I had a lovely walk with the two muppeteers yesterday lunchtime. I took them up to Greenwich park, ball at the ready for little Zorro and one eye on the squirrels for Bella. As soon as we got there I saw a lovely little liver working cocker tearing around in the distance so made tracks to catch it up.
Bella of course was off staring out the squirrels already but Zorro, who so far on his walks with us has not played with any other dogs at all (says a very polite hello then follows us), was completely smitten by this little cocker (a 1yr old called Mocha) and went straight into playbows for her with his little tail going like the clappers and chewing on the grass out of excitement while he eyed her up
. She was up for it and they had a lovely game, with breaks whilst Mocha took off for laps of pretty much the entire park (for anyone who doesn't know Greenwich park, it's absolutely huge - it's where the Equestrian Olympics will be held).
I walked with her owner, a guy who lives on the Heath, and Zorro and Mocha carried on playing until a little border terrier called Gertie came over. I know Gertie as her owner is always wandering around asking in a slightly exasperated way if anyone has seen her, cos she goes off squirrelling and refuses to come back. Mocha went off on another circuit so Gertie and Zorro had a game, until her owner turned up and obviously wanted her back. So I put Zorro's recall to the test, called him (mid-game), and the little superstar, without a moment's hesitation, came running back and sat very properly in front of me with a big smile on his face, bless him
. Gertie did not do the same and came and enticed him into another bout of wrestling until her owner got her on the lead.
Mocha by this time was back from her mini marathon, still raring to go, and her and Zorro played more chase when a big, fat Boxer turned up, vaguely wanting to get involved. Well Zorro was having none of it and went straight into his "how VERY dare you?" barking a the boxer, who promptly went in the opposite direction
.
Bella all the while was in her favourite squirrel patch, happy as larry while she sat there watching the squirrels (then legging it after them once they went back up their trees) and occasionally came back to check on her sidekick.
I went home with two very happy little dogs - hoping to bump into Mocha again at some point!
