To those of you who know our family or indeed ARE our family, you will remember Ben our very clever but sometimes daft, but as loved as any other human in our family Border Collie! We were all bereft when he suddenly collapsed and died four years ago and I certainly felt no other dog would replace him in our hearts. I was of course right as you cannot 'replace' any much loved animal or human, however a new place is found in our luckily very big expandable hearts. Most of you know how I ended up with funny peculiar Ta-shi, and how I had chosen a much prettier pup from the litter and signed all the paperwork etc. When I suddenly put the pretty pup down and said no I want this one and picked up the odd little fur ball that was to become our new best friend. I have always thought Ben had a little part in my choice and was looking down that day and decided that this was the chap for me. I never once regretted the choice as Ta-shi (Supposedly lucky in Tibetan) is a great little dog and as well trained as any collie I know. Have not tested the herding sheep thingy though!
Now one of Ben's funny tricks was that he loved to swim or get into any kind of dirty water he could find. "Please not the bath though," was his mantra! He, however needed a reason to get into the water, so would go to the edge of the river bank or lakeside and carefully drop his ball into the water. He then would look at me with those gorgeous brown eyes and happy smiling face and say "Look what's happened I am just going to have to go in and get it are't I!" Of course I would agree and he would spend some time happily doggy paddling before eventually retrieving the wayward ball and come out and give me a fragrant shower of eau de river!
On Saturday evening BJ and I were walking Ta-shi along the Oxford canal when suddenly and precisely he went to the edge of the canal and dropped the ball over the edge into the water!!! He stood and looked at it wagging his tail and looking at me as if to say "aren't I clever?"
To say I was flabbergasted was an understatement I have always joked that ta-sh is Ben re-incarnated as a dog with a bit more attitude but it was only a joke. More was to come on this surreal walk.
We cross a field which has been left fallow this year but has a lot of waist high rye grass, Ta-shi always sticks to the footpath with me as he does not like any grass that tickles his rather low slung tummy. When suddenly he goes off on a mad one rushing into the grass at top speed, birds and ducks fly up squawking and quacking in surprise as a mini whirlwind invades their hide-outs. He carried on this malarkey for ten minutes before coming out (once he had remembered which way was indeed out) with a spring in his step and tongue hanging almost to the floor after such mad exertion. This was another game of Ben's! How very weird!
On Sunday BJ and I took a trip to West Midlands Safari park and spent a lovely day in the company of various wild beasts. The funniest thing was when BJ fed (you can buy food to give to the giraffes and Llama's) a giraffe. The gorgeous beast (the giraffe not BJ) gracefully lowered his gentle face and took the food, he then put his now rather loomingly large face into the car and spat it out all over BJ. It was the funniest thing, I am still laughing today.
The stupidest thing we saw was when driving through the tiger reserve a safari truck came racing up past us and the other cars. I wondered what was the matter, I could not believe my eyes when as we rounded a bend I saw that a child was standing head and shoulders out of the sun roof of the car she was in, about ten foot away lay three tigers. MAD!
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