“That’s the last of the washing on Betty. Want to go for a walk?”

Her lovable companion wagged her tail and looked up at her mistress with doleful eyes.

Vivienne smiled back at her companion.

“Ok then. Go find your lead.”

Betty took off like a rocket only to completely miss the lead that was hanging over the bannister at the bottom of the stairs and thumped into the front door. She bounced off, turned around and grabbed the lead on her way back to her.

“Well done Betty. Next time, please try to grab it first time.”

The pair often played a little game with her lead. Vivienne had even begun to think that she wasn’t even trying to get it on the way down the hall within a month or so her acquiring Betty.

Vivienne put on her coat and shoes and walked down the hall. Then she remembered she’d left her keys and purse in the kitchen. Betty immediately thought that they weren’t going for a walk and tried to block Vivienne’s way.

“Just getting my keys Betty. Then we’ll be off.”

After grabbing the items she headed for the front door once again.

Betty dashed past her and slid into it. Undeterred, she moved to one side of the door and waited for her mistress to open it.

She knew Betty’s little game. If she didn’t have her clipped to her lead, she’d be off the instant she opened the door.

Vivienne secured her lead and only then opened the front door. Betty pulled her out of the house with just enough time to slam the front door behind her. Their little game was underway.

It was a beautiful day for a long walk over Hampstead Heath and Parliament Hill Fields. Betty was in fine form and Vivienne estimated that they’d covered at least four miles before she called a halt and bought herself a cup of tea at the café on the Heath. The café provided bowls of water for the numerous dog walkers. Betty emptied one within a minute or two.

Vivienne sat outside in the warm sun feeling at peace with the world. Inevitably, her thoughts drifted back to the previous week.

[the previous Wednesday]
“Wow!” exclaimed Vivienne as she remembered seeing that small valley for the first time.

“Yeah, it hits you like that the first time you come here.”

Maxine had been totally correct despite Vivienne’s warnings. Vivienne was slightly stunned by the scene that lay before her. The terms ‘Picture Postcard’ or ‘Chocolate Box’ were totally inadequate description for the scene. The view before her seemed to be more like a slightly updated image that Constable or a Turner would paint. The words, ‘Stunningly beautiful’ really did not do justice to what that lay before them. The few wisps of smoke that emerged from the thatched cottage and the flocks of chickens and geese that roamed freely just enhanced it even more.

Then she’d seen Jacques for the first time. In that instant, she’d lost her heart to him. Suddenly, the teenage girl in her surfaced from a long, long slumber. Apart from the fact that he’d lost a good deal of his lovely if not downright sexy heart turning French accent he was a perfect specimen of a real man.

After giving them the tour, he’d invited them into his cottage to taste something that he’d made. What she’d tasted was a pure delight. He’d made some Beetroot, Raspberry and Mint Chutney.

He served it on some homemade bread with some local cheese with a glass of Devon Cider to wash it all down.

She’d never had anything like it before. The sweetness of the Beetroot and the sharpness of the Raspberry with a hint of Mint thrown in for good measure was like nectar to Vivienne’s tastebuds.

“Everything in the Chutney apart from the Raspberry Vinegar comes from right outside that door,” he’d said proudly.

For some reason she could not get Jacques and his Chutney out of her mind. Both of them had made a lasting impression on her.

[back to the present day]

Betty started to lick Vivienne’s face which rudely interrupted her daydreaming.

“Betty! I could have done without that. I was thinking about Jacques and his chutney.”

Betty whimpered and licked her mistress again. Her tongue was very dry.

“Do you want some more water?”

Betty’s expression told her that she did.

“Come on then girl,” said Vivienne as she stood up.

Once they’d both had a really good drink, they began their walk home. The memory of Jacques had started to rekindle a lot of thoughts that Vivienne had pushed to the very farthest recesses of her mind.

But for some strange reason, they refused to stay there for more than a few minutes at a time. This was not only disturbing but wonderful at the same time.

