Reef 5 - Mayday!

Reef, or Wonder Dog, as Jim and Barry sometimes called her, was in some ways happy go lucky but in other quite specific ways very serious indeed.  She was happy go lucky in her willingness to play with absolutely anyone, but very intently serious about that playing.  If the stick wasn’t thrown far enough or often enough, she’d take the stick and find someone else to throw it.  She was happy go lucky in her freedoms, roaming around the village and the shore, even showing tourists the route up to Loch a’Choire Dhuibh sometimes, but at heart she was a family dog and she liked to be tucked up where she could hear Mhairi and Big Bob practising for the World Snoring Olympics.

That saying, there were gai few houses that didn’t welcome her in to run around the breakfast table, making the children rush downstairs to pet her.  Very few elderly people who wouldn’t let her in to sit and have a chat.  Very few shopkeepers who wouldn’t stand outside and take in the view with her.  Reef was part of the very fabric of life here in Ullapool, where the winds blew strong and eagles filled the air.

It was afternoon and Reef was on  Ladysmith Street, trotting past the fire station, up to visit Jim, an elderly man with a very comfy settee.  Jim was out in the garden round the back, digging holes to plant a new bed.  ‘Hey Reef! Madainn mhath,’ he said, which was Old Tongue for ‘good morning.’  Reef wagged her tail and sniffed some of the potted seedlings beside his kneeler.  ‘Strawberries,’ said Jim, ‘I’m setting a new patch now, so there’ll be plenty come June. I do so love to have strawberries in the house.’  Reef barked, she wasn’t overly keen on the taste of strawberries but they smelled delicious and Reef like many dogs, most in fact, liked a good smell.  She had a collection of socks she’d snuck out of Big Bob’s laundry basket and kept in a secret place behind the living room log stack to smell at night.  Strawberries might not smell as good as socks, but she could guess what Jim had in mind.

She chased a butterfly about the lawn, bouncing around like a Landrover in a field, while Jim placed his strawberry plants in their holes and patted fresh soil around them.  ‘We put plants in beds then tuck them in tight,’ he said.  Reef woofed and jumped into him so he fell over sideways onto the lawn.  Jim had been kneeling down so no damage was done.  He laughed and ruffled her coat.  ‘Let’s go inside and have ourselves a cup of tea,’ he said.  They picked themselves up and headed on in.

Inside, Jim’s house was a wonder.  He was a retired sea captain and every wall, every shelf, every sideboard was crammed with artefacts detailing his adventures.  There were masks on the wall, both scary ones and comic ones.  There were bits of boats, anchors, wheels, pulleys, that sort of thing.  There were gourds and grass skirts and long, curved cutlass swords and fish, preserved and mounted on boards, and a chart, taking up most of  the kitchen wall, showing the seas of the world with all the major currents and all the trade winds too.  But the best thing, to Reef’s eye, was the jet black statue of a dog that sat on top of the telly.  ‘That’s Anubis, jackal headed god of the underworld,’ Jim had told her.  ‘I got that in Alexandria when I was twenty two.’  Reef didn’t know what ‘jackal headed’ meant, but she wished her ears were that pointy, imagine how much further she could hear then!

Jim put the kettle on then clutched his left shoulder with his right hand.  ‘Ooh,’ he said, ‘I must’ve pulled something out there, digging.’  He looked quite pale indeed and sat down, suddenly, on the settee, his eyes starting to look worried.

‘Woof,’ said Reef, wondering what she could do to help.

‘It’s all right, girl, it’ll pass in a moment,’ said Jim.  ‘I’ll maybe take an aspirin.’  He moved to get up off the seat but was pinned back by another jarring pain.  His breathing had become slower and deeper and Reef thought he looked very poorly indeed.

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She licked the back of Jim’s left hand to let him know she cared, then raced away through the kitchen and out the back door to get help.  Anubis remained where he was, on top of the telly box, keeping a watchful eye on Jim for now.

Reef bounded from the garden and out into the street.  There was no-one about on the pavement or in any of the neighbour’s gardens to tell and when she woofed at a passing car they simply drove on, ignoring her.  ‘Silly tourists,' she thought, ‘can’t they see I’m trying to tell them something?!’  She ran down the street, past the fire station which was closed, as rural fire stations are usually volunteer run, and up to the bank.  The door was shut but Reef had seen elderly folks push a button at the side.  She sprang up and hit the metal square with her paws which set in motion some machine that swung the big door out beside her.  Running inside she barked and barked, distracting all the folks inside.

‘Cat, take that dog outside,’ said Lewis McKinnon, the bank’s rather stuffy manager.  But Reef kept on barking and running to and fro.  Cat, the business advisor, went outside with Reef, and was just about to go back in when Reef got in round about her knees and woofed some more.  ‘What is it, girl?’ Said Cat, for this was most unlike the Reef that everyone knew.  ‘I’m gonna go and see what’s up, Mr McKinnon,’ she called back inside as the automatic door closed.

Barking more urgently now, Reef spun on the spot to get Cat’s attention.  She ran a little up the hill, then back down again, and looked at Cat to get her to see.  ‘You want me to follow you?’ asked the bank’s business manager.  ‘Woof!' said Reef, come along!

The two jogged quickly up the street and Reef showed her into Jim’s garden.  Cat knew Reef stayed at the Ceilidh House, so she knew something unusual was going on.  She knocked on Jim’s front door, then tried the handle but it was locked.  Reef barked at her, no-one used their front doors round here, didn’t Cat know this?  Hurrying round the back, Cat saw the door open and went inside.  Jim was looking very pale on the settee now and his face was in pain, his breathing shallow.

Cat ran to the ‘phone and called Dr Harper and an ambulance, the doctor would be a lot quicker to get there.  She got Jim an aspirin and some water and he lay back, a bit more comfy.  ‘That dog’s a good luck charm,’ said Cat.  Reef wasn’t sure if she meant her or Anubis.

One week later, Reef was sitting in the bar at the Ceilidh Place, it being a terribly wet and rainy day, when who should come in but Jim, with his old friend, Barry.  ‘You in for lunch, gentlemen? Asked Jeannie. 

‘We are, aye,’ said Jim. ‘But most of all, I’m here to see Reef.  This Wonder Dog saved my life.’  Everyone had heard the story and reef couldn’t go anywhere these days without cuddles and high fives and bits of sausage.  Reef wagged her tail and sat with the two old gents.  Stroking her head, Jim looked into her eyes.  ‘Thank you, Reef,’ He said, which was good enough for her.