A Lone Dog

Took Pip for a nice long walk on the beach this morning. I’ve been up in Melbourne this week and Him-In-Doors has been crook with tonsillitis so with one thing and another, the poor pup has been a bit neglected.

It was breezy but the sun was out and the beach was a beautiful place to be.  We had just begun our walk when a very robust Staffy bounded down for a play.

Pip underneath Charlie. I think he was enjoying himself!

 Now, to my untrained eye Staffy’s bare a passing resemblance to pitbulls which makes me a tad prejudiced against them...

I now know perfectly nice people who own Staffys and although obviously not my dog of choice, I can see they might have their appeal. Anyway, Pip really took to this Staffy – that we later discovered was named Charlie.

Pip and Charlie played the way Pip and Frankie play – with gay abandon! Which was all fine and dandy except; there was no sign of Charlie’s owner. We approached one man who had another dog and I asked if it was his dog – he said no that it belonged to a couple who had walked further on up the beach. The man speculated that the couple thought they would ‘catch up’ with Charlie on the way back.

As regular readers will know I’m a bit of a stickler for rules and while dogs are allowed off-lead on this part of the beach, they are supposed to be ‘under effective control’. Now, I think it’s reasonable to assume that ‘under effective control’ means keeping your dog within eye-shot – yes?

Pip and Charlie played together as we walked for about a kilometre. We were nearing our exit point, 7W which leads to our favourite cafe The Cheeky Cow, and I was wondering what we were going to do about our newly adopted friend.

Thankfully at that moment I heard a whistle and saw a bald-headed man (no, I’m not baldist) coming down the stairs and calling out ‘Charlie’. Said Staffy, thank God, turned around and trotted over. Baldy gave me a wave which I curtly ignored.

Any pointers on doggie etiquette in this situation will be gratefully received.