Lola Pug receives some unwanted attention

Lola Pug and Fifi take in the scenery

Pyjamas and telly - the only two words in my vocabulary on a Sunday. Occasionally chocolate might make the list but that's my absolute limit. Well, that's how it used to be, until Lola.

Lazy Sundays are well and truly over. Sundays are now Lola days. A day to take Lola somewhere interesting, full of sights, sounds, smells, dogs and people in the hope that we might be able to rid her of some of that crazy energy.

It's my only chance of getting a few hours after tea to sit down and relax, hopefully with a sleeping pug by my feet, too tired to cause any trouble.

If she's not winding Fifi up, shes attempting to crunch the zips off cushions, scratching the sofa or munching on stones and I have no idea where she gets them from.

And then there's the dandelions. What is it with those things? I had a few in the garden and over the space of a couple of days she'd bitten of the heads off and eaten every single one of them. Why? At first I would chase her round the garden to try and remove them from her mouth, but she liked it. Me charging around the grass with bare feet, dodging fresh poo piles, shouting No, boyfriend watching from the kitchen, silly grin on his face, praying that I step in dog shit so he can laugh about it for years to come. All of this commotion over a dandelion was so much fun for Lola.  She thought it was a game and did it all the more. After a quick google to make sure they weren't poisonous or anything I had no other option but to admit defeat. She'd won the battle. She was free to eat the dandelions.

Eating dandelions? Me?

When the last dandelion of the garden was eaten I was so relieved. No more trail of petals on the kitchen floor. Have you ever tried to sweep up wet dandelion petals? They just stick to the floor. No more picking the stupid things up by hand, one by one. But guess what? The next day I was hanging the washing out, thinking about how nice it was now the dandelions have gone and what do I see? Only about thirty more bright yellow dandelions! What the hell? Over night?! How is that even possible?


They are just a few of the reasons why lazy Sundays are now a thing of the past.

Last Sunday I went to the woods. If I can get either my partner or my son off their computers for a few hours to join me in my quest to tire out Lola then it's a bonus. If I can get both of them off their computers to accompany me then I know the Internet is down.

This time it was my partners turn. With the woods, a huge field, a play park and an ice cream cafe it's got something for everyone. Dog walkers, children, picnic-ers, sunbathers - when the weather is nice it's great place to be.

I came here hoping to see lots of dogs. I want Lola to get used to walking past other dogs without making a fuss (unlike Fifi who always feels the need to make such a racket) and so far she's doing brilliantly.

So here's where I was going to talk about what a lovely walk we had. How well behaved the dogs were. How lovely the ice cream tasted. But something happened that really surprised me.

We were walking towards a woman who was throwing a ball for her two Boxers who were both off the lead. As we got closer I could see that the dogs were totally engrossed in the ball and was fairly confident we'd be able to walk past without them bothering us. It turns out it wasn't the Boxers I needed to be concerned about, it was the dog owner.

Yes I'm cute - but please don't pick me up uninvited

She spotted  Lola. She threw the ball for the dogs, who went chasing after it and she then practically ran towards us squealing. She bent over towards Lola to stroke her, or at least that's what I thought she was going to do. Instead she scooped her up into her arms, laughing as Lola wriggled around and licked her face. It all happened so fast. I was a bit taken aback. Who just picks up a dog that doesn't belong to them without asking? Did she not stop to consider that Lola might not be friendly?

Luckily for her Lola is friendly but another dog might have bitten her nose off. Who's fault would it have been? I'd have said the woman's but I bet it would be the dog owner who finds themselves with a lawsuit on their hands.

But that's not even the worst of it. By this time the Boxers had retrieved their ball and had noticed that their owner was fussing a strange dog. Oooh how exciting, a strange dog, let me sniff .... Both dogs started jumping up and down against the woman who was now moving round in circles, trying to prevent the dogs from getting a sniff of Lola. They completely ignored her pleas for them to stop and each time she tried to put Lola down they would both lunge towards her, over excited and out of control. Poor Lola was going up and down like a YoYo one second and round in circles the next. I snatched my dog back and walked away completely gobsmacked. I didn't know what to say. Am I being over sensitive or was this woman way out of line? She walked off like nothing had happened but I was fuming.

In hindsight I wish I'd opened my mouth and let this woman know that what she did was unacceptable. It's my job to protect Lola and I feel like on that occasion I failed. But that was the first and last time. I can assure you it won't happen again.

The rest of the walk I'm pleased to say went without incident. I'm not the confrontational type but from now on I won't be afraid to speak out where the safety of my dogs are concerned....