It was raining on Sunday – Freya's first rainy walk. I quite love a walk in the rain, as long as I've got clean clothes to change into when I get back, which I always do.
I thought I'd take her down to the ugly blue train bridge, just to see if she could get that far comfortably. It's not very far, and I could always carry her a little way back if she got tired. It's down here, along the cracked and broken pavement that makes really good puddles. And, oh look – most of the leaves have fallen now.
On the ground, there. Apparently, leaf drifts are quite fun for digging, rolling, sliding and snuffling. Who knew?!
Well, we made it very easily to the ugly blue train bridge. Freya was mightily impressed by it, I can tell you. 'Look at that splendid structure,' says she. 'Shame it's blue.' And then it was my turn to be impressed because I haven't actually taught Freya her colours yet, so I don't know where she picked that up from.
'Freya,' says I, 'the park is just a few yards further – would you like to see it?' 'Would I?!' says she. So we went into the park. My intention was to just let her have a look at it, but then turn round and go home because this was already Freya's longest walk so far. But she seemed quite keen to have a look further in, possibly because there were hundreds of birds on the grass, and she'd never seen birds before. 'Alright,' says I, 'but just a little look.'
Right inside, we met a dog and its human. This dog was a spaniel of some kind – I'm not very knowledgeable about dog breeds, so you'll just have to put up with my vague descriptions. I know as much about dog breeds as I do about trees, which should tell you everything you need to know about that. Whatever kind of spaniel it was, it was a bit too lively for Freya, who hid behind my legs until it had gone a safe distance from us. Then she remembered the birds.
Can you see them? The seagulls playing football? There were jackdaws spectating and a couple of pigeons refereeing. Marvellous. Freya was actually quite respectful and didn't attempt to disrupt the game by chasing any of the players. She just watched, quite intently, probably trying to work out the rules because she's that clever.
Since we were halfway across the park now – it's not a very big park – I supposed we might as well just carry on and do a full circle instead of turning back. The distance was about the same either way, and I knew by now that I'd definitely brought Freya too far for her poor little growth plates. We won't walk this far again for quite some time. She didn't mind at all – she was still full of beans, but she doesn't know about growth plates, and it's my job to make sure they're not damaged by too much walking.
Here's the other side of the park. She jumped off that wall like it was nothing at all – let me tell you, that wall is quite high if you're only three months old, so, once again, my little girl impressed me.
We made it home with no visible signs of fatigue in either of us. Freya even did a sprint finish – she can smell our street before we turn onto it, and as soon as she smells it, her ears are down, she shoots off in front of me, and she pulls me home. Quite marvellous. She even knows which drive to turn into when we reach our house.
Of course, she slept most of the rest of the day, completely worn out from her two miles. Much, much too far for her, and we'll stick to less than one for many weeks to come.
Until tomorrow, lovelies.
WQ+F
Comments
Post a Comment