We've had our new best friend, Dexter, since January. The nights were long and dark and cold then, often calling for a fleece jacket, scarf, gloves and a warm coat over all that to fend off the chill. But back then, having only just brought Dexter home from the shelter, we were wary about letting him off the lead and waited several weeks before doing so. By then the nights were a little shorter so we weren't always out in the pitch black but even then we both realised we would probably need some form of light come this autumn and winter.
Sure enough, as the days grew shorter and the nights drew in, I treated us to a nice little wind-up torch from Amazon Marketplace. It's lightweight and handy for finding the gum gum (a sort of rubber stick, which is Dexi's favourite toy) and we never have to worry about the battery running down. However, we still sometimes struggle to find our mostly black dog in the dark. Every now and again he will jog on ahead and disappear completely into the night, only to be (occasionally) located as two glowing green marbles off in the distance, reflected in the light of the torch. He doesn't usually go too far and is nearly always waiting patiently for us to catch up but it's nice to know where he is.
This afternoon, I struck upon the perfect solution. The local pound shop sells everything from sweets and crisps to bleach and all for a pound (or more). I was in there picking up some curtain rings for Mum and scouting for a combination padlock for hubby's first foray in the gym for almost half decade. The shop has a small cycling section, mostly consisting of seat pads, puncture repair kits and reflectors, but today they had little flashing LED lights on elastic and sold in packs of two. At a quid I figured it was worth a try.
Success!
Even in the darkest bits of the park we can still locate our boy by his little blinking red light. Instead of looking for the torch reflecting off his eyes we can now see him straight away, no matter which direction he's decided to randomly run off in. Its also much harder for him to dummy us into looking for the gum gum that he's already found, retrieved and run off with. Although the red does make him seem rather demonic, at times it's like something from the Mothman Propechies, score one for the home team!
Sure enough, as the days grew shorter and the nights drew in, I treated us to a nice little wind-up torch from Amazon Marketplace. It's lightweight and handy for finding the gum gum (a sort of rubber stick, which is Dexi's favourite toy) and we never have to worry about the battery running down. However, we still sometimes struggle to find our mostly black dog in the dark. Every now and again he will jog on ahead and disappear completely into the night, only to be (occasionally) located as two glowing green marbles off in the distance, reflected in the light of the torch. He doesn't usually go too far and is nearly always waiting patiently for us to catch up but it's nice to know where he is.
This afternoon, I struck upon the perfect solution. The local pound shop sells everything from sweets and crisps to bleach and all for a pound (or more). I was in there picking up some curtain rings for Mum and scouting for a combination padlock for hubby's first foray in the gym for almost half decade. The shop has a small cycling section, mostly consisting of seat pads, puncture repair kits and reflectors, but today they had little flashing LED lights on elastic and sold in packs of two. At a quid I figured it was worth a try.
Success!
Even in the darkest bits of the park we can still locate our boy by his little blinking red light. Instead of looking for the torch reflecting off his eyes we can now see him straight away, no matter which direction he's decided to randomly run off in. Its also much harder for him to dummy us into looking for the gum gum that he's already found, retrieved and run off with. Although the red does make him seem rather demonic, at times it's like something from the Mothman Propechies, score one for the home team!
1 comment:
I love collies - my Grandma and Grandad have always had dogs. The first was a collie/spaniel cross then they got a border collie. When they had to have them put to sleep they got another collie last year and now they have a collie/lurcher cross. They're so intelligent! And Dexter is gorgeous!
Post a Comment