Human nature, good and bad...

It has been such a wierd time recently. It all started with the dog saga last week.

I was starting to lose hope of finding Oscar and feeling awful. I spent last Wednesday making 'Have you seen this Dog?' posters. On Thursday morning I went into our local Chemist and had a chat with the lady who works in there. She took one of my posters and said she would show it to everyone who came in. She was so kind and sympathetic. I then went along the road and put up a poster outside the Tennis Club. A posh woman came up and asked what I was doing. This is how the conversation went:
(Me)'We've lost our dog and I'm just putting up some posters to try to find him.'
(Her) 'What sort of dog is it?'
(Me) 'He's a labrador cross. I'm hoping someone will recognise him.'
(Her, glancing at the poster, and then walking off) 'Oh I shouldn't think so. They're ten a penny, dogs like that.'

Bitch.

Anyway, that needless exchange upset me for the rest of the day. UNTIL. The lady from the Chemist rang me to say she had found my dog!!!! Someone had been in and she had shown them the poster and they had found my dog and had been looking after him!

So I contacted the lady who had taken Oscar in and went round to get him. He was at a house only a few streets away. I tell you, he was FAT! He's the only dog I know who can go missing for 5 days and come back looking better than when he left! This kind lady had done nothing but feed him, I think. She had bought him a new collar and lead and had become quite attached to him. I think she was secretly hoping he was a stray and she could keep him. I felt quite guilty taking him home!

So then I was all drunk on the milk of human kindness. Until Friday.
I was walking home from taking dear daughter to school and coming towards me in the road by my house there were 3 lads from the local school playing kick-about with a tin can. Nothing wrong with that. Then one of them picks up the can and chucks it over the hedge into one of my neighbour's garden.
Well I wasn't having that, so I challenged him and told him to pick it up and put it in a bin. There was a bit of argument and then he went and picked it up. I walked on and then I heard this clank as they chucked the can into the road. Well, at this point I completely lost my temper! I ran back down the road and shouted at these kids to pick it up and put it in a bin. They were swearing and abusive but one of them finally went back and got the can and kicked it along the road saying he was going to find a bin. I was so angry I was shaking. And I had my 2yr old son with me. I went home, had a cup of tea and called the school.

I demanded to speak to the Head, and because he was out of school that day, I was put through to the Deputy Head. Poor bloke, I absolutely blasted him, complaining about this incident and the general behaviour of some of the kids at the school; the litter and the swearing and the bad manners and lack of courtesy and respect for anyone. I expected him to say, yes thanks and goodbye. But he didn't.

He invited me into the school where I identified the can-throwing culprit who was then made to apologise to me! I gave the kid a bit of a lecture, which my dear son punctuated with 'Mummy, I need a wee', so completely ruining my oratory....

Anyway it kind of ended well. I'm just expecting my tyres to be slashed now, or graffitti daubed on my house...

But I do really believe it is important for members of the public to get involved in trying to stop incidents of bad behaviour like this. I just feel that if more adults faced up to kids who were being 'naughty', then their behaviour would be nipped in the bud and would not escalate into much more serious anti-social disorder. I heard on the news today that a man has been murdered in Norwich, trying to break up a fight in a taxi rank. This is so sad, but it must not stop people intervening. If we allow ourselves to be afraid, then the yobs and the criminals have won, and the lunatics really will be running the asylum.

The wanderer returns...!!

We have found Oscar this afternoon! Someone had been keeping him and finally called the Dog Warden when they saw one of my posters...! He has been very well looked after and I am so grateful to the lady who took him in. Apparently the person who found the dog left their name and number with the police at the weekend, but when the Dog Warden called the police on Monday, those details weren't passed on...Typical really, I suppose! There is a real problem with this gap in provision for lost/stray dogs, and the police really aren't helping. Members of the public are still not aware that the police don't deal with dogs, and so their first port of call naturally is the police. There ought to be at the very least some more co-ordinated effort to pass on information received from the public to the Dog Warden.
Our other dog was overjoyed to see his friend - so much so that he had to be put out in the garden to calm down a bit!

Still missing Oscar...

Well it's now Wednesday and Oscar has been missing nearly four days. I think I have done pretty much everything I can, short of scouring the land for him in person. It's really strange - he just seems to have vanished. No-one has seen him so far. I'm having a letter and photo (the dog, not me) published in the Leamington Courier on Friday, and hopefully that will turn something up. A few people have suggested someone may have taken him in, which is what I am hoping really. I called Railtrack today too, just to check no dogs have been killed on the line near where we live. No news is good news from them....

It's just such a shame as he is such a lovely dog - so placid and gentle, especially with the kids. And I feel so guilty, because ultimately, it's my fault he is lost as I let him slip out.

An anonymous woman called both Petsearch and the Dog Warden and left messages over the weekend saying she had found a dog. But she didn't leave a name or number and hasn't called since. It is driving me crazy. I don't even know if if was Oscar that she found, but the timings fit. I can't help feeling that if there had been an out of hours service, I might have my dog back...

This is not a good week.

Missing Oscar...

One of our dogs has gone missing. He was lost on Saturday 20th September from our house in Leamington Spa.

His name is Oscar and he is about 8 years old.

Please keep your eyes peeled if you live anywhere near us...

Thanks.

He is a much loved and missed family dog so we're all really sad at the moment....

Week 1 down, 15 weeks till Christmas...

Well we have managed to get through Week 1 of school. I felt like it was my first day, let alone my daughter's, what with all the stuff I had to remember.

I did ok, and managed to get firstborn daughter there on time, wearing the right clothes. Fridays are tricky - she has to wear her PE kit and take her uniform to school in the kit bag. And we have to remember a fruit snack to share. I got the PE kit right, but the fruit snack went by the wayside. Who says women can multi-task?

So no gold star for me, but we're geting there. She seems to be settling in very well, and we haven't had any 'child as leg-iron' moments. The other mums seem pleasant, although I did get what felt a bit like the third degree yesterday from someone in the playground. Her questions could have all been summed up into one, really - 'How rich are you?' In a way it would have been quite refreshing to just cut to the chase, instead of all this nice doci-doeing around the issue.

Anyway, it's nearly Friday pick-up time and we've survived it intact. Hey, we're all exhausted, but that seems like a minor detail....

The days just keep coming....

I feel bereft today.

My little girl is no longer a little girl. She has started school. And my baby boy is no longer a baby. He has started pre-school. Both on the same day. And my dear husband has gone to Holland for the week. So I'm sitting here in a silent house wondering what to do with myself until pick-up time.

It's very strange. When you are in the throes of life with babies, the focus of your world narrows on them and you feel as though the time is going to last forever. (Probably because you are awake for most of it.) And you wish and wish for some time to yourself to indulge in something just for you.

And then suddenly the time is gone. All those craft projects, trips out and activities that you didn't do and saved for another day; well, there won't be another day. Until the school holidays that is. And all those indulgent things that you wished you had time for suddenly don't seem so attractive any more.

And you find youself wanting more than anything in the world to be able to stop time, and cuddle up with your babies on the sofa. But those days just keep coming.....

You just watch, tomorrow I'll be blogging on here about them going off to university.