That evening Vivienne just picked at her food. Part of her psyche had been screaming at her for being downright foolish and she should not have the sort of thoughts that were rattling around in her mind at her age. The other part of her demanded that she phoned him right there and then.

A fly on the wall would that seen Vivvienne’s body language say loud and clear that she was tempted to just drop everything and go back down to Devon. However, she also knew that she was probably stark raving bonkers to think that a man such as Jacques would even be interested in her as a business partner let alone… a romantic one. For a moment, she was seventeen-year-old again and she’d just met Rex for the first time.

That was so long ago that she’d thought that the feelings she’d had in Devon had been wiped from her body forever. Just recalling the vision of Jacques at work with an axe had made Vivienne feel all gooey inside.

Then there was the guilt. Most people thought that a person like Vivienne should not have the sorts of feelings that she was having but just not right and proper for a woman of her age. True Love is supposed to be the sole preserve of the under thirties or that is what everyone is told virtually each and every day by the media.

Her virtual self-deprecation was interrupted by something brushing against her legs.

At her feet was Betty with her lead in her mouth. Her tail thumped rhythmically on the polished wooden floor.

Vivienne glanced at the clock on the wall. It read 19:23.

“Time for walkies then Betty,” said Vivienne as she stood up.

Betty disappeared at a great rate of knots towards the front door.

Vivienne took her time to get ready. Her mind wasn’t really on walking even though it was a fine evening. The walk itself was quite eventful as Betty kept pulling at her lead. It was as if she knew that Vivienne was not her usual self and she wanted to drag her mistress back to normality.

“I know you want to run Betty but I’m not in the mood.”

Naturally Betty being Betty, didn’t listen to her mistress.

After an extended tug-of-war, Vivienne just gave up fighting and decided to just go with her. Betty pulled and pulled and she did her best to keep up with her dog. By the time Betty ran out of puff, Vivienne had been breathing hard for several hundred yards so she was glad that Betty had finally called time on their race across the heath.

Vivienne sat down on a bench to gather her breath. She guessed that she had about fifteen minutes before the sun went to sleep for the day.

Betty’s tongue was still hanging out of one side of her mouth.

“Thank you, Betty. I needed that. And now you need some water, don’t you?”

She looked around and realised that they were close to the ‘Dog Pond’. This is a place created for dogs to enjoy the water without disturbing the wildlife that inhabits the Heath. There was also a water trough for dogs there.

“Come on Betty. Let’s get you some water then we can head off home.

Vivienne’s mind was still troubled the following morning. She’d fallen asleep thinking of Jacques muscled body working in the fields. It had to her eternal shame been a very good sleep. It was either that or the evening workout that Betty had given her. Either way, she slept right through the night for the first time in a long time which couldn’t be all bad.

Betty was still curled up in her basket when Vivienne came downstairs.

Vivienne made herself her usual early morning cup of tea as quietly as she could. Betty didn’t move. This was not like her.

Vivienne knelt down and touched her pet. The briefest touch was all she needed to realise that Betty had passed away in the night.

Vivienne looked at her little body and felt really sad.

“Betty, may you go to Doggy Heaven and be made most welcome. You have been my companion all these years and given me your love in return for lots of walks and lots of food. It was a small price to pay for the joy that you have given me.”

She stood up and looked down at the body of her pet.

“I will never forget you Betty. Never to be forgotten.”

If it wasn’t so early in the day, she would have raised a glass to her lovable and distinctly mad companion but that would have to wait until later.

With a very heavy heart, she phoned the Dog Crematorium. They told her that they would be around later that day to collect Betty and any other items of hers that she wanted to dispose of at the same time.

Vivienne knew that it would be really hard not to have Betty by her side all the time. Once again, she visualised Betty sliding along the hall floor with her ears looking like immature wings and crashing into the front door with her lead in her mouth. Betty never whimpered no matter how hard the impact was. Those memories would stay with her forever. She wondered if she could ever find another companion as crazy and as devoted as Betty had been? The immediate answer was never in a million years.

