Fun day out for the dogs

Since she loves animals and is very good at taking care of pets, I invited Layla to join me … but since neither of us has a dog, it was BSPCA to the rescue!

When we arrived, Joyce kindly lent us a lovely mixed-breed mutt from the shelter to take around for the day.
Obviously the dog and I have similar taste because the second the excited hound saw Layla the animal jumped up at her and began wagging its tail.

We asked Joyce what the dog’s name was but since it was a newcomer to the shelter it didn’t have one. We decided to call her Toffee because of the colour of her coat … and she seemed to like it.
  
The event began at 10am on Friday morning and the only participants bright-eyed and bushy-tailed were the dogs and a few of the younger children. Several of the adults, myself included, were still wiping the sleep from their eyes.

Undeterred by the abnormally hot weather, the magnificent marchers set off armed with bottled water, sun cream, hats and, of course, the mighty mongrels and pedigree pooches.

At the beginning of the walk, the excitement was tangible and some of the youngsters seemed to have misinterpreted the dog walk as a dog race and rushed off leaving a cloud of dust in their wake.

Sauntering through the sandstorm, Layla and I took a rather excitable Toffee across the rugged terrain. Perhaps it would be more fitting to say that Toffee took us for a walk because she certainly knew how to lead the way for most of the time.

The first hurdle we hit was right at the beginning of the walk when water which had been pumped out from the neighbouring construction site waterlogged the path. The dogs had great fun trying to jump into the giant muddy puddle and the walkers had less fun trying to deter them.

Some of the participants found the heat a little difficult and I noticed some people were actually carrying their dogs at the halfway point!

For me, the highlight of the day came when one cunning canine managed to get off the leash and darted across the path, seconds later a little girl went speeding after it. No messing, she got him!

When we arrived back at the BSPCA shelter we were given a bag of dog treats to pass to Toffee but she seemed more interested in the moderately-priced BBQ station set up for the walkers.

At the end of the walk we were dog-tired but you’d have to be barking mad not to have enjoyed the company of Toffee.

Unfortunately we have no room in our flats for her but she’s a sweetheart and we have our fingers crossed she’ll find a suitable home.