The Aberdeen'n'shire Foxie walk, so often the highlight of my month, was scheduled to meet at Balmedie Country Park (a stretch of beach and sand dunes a few miles north of the city) on Sunday the 29th October.
Doubts crept in when Gail looked at the weather forecast on Saturday night. Would anyone really show up with 30 mph (gusting 50 mph) winds blasting straight off the North Sea and bringing heavy rain?
Come the morning, the rain at least had not arrived but the wind definitely had. While Gail strapped on my red jacket, she also prepared me for disappointment, saying she feared we might be the only ones mad enough to turn out in these ferocious conditions.
How very, very wrong, she was.
One by one, vehicles carrying foxies and their hardy humans arrived in the car park.
Look, here's Merin! And Rupert! And Jinx! And Dougie! And Edmund! And BEST OF ALL Agatha!
So we set off through the sand dunes to the sea. The tide was high, driven yet higher by the wind and waves.
The humans deemed the narrow strip of beach too dangerous given the strong possibility of rogue waves and summoned Rupert, Agatha and me back up to relative safety.
It was all tremendously good fun! For us dogs anyway.
While we rampaged around the dunes, the humans managed just snatches of conversation between pulling hats and hoods over ears to protect from the sea spray, foam and whistling wind.
"...you have to take them for a walk anyway..."
"...worst period of gales and rain I can remember..."
"...don't want any of them swept away by the waves..."
"...at least the sand's wet so it's not blowing in their eyes..."
"...sorry, I didn't quite catch that..."
"...all this racing up and down the sand dunes will tire them out..."
"...the dogs are having a great time anyway..."
"...should choose somewhere more sheltered for next month..."
Oddly enough, we didn't meet a single other human or dog during our hour long walk in this normally popular spot.
