martin had brought
Louis the little black Spaniel to us because he and my daughter Jacqueline were
going to a posh wedding of a friend in Stanmer House in Stanmer
Park , outside of Brighton .
I have thus far, not felt anything like as poorly as Steve appeared to be when
he was still the proud owner of this bug, so when Steve left to take the swim
session last evening I wrapped up warmly, in a huge hand-me-down Ski jacket
that Steve no longer uses, and took Louis out for a brisk walk. He is used to ‘brisk’
because my daughter walks fast too. It was dark by that time and I took him out
directly from home since Steve had taken the car.
Stanmer House Near Brighton
Without doubt, I have
mentioned before that he is the best behaved dog in the world I am sure. My
lovely daughter and I went to dog training classes with the first dog she had
as a companion/friend. He was a much larger dog, a gorgeous Rough Collie called
Tag. Over the years Jakki has continued to go to dog training with each of her
other dogs since the classes are for social as well as obedience purposes. All of
the dog’s progress through simple commands to much more advanced stuff like
distant commands and hand signals. The Rough Collie was the only one so far,
who in his old age worked out that if he was out of ear shot, he could escape
the hand signals simply by casually not looking at you. Enter the whistle.
Louis is still very eager to
please those he loves, which thankfully includes me and Steve, although I am
better at the handling aspect, Steve’s mastery is more basic. Louis treats me
and responds to me, as instantly as he does to Jacqueline and he has also
learned a few extra rules that are peculiar to me e.g. He knows for sure that
he cannot jump on my lap to watch TV unless invited.
The lead up to this in fully
understood by the Prince of Darkness; he will sit and watch me with the
patience of Job, as I settle down of an evening, this is a bit of a process
because I am a terrible fidget. He will watch me as I gather my distance
glasses, make a cup of tea or pour a glass of wine, then put on my jammies and
sit in the chair. Even then, he knows that is not an invitation. I do leave it
a just little while just to keep the rule in place and make concrete of it. Then
I take my soft cable throw from the back of my eazi-boy chair and put it over my
legs. Then and only then, I turn to look at him and lightly pat my leg and
WHOOOSH! Then I tell him what a gooooood boy he is and pet him softly.
Banging on as I am about how
well trained Louis is; whilst I was taking him on his walk earlier last night, and
as I point out again, that I had a huge hooded coat on, since it was raining and
windy with the expected storm brewing up a bit. The man sized sleeves cover my hands and it
comes down almost to my knees. After a bit of a romp in a small park area, we
had continued a tour of a nearby housing estate. It was dark apart from street
lights. Louis just glances behind every now and again to make sure he is going
the right way since I take several slightly different routes through there.
At one point when he was about
twenty metres ahead (no lead needed with this dog), I called a sharp; “Lou”. He
looked round immediately and all I did was flick my hooded head like a teenager
to tell him to cross the road, which he did do, without a single second hesitation,
before continuing on in front of me.
I did not Join Steve, Birgit
and Louis on the Sunday run this morning whilst the first named storm of the
season, Angus, does its 80 mph darnest. Steve listened to me coughing this
morning early (5.00am) and got up, got dressed and took Louis out himself for a
quick trip down to the seafront to see how the sea was behaving whipped up by
Angus and to give Louis a quick burst on his banjo. He came home half an hour or
so later and said “Not many people about”!!!!
There is a man who lives
close to us who is taken for a walk by his King Charles spaniel who yanks the
man along so fast that he has to lean forward holding tightly on to the lead. The
dog yaps the whole time he is out, for no reason and any reason. It’s a mystery
why he has never trained that dog. He cannot let it off the lead because he
would never get it back. It looks like it is misery for them both.
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