A Dog walkers life: Some days never go as we think they may!
It was Friday. I had already had a splendid walk with Luna the Belgian Malinois in the early part of the day. We had a mixed walk of pavement, fields, park and country lane. This is really good for her as she is learning many new skills at being a young family dog, She spent her puppy months being trained to be a working dog and only knew kennel life and work training until her loving family took her on as she was "too soft" to be a working dog. So she is now learning to be a pup again and enjoy the things that dogs enjoy. When we are on walks she stays on the lead, just at the moment, until we can work on her recall and focus, she definitely loves going for birds!
Her road walks are improving on each walk, she has a tendency to lunge at traffic and large vehicles, so a well led walk with training is paying off and she earns her treats for being a fantastic girl.
After dropping Luna home, I embark on my next pick up's, this is what I call my lunch pack or pack lunch! I collect Luna, a beautiful one year old black Labrador who is full of life and loves to run, play & swim(even if a puddle is deep enough!). Next it's Teddy (the bear), he is a Chinese powder puff x and has a grey shaggy coat and is always ready for a cuddle. Then Walter a brown Cockerpoo joins the gang, I have worked with Walty & Teddy for many years now and when he gets in the car he always gets a kiss from Teddy before they settle down together. Walter is a fun loving boy who is happy to chase around with the others and roll upside down in leaves, snow or cut grass!
We then go and collect Mabel, last but most definitely not least.
She is a white Cockerpoo who loves life and makes the most of her walks by going on mini adventures and stays white for about 1 minute before turning muddy coloured!
Today the walk of choice is to a beautiful area called Hillhouse woods, If you walk one way you can walk for miles through fields and along a river or the other way takes you to the named woods made up of ancient woodland. In the spring it's known as bluebell woods as all the flowers blossom and turn the woods into a sight to be seen.
The lunch pack have a fabulous walk, mixed up by playing, running , chasing and puddle diving!
As we approach the car signalling the end of the walk, I love seeing the energy levels they started the day with dropping right down and looking like they are all ready for a snooze.
They find their places in the car and are as quiet as mice. It's so satisfying as a dog walker to know they are so happy and relaxed. It's why I use the tag line "happy dog, happy home".
After taking Walter & Mabel home I arrive a Teddy's house.
One of his owners is home, so we say hello from the back door and as I do so, I saw a chunky spider creep under one of their boots near to the door. I told Her and said "don't worry I can get it out and re-home it!"
So I was given the equipment to spider catch.
Plastic cup and cardboard in hand I scooped the spider up and turned to give it a new home by the trees over the wall of their garden. As I went across their decking, I failed to notice they had a short step taking you up to another level of the deck, I tripped on it, but as I tried to right myself, my body was ahead of my legs, I ended up almost running and the only thing to stop me was their solid brick wall. My head hit first and scraped sideways along the brick as my body caught up, my shoulder was next and then my hands, still holding the cup, well not for long as it smashed into pieces on impact.
I slumped to the the floor for what seemed like ages (but was only a minute probably) as the pain of my fall started to build up, I was so embarrassed as I heard my client shout out! She was mortified what had happened.
I dragged myself up, blood on the side of my head from a large graze, pain throbbing through my neck, shoulder, knees and hand. I kept saying sorry as I felt so stupid for my clumsiness.
Poor Teddy didn't know whether to give me a cuddle or run away in shock!
After saying I was okay, I left to drop Luna home and then rang my family for a hand with my last walk of the afternoon ( I really needed it!)
As the weekend started I found the fall had been more serious than I thought, eventually after trying to be a hero, I rang 111 and ended up in A&E. I was strapped to a bed to immobilise my neck as I was whisked off for a CT scan, then x-rays on my shoulder and fingers. The NHS team that cared for me were fantastic.
It turned out the fall had given me a "whiplash" and re-injured an old neck fracture from my past, I had what they think is a hairline crack in my shoulder and 2 badly broken fingers!
I so wish the clients house had CCTV outside as it would have been hilarious to watch back and put on "you've been framed" or Youtube!
Being a dog walker is the best job in the world but does have it's dangers!!
I'm thinking of changing my company name from Walking Tall to Falling like a fool!
PS... We have no idea what became of the spider & I took a gift of a proper spider catcher gadget around the other day!
until next time....