Adventures in Petsitting
Exploring rural England with a pair of Golden Retrievers.
By Jane Thomas
My husband and I have a somewhat nomadic existence at the moment and this makes organizing gifts for each other extra tricky. ‘Things’ have to be practical, useful and as small as possible – or replacing an item that has finally given up the ghost – and ‘experiences’ have to be artfully planned to fit into two complicated schedules.
Grant grew up in a pool of Golden Retrievers and has always had a serious soft spot for them, so when the chance came up to look after a pair for a month and it fitted neatly with where we needed to be at the time, I leapt at it. The perfect gift. Which is how we found ourselves fishing two decidedly blackened goldies out of muddy streams on an almost daily basis, walking for mile after mile around the Kent countryside that didn’t have so much as a hillock to break the endless flats.
Kyuss was the larger, goofier Goldie who liked to take up the entire couch if possible, and Lola was the livelier, ditzier younger sister who developed an obsession with hairdryers after I used one in a desperate bid to dry her off after a particularly damp and bog-strewn walk. If I turned it on upstairs after a shower she would come bounding up in three leaps and hurl herself towards me, face turned with that unmistakable Goldie smile towards the blast of hot air.
It wasn’t long before I understood Grant’s devotion to the breed. Both dogs were just adorable: very gentle, very sweet, and very well-behaved as long as there wasn’t water nearby. That was their weakness, and no amount of cajoling or downright yelling would stop them from making a beeline for it. Fortunately, pubs in England are more welcoming of a dog, muddy or otherwise, than anywhere else in the world, so our walks could be punctuated by sitting in front of the fire and Kyuss and Lola gaining legions of fans who adoringly handed over treats and pats. Walk into any pub in rural England and I swear half the occupants will have dog treats ready in their pockets, regardless of whether they have a dog themselves.
