This was always going to happen and it will happen more frequently now. It is a nudge closer on the way to fully accepting that things will never be the same. I dont know why I was miffed, I guess I am so used to walking where I want! On this evenings dog walk dusk was approaching and I could hear and see forest machinery working as I expected in that section of the woods. I was going to turn left a 100 yards or so before the machinery stacking a high and long pile of logs.
But here’s the thing; There was a high wire fence directly across my pathway blocking any hope of going that way. I was a little surprised and I realised this was the path that led to a wooden post I had carved six or seven years ago as a tribute or a marker for Cosmo who was my previous dog before Fred. I had carved it using a chestnut log and placed it in this section of the wood as we had had one or two ‘incidents’ together in this area. I look back at those incidents now and smile but they were probably worse than anything that Fred has done to me. The first was when I thought Cosmo had found a way into an enclosure with a huge wild boar inside and was hysterically barking at it. The wild boar enclosure was part of the ‘Wildwood Zoo’ which backs onto this corner of the woods and Cosmo had managed to get in and start a fight with this wild boar I could see him inside running about and barking at it. Perhaps one of my worst moments of dog ownership. However it turned out that Cosmo was in the adjacent enclosure, which luckily was empty and was barking at it through a wire fence. Brave as you like, the wild boar was never going to actually get him. I had to though. I found a hole under the wire fence where Cosmo had gone through. I was so relived when I called him and he came out without me having to enlarge the hole and wriggle under and break into the Zoo to get him out. The second incident might be a story for another time. I put Fred on the lead and walked towards the noisy forest machinery thinking I might never see ‘Cosmo’s Post’ ever again. I always used to pat it affectionately as if it was Cosmo and say ‘Hello Cos – good boy’. I had decorated this post with scenes of things that happened and flowers/leaves found in these woods as we walked in here most days like I do with Fred.
We walked past the logging machine, it was approaching dusk and I could not see the driver with its high lights above the cab glaring in my eyes like headlights on full beam. Some way further on the new wire fence stopped as it was not finished yet so I took the next path on the left into that section of the wood. After a while I turned right along a path I knew would bring me back onto the main central track through the wood called ‘New Road’ I wondered if it was actually a very old road. Anyway it happened again the path was suddenly blocked by another stretch of high wire fence. We had to follow the fence and eventually came out on the central track and all was well. This will only happen more frequently as the works progress. A clear reminder that these changes will impact my life significantly.
