A Walk with Charlie

A Walk with Charlie
(c) J. Cheyne 2001
The doctor told him he should do more walking, as John had become a bit
of 'Couch Potato'. This is slang for those who are always sitting in
front of their TV or computer screen and who hardly go out of
the house for any activity.

It was a hot, sunny Easter afternoon and John was at 'a loose end'.
Anni telephoned and said "I am going for a walk with Charlie. Would you
like to go with us?"

"Yes" John replied, "The doctor said I should do more walking - it
helps to build up all the lazy muscles I've accumulated over a lifetime
sitting in the office!"

"Good, it's a lovely day," chuckled Anni, " just right for a country
walk. I'll come for you in the car and Charlie will come with me. He's
getting on, and I know you can't walk too far, so it will get us all to
the start of the woodland walk, without wasting any of our
energy!"

A little time later, they arrived a few miles away at the
tree-sheltered, stony parking place called 'The Dingle', got out of
their car and locked it.

Looking round at the dappled shadows, John said "What a glorious day!
It would be too hot out in the direct sun, but its just right under the
trees here. It's lovely. I didn't know The Dingle could be like this
and I've lived close by all these years. Is all the walk the
same?"

"Yes", replied Anni, "if we keep close to the stream here, we can keep
in the shade all the time. Mind you, when I take Charlie off his lead,
he'll run all over the place sniffing the trees to see if any of his
doggy friends have been here today!"

Charlie didn't pay much attention to any of the trees, so none of his
friends had been there that day. All he did was to run and sniff the
next tree and the next........ and soon got out of sight. As Anni and
John were walking slowly, this meant that Charlie had to run back to
them each time they fell behind. He must have run twice the distance
John and Anni had walked!

Charlie had a bushy tail and a hairy coat which kept him warm in the
winter but it was far too hot for him in the summer. Then he was always
panting, his long pink tongue dribbling out of the side of his mouth
and his many coloured coat looking faded and moth-eaten. I expect that
is why he jumped straight into a pool in the stream as soon as he came
to it.

"Charlie, you naughty dog", said Anni and "Stop it, keep away" when he
came too close and shook the water out of his coat. Charlie dipped his
head as if he was nodding 'Yes' and saying "That's better!" and then
ran a few yards away up the path. Fortunately this was the way that
Anni and John were going, so they didn't have to call him back!

"As long as he doesn't go in the next pond, it'll be all right" Anni
continued, "he did that last week and was covered in mud when he came
out. I had to hose him down when we got back home!"

When they got to the next pond, though, it was much clearer than she
expected. Then John saw that the stream which ran into it had been
channelled into a chute, so any mud in the water didn't have a chance
to settle out of the rushing water. Somebody had been thinking!

There was an old tree stump by the chute, so Anni and John sat down on
it for a while to let Charlie, tail wagging constantly, run around
'exploring' while they had a rest and a chat.

Nearby, two young mothers were having a quiet picnic with three young
children, two girls and a boy. The girls were about five years old, but
the boy looked a little bit older. He was going to 'show off' and
decided to paddle in the water, without taking his shoes off!

One of the mothers raised her voice: "Now look what you've done, I
didn't say you could paddle! This time you're going to wear your shoes
until we get home and have squelchy feet all the afternoon!"

I often wonder if the youngster made it home safely in his wet
shoes!

The walk was tiring , but the rest on the tree stump gave John some
energy and they were soon able to walk back to their car without
needing another rest.

The trees were all in their late Spring foliage, with different shades
of green waving gently in the mild air. Some violets were still poking
through the sparse grass underneath the big trees. "I bet they won't be
there much longer", said John softly, "with the school holidays next
week, there'll bound to be some boy wanting a cheap and easy posy for
his Mum!"
"Yes, especially those ones near the path," agreed Anni.

As they got near to their car, noting the 'easy posies', they
discovered a strange plant. Because of the excitement of starting their
walk, they hadn't seen it on their way up to the second pond, but it
was quite obvious now. Neither of them knew what it was, so John
memorised the shape of the leaves. This was so he could look the plant
up in the Wild Flowers reference book he had at home - they might have
found some illegal hemp, he thought, planted by some of the joy-riding
youths from the local housing estate!

Sadly, he soon forgot because Anni gave him a homemade glass of
lemonade at her house on the way back home. It was so tasty and
refreshing, that any thoughts of criminal activity were completely
dispelled! Anyway, a check on the weed some weeks later showed it to be
both normal weed and quite common for wooded, shady areas.!

Instead, John wanted to tell his cat about the afternoon's walk in the
wood. As the weather was so sunny, 'Davie' had left the house and was
spending the afternoon sleeping under the apple tree in John's garden.
He hated going for walks. He also disliked all dogs and non-drinking
water, so John wasn't expecting him to listen, but he did expect the
stretch, turn round and settle down again move, which Davie used to
show he wasn't interested! Are cats all as lazy?

End

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