Lelie and self were getting along fine, and as long as she stayed away from my Strawberries and flowers, I allowed her to roam as she liked. She still thought that the naughty wee cock was her bestest friend, while this cockey little cock was out on one mission only, and that was to steal her food, and he still sneaked through some or other hole in the fence if he thought I was not looking!
Lelie was a bit scared to go out of my fenced off yard, as Moby the bloodhound, if he was close by, was always on the look-out for a playmate, and as he was so big and rough, Lelie usually ended up quite bedraggled, and looked the picture of sorrow as she limped home after some playtime!
Then she discovered the frogs!
I had a constant fight with the local frog community who had decided that my house was just the ideal spot for them to sleep away the hot daylight hours. Many a night I have been frightened out of my brains when one of this housemates gave a hoarse quaack underneath my bed, a wake-up call for the rest of his inmates, and I constantly moved the heavy furniture to fish them out, as they made themselves as flat as pancakes behind the chair legs, or a book case, making the finding quite hard. I usually put them close to the river, hoping that they find their way to a new and friendlier home.
Then Lelie discovered them, as they woke her up one night, and of course she thought they came specially to play with her, and from then on I had almost no sleep at night, as the frogs only wanted to get out through the space underneath the front door. Lelie was like a jack-in-the-box, jumping at the frogs when they leaped up high to escape her attentions, with the result that such a racket was made by Lelie skidding and jumping and barking hysterically, that every bit of sleep evaporated speedily, and after I had opened the door to let the frogs out, and Lelie ran around crazily until they had all disappeared into the bushes, I was ready to commit doggy murder, lying awake wide-eyed.
One morning I was walking around wearied and tired after a hectic night with Lelie and friends, and decided that enough was enough, and, as the frogs made their ways back into my house unseen every day, how I wouldn't know, I was going to gather them all and let them loose close to somebody else's house, far away from my place.
So I got a large cardboard box, and with some gloves I had saved after dying my hair that time when it came out an angry orange, I set out on operation gathering frogs! That was quite a hard task, as I had some heavy furniture, but as the frogs hid behind them in the darkest corners, it had to be done. I was sommer cross on finding the amphibians fast asleep after keeping me from my slumbers the previous night, and they didn't even struggle as I picked them up to put them in my box, just opened their cold eyes and stared at me drowsily for a moment before falling back into their comatose state.
I drove around all over to try and disorientate the frogs, and then, about two kilometers from my own house I spotted a lonely house where I could crawl up to, and let loose my cargo of slumbering frogs! I parked about two hundred meters from this house, and sat for a good five minutes to see if there was someone around, then, with my heart pumping at an extraordinally rate, I set off, folded almost double, to let loose my friends as close to the house as possible!Nobody was around, and as there was no smoke coming from the chimney, I crawled onwards till about twenty meters away before I opened the lid of the mandjie and deposited the sleeping lot on a piece of green grass underneath a tree. They were so fast asleep that they hardly lifted an eyelid, so I bid them a good day's sleep, and crawled back to my car! That night I slept like a log!
But when Stephan and Trienkie came to visit that week-end, Lelie found a wonderful new friend n the young Kian, my grandson, and the two played together till sleep time.