109. Burgess Hill - UK - House and Pet Sitting - Episode 33

The owners came home at 2am on the morning we were to leave Grangecon at 5.30am. It's weird leaving a place, knowing the family is sleeping in the home as we quietly exited without saying goodbye. Of course, we communicated later in the day to debrief. All went well even though Tilly was apparently walking around looking a bit depressed for a couple of days!

We arrived at Rosslare at 7am and caught the ferry back to Fishguard on the west coast of Wales. Our next sit was in Burgess Hill on the following day so we stayed a night near Bournemouth, where the bathroom was bigger than the rest of the space. 🤣 The next day, we caught up with someone we knew who used to live on the Sunshine Coast who now resides in the New Forest area. We had a nice lunch with him and his two children and then ventured on to Burgess Hill to meet the owners of 'Archie' at our next sit.

It was a hot day with the temperature in the car reaching 35 degrees! It was only a week or two before we realised the air con wasn't working as we had no need for it up until this day. Not being used to such warm temperatures and dealing with the congestion of UK traffic, we were quite worn out by the time we arrived at the house. We were warmly welcomed by the family and had a lovely home-cooked Indian dinner. 

They were leaving for Bali early the next morning so we got the brief on 'Archie' and the house stuff. Being Indian, this family's life revolved around cricket. My first brief was how to switch the TV on and switch to the cricket channel. Then we are advised on which TV subscription would give us the best coverage of all international cricket matches.  'Reddy' (the English nickname of the father) apologised as he had to help one of his sons with cricket training before leaving the next morning. Curiously, I went into the backyard to see what was going on and out came the electric bowling machine, two buckets of balls, the green mat and the net and his son walked out with all the latest cricket gear on. Reddy asked me if I liked cricket and mistakingly having said yes, I was then consulted on his 12-year-old son's approach to batting who, I must say, had a better technique than I ever had!

Archie's house

Tasteful statue in the backyard

The UK elections are on this week- One of the more credible candidates

We were surprised with the lack of life the local village has. Many shops closed and very few people were around. Considering the quality and prices of real estate here, I expected something very different.

Houses in the street

On one walk, I put Archie's harness on and started the walk down the street. After about 10 minutes, he suddenly jumped in the air, did an aerial twist and before I could do anything, he was out of the harness and bolting across a very busy road. I didn't have time to think. I negotiated the traffic to a stop while I crossed the road and started calling his name. 

He took off down a side street and stopped about 50 metres ahead. I pulled out the 'never fail' treats and called out but they didn't live up to their name. He took off again and I lost sight of him. I called Max to let her know what just occurred and the hunt was on. 

After what seemed like an eternity but was only 20 minutes, Max could hear a dog's bark similar to Archie's and followed the sound. She returned to the property and found Archie in the backyard demanding to be let in the house. Now the backyard is secure so we were scratching our heads as to how he got in...

On two occasions that afternoon, we had people dropping by to see if Archie was back home. One of them told us that someone heard me calling his name out loud and posted a lost dog notice on the community's Facebook page when someone who knew him found him, brought him home and put him in the backyard. How they caught him is still a mystery.

That was the longest, most breathless 20 minutes of my life. Running as fast and as long as one could, and calling out at the top of one's voice while wondering what we were going to tell the owner, is not recommended for the faint-hearted. It was a close call however we are so grateful to the local community effort that saved the dog (the traffic here is relentless) and avoided heartache for all as well as our reputation as sitters.

You'd think butter wouldn't melt in his mouth

We came to the conclusion that Archie is spoilt rotten, completely untrained, and has been fed by hand all his life!!! and will try to bite you if he doesn't want to do something that you insist he does. Having said that he's completely bonded with us and will miss us, I think, when we're gone.  What a complicated little unit! I will miss those eyes...