Thundercloud in a Storm

Life can turn from dreamy to dramatic all in a moment. You're wandering along sleepily, thinking about what you'll do when you get home, and suddenly you have a situation on your hands.

I read someone (I can't remember who!) who quoted someone (still can't remember, gah) about how the world would be an awful lot better if people would just sit down and keep quiet. That's very true, though it's not only humans who should sit down and keep quiet.

There I was, pottering along in mid-afternoon with the neighbour's dog, Thundercloud - she's a Golden Labrador Retriever. As usual I had her on the leash.

A couple of dogs appeared on the path in front of us - a boxer and a black Labrador. I thought they would probably be annoying, getting in our way and trying to play, as many young dogs do when they're off the leash and trying to associate with Thundercloud.

But as we attempted to edge past, the boxer and the black lab began bellowing into Thundercloud's face. Two or three other dogs appeared and came in on both sides, baying, darting in and out. The two leaders stood fast. Thundercloud pulled forward on the leash and yammered right back at them.

The racket was terrible - it sounded like somebody being torn to pieces by a pack of hounds, and I couldn't believe it was us in the middle of it. We weren't doing anything to anybody. What was THIS all about? This is a small town in Scotland - this doesn't happen here.

They weren't biting yet but I had a feeling it wouldn't take much - I hung onto Thundercloud who was still surging forward, and shouted 'SIT!', all the time feeling that was just ludicrous, because I didn't want her to sit. Didn't seem like such a good idea. Possibly I hoped the other dogs would sit, but they weren't looking at me at all - all their attention was focused on Thundercloud.

I wanted to look up and see where the owners were, but my eyes were locked on the dogs on front of me. I was hanging on till someone came to our rescue - we were the centre of a barking, snarling, uproarious maelstrom, with everywhere else silent and populated with figures I couldn't even begin to guess at - you just hope they're somewhere out there and coming to deal with the situation. The very squirrels were probably holding their breaths, gazing down from their branches...

It had been too long - I was beginning to wonder where the heck the owners were - they should have been right on the heels of their dogs?

Time passed...

Then they were there, two or three figures, scruffing their dogs and sweeping them away. They looked every bit as horrified as I felt. I don't think they expected anything like that to happen. One of them patted Thundercloud in an apologetic, comforting way, which Thundercloud accepted tranquilly... just to show it wasn't her that started the racket.

On the way home, she didn't look as though anything out of the ordinary had happened... just trotted along and raked about in the leaves, and looked at me with puzzled brown eyes a couple of times. But when we were nearer home, she pulled hard, ears pricked - "come on, I want to get home now."

When I got home myself, my cat Sharky was curled up at the foot of the Christmas tree. He opened his eyes, blinked, and went back to sleep. All was peace.