Nocciolina's Walk

On Wednesday afternoon, Giorgio had gone to Rome for a few days and Dominga had to visit her father in-law's doctor so I had to occupy Clarissa when she got home from school. As soon as Dominga's car disappeared from the drive, Clari decided she wanted to go to the shop.

Emptying the entire contents of her money box into her camera case (which was acting as a purse) we opened the gates at the end of the garden and started up the hill. Nocciolina bounding after us. Nahh, it's all right, I thought, she'll head back when we get to the end of the road.

But no. She followed us half way to the shop, until we reached the roundabout and she saw the cars going past and started going wild. I stopped Clari.

"We can't take Nocciolina to the shop, can we." She looked at me.

"We try."
"No Clari, we can't. Can't you see she is scared of the cars? What will you do if she gets hit by a car?"
"She won't."
"Of course she might! She keeps running in the road!"
"We try."

No. I told her I wouldn't go to the shop with Nocciolina following us. The risk of her getting run over was so high, and Italians aren't exactly the most careful of drivers..
 

Just chillin'  (on Bronson)...

We walked back to the end of our road, and Clari said she would sit on the grass and wait for me. I ran with Nocciolina all the way back to the house, and let her back into the garden. I then ran all the way back to Clari, and Nocciolina wasn't on my tail. We carried on, turning into the street that lead past her school. I heard a noise at my feet.

Nocciolina.

She'd somehow got out of the garden and run all the way back to us. Clari was getting annoyed now as she couldn't see the problem with taking Nocciolina into the village and she just wanted to go to the shop. I looked down at Nocciolina.

I then had an idea. Taking the piece of string acting as a strap off of Clari's camera case, I clipped it to Nocciolina's collar and - voila, we had a lead. Clari was pleased, Nocciolina less so.

I don't think the poor dog has ever been walked in its life. She didn't mind the lead, but she was absolutely petrified of everything else; the cars, the people, the noise.

And what's more, we started getting some funny looks. People were driving past and staring through their windows like they'd never seen a dog on a lead before. It was so weird.

Our trip to the shop (usually a 10 minute walk) took over an hour and a half. How exactly, I don't know. Clari wanted to jump in every puddle on the way there and every puddle on the way back. And having a dog on a lead appeared to be a great conversation starter as everyone seemed to be talking to us.

We did eventually make it to the shop, Giusella coming out and seeing me (as I had to wait outside with Nocciolina) and we did finally make it back home; Nocciolina in one piece.