Running free

The wind was up this morning as we walked around the park, and Flo got a real kick out of chasing the leaves as the wind caught them.

This picture really captures Flo’s mischevious and cheerful personality. She loves to chase things – bicycles, joggers, balls, leaves, and the like. But she loves to steal things more. Lego is her favourite contraband. Pens and socks a close second. She takes clean washing from the laundry basket and dashes up the garden with it, dragging it through the mud.

She’s fast, very fast,, and she’s at her fastest when she’s stolen something. About once a day we’ll engage in a coffee table stand off, where I will try to retrieve a precious toy from her clutches, and she will resist by racing round the table. I try lunging at her from my side of the table, and she deftly, mockingly, turns on a sixpence and runs the other way. I switch direction, and lunge again. And so it goes on. I have tried running across the table, but am just not fast enough. This goes on until I break down in tears of laughter or frustration (depending on time of day, glasses of wine consumed, number of tasks completed on my to do list etc).