A Series Of Dog Tales
Canine Chronicles by Linda A. Meredith
Series Excerpt
Towards the end of Autumn, we decided to have a long weekend away in North Yorkshire, a place we both love, before the weather became too bad. Jake had never been overly keen on being in the car, so I sat in the back with him for a while. After a pit stop for necessities, we walked him around the car park perimeter to stretch his legs. When we got back in the car, I got in the front, hoping that he would lie down and go to sleep in the back. After a few miles, Iain noticed something in his rear mirror that made him laugh. Jake had clambered up onto the parcel shelf and was watching the world go by.
For those of us old enough to remember, lots of people used to put toy, nodding dogs in the back window of their cars. Well, we had a real live one!! I would love to have seen the reaction of other drivers when they realised he was real!! Looking back, we shouldn't have allowed him to do it – I certainly wouldn't do it now. But he was quite happy there watching the world go by…
We found a lovely dog-friendly pub in a little village near Pickering. The weather was beautiful; in fact, we hadn't had much rain at all – unlike some summers! The owners had a beautiful Weimaraner called Ellie, who turned out to be Jake's first love! Ellie's mum had hurt her ankle, and wasn't able to walk Ellie, so we took her out with us. Jake was very happy to have a new play mate, it was lovely to watch them bound around the fields.
On one of the days, we had a trip on the North York Moors Railway up to Goathland where they filmed Heartbeat. The steam railway runs along about 18 miles through the national park, and the scenery is stunning. Jake seemed a little bit perturbed when he saw the engine, it must have looked massive to the little guy. Once we were aboard he was fine, and providing we let him sit on Iain's knee and seemed quite happy looking out of the window! Once there, we headed off on a slow jaunt towards the pub. The sun was over the yard arm, and Iain was on holiday – which can only mean 'Beer-O-Clock! The Goathland hotel/Aidensfield Arms is right at the far end of the village.
Fortunately, dogs are permitted so we stopped for lunch, which, if I remember correctly, was very tasty, traditional pub grub. Jake sat under the table the whole time, doing his best pathetic/they never feed me look, and lapping up all the attention he was getting!
Afterwards, we wandered around the pretty, little village, and because we were both 'Heartbeat' fans at the time, we found it very interesting. Soon it was time for us to head for the train back to Pickering. Everyone we met was fussing Jake, and he wasn't complaining! We boarded the train back to Pickering, and again the journey was amazing; there's something about steam engines that is quite magical, and I can understand why there are so many enthusiasts.
That evening, we left Jake snuggled up in his bed, whilst we went down for dinner. When we went up later to check on him, he hadn't moved. Our little guy had had a busy day!
After breakfast the following day, we took Jake and Ellie for their walk. Ellie could run like the wind, and Jake, - well, he could run. He could run right underneath Ellie, such was the difference in size, but no way could he catch her. Still, it was fun watching him try!
It was during this walk that he hurt his eye. We could see that it was uncomfortable for him, but just thought that he'd got a bit of dust in it from the fields. However, when we got back to the pub and bathed it, we saw that it was considerably more than a bit of dust… A piece of straw had lodged itself into his eye and was causing him some real discomfort. The Landlady rang her vets and got us an appointment immediately. The Vets wasn't too far away, and we were there in around 20 minutes.
The Vet was waiting for us and set about examining Jake's eye. He was incredibly good about this, but sadly, he wasn't going to be too good when it was pulled out! Because this would be a very delicate procedure, the vet decided it would be much better if Jake was .
So, our little man had the first, of which would be many, anesthetics. We were behaving like over anxious parents, as it seemed to take such a long time. We needn't have worried, the vet brought out our rather sleepy little Staffy, and I cuddled him all the way back to the pub.
By the time we arrived at the pub, he seemed to have forgotten all about it, especially when he saw Ellie, but sadly, there would be no walk that evening for them. Jake was still under the influence of the anaesthetic and a bit wobbly. However, he was happy to let Ellie see his 'war wound' when she came to give him the once over.
The following morning, they had a little run together in the garden at the back of the pub, and then it was time to leave. It's a good job dogs don't have the same sentiment as humans, as I think both Jake and Ellie would have been very sad to know that they wouldn't see each other again…
On arriving home, we informed our vet as to what had happened, and took him for a check-up the week after. It was looking good – nothing to worry about, it was healing beautifully; The Yorkshire Vet had done an excellent job!
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