I always get a bit suspicious at this time of year when Gail takes me out for a longer than usual walk and at home starts getting all cuddly and soppy around me.
My suspicions increase when I see her fussing over her red bicycle, pumping up the tyres, oiling the chain and so forth.
So last night she came clean and informed me (one never gets asked) that on Saturday she is heading off to Wales for ten days with her cycling friends, and I am, of course, going to "camp".
Well it was, at least, a beautiful walk on Bank Holiday Monday, a whole nine miles alongside the green banks of the River Ythan, through the Scottish Wildlife Trust's Gight Wood, and past the romantic ruins of Gight Castle, a former home of poet Lord Byron.
Think of me next week, lonely and bereft of affection in 'Fairways Pet Haven', not even able to contact my blogging friends....
Lord Byron, who described his beloved Newfoundland, Boatswain* as: "....one, who possessed Beauty without Vanity, Strength without Insolence, Courage without Ferocity, and all the virtues of Man without his Vices", would surely never have abandoned any dog to boarding kennels.
Normal blog service will resume after 21 May.
*Epitaph to a Dog, see also this previous post.
