I had thought I was being slightly fanciful in calling Heidi puppy-like in my last post, just because her recent behaviour has been so different to how she used to be. Wrong.
We’ve just had the pleasure of meeting a lovely man with his two collies on our walk. He asked how old Heidi was. “Thirteen,” I replied. “Thirteen months?” he questioned. “No. Years!”. He genuinely thought Heidi was a pup from the way she’d bounded around the corner to greet them and was astounded to hear of her allegedly mature years.
Demetri commented the other day that she appears to either “do” deafness or blindness depending on the day. I’m unsure how far his tongue was in his cheek but it has subtly changed my approach to her and made me appreciate that every day is a new day for her and, like most people, every day is different. If she’s having a poor eyesight day I know that I can get her attention with my voice, or if her hearing is poor I can use hand signals more. As a result, I can get her to return to me when we are out on walks far more easily and she readily trots back to be put back onto her lead if she sees me doing either windmill impressions or beckoning with a finger.
It is indeed a happy day.
Blessed be.
Rach, Heidi, Meg & Demetri