Walking the dog

The painting above is called taking the dog for a walk and sold during the last exhibition. One of my happiest and certainly most interesting periods of my police service was being teamed up with Mike. We were Detectives. He had been a PTI in the Parachute Regiment. Big and full of fun he could also be a handful. Every day was an adventure working with him. He had a little terrier that looked pretty incongruous when he took it for a walk as you could hardly see this little tuft of hair on a lead beside this large barrel chested being.

One evening Mike was apparently sent to deliver a package to the Superintendent at home. He took the long wheelbase Land Rover and drove to the Superintendent’s House. He pulled up on the drive outside the house and delivered the package. He got back in the Land Rover reversed back and drove back to the police station. Arriving back he found to his dismay he had the remnants of a standard rose attached to his rear bumper. He had obviously caught it in the Superintendent’s garden somewhere and dragged it back to the station.

He recovered the bits of it and returned to the Superintendent’s house. Driving up to the house he saw in the headlights tyre marks and ruts all over the perfectly manicured lawn. He realised he had reversed over the lawn and pulled the sole standard rose out of the central flowerbed.

 He was apparently quite humble when he returned the rose stick and fortunately the Superintendent was lost for words as Mike beat a hasty retreat.