legends · 4 min read ·
Walk Log
A dog walker is given an altered route by an owner who has not sent it, and the lead goes taut at a grating.
**PawPal — Walk Report**
**Dog:** Biscuit (beagle, 6 years) · **Walker:** Ruth Sadler · **Route:** Hollow Lane Loop (2.4 km)
**09:10** — Pick-up. Biscuit is calm. Lead on.
**09:14** — Walk start. Weather: overcast, still.
**09:31** — Route complete. Returned to home.
*Biscuit is a good boy. He sniffed the hedge on Hollow Lane and wagged at the postman.*
· · ·
I had walked Biscuit for the Abbott family every weekday for a year. They lived at the top of Hollow Lane, in a tall house with a green door, and they travelled a lot for work. Biscuit was a sturdy, cheerful beagle who liked to stop at the same three gateposts and sniff them in the same order. I never hurried him. I liked the quiet of the lane in the mornings.
The route was two and a half kilometres. It went down the lane past the church, around the back of the allotments, and up the old drover's track to the stile, where Biscuit would sit and wait for a biscuit from my pocket. Then back the same way.
On the Tuesday of the second week, the app showed a different route.
· · ·
**PawPal — Walk Report (route altered)**
**Route:** Hollow Lane Loop — *Modified by owner*
**09:10** — Pick-up. Biscuit is calm.
**09:14** — Walk start. Route: Hollow Lane, south.
**09:20** — Route: Drover's Track, north. *Note from owner: please take the long way.*
· · ·
Mrs. Abbott had sent no message. I looked at the app's settings. The route change had been made from the owner's account at 23:58 the night before.
I checked the time I had left the house. The walk had started at 09:14. The route on the map showed us going south, past the church, into the back of the allotments. But the allotments had been paved over years ago. There was a car park there now, and a skip, and a row of brick sheds with their doors wired shut.
Biscuit stopped at the edge of the car park. He sat down. He did not look at me. He looked toward the sheds, with his ears up and his tail very still.
"Come on, boy," I said.
He didn't move. Then, slowly, he stood up and walked toward the nearest shed, pulling at the lead. He went along the wall, sniffing at the brickwork, and stopped at a low grating near the ground. He sniffed it for a long time. When he lifted his head, the lead went taut, and I felt something on the other end pull back.
· · ·
**Message from Mrs. Abbott (23:14, previous night, unread until 09:40):**
*Ruth, please take Biscuit the long way round today. Please don't go past the sheds. He gets upset there, and he'll try to go under the grating. If he does, please don't follow him. You have to call him back from the top of the lane.*
*Please don't go under the grating yourself. Not even to fetch him. You were the last one who did.*
*I'm so sorry about the change in the app. It keeps doing that now.*
· · ·
I didn't go under the grating. I put Biscuit on a short lead and turned him around, and we walked back up the lane toward the house. He pulled the whole way, and every time I looked back, he was looking over his shoulder at the sheds, his nose to the wind.
At the top of the lane, the green door of the Abbott house was open. Mrs. Abbott was on the step in her dressing gown, holding a mug. She looked as if she had not slept for a month.
"Did he go under?" she asked.
"No," I said. "I brought him back."
She closed her eyes for a moment. "Thank you," she said. "Thank you. I didn't think you would."
"Why did I walk him there?" I asked.
She looked at me with the patience of someone explaining something she has explained before.
"Because you're the one who has to call him back," she said. "Every walk. That's your job now. Nobody else would take him."
· · ·
**Vet's note, Canterbury Vets — 18 October**
Biscuit presented with a shallow wound to the left pad. No foreign body found. He appears anxious, and resisted examination of the front paws, which were cold and slightly damp.
Owner reports the dog is walked daily by a professional sitter. The sitter's name is recorded as Ruth Sadler. The sitter has not been seen at the clinic.
*Note from the vet (handwritten, below):* The dog's microchip has been registered to a different address for four years. The address is a shed on Hollow Lane, last used as an allotment store. The number is the same as Ruth's phone.
· · ·
**PawPal — Walk Report (automated)**
*Biscuit did not return from today's walk. Route ended at Hollow Lane, 09:40. Last known position: under the grating, allotment site. Owner has been notified.*
*Please note: this walk was assigned to Ruth Sadler, who has not logged in since 14 October.*
*Biscuit is a good boy. He is sitting at the top of the lane. Please call him back.*