Maggie and the Big Black Dog

In my own home! I kid you not. Now that cannot be right, can it?
I should begin at the beginning though…
It was a quiet day, I had no idea what was about to happen. A car drew up and I went to the window expectantly. Horror of horrors! Out of the car stepped the biggest, blackest dog, you have ever seen!
Charlie ran out, heedless of danger, to greet this devilish creature who was accompanied by a smaller version not to mention a lady I have met before somewhere…
‘Where’s Maggie?’ I heard this lady ask as she came into the hall.
I was trying not to be seen, wedged between the sofa and the sideboard, shaking like the proverbial leaf.
Charlie was quite excited. Charlie is brave! I am not brave. The big black creature pranced into the living room and was only stopped by a restraining hand on its lead by ‘the visitor’. Next thing I know, the three ‘dogs’ are running about the garden.
“Come on Maggie,’ the Boss tried.

‘Oh, look, she’s trembling!’ someone said. Well, yes, I was more than trembling, I have to say. I had done a little wee on the carpet in my terror. (not something I have done since I was a very small pup.)
The Boss, being the kind and observant soul she is, took matters into her own hands and cleaned the carpet and let me stay where I was for a bit while the others were in the garden.
Maybe this was a nightmare, I thought to myself. Maybe there was no big black creature. What did they say? It is a she and she is a dog? Surely not!
Eventually, of course I was brave enough to step into the kitchen and sniff the smaller greyish dog, who was not at all scary and preferred to sleep away the visit on the sofa.

The big black dog raced round the garden and I confess, I was tempted to join in but…I kept my distance and headed back inside when this creature made a beeline for me.

‘We’ll go for a walk,’ the Boss decided.
On went our leads and seeing it as an opportunity to get away from the big black dog, out I went.
Hang on though, the big black dog was with us and out here, well, she didn’t look quite so scary. I was walking beside her, I gave her a perfunctory sniff and she did the same to me. Ok, maybe she wasn’t so bad and now that I could see her properly, yes, she was a dog, a very big dog, a Greyhound they say…
The Boss and the lady were very pleased. I had done well. The shivering and shaking, the wee on the carpet, all were forgotten as we made our way through the fields.
Back at the house, Charlie raised his eyebrows, when I related all this to him. He doesn’t know what I was fussing about. He told me this as he took a shortcut under the big black dog’s belly.

Other walks have happened since, and I have even run round the garden a bit with Kara. Yes, she has name!

This is just as well because I have heard that Kara will becoming to look after me when the Boss goes on holiday in a few weeks.
I promise to be brave!

Maggie – still learning.