There were still the marks from her early efforts to stop herself in the wooden floor. Most had polished out over the years but a few were pretty deep. After a bit she just stopped trying to stop herself until she hit the mat that was just inside the door. That dog was mad but she… she loved her to bits.

Vivienne was in no doubt that really going to miss Betty and her eccentricities.

As she gathered Betty’s toys and lead together Vivienne began to wonder if she could ever find a replacement for Betty. The more that Vivienne thought about it the more it became clear that she would be mad to even try at least for the time being.

While Vivienne was gathering up Betty’s toys, she remembered the words that the people at the rescue centre had said. ‘Dogs are like People. In the main, no two dogs are alike. Even brothers and sisters from the same litter are often totally different individuals.’

Betty and Vivienne had bonded in an instant. That in itself, told her that if she did get another dog then it would not be a Cocker Spaniel. It had to be a very different breed entirely. She would have to accept that the memories of Betty would mean that any other dog would always be compared to her predecessor.

After a bit of searching, Vivienne found Betty’s little ‘doggy coat’ that she’d bought for her on a whim once. Betty had hated it from the outset even if it kept the rain off her coat. After two outings with it, she’d chewed the belly strap into nothing. That stopped Vivienne from putting it on her ever again but for some strange reason, she’d never thrown it away. A few other toys were the same. Betty had a mind of her own and was never shy of telling Vivienne of her displeasure at some new item presented to her by her mistress.

This session of deep thought and introspection about Betty had also caused Vivienne to start looking around her home. Vivienne and her husband Rex had moved into the property when it was pretty much a wreck some thirty plus years ago. They’d spent a year and almost every penny they earned making it habitable. Those early years had been happy for them all and with the birth of their daughters just eighteen months apart everything seemed perfect. Then Rex had gotten itchy feet and moved on. To his credit, he didn’t want his part of the house in the divorce. He’d been making lots of money as a property developer so he paid Vivienne off. She was able to keep the house and a reduced mortgage in return for letting him go.

She smiled to herself when three years later his business empire crashed and left him with almost nothing. She often wondered if that episode could have been averted if he had not been so generous with their divorce settlement. A few years later Vivienne discovered that he’d been sleeping around since well before the birth of Suzanne and that a good number of his business deals were somewhat shady but not quite illegal.

That last snippet of information had been given to her when she was being recruited into the HMRC a couple of years after their Divorce. Thankfully, Rex’s somewhat chequered past hadn’t counted against Vivienne and had subsequently worked for them for almost thirty years.

Returning her thoughts back to the here and now, Vivienne knew that she’d accumulated a lot of stuff over the years. All her girls toys were up in the loft. She’d kept them just in case their own children had wanted them. Unfortunately, they turned their collective noses up at any ‘hand-me-downs’ so there they’d remained to this day. If she was going to move then she’d have to do a lot of ‘stuff’ reduction or downsizing before she moved on. She smiled as she remembered the current buzzword for this.

“Decluttering,” she said out loud.

The house was eerily silent. Normally Betty would have responded but... Vivienne sighed. This was the new normal for her home.

Vivienne slowly started to shed a few tears. She looked around her home and realised that this episode of her life was going to end one way or another. She’d already told her daughters many times about her intention to move away after her retirement and now, she’d found an area that she liked, more by luck than of trying but it seemed perfect for her.

With the sudden passing of Betty it was even easier for her to leave as she didn’t have to consider the needs of her lovable companion in deciding where she lived in the future. All Vivienne knew for sure was that wherever she went it would not be some retirement complex with a load of others just ‘Waiting for God’. At least, not for another decade or so.

Vivienne managed a laugh through tearful eyes as she recalled watching that TV series. That and ‘The Last of the Summer Wine’ showed the sort of retirement that she would love to have. She had been pretty normal and had conformed with the norm all her working life. She wondered for an instant if it was time for her to rebel a bit and not really care about what others thought about her?

The question remained about if she could actually or rather dare she actually do something as radical as that?

[to be continued]