A roller coaster called Akira

This weekend I went away to Alton Towers to celebrate an exciting event with some amazing friends. This theme park is like Lego Land on steroids and for 8 hours on Saturday I was strapped in and flung around like a rag doll. I have a croaky voice today from all the screaming! But all of that involuntary motion reminded me that I have my very own ‘roller coaster maker’ here at home.

You see ‘puppy’ weighs 35 kg now and is a bundle of muscle. I bet she could drag along a truck like they do in the World’s Strongest Man competitions! For reasons I will chat about another time, Akira needs to