Labour

17 April 2016

Yesterday afternoon the Labour Party’s local local election candidate called round. Not specifically to my home of course…

Ruby dog barks at pretty-much everyone who calls now. I ask her to “Wait”, close the living room door, and answer the front door - safe in the knowledge Ruby can observe from the relative comfort of the front window.

Yesterday though, yesterday unfolded a little differently.

I got up, asked Ruby to “Wait”, closed the door, answered the front door and no sooner had I said “Hello. Sorry to say I’m not voting for you but I wish you every success, especially at the national level…” than Ruby shot past me, out of the door!

She wouldn’t come back, ran next door, into the road, up the street and then waited. I followed, no shoes. As I closed in, all the while telling her to “come here”, she sat, until something made her decision and she ran across the road and along the path we usually start the walk at.

3/4 of the way along she nosed about in the grass, all the while keeping what she must have thought a safe distance from me.

Eventually though as I waited and calmed down she came to me, I let her pause a moment to reestablish something-or-other, trust maybe, and picked her up.

I took 3 things away from this situation:

1. Shouting at a newly-escaped dog fails,
2. It’s surprisingly hard to walk on the pavements (US: sidewalks) around here shod only in socks, even the thick ones I wore yesterday,
3. People who call unannounced at your door will walk away when presented with a situation it’s easier to pass on to someone else.

I’m not inclined to test the next candidates out in a similar fashion. But it did cross my mind to.