Escape artist

I've just answered the door...to my dog!

This morning was dry and mild so even before daylight we'd had a long walk in Musgrave and enjoyed the sound of birds beginning to stir and the occasional car on Stockman's Lane. Dawn brought the early autumn colours into focus and the carefully manicured flower beds started to show off their finery.

On the way home we'd had the regular lesson on walking to heel...not great success with that yet...but we keep trying. The trouble is, I suspect, the inconsistency of the owner and not the intelligence of the dog but at least Eliot now recognises the sound of the "green man".

Anyhow - when we returned I enjoyed a coffee and Eliot had a quick run in the back garden just to show that he wasn't tired! And this is where I made a false assumption.

Normally the pup (now seven years eight months old so probably not a "pup" any longer) takes over the front room and enjoys the school run from his vantage point. And that's where I was wrong.

With an unusually dry and now sunny morning he stayed in the garden and then strayed from it. Somehow he's found a way through the fences and hedges into a neighbouring property and from there out onto the street. He then returns to his own pad through the front entrance. The undergrowth at the bottom of the garden is too dense for me to see where is the gap and Eliot can get through rather small holes (a bit like the 'last mouse' who is still managing to escape capture!).

It may be that the luxury of unsupervised play in the garden will have to end as who knows where Eliot might go once he's tasted freedom? I can imagine that he'd become distracted should a passing cat, squirrel or small dog come into his line of vision - and then - totally unaware of traffic - he'd enter the chase!

Of course, right now he's back at the front window and looking the picture of the innocent, charming mutt that he is. So, all is well. I can return to my book content in the knowledge that there's a new blog posted and the dog is, once again, the centre of attention!