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BB2131
: A Cat and Dog Story
Tuesday
24th August 2021
For
the avoidance of doubt, as our learned friends
are fond of saying, let me state at the
outset that Cat is not a cat. She
is one of those creatures rarely participating in a BOOTboys
outing.
She is a woman. To be more precise,
she is the partner of Mike B’s son Sam,
who was too busy with something called work
to join us today.
On
the other hand, the Dog really is a dog
even if it (she?) has a girl’s name, Holly.
Robin’s dog. A regular companion on
our adventures.
There
was an unexpected connection between the
two. Or maybe that should read “lack
of connection”.
Our
objective was Middleton Fell travelling
clockwise from Middleton Head (the pub is
now sadly closed) round via Calf Top and
down to the Barbon Inn where the pub was
known to be open and steak sandwiches awaited
us.
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It
was a pleasant stroll up onto the fell,
passing a gypsy van and horses that hadn’t
yet made their way home from the Appleby
Horse Fair.
The weather had started
off sunny but it soon clouded over somewhat
and consequently the distant views were
not as clear as they might have been, but
still enjoyable.
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At
10:56 Robin took a telephone call following
which he caught up with us as we made our
way to the inappropriately named Barkin’
Top. I have added the apostrophe!
It was there that Robin realised that
he was no longer in possession of Holly’s
lead. Holly is a well behaved dog
and had dutifully trotted along with us
without deviation or hesitation. Or
barkin'. What to do about her lead?
Robin
remembered, or at least the thought he did,
that the last time he saw the lead was when
he stopped for the telephone call. The
problem was that he couldn’t remember exactly
where that was. This is no ordinary
lead but a remarkable Danish affair,
a treasured possession.
This
is where the connection between Cat and
Dog comes in. Cat, a very athletic
young lady, kindly volunteered to retrace
our steps to see if she could find said
lead. She ran back quite some distance
but sadly was unable to find it. Hence
the comment about lack of connection.
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Robin
managed to construct a lead of sorts by
inverting his walking stick and inserting
the loop into Holly’s collar, an ingenious
solution that meant there was no need to
be concerned when sheep appeared in view.
Not that Holly would have been interested
in them but you can’t be too careful, especially
if farmers have shotguns.
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Do
we approve of the Calf Top trig point having
been painted with penta, hexa and septagrams?
At least they haven’t painted the
whole thing yellow, including the identification
plate as has happened elsewhere locally.
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It
was all downhill from there.
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I broke
into a trot but my shorts kept falling down!
Fortunately Cat was in front of me
when it happened. I tightened
my belt and set off again.
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Back
at the Barbon Inn, pints were delivered
quickly followed by what were termed beef
butties. Not only was there about
half a cow in each, they were accompanied
by a load of chips.
Poor Tony, we
teased him by WhatsApping the photo to him.
How cruel.
After
a jolly session we went our various ways.
Cat with Mike, Dog with Robin.
And
that is the end of the Cat and Dog story.
Don,
Tuesday 24th August 2021
Afternote:
Not quite the end. By correlating
Robin's phone log with my gps log we thought
we could identify exactly where the telephone call took place
and where the lead was probably lost. On
Wednesday he set off to find the lead
but without success. En-route he met
a young lady from Kendal and told her the
tale.
To
his delight, that evening he received a
telephone call from the Barbon Inn. She
had found the lead and handed it in.
Comitibus:
Don, Dog, Cat, John, Robin, Mike
The
Comitibus picture was taken at the trig
point on Calf Top. Unfortunately the
quality isn’t as good as it should have
been as I think it focused on the barbed
wire rather than the group. Sorry
but it’s hard to recognise this at the time
when I don’t have my reading glasses with
me!
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