The Sundial Incident!

We have a sundial in our back garden!

It consists of a metal piece which has the clock graduations stamped on it and a raised flat piece which creates the shadow which shows us the time. That raised flat piece comes to a point at its end and the whole metal top is firmly fixed to a concrete building block (as used in our house’s foundation walls).

When we come back from a walk, Ray frequently burns off a lot of apparently surplus energy as soon as he is in our back garden. We think that is probably a simple result of being leashed for so long and subsequently unable to charge around at a moment’s notice. There are numerous reasons why Ray must be constantly leashed when out, and none of them are going to change in the immediate future, so we simply join in with his playing.

Typically he will chase a few of his toys for a while and, if we join in the chase making silly noises and leaping around, his interest in toys is extended. All Ray’s playing is done at high speed so it is not too long before he gives in to his body and rests!

On this particular occasion, we came back from a quite long walk and, as soon as we were all through the gate, Ray took off like a rocket and clearly looking for something to play with. He has a number of tennis balls; a couple of footballs, and a soccer ball, but they did not interest him. This was not unusual so we got out his big fluffy “purple footed cow” and some tug/throw toys.

It is always fascinating to watch him power his way around the garden. He could be a miniature and extremely furry race horse in full gallop as he reaches forward with his front paws while his back legs are at full extension! He is generally very good at respecting the shrubs but will occasionally get into his miniature and extremely furry race horse pose and take a direct route right over or through one or two of them. I have often been looking for him and he will suddenly come flying (literally) out from underneath a large shrub!

We must have had him charging around the garden and chasing toys for a considerable time when he decided to take a flying leap over a group of shrubs and landed on the grass very awkwardly. He immediately stopped and was having a problem with his left front leg, which seemed to be positioned rather oddly. Upon closer examination, his leg was bleeding.

The immediate thought, looking at him, was that he had hit something and broken his leg! Within seconds of considering that possibility, Ray decided to start walking around and it was clear that while he was uncomfortable, his leg was certainly not broken. He moved around a little more and then broke into a trot so obviously there was nothing causing him serious problems.

So what was all that about? Why was he bleeding?

We went back to the area where the problem seemed to have originated and there, laying on its side, was our sundial! What we surmise Ray must have done, was to leap over the sundial and misjudge something such that his left front leg caught the spiked metal top. Either during that incident, or as a result of it, his 75lbs on the move tipped the whole assembly over!

Needless to say the sundial is now in the garden shed, and we were so pleased to note that damage to our Ray was superficial. He was back to charging around before the day had ended!

We used to have a sundial in our back garden!

26 thoughts on “The Sundial Incident!”

  4. pensitivity101's avatar

    Oh, poor Ray! I hope he is OK now and none the worse for his miscalculation. We used to have a sun dial in our garden too, but Maggie never made any attempt to jump over it. In fact, we got £20 for it at a car boot sale when we were getting rid of our surplus stuff!

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  6. Kate Crimmins's avatar

    My cat Jake used to fly around the house sometimes to get rid of energy. He would fly down the stairs so fast he’s slam into the wall. He did it every time. I always worried that he’d hurt himself but he never did. Of course he did break some stuff in the process.

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  8. Xena and Lucy's avatar

    I can just see Ray running crazy in the yard. After walks, myMom used to let my adopted brother Riley off leash when we got back to our yard and he would run zoomies up and down the hill until he worked the poop out that he wouldnt do on the walk.

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