Which dog licked me on the face?
I found myself this morning in the flow of passengers exiting the Eurostar platform at St Pancras and as I saw people waiting for them I in the moment thought, “If I have just returned from France who would be waiting here for me.”
Let’s play with that idea. I exit the station doors and the first person I see waiting for me is an old friend from my teenage years. She playing the piano, one of the many around St Pancras. The tune is, “ She’ll be coming round the mountain when she comes” I see my paternal grandmother singing it although she has replaced ‘she’ with he. She did love to sing that song. There a dog barking beside her. When he sees me he runs up to me and as I bend down his tongue licks my face. Which dog is it?
Dogs were like God they had always been there since I can remember. I first remember Sandy, Sandy by colour and Sandy by name. She still seemed to be my father’s dog. Dogs disappeared almost as frequently as the milk bottles to be replaced by another within a short time.
My father amongst his many skills was able to ‘dock the tail’ of Jack Russell pups. I only remember witnessing him perform this task once. The pup cried a lot with a bloodied remaining tail. I remember feeling sorry for it. Perhaps that was my connection with Patch as in my memory he became my dog. His ownership was probably influenced by my parents separating during his life and Patch remained with us in the family home. My mother and sisters had no interest in dogs so it was for me to look after Patch.
One day I arrived home from school, I was about 8-years-old and discovered that Patch was missing. He wasn’t found and I was upset. Dogs provided me with emotional support during my childhood which meant the loss was keenly felt. As the weeks moved on I began to accept that Patch wasn’t coming back.
Everyone in my area knew me as ‘the boy with the dog’ and they knew that Patch had gone missing. A neighbour called to me one morning. I went to them and they informed me that they had seen a notice in the paper about a dog that had been found which seemed to match Patch’s description. I asked my granda would he take me to the address which he agreed. I travelled into the countryside to the people who had found a dog. I sat in the back of my granda’s car and noticed that we were driving up to a farmyard. As soon as I got out of the car Patch started moving excitedly towards me as I did towards him. It was Patch who jumped up and licked my face.
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PS Tell me who would be waiting for you?
