I woke up at about one in the morning, and Sheila's dogs, about ten of them, were going crazy, and I could hear Sheila yelling death threats at something or somebody. A horrible suspicion took hold of me, and I got up as quietly as I could not to wake Andreas, to have a look and see if Mobi was still safely in his yard.he wasn't!
Haarlem is a very rural village, and our homesteads were far away from the hub of said village, and as there were no streetlights, it was indeed scary to go out onto the road, looking for the errant dog! Praying that Andreas wouldn't wake up, I made my way down the dirt road, and sure as anything, there was Mobi, having crazy fun in front of Sheila's gate, barking and begging to be let in. If he ever got in there by mistake, his chances of survival was just about nil, with the six German Shephards that were not dogs to take chances with.
After I had a wonderful mouthful from Sheila about people who did not look after their dogs, and she was going to shoot this so and so of a bloody pest, and me standing with bent head, as I felt very bad for her inconvenience, I started cajoling Mobi, who was so excited that he was quite hysterical, into coming home, but when I went closer to him, he legged it down the road.
I could hear dogs barking as far as Mobi went, and decided that Jan just had to get rid of him, maybe give him to somebody on a big farm, where he can do his blood hounding as much as he liked!
As I made my way home in the dark, I could hear Andreas screaming hysterically, and when I tried to go faster, I stepped into a hole, and went over like a sack of potatoes, and then I just sat there and cried a bit. But Andreas was screaming so badly for me now, that I had to get up and went to pacify the terrified child.
I again told him that I would never leave him, but he was inconsolable, and told me that his mother left him. Oh, my heart just broke for the wee boy, and for the first time I started thinking of asking Jan to come back, but thinking of his drawn face, and the fact that the time on the farm with Peter would bring him a lot of solace, I refrained.
I didn't know where Mobi went, and at this stage I did not care, as I was a nervous, tired wreck!