Dolly, our new friend

This morning we had a trip to our local park, intending to pass through and get to the field, which is endlessly interesting for Susie-Belle with all the different smells left by the dogs and wildlife that visit during each day and nocturnally.

But we never made it to the field, we got waylaid in the park by a very beautiful 17 week old German shepherd, Dolly. I will try and get a photo of Dolly as she is just like a fluffy teddy bear at the moment and full of joie de vivre.

Although she’s only 17 weeks old, she’s already quite a lot larger than Renae and Susie-Belle but this didn’t put Renae off from having an amazing bout of running, chasing and slightly scary wrestling. She needs to make the most of Dolly before she gets too big to wrestle! Renae’s favourite game is “chase me” and she can outrun all the dogs we usually meet and Dolly’s puppy clumsiness this morning allowed Renae’s sprint record to stand. However, Susie-Belle never bothers to join in Renae’s circuit sessions, in fact she rarely breaks into much of a run even when coming over for a treat, it’s more a wobbly bounce that is very distinctively Susie-Belle.

This morning, whilst her sister was hurtling round and round with Dolly in pursuit, Susie-Belle stood observing the scene and keeping out of the way. This seemed to baffle Dolly, who every now and then would bounce up to her and try and pat her, encouraging Susie-Belle to join in the fun. Only Susie-Belle doesn’t really know how to play, never having had the chance in her previous life and we like to think now, as she’s Renae’s older and wiser sister, she’s intelligently opting not to get muddy and wet and avoiding all that mucky playing anyway.

As Renae’s speed increased – she gets faster and more manic as her excitement mounts, especially when she realises her pursuer can’t catch her – Dolly flagged and increasingly padded up to Susie-Belle. It was easy for us to imagine her thinking “well here’s one I can catch, but why doesn’t she start running”. As Dolly seemed baffled by Susie-Belle, Susie-Belle seemed equally bemused by the big gentle padding of Dolly, they really weren’t on the same wave-length and Dolly eventually went back to trying to catch Renae.

At last, Renae puffed to a halt and decided to start her second favourite game, wrestling…..with a bit of bitey-face thrown in for good measure. Only bitey-face with Dolly, gentle as she is, started to seem like not such a good idea to me, so it was time to say our goodbyes and head home.  We’re sure we’ll be meeting Dolly again and hopefully I’ll have my camera with me.