Betwiched, bothered and bewildered

So it was a There weekend. I know how to spot it now. MBNAD woman fussing about with bags the evening before, then when she gets back from not-minding sheep, it’s all busy busy quick Mossie walk, puts my tea down for me and she stuffs the bags into the car and we’re gone. I used to think that she was trying to run away from me but now I know that she just puts my tea down so that we can go quickly. Even so, I make sure that I am standing by the car before she’s ready to get in. By her door. Just in case.

Halfway There, she stops to have bread and meat. If I stick my nose next to her ear, she will usually give me the endy bits. Grand. Cow but with something hot and sharp that goes up my nose and makes me sneeze. “Thank you, Mossie”, she grumbles. Top tip, says the voice, she doesn’t much like snot in her hair.

“Wales, Powys, Mossie. Home”

This is where the magic starts. There becomes Here.

“Night night Mossie, night night Bella”.

The morning brings rain. Not gentle merciful rain, you understand, but the sort that makes you really want to curl up in front of the fire. But no, off we go walking in the rain because she wants to see the river. It’s really quite like the stuff that’s falling out of the sky. Wet. And my toes ended up pink. This is so embarrassing. The mud is a dark pink and so were my paws. I made sure I stayed away from the Dog-with-Leanings.


The Woman who lives with the Dog-with-Leanings and Toothless-Cat came to dinner.
She had a birthday.


Whatever.

They drank.

Sunday morning, off she goes to the building with the dead-people garden. Leaves me behind to go off to a cold building. With dead people in the garden. I grump at her when she gets back and watch while she does another strange thing. This is something that she does a lot. She puts lots of clothes and bed covers in wall-string-whoosh-grumble-grumble-whoosh-wheee-box. After all that, she takes the stuff out and it’s wet. She could have just gone outside to enjoy the weather and got the same effect. She hangs it up to dry and then, this is really peculiar, she gets a fold up table and a wall-string-flattener. Then she flattens the clothes and bed covers. Yes, says the voice, she’s always flattened clothes. When she’s done, they’re nice and warm and good to sleep on. Hmmm, I think that may be ok for the People’s Spaniel but not the Colliewobble.

Then MBNAD woman went off with some others in the coven to the Tanners. I try hanging onto her leg but she sent me back to my bed. “I’ll be back soon, Mossie”. Liar.

When I heard them coming back, I went to the two-catflaps room to shout at her. But she didn’t come in. So I shouted a bit more and listened carefully. I could hear her talking to me but she didn’t come through the door. Then she was laughing. Witchy laughing. Behind me. The old white dog looks up from grooming her other-worldly toes and says, Front door. She came through the Front door.

Witch.

Then she turned the magic back inside out and Here became There again. And she sat on the floor and stroked my ears.

“Night night Mossie, night night Bella”.