Winnie the greyhound and the great rabbit rescue

So here's a story that the Lady Of The House wants to tell you.
I don't know why.
But over to the LOTH.
I'm going for a lie down.


Thanks Win.

So, me and Win were taking a gentle walk through the housing estates near our home one morning when she suddenly got her 'cat face' on.

This involves her ears flying straight up like flagpoles and her eyes focusing forward in a steely gaze and is usually immediately followed by one loud warning bark before she attempts to fly forward as far as her lead will allow in the attempted pursuit of a cat she's seen ahead.

But this time it was 'cat face' x 10.

I'd never seen her so intent on the chase. And what was more worrying I couldn't see a cat - or a squirrel.
I was hanging on to the lead and wrapping it round my hand as she barked incessantly and fought like fury to get at something.

Her attention was focused on the base of a tall hedge beside a path between a couple of houses.
I suddenly saw that tucked under the hedge was a large, beautiful, brown and white pet rabbit looking slightly startled but thankfully not taking flight.

But I now faced a problem.

The chances were the rabbit has escaped from one of the two houses nearest to the hedge, but Winnie was going so completely batty there was no chance of me getting closer to either house as it meant getting closer to the rabbit and I didn't want to spook it. I also was beginning to suspect that Winnie might pull me off my feet if she got any closer and any more excited.

I hoped help was at hand when I saw a woman walking down the path towards us beside the hedge.
"Excuse me," I shouted to her. ""Have you seen that rabbit. There look, under the hedge."
She glanced over her shoulder and then smiled at me. "Oh no," she said. "I hadn't" and she speeded up towards us and passed us (giving mad Winnie a wide berth).
"I wondered if you could...." I started. I'd been hoping that she might knock on one of the house doors for me..... but she was clearly not keen to get involved and was away before I could finish the sentence.

With no-one else in sight I looked around for a house that looked as if someone might be at home and not at work.

The house level with us has a car in the drive, so I slowly made my way to the front door with a shrieking, writhing and pulsating Winnie on the end of the lead and without ever taking my eyes off the bunny.

I knocked on the door, and did find myself wondering if I looked outside and saw a strange, harassed woman staring fixedly across the road with a mad howling dog spinning like a top on a pink lead in her hand whether I'd open the door to them.

Maybe they thought the same. The door stayed shut.

Thankfully, the commotion has fetched a woman out of her house further down the road to investigate. As she walked towards us I said: "Oh, can you you help me, there's a rabbit under that hedge and I can't get closer because...."

"Oh," she said. "I know who he belongs to. "He's been missing for four days. they will be delighted. Don't worry. I'll sort it."

So I made a graceful-ish retreat in the opposite direction....with Winnie still baying and twirling.

This is Winnie on a later walk, hopefully inspecting where the rabbit had been in case he was back. He wasn't - and I'm delighted to know he's safely back home and we played our little part.

P.S: Relating this story to a friend, she said: 'Did you get a picture of the rabbit and Winnie for your blog?'

I replied: 'Do you REALLY think she was in any mood to pose? It took all my strength to hang on to her! I wasn't going to get my phone out of my pocket and take a picture too!'.