The first day of freedom was not much fun!

Retirement was not going to turn out to be a wander into a peaceful sunset. I knew that. But there was going to be no lull at all. There had been a red sky the night before, but in the morning I woke up to a beautiful sunrise. You can’t have it both ways. They say:

“A red sky at night is the shepherds delight,
A red sky in the morning is the shepherd’s warning.

I don’t suppose this is true everywhere, but a red sky in the morning is always a sign of bad weather in my corner of the world.

By lunchtime the rain had started. By mid afternoon it became a downpour. There was a peal of thunder. And then the phone rang.

“The dog has escaped into a pen with cattle. She’ll get kicked to death. I can’t get her to come out”

Bad news.

It is probably not advisable to go into the details of the conversation that followed. “Someone” was supposed to be looking after that dog but took a risk. Suffice it to say that the language was unrepeatable as the tension mounted. Daughter and I jumped in the car and made our way into the country not knowing what injuries the dog would have. She was a young dog, not yet wise and she would be terrified because now, there was lightening as well as thunder and the rain was coming down in buckets. The cattle would be terrified and so would she.

We managed to get her out of the cattle filled pen.

She was glad to see us but her tail was between her legs.

She was covered from head to toe in sodden cow dung.

We bundled her into the boot of the car. When we arrived home we hosed her down a bit in the garden and then headed straight for a warm bath. She was walking OK but we couldn’t see through the mud and dung if her skin was injured. There was no obvious blood. She offered no resistance when we heaved her into the bath.

It is just as well the smell of dung reminds me of my childhood. Cow dung is not nearly as pleasant as horse manure though but much more tolerable than pig manure. I kept thinking of how the smell of manure reminded me of the happy days of my childhood spent in a house with a garden made fertile thanks to a recipe of well rotted horse dung and straw. The association stopped me retching. Well, just about.

It took two hours to get her clean.

There was no evidence of any injury at all.

She wagged her tail and put my hand in her mouth which is what she always does when she wants you to know she loves you.

That was day one of The Freedom that comes from a peaceful retirement.