Worse

I couldn't wait to get outside this morning. It was like a summer's day with birds all around us singing their heads off, and the sun beating down on our heads. What could go wrong? The day had started badly, but it was about to get much worse. Three quarters of the way around our field Hugo suddenly spotted a hare and streaked off after it. This was bad as he was heading towards the lane, not away from it where I normally feel he's quite safe. He disappeared at the end of the hedge, and all I could do was retrace my steps back to the lane as quickly as I could and try to see where he had gone. The nightmare had begun. There was no sign of Hugo across the lane, but everywhere there were hares running around, playing, chasing, fighting - all the panoply of spring. I counted 14 including a few nearly as big as the dog and several youngsters. My heart sinking in my stomach for the second time in an hour I went home for the car and the binoculars, and began trawling the lanes and scanning the fields. For two hours I went back and forth, stopping, scanning, calling and whistling, imagining the worst as you do when you're very afraid but powerless, but I could not see him. Feeling so sick I could barely think straight I spotted him at last through the binos, just a dot without their extra strength. I waved my arms, called and whistled again,and gradually coaxed him back to me. He could barely walk, staggering and zigzagging until at last he reached me. His head was down and he was panting fit to burst, but when he reached me he leant against my leg and wagged his tail feebly. He was coated in muck, and I could see at once that one back foot was twice the size of the other. I helped him into the car and got him safely home where he drank his water bowl dry and crawled into his bed. I can see that one leg is swollen and red, and there may be cuts as well. But I'm not going to touch him until he's recovered his strength.

Poor little boy. He's as much a victim of being a whippet as the hare is of being a hare. I don't even know if he caught one though he looks as if he's been in a tussle. So that's it then as far as free running around here goes for the time being, even assuming he'll still be able to walk any time soon. He'll be needing a bath, but all he's fit for now is sleep. And I feel the same way.