Incident
diplomatic averted
A brief
Fergus incident with a further update to follow soon!!
But first, an
opportunity to say “My, hasn’t he grown!”
Oh, an also
on our recent holiday in Spain,
he found a passion for chasing and
drinking (!!!!!) the waves on the beach.
Unfortunately,
the sea water quite literally
went through him like a dose of salts!!!!
But, back now to the
narrowly averted diplomatic incident.
As Fergus has grown in
size, so has his speed increased and he has become braver, although some time
ago, when he was still very young, in an email to my cousin I said: Fergus -
cats, large dogs, horses, goats, chickens, cows, sheep, gunshots, low flying
jets, people including children - no
problem! But his shadow and trees that look like
giants that's
another story!, and indeed
the latter will feature in a future story.
His speed and bravery combined have turned him into a chaser, great for
exercise, although at times this habit creates something of a “one-track mind”
and before you know it and he realises it, he is disappearing over the horizon,
a mere blur not only because of how far away he is, but also because of the
speed he is travelling at! But, he duly
pants back and sits obediently hoping for a treat!!
Well, as I believe may also be happening in the UK, as the clocks have
changes so there is a definite feeling of spring in the air, although having
just gone to get Fergus in from the garden, as he was barking, well it is gone
1 o’clock in the morning and the neighbours are in bed!, there was a bit of a
nip in the air, so all might not be sunny days and balmy nights! It transpired he was trying to chase the
relatively new moon that is hanging in the sky, just above the fields behind
our neighbouring gîte! But with the
springing out of spring everywhere, as well as the multitude of stunning wild
flowers, many of which need sniffing and occasional watering, the fluttering
butterflies, that require a rather half hearted chase as they flit this way and
that, and there has been a proliferation of birds all seemingly intent on
heralding in the better weather. So the
cuckoos are doing just that, the woodpeckers are not only pecking, but also
“laughing” at Fergus, both of which need to be put in place with a wouf or two,
no not woof in this case, as Fergus is being brought up bi-lingual!, and the
multitude of other twitters and tweeters, of the featured variety, if not teasing Fergus from a safe vantage
point are flying around and trying to get him to chase them. And chase them he does, along the track, over
the field, through the hedge and along the other side, only just falling short,
and not without the want of trying, from actually taking to the air.
On this particular day, a couple of small songbirds had already been
put in their place, a blackbird stalked along both sides of a hedge and a
couple of soaring buzzards were lucky his “wings” had failed him that day! We were at this point heading up the hill,
the other side of the valley from home, towards a favourite walk that skirts
through the edge of a large expanse of woodland, good shelter from both the sun
and the rain and ideal cover for raiding parties out into the bordering field,
taking the unsuspecting birds pecking about in the mud, totally by surprise and
more effective than a scarecrow, as he not only moves, but also moves
effectively in their direction and at great speed. They always make good their escape, but
sometimes out of sheer bravado, not taking off until the last minute, and I’m
sure a couple of days previously after some fairly heavy rain which had forced
the worms to the field surface, the large flock of birds that had gathered to
make the most of these rich pickings, carried out an orchestrated “let’s wind
up the dog” routine, as when he chased one group a nearby group would fly up
from feeding and head him off. This
happened repeated, so didn’t just seem to be a happy coincidence, but did lead
to a peaceful rest of the day, as Fergus lay on his bed for several hours
afterwards, with only the odd twitch, wouf or flick of a paw or two, when his
dreaming turned to chasing!
Well, he was walking with me for once, perhaps hoping the hand would go
to the plastic bag in the right pocket, an action and sound he can, if in the
mood, hear from a good hundred metres away.
I say he was there, but suddenly without warning he was off, galloping
at enormous speed over the field and heading, before I knew it, over the brow
of the distant hill. At first I couldn’t
see what had triggered the chase, but then I saw them flying quickly from left
to right just proud of the horizon. I
realised it was Thursday, and this was our weekly fly pass of a couple of
French Airforce, MIG fighter jets on exercise!!
As luck would have it, he didn’t get them, so fortunately a diplomatic
incident was narrowly averted, but not I’m sure without an initial degree of
alarm and I could almost hear the hasty radio message back to base: “Je pense
les anglais avez un nouveau weapon secrete,” before realising that it was in
fact just a bit of harmless child’s play – well he was only five and a half
months old at the time!!
