We had an interesting time today on our pre-dinner daunder. Took the dogs on a wee trip up past the primary school playing fields, round the playpark and back. And it was supposed to be that simple; only Murphy decided to step up his career in social embarrassment and general thievery.
There were a couple of girls at the playpark - we ignored them and they ignored us. However, as I wandered round the edge, I realised Murphy was stravaiging across the middle - with a purpose in mind. As I stopped to call him he reached some kind of big doughnut-shaped thing on legs (play equipment, not an obese child) and went for something in the middle of it. Much to my horror, I saw it was a leather satchel (pale pink so obviously one of the girls') - and he was rummaging around inside it!
Needless to say I made a beeline at speed but by the time I got there he had a bag of cat-treats clenched in his jaws. Cue a wrestling contest and some wheedlery with a dog biscuit under his nose (he ignored it). All I can say is thank the lord humans have opposable thumbs which can be used as leverage!!
I was able to get it off him before he got into it and, having attracted the attention of said owner (who must've been about ten), ascertained that she was luckily quite blasé about the whole thing. I wiped the bag free of dog-slaver and handed it over, she said it was OK, her cat did that all the time, and off we went, Murphy quite oblivious to any of the comments on his character I directed at him.
Half way home, (the dogs now safely on leads, being no respecters - or even recognisers - of the front garden boundaries in these new fenceless estates) we turned a corner and saw not one, but two cats! One was on top of a fence and one was on the pavement directly beneath it. And the latter looked a lot like Gizzy. Upon closer viewing it turned out to actually be Gizzy as well - clearly taking advantage of the milder weather to start exploring the neighbourhood and make new friends.
I carried on and Gizzy decided this looked promising on the food front and trotted calmly ahead of us. Maddie wasn't impressed by this lack of fear but there was little she could do with me hanging onto the other end of the lead like grim death! We passed the fearless feline (who had paused at a reasonable distance from the line we were taking along the road) near home and she followed us instead; the girl from two houses along (one of my erstwhile Brownies, as it happens) who came out her front door in time to see this was intrigued enough to follow us round the corner to watch.
Luckily I maintained a firm grip on the leads and any further late afternoon excitement was averted, with the dogs' attention turning to more easily-available food sources, like their bowls! Gizzy kept a discrete distance until the dogs were eating and then trotted past them in the kitchen. Home for tea.
Could've been worse!
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