This is me and Dog. He’s not my dog, because I don’t have a dog, but for a little while this morning, he let me play a part in his story.
There I was, cycling along having a bit of a conversation in my head (you do that too, right?) about what I do, and what I love about what I do and what my goals are… and I saw Dog run through the field, to a gate and stand there panting and whimpering.
Now, there are a lot of dogs being walked in that area first thing in the morning, but there was something about Dog that made me think he might need help. Sure enough, nobody followed him. I stopped and waited…there was nobody else around at all. So, I started chatting to Dog, asking if he had anyone nearby, if he was feeling ok, if he would like a bit if help…you know, the sorts of things you ask a Dog that might be a bit lost.
Slowly, slowly, Dog started to calm down and came over to sniff me out. I asked if I could see his tags and he sat by my feet. (I’d like to tell you at this point that I simply called the number on his tags and everything was sorted, but I cycle without my glasses and had to do some amazing contortions to get the tag far enough from my eyes that I could actually read it, while keeping hold of Dogs collar, and it turned out there were a few other unforeseen challenges….)
Anyway, contortions complete, I made out the number, dialled and got hold of someone who was still asleep and couldn’t compute ‘your dog’, ‘local woods’, ‘lost?’ and ‘found’. When she did, and confirmed her partner was supposed to be walking Dog and where was I so she could get us all in the same space, I realised the next challenge: It is really hard to explain exactly where you are in an area that has a 10km circumference and mostly consists of trees, a few fields and lots of gates. It took time and patience, but I thought we got there. She called her partner, he called me, and I realised she’d not understood where I was and so neither did he. We had another location conversation, found some common ground (literally!) and he set off to find us.
Meanwhile, Dog was looking pretty exhausted. He had been through a fair bit, after all. I shared my water with him, and we decided to sit down together and chat while we looked at the view. I admit, I did most of the chatting here, but there were silences too, so he had space to chat back if he wanted. It seemed to calm Dog right down. So much so, that when his human reached us, he was back to bouncy dog status, ready to get on with all the sorts of things a Dog has to do to live a happy dog life. And the fact that I’d played a tiny role in that made me very happy.
So, I got back on my bike smiled to myself and started my thinking again. What do I do? What do I love about what I do? Dog had given me those answers. (Thank you, Dog).
My goal: To help you if you’re feeling a bit lost too. It might not be quite the timing you were expecting, and we might need to do a bit of work and need a bit of patience, but I have resources and I have time. And I can help you get found again, just like Dog.
Contact me, no matter where you are (Finding can also be done online :o) ).
