Whose Run Is It Anyway?

Strelka the Golden reflects on his masters running habits in Summer

by Strelka
1 hour 03.50 min - 9.4 km

These days the boss gets angry with me when I stop for a sniff or a pee.  I don't like him getting angry with me for anything and most of the time I run by his heel all the circuit, sometimes ahead, sometimes behind and most often by the side. It's good to go out and check what the others are up to.

And he is a great hunter too, the Boss. Think, bringing all those huge bags of dog biscuits every week from the hunt! Just for us! And yesterday he was especially lucky, he brought back a bagfull of fat bloody bits of pork - all for us. Don't know why he called them 'scraps for dogs', they were delicious!

Anyway, for some reason he insists on running on and on without stopping, even now when it's really getting too hot for a fast run. Yeah, okay, to be honest I sometimes pretend I want a pee when, in fact, I just want some time and space to enjoy the outing just for myself. Leroy the Setter is not like me, he would run on and on, but I know he would like it too.

I mean, I am okay with warm weather, I just pant more, and then, at the end of it, there is always a nice cool room with flagstones.  But I can't take off my coat like the Boss does. And honestly, whose run is it anyway? What does he think, it's all just for him?

I can keep up pace with him, or catch up if left on my own, no problem.  But give me some freedom, sometimes at least. I don't want too much of it, I'll catch up and generally I'm happy just lying on the mat or sitting by the house.

Build Up My Confidence

9 km - 59.27 min - windy, but pleasantly warm, salty taste on my face. Dogs pant and hide in shade.

Boss never lets us down. When those dastardly good-for-nothings rush out to chase us, he just swishes the long end of the lead - and they scamper. Wow, I wish I could be so brave.

Today he did something he'd never done before. We were coming back and just two or three hundred metres from home, I was really thirsty and tired, kept stopping pretending I wanted to pee, though I didn't, really. Then Blackie rushed out at us, barking, snarling. Bastard, coward, he'd never fight for real, I just know. Boss cracked the lead once, swished it around once - and then he suddenly stopped and unclipped the double lead. Me and Leroy were free! Free to fight!

We stopped, turned round to face Blackie, who didn't realise what had happened - and then we lunged at him. The coward retreated, just ran for it. What a feeling! Total victory! I've never felt so pleased with myself. Leroy was good too. Boss was proud too, I think. 'Well done, boys' he said.

- by Strelka the Golden, retriever

Photo by A.Anichkin: A Gargoyle of the Bayeux Cathedral

The Future Runs

30 March 09
6 miles - 49.00 min sunny, light, cool breeze

Light stride, easy run - felt a bit like Max Kammerer, a hero of my favourite sci-fi book from the 60s, Prisoners of Power, also known by its Russian title The Inhabited Island.


He is a man from a future utopian Earth, where people live and stay healthy for as long as they have an interest in life. The anti-utopian (distopian) option of the future is on a planet where Max lands to prepare a report for the KGB (K-Council of Gallactic B-Security-bezopasnost.) People there drink, smoke, die early and are controlled by mind-bending rays broadcast from cell-phone type pylons. Nations wage nuclear wars against each other polluting the planet that is already suffering from unbalanced environment.

Stranded on the planet Max misses his favourite pastime on Earth: running. It's not any running. His was a run through the woods a-chasing the deer. The future human would catch up with the deer, grab him by the antlers, stop, hold down and then release.

Oh, and while on the planet Max discovers a race of Headdies (Golovans), dog-like creatures who, as a result of mutations, acquired intelligence equal or superior to human. Dogs eventually join the human on his mission, running beside him and warning of approaching danger...

The Inhabited Island by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, 1969, published in English in 1977 under the title
Prisoners of Power


Yesterday, 29 March, saw first swallows (or house martins). It's only March! Are we in for a scorching Summer? Or are they just passing and stopped in my garden on their way further North. Swallows go all the way to the North Sea and the White Sea.