Harvey & I have been walking past a small herd of young bulls for about a month or so now.
This produces much curiosity on their behalf and absolutely none on Harveys!
Each time we pass they come across the field and stand as near to the fence as they can inviting him to partake in a 'getting to know you session', their broad noses huffing lightly in his direction, but he, in true Labrador style seems to have nothing but contempt for them, his only real concern, where his yellow tennis ball might be.
I truthfully acknowledge that throwing tennis balls is not a skill I've acquired over the years and would even go so far as to say my interest is negligible.
Harvey on the other hand is a dab hand at chasing and catching..............well until today that is!
The throw started well enough and I still maintain that had it not been for a sudden gust of wind carrying it off course, it would have been one of my better throws. But that aside, it took off pretty smartly and after flying through the air for a second or two, took a side curve and landed about 6 feet away.
Yes you've got it...in the field with the bullocks.
Harvey looked from me to the ball and back again in complete disbelief and then just stood there glaring (if a dog can). The occupants of the field looked almost as dumbstruck as I felt, and Harvey, patience not being one of his strong suits, decided that since I was clearly addled and not doing anything, he had better attempt a rescue of his own. Striding purposefully to the gate he squeezed his head through only to be brought up short by the confines of the five bars he then found himself in. As if losing the ball wasn't bad enough, I now had a labrador stuck fast in the gate!
This time luck was on my side and after a bit of cursing from both us I managed to gently wriggle his head back under the bar and it came free with a resounding pop. Of course the young bulls thought it highly entertaining but Harvey was still minus his ball.
A long piece of wood was the next obvious choice but of course trying to wrangle it between the bullocks was a bit off-putting and logic told me it wasn't going to reach anyway so I abandoned that as a bad idea and decided to take Harvey back to the van for another ball and come back once I had his attention again.
To say he sulked on the way back would be an understatement!
Anyway back at the field my luck was finally in, the farmer was delivering a bale of hay on the opposite side and whilst the cattle's attention was diverted, I nipped over the gate myself and retrieved said ball.
Harvey's joy was unsurpassed, not only was his best ball back in his possession, he now also had a spare!
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