“You’re never going to believe this, Alfie, there’s a town here called the same thing as our house name.” Oh Megan! How stupid are you? Do you really think that’s a coincidence? I think she may have totally forgotten that that is where I grew up and that we took on some of the names as a result of the fondness of the place. I wonder how long it’s going to be before she realises that all her puppies with have our kennel name of Torfheide, which was the first part of the road name where we live in Belgium! To be fair when she was telling me about the beautiful houses and the tree lined streets she was making me feel very homesick. She seemed surprised when she told me that today they are planning to go to Brasschaat Park and I ruefully said that was one of the settings I used in my book Alfie’s Woodland Stories. It was where the deer lived, as well that is as the deer that lived in the woods behind our house. I remember the time when I noticed children feeding the deer in the pen and went and stood on the end just at the end of the line of deer to see if the children would feed me too. A puppy has to try.
What I don’t miss is the traffic jams getting round the Antwerp ring road on a Friday night during rush hour. I can remember being stuck in jams just like those and they don’t improve.
Shadow called to check on us too and said everything was ok at home. Much as I was glad to hear it I did feel a little resentful that she is there while I have to mind the puppy! Ari kept trying to take the phone when I was talking, which is a really annoying habit in a dog. He said he wanted to ring his brother Duke to wish him well today with meeting the new people he may be going to live with. It was only then he found he didn’t have Duke’s number with him, so I said I’d pass my best wishes on through my diary. So, Duke if you’re reading this, your brother sends a big lick and a woof.