There was no pavement alongside the road. When the grassy verge alongside it was too narrow, I found myself slipping onto the carriageway.
The honk of horns alerted me too late to the danger I was in, and I felt a sharpthwack!as something struck me and sent me sprawling off the road and deep into the undergrowth of the verge.
I lay there panting, waiting for the pain to seize me. I ached all over, and my head hurt because of how I’d landed when I fell, but by some miracle I was alive.
Getting to my feet, I realised that the car that had struck me must only have clipped me, possibly thanks to the driver swerving to avoid me. Nothing was broken, I could breathe, and although there were some scrapes on my fur, I didn’t appear to be horribly injured.
No sooner had this thought formed than the pain in my head overcame me. I saw a sharp rock near the spot where I’d landed on the verge and understood that my head must have hit it on impact.
As the pain in my head worsened, the world began to waver in and out of focus. Stumbling away from the road, I collapsed beneath a hedgerow and lay there shaking and whimpering as the roar of the traffic passed by just a few feet away. The carswere so fast and so loud, and I prayed that one of the drivers had seen what had happened and would stop to see if I was okay.
But the traffic just kept going, faster and louder, and no one came to my aid. The pain in my head grew bigger and bigger until it was all I knew.
And that’s when unconsciousness claimed me and I knew no more.
I don’t know how long I lay there beneath the shelter of the hedgerow. It may have been minutes or hours. But when I woke, I had no idea how I’d come to be there.
I couldn’t remember anything at all.
Realising it was dangerous to be so close to that treacherous road, I scuttled off into the undergrowth. My head hurt, I was wet and mucky, and I was very tired…
… but I had no idea why I was there.
And I had no ideawho I was, either.
Now, as I stood lost and alone once more in the thick cover of dense woodland, I realised that the terrible events of that day and the knock I took to the head when I hit the ground after being clipped by that passing car had all somehow caused me to lose my memory.
I couldn’t remember anything about who my owner had been before. The shock of Fred’s unexpected death, followed by the trauma of Edward tricking and abandoning me in the woods, were simply shoved out of my head because of the injury I sustained.
Now that I was lost again, those memories were triggered and began returning, and I soon remembered just how much my wonderful Fred meant to me.
After waking beside the road on that terrible day, I’d wandered for a long time on my own, through countryside and woods until I reached the edges of towns or villages where I could scavenge food on the streets or near litter bins. People scared me and I avoided them, some sliver of memory of Edward’s cruel betrayal perhaps sown in my mind and making me cautious.
Quite how long I roamed for before reaching Hamblehurst, I don’t know. All I do know is that when I found myself on Foxglove Street and felt the pull of Grace’s heart and soul, I understood that I had to get to her, that I was supposed to find her, and that we needed to be together.
That day I flung myself at her feet was the start of the next part of my life. I might not have remembered anything about my life before then, but I knew I was on the cusp of a new adventure with someone who possessed a good heart.
Dogs can’t ask for much more in life than that.
And yet, barely a week after finding Grace, I’d lost her again.
Panic and fear had sent me running out of the pub and into the woodland, where dark memories were now swirling. I’d strayed for many days, probably weeks, until fate led me to Grace. I didn’t want to stray again and I couldn’t bear the thought of never seeing Grace again.
My heart already ached as I remembered Fred and remembered how I’d lost him. I couldn’t bear to lose Grace, too.
The surrounding woodland was thick and gloomy, but somehow I had to find my way out. Now that the panic triggered by that crashing cacophony in the pub had receded, I gathered my wits and resolve.
Concentrating very hard, I looked around me, searching for the right way back to the pub.
And I listened, too. In the distance, I thought I heard the faint call of voices.
Standing to attention, I cocked my ears.
Stanley! Stanley, where are you?
My heart raced with joy at the sound of Grace’s voice. She was looking for me, somewhere in these woods, not nearby judging by her distant call, but she was here somewhere and that’s what mattered!
I let out a volley of urgent barks and ran in the direction I thought Grace’s voice had come from.
