Chapter 10: Sue The Pooh (A True Story)

La Trocha, A Dressing Gown, and No Bed Made

7:00am, my phone is ringing. It’s the lady that is the non-chihuahua breeder. I answered, “Christine, I am standing in my conservatory, and I can see a little black dog with another dog,” she said. “On the way,” I said. Gosh, I got there so quickly. Nothing… So, I then went and pulled on the rope bell, she appeared and kindly offered me in and took me to her conservatory. She pointed to where she had seen the little black dog, then her partner walked in and said: “No, it’s not George it was a mastiff.” Basically, a mastiff is the size of a small donkey. I actually felt sick as to why these people would do this to me; I had so much hope as obviously with them knowing exactly what George looked like and actually having a dog that looked exactly like George. So, I then left, and as I did, my phone went yet again, “Little black dog at El Plato restaurant (this is opposite Sierra Gorda),” so off I went there. Yes, it was the La Trocha dog.

Shit, I have to pick Sue up from the airport in a few hours; she lands at 10am, I have no food, the house is a mess, and I haven’t even made up her bed. Shit, I haven’t slept since Saturday night, shit shit shit. Oh great, and to top it off, I have just come on my period.

I had so much to do, yet all I could think about was all the pieces of my dressing gown randomly laying there in the campo. So obviously, I had to go and check. Being deflated was something that I never got used to; however, I did harden up to it, and the tears didn’t fall as freely. On my return, I made up Sue’s bed, I was so numb, and I basically made up her bed robotically without any emotion. Thankfully what with Sue being my friend blimey for many, many years, that I didn’t have to worry about the state of the house. Sue had messaged me to say she was at the airport and that she would get a taxi to mine, I knew she was so worried about me, and I was actually hurting knowing that Sue was in for one hell of a time over the next few days. You see, you can’t console a person in a situation of not knowing; all you can do is be there.

Lasagna, Guilt, and No One Is Going to Bed

Reading Sue’s message saying how she would get a taxi to mine was reassuring as the thought of heading off to Málaga airport and then receiving a call of a sighting of George actually scared me. However, by this time, I was getting better at delegating. I immediately messaged Claudia to say: “Off to the airport to collect Sue, so please be on standby for all calls regarding George.”

I also managed to take a shower and print the day’s orders for work. I did my usual and replied to all the messages that I had received, thanking everyone, and I even managed to post another poster on Facebook for people to share and keep the awareness up. Knowing that Sue was on her way to help was giving me the lift that I needed, and off I went to collect her from the airport.

A normal pick-up with Sue would be “HOLA GUAPA QUE TAL?” Then we would be giving all the chat in the car, not this time… Our eyes met, we both just welled up, and it was silence until we were on the motorway. It was then that Sue said, “Mate, what is the plan?”

“First stop at my warehouse, to pack the orders as I have the labels here in the car, then we go to the shop on the estate and buy food for a picnic, and we then spend the day looking for George around the campo. I am so sorry, Sue, there is no food in the house, and basically, I haven’t washed up in days. I made your bed up, though.” 💩

The Poop, the Picnic, and the Period

While buying the food for our picnic, Sue said we obviously needed gin. Obviously, I agreed as she was paying, and I didn’t want to offend her tee hee. We then went back to mine to make the picnic up, and thankfully TNT messaged just as we were nearly all ready to go, so I quickly met TNT, and now it was around 11am, and we were about to head off with all the dogs, yes all the dogs. I must admit I was a tad nervous as we were going on foot, and what with Jeremy not being able to cope wearing a lead and obviously with the number of dogs you can’t possibly have them all on a lead, well I suppose you can if you don’t mind being tied in knots.

Off we went with 2 stretchy leads as I insisted that Kev and Steve had a lead on as the fields were in full bloom, meaning that the grass was actually taller than Kev and Steve. We had decided that we would walk all the fields trespassing all the way, and every half an hour, we would stop for a snack and just sit there hoping that if George was scared or injured that either Peter or Jeremy would find him. I also knew that it was Sue’s mission to get me to eat something. So, there we were sitting in a field, Sue getting out a couple of cheese and ham rolls when I looked over at Jeremy, “Give it to me,” I said. Jeremy had something in his mouth. “Come on, Jeremy, give it to mummy,” I said, and so he did, he gave it to me. It was a piece of bloody pooh, yes, a piece of dog shit; there I was holding a piece of pooh just moments before I was about to eat something for the first time in days. “Sue do we have disinfectant and baby wipes in the bag,” I said. “No, but there are a few cans of beer,” said Sue.

Believe it or not with the encouragement of Sue, plus with me holding my right arm behind my back, I managed to eat half of the ham and cheese roll.

We then moved on to the next field and decided to stay close to the house of the lady that took the photo of George and the house of the supposedly non-chihuahua breeders. It was a very long afternoon and very tiring, plus the weeing in the field situation, with being on my period was kind of, I suppose, better than what that lady had messaged me about weeing in a bottle and laying a trail 💩. It was now starting to get rather cold, and I could see that Sue was absolutely exhausted. Oh the guilt I felt as I could see the struggle she was having just to walk back to mine, we had achieved nothing apart from losing Steve’s stretchy lead (not a cheap lead).

Broken, Fed, and Never Going to Bed

As soon as we got home, I fed the dogs and it was a nice feeling as I knew I could light the fire with Sue being there, you see all the other evenings I couldn’t as it’s an open fire and if I had to dash off because of a call that George was spotted I decided never to light it. It was such a lovely feeling being warm, and then I looked over at Sue and just broke; I totally broke down and cried my little heart out.

Ping ping, that’s the tone of a WhatsApp from Claudia; immediately I looked at her message, it said: “Are you at home?” “Yes,” I replied. “On the way,” she said. Claudia has a key to mine, so I had no need to look out for her, and then in she walked. Sue’s face totally lit up as Claudia turned on the oven; she said: “It will be ready to eat in 20 minutes.” “Oh,” that’s all I said, then “Oh God Sue, I am so so sorry,” I said. I had forgotten about dinner. I was so grateful to Claudia. Claudia is like a sister to me, an older sister… well, she is one year older than me, ok so as Claudia will point out, she is 10 months older than me.

Claudia checked if there was anything else that we needed, and then off she went. Sue was so excited that she then poured us both a gin. Can you believe that we drank the complete bottle in under 30 minutes? Sue then dished up the lasagna that Claudia had made. Sue wolfed it down; I did manage two mouths full, which was an achievement. I was warm. I had Sue with me, all my babies, and yet I still felt so lost, so broken, it’s so hard to explain the emptiness you feel when you have so much love around you, so much support, and as much as you keep telling yourself as to how lucky you are that you still feel empty and alone.

Sue saw to all the washing up, and at last, my cup of hot chocolate was dealt with. We looked at each other, and Sue knew, and I knew, she was now off to bed, and it didn’t matter what anyone in the world told me; Sue knew I wouldn’t be going to bed.

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