Friday 26th September

A short story...

A Twist in the Tail....

Once upon a time there was a little brown dog called Baxter, he was on the whole, a playful little fellow who liked nothing more than to chase about the beach getting into mischief. He particularly enjoyed the summer months when lots of families used to go down to the seaside to spend the long daylight hours cooking up a delicious barbeque....or at least they would have, had not naughty little Baxter stolen their sausages!! Anyway, one particular fine day when Baxter had been to the Grooming Parlour, and was feeling rather dapper, he decided to visit his very good lady friend Jessie. Now Jessie was quite a shy black and white springer spaniel, and although she loved Baxter and always enjoyed racing ( and beating) him on their beach walks, she was always a bit embarrassed when he misbehaved.
Baxter duly arrived at Jessie's house, and had a very good explore, making sure that he had checked out every inch of the kitchen and garden, he did notice a very particular 'aroma' but couldn't manage to find the source, however he quickly dismissed it as it was time to go for a WALK! Jessie and Baxter had a lovely time trotting down through meadow land and onto the beach, where they explored rock pools and rolled in seaweed. Once back home though things started to go horribly wrong.
Baxter discovered the source of the strange smell that had eluded him earlier, it was BILLY (Jessie's cohabitant) the cat! Within a blink of an eye, Baxter changed from a mild mannered, perky little chap into a frenzied barking, foaming at the mouth DEVIL dog! Poor Jessie didn't know what to do with herself and hid under the table as Baxter flew at Billy in a mad rage and hunted him down. To begin with Billy who had just woken up from his long daytime snooze was in total shock and bewilderment, unprepared for this spitting snarling canine that had invaded HIS home. So, he did what comes instinctively to all cats and ran for his life! All this kerfuffle caused the pets owners to become involved, but there was a distinct time delay, partly due to one holding an ironing board ( not entirely sure what she hoped to achieve wielding that in the general direction of the fighting animals, and the other unable to move very fast due to an overlarge abdomen). The noise was earsplitting, Baxter had upped the intensity of his barking, the ladies were shouting, Billy was hissing and spitting, it was chaos!
Billy, in looking for higher ground raced up the stairs, hotly pursued by Baxter and one lumbering lady, the other owner having finally discarded the ironing board followed them. The cat having had enough of this troublesome dog turned to face him, and took a flying leap over him, evading capture and sliding through the banisters to the safety of the outside. Seizing the opportunity Baxter's owner make a desperate last bid atempt in an effort to trap him, with total disregard for her own personal welfare, she threw herself prostrate on the stairs and grasped wildly at Baxters neck, (not caring about her damaged wrist, another story), with her 'bad' hand on his neck and her good hand pulling his tail he knew he was beaten. The  ladies finally stopped shrieking at the dog and each other as Baxter was beaten into submission , but boy,did he get a telling off. Jessie was still cowering under the table, miserable at all the confusion and noise, and sadly watched as Baxter got unceremoniously marched out of the house and into the 'Crate of Shame"... She did wonder if she would ever see him again.....

The End

I've been to see the lymphedema nurse at Jersey Hospice this afternoon, think she can really help me, and given me lots of ideas to help myself, but as its taken me two hours to write this blog it will have to wait until tomorrow!!