THE DOG THAT WASN'T LOST.

Wednesday morning and I had to cut short my regular swim by 4 lengths (which might not sound much but I swim so slowly that totals eight minutes) in order to get home for 8.30 in case the gas men came to fix our gas fire. Needless to say, they didn't. Fair do's though, they did arrive at 8.50.

In the middle of the mess, Susan popped out of the car to put something for the shop in the backseat. I was sitting down with my back to the window and talking to the gas fitter when Susan suddenly hammered on the window as she gestured for me to come outside.

"There's a stray dog in the street," she said, "It's just chased Twister." Twister being the cat owned and left outside in all weathers by the family opposite. Then she said, "I think it's Jake. Let's get him in the kitchen."

Jake is one of two dogs fostered by the main Animal Krackers van driver, Ian Fullerlove, and when I saw the dog it did look like Jake. It also acted like him -lively, directionless, brainless. So I cleared the cats out of the way and got Jake into the kitchen. Not that this was difficult as he'd been here before several times and knew where the food is. When I think about it, food always tends to be in the kitchen which is always at the back of a house, so no extra points for Jake.

I rang Ian and said, "Have you lost Jake?"

"Yes, but how do you know?" So I told him.

Apparently he's having his rented house done out and, though he'd locked the two dogs out the back, one of the several workmen who had arrived after Ian had explained about the dogs, opened the door to the yard and Jake followed  by Sam barrelled their way through the house and out the front door. One word from Ian and Sam shot back inside,  but Jake kept going. This had all happened about 15 minutes before he arrived in our street which he must have made for immediately (assuming a trotting pace rather than a run, with frequent pauses for for sniffing). Although he'd never been walked from Ian's house to ours, he had been walked back on a number of occasions and it's too much of a coincidence for him to have arrived here by chance.

So Jake was never lost at all, he knew exactly where he was going. The piece of luck came in that Susan just happened to be in the street when Jake arrived. He may have hung around or come up to our front door or he might have then wandered off and got really lost.

Oh well, if Jake gets out again, Ian knows what to do.