Exploring Somewhere You Know Well

It was all going on here today. She was out getting in bags and bags of stuff that I'm not allowed to go near. Not sure where she gets it from but it's their food. I only get it after they've finished pushing it around but that's another story. Anyway, there was a lot of commotion out in the street; a police car parked in the road down the side of our house and a PC was turning cars back at the junction. Then I saw some of my mates turn up in another car. I was just thinking that it was a good time to keep my head down when I got locked in the utility room. Usually, I'm shoved in the dining room but presumably because she cleaned the carpet in there yesterday, I'm now banned from being banished there. And so I had a little time to reflect on the goings on. Obviously, something was afoot as it's not everyday you see a heavy police presence in this neighbourhood. Through the door, I could hear her getting very excited because she thought she had seen an Armed Response Vehicle turn up. Of course, through the thickness of a knotty solid pine door, I was unable to verify this but it was an interesting development nonetheless.

I was stuck in that room much longer than I have ever been in the dining room. This was not very satisfactory given that it's a cold, hard floor and I'm 91. She's never taken that long bringing in the bags from the car. Then, I heard her talking to the old lady suggesting that she go and ask what was going on. In no time she was back again and they were speculating on the nature of the 'serious incident' to which the PC had referred. What I heard next was unbelievable; she said she was going to take me along the road to see what was happening. Just imagine this: a gunman is on the loose and she wants me to go for a stroll. I thought that it was supposed to be dogs who had a nose for trouble but thinking about it, a dog would only do it in the line of duty not on a whim out of pure curiousity. The final straw was when I heard the old lady saying:
'Oh, you don't want to do that'
At last, the voice of reason.
'If there are police dogs about, you don't want to get caught up with them'.
'But they're well behaved'
'I know but yours isn't!'
Unbelievable. So there we all were in the vicinity of a mad gunman and they were taking the opportunity to discuss my behaviour towards other dogs.

It seemed as if the situation was resolved quite suddenly which only added to their unsatisfied curiosity. So, after a cup of coffee (her, not me), we went for the most bizarre walk yet. Down to the end of the road, right, round the bend, left into that crescent, up the alley back to the first road back along where we'd been not five minutes before, round the back of the perimeter of our house, up the road where the police car had been parked and home. Exploring somewhere you know well is a fine art; you stop to inhale the odours, retrace your steps from last time you were there. It is not meant to be a brisk walk in a circle. Furthermore, it was embarrassing. As we neared the front door, it started to rain and I realised that I'd had quite a close call; she might easily have made me wear that coat again. Back inside, she resumed yesterday's activity of cleaning the carpets.

Later on in the afternoon, the old lady went along to the school - I'm never allowed to go there either in case I disgrace myself in some way although if I had a gun, it may be different - and came back triumphantly with the news. Or at least a bit of it. A hairdryer. Yes, it was something to do with a hairdryer. The mind boggles. That's humans for you.