It is now over six years since we ditched our familiar city home and lifestyle for somewhere a little more peaceful and rural. We felt it was time for something new. A small Derbyshire village, one local pub, a tiny village school, acres of unspoilt countryside at our doorstep and a lovely little village community to welcome us. We instantly loved our new rural lifestyle and we largely still do. But sadly it’s not all smiles in northern Derbyshire.
So, to the lovely folk in our village, as this post is written mainly for those locals who may stumble upon this. For those of you not too familiar with us, we are the ones with the crazy, loopy, happy, bouncy young Springer Spaniel. Once met, never forgotten. Before Bungo we owned another equally crazy, loopy, happy, bouncy Springer Spaniel. Dogs and owners they say 🙄 Spaniels have boundless energy, a happy soul and a lovely temperament with children, people and other dogs. Yes they may be over lively at times, a bit too loving maybe, often somewhat excitable, but never nasty, aggressive or menacing. Springers are not known for that behaviour. It’s why we have them.
We do appreciate that some people or dogs don’t want to be bothered with our dog’s lively playful behaviour, which is why, unless we know you, we’ll rush to put our dog back on his lead if we see you while we’re out. Sometimes we may not quite get there quick enough and our waggy dog will want to play and say hello, in his bouncy lively way. If this has happened to you, then we’re very sorry if our happy dog has bothered you. But please rest assured, biting and maliciously attacking you or your dog wouldn’t even enter our dog’s tiny brain. We basically own a bouncier version of Tigger from Winnie the Poo!!!
Earlier this week, whilst out with our bouncy Tigger the owners of a Golden Retriever threatened to ‘smash my f@#king head in, if my dog attacked his.’Â This was said in front of my 10 year old son and needless to say, our dog didn’t remotely attack their dog. All rather shocking behaviour for our quiet little village.
And then yesterday, while walking down the cycle track at the back of our house our dog met a Husky coming the other way. The owner, a man we’ve always been really pleasant too (as we are to everyone in our village, much like our dog 🙄 ) instantly hoisted his dog up into the air and started shouting that our dog ‘was going to get it now.’ My wife went to get Bungo while I stopped to talk to the enraged owner. We apologised for our lively dog. He’d been jumping up, quite possibly because another dog had been lifted high into the air right in front of him. Quite a game for a dog I can imagine, but I’m no animal psychiatrist. Apparently our ‘vicious dog’ was about to ‘rip my dog’s throat out’ and it ‘was time your f@#king dog was going to get it.’ This angry tirade was once again spat out right in front of my son. The incensed man then walked off insisting that he would be informing the RSPCA of the vicious attack. A vicious attack which obviously never happened…
As I’ve already said, I appreciate that not all dogs want to play. Some dogs don’t get along. Sometimes you just want a quiet dog walk and to not be bothered by other dogs (nice, nasty or bouncy). Sometimes, shock horror, dogs really don’t get along and they fight. Our dog has been set upon by another dog before and it’s not nice, but there are decent, sensible, common sense ways of dealing with this… Angrily threatening to f#@king kill dog or owner in front of a 10 year old child is my massive issue here. Especially when, apart from excessive wagging, nothing nasty even happened!!!
We’ve always thought of our little village as a happy friendly village and we’ve thoroughly enjoyed being part of its lovely community. Sadly after this week, village life has a rather sour taste to it, which is a real shame. Maybe city life ain’t so bad after all 😯
