The dog!!

The Dog

 

Honest! If anybody had seen us they would most certainly have sent for the men in little white vans that carry straight jackets.

Tanya was looking at me with head cocked to one side as I rolled about in the lush grass by a cattle water trough where I had lifted her up for a drink. The cause of the laughter was standing trembling with tail between it's legs about twenty feet away.

 
We were on our way to 'Lac Vasiviere', routed as usual through the wee back roads winding up and down through the hills and hamlets of this delightful 'Haute Vienne' area. I had seen a sign saying 'Barrage' (dam) where we parked Sadie and proceeded with lunch. We decided to do a walk as Google maps showed, as usual, plenty of tracks along and through the forest surrounding this long narrow EDF (Electric Dept France) reservoir.

 
Now, as seems to be normal in these rural and non tourist areas, there was not a soul about. A large, very friendly and lively dog however; seemed very pleased to see us and immediately adopted us. My walking poles soon had to be placed in an X across the door to prevent said very friendly and really quite well mannered dog from entering Sadie. One unexpected bound in and subsequent leap onto the bed, much to Tanya's surprise, was enough dog mayhem for one day thank you. Said dog was well groomed and belonged to the house just above where we were parked. I found this out when I knocked on the door to check if it was OK to park where I was. There was no reply so I presumed nobody in. But friendly dog appeared from round back with favourite toy!

Lunch over and off up to the dam and over the hill for our walk. Friendly dog decided this was great and bounded along with us. By this time Tanya had resigned herself to the fact of large boundy dog being an item for this walk. There was quite a climb and we were now crossing some grassy upland meadows toward a track into the woods. Cattle were around with their grazing controlled by electric fences. 

Now electric fences are no trouble for me. I can get over them. Electric fences are no problem for Tanya. She just goes under them. A slightly different situation arises for a large boundy dog. Especially one who at every bog or wet patch soaks herself thoroughly.

That was why I was rolling about in the grass clutching at belly laughter. Large boundy and wet dog had just done a leap twenty foot in the air with accompanying yelps after rubbing wet doggy hair quite firmly against the electric fence. Which, was mains powered so packed quite a punch. Large boundy dog was now standing, shitting itself, shaking uncontrollably, tail being shat upon as it was firmly between legs, and whimpering something along the lines of. "Good God, what the f**ck was that and is it going to hit me again!"

Eventually I got over my laughter and our walk resumed. Large boundy dog, after about five minutes, gave a classic demonstration of dogs ability to 'be in the moment'. She once again bounded after us oblivious to recent trauma and probably none the wiser about electric fences.

We completed our walk with no further incident. Tanya, exhausted clambered onto her bed and went straight to sleep. Large, wet, mucky and smelly boundy dog must also have been tired as it disappeared towards it's home and was not seen again. I decided to move on, as opposed to my original plan of stay there the night. I was just a bit nervous that householder was now in the house and at this very moment puzzling over how a smart looking dog earlier in the day had transformed into a downright filthy and smelly dog who had developed an aversion to people unwarily patting him on his back.

 
We quietly moved on before dirty dog and motorhome were connected. A few miles further on we found a delightful westerly facing spot on the edge of a wood where we watched the sun go down until the very last rays of deep dark rouge sank into darkness.