Lost dog!

Sunday 8^th May

Slow start to a sunny day with a promise of high temperatures. Bill took Perla out at 7.30 as he has done all this month and I had their breakfasts ready when they returned. Then we set off for an amble around the lake and Perla looked as if she wanted nothing more than her bed. Next time I looked round she was at the far side of the field nosing around the compost heap. I set off to persuade her away from it, and as I watched she walked around it and disappeared behind it into the woodland. Argh!

I got there as fast as I could and stood where the spring starts but could not see a splodge of white anywhere. Usually she is easy to spot in all the greenery around us, but not this morning. Bill and I searched various directions but not a trace of her. He checked the tracker we bought for her and ran for the car. “She’s up at the top of the hill near Le Granges and still moving.”

We got there, turned left and headed for the monastery at La Peyrouse and there she was - coming off the big field toward the road. I got out of the car and she came straight up to me, wagging her tail and looking surprised and pleased. “There you are!” she seemed to say.

A person, no more than a silhouette against the sun, stood 100 yards away, a small cat curling around their feet. Obviously they had either chased Perla or tried to catch her, but I don’t know which. I seem to remember that Perla hates cats, but the little cat looked happy enough, so hopefully there was not “an incident.” We bundled her into the back of the car and came home.

She had travelled more or less in a straight line up the hill through the woods, crossed the road twice – thank goodness it was Sunday morning and no white vans whizzing about – investigated the big house at the crossroads and then crossed back again. Thank goodness we found her when we did! And thank goodness for Bill’s foresight in buying the tracker to fix to her collar!