Whip it...

Words from a Bird.  Day 130.

This morning found the husband and I at the foot of a steep hill steeling our selves for a long walk in the wonderful spring sunshine.  The husband and I have a great look which we like to adopt on these occasions.  Shorts, t-shirt, thick socks and walking boots.  Unfortunately, however practical this might be, we tend to look like a couple of extras out of a 1950's travelogue, and I have an uncontrollable urge to sing The Happy Wanderer....

So manoeuvring the reluctant husband and dogs through the gate, we came face to face with a lady who was just making her way back to her car.

'You'll have a lovely walk today', she said.  'There's a whole load of whippets and greyhounds up on the hill'.

Well this could be interesting.  I love seeing lots of dogs together, especially when they are the same breed (see Day 18) so we set off at a stonking pace, eager to see the Whippet Walk.

Well, we rounded the first bend, but there were no dogs, Whippet or otherwise.  At this point, I suggested to the husband that perhaps they were all standing further round the corner, waiting for someone to release a rabbit, and then they'd be off.  But a little further on, there they were, around twenty whippets and greyhounds, hurtling up and down the hill.  Seeing this large group together, I started wondering what a group of Whippets was called.  I finally settled on a Lash of Whippets.  Most appropriate.

Now I was rather disappointed when I met their owners (us doggy people always love to talk to other doggy people).  None of them were from the North as befitting a good Whippet owner.  (The husband hails from the North, so I do have a finely tuned radar with regards to this).  There wasn't a single flat cap, nor did they offer the dogs small morsels of black pudding.  The Whippet Walkers were all beige walking trousers, walking sticks and Schmackos.

Percy and Reg took massive joy in chasing them up and down the hill, meeting the elegant greyhounds as they were coming back up the hill as my two ran down.  I am thinking of buying one purely to exercise my two.  They were exhausted and had to be lifted into the car when it was time to go home.

Once home, we packed up a picnic and headed to a barbecue with some of our neighbours. 

Friends, family, children, dogs and sausages.  Sundays don't get much better than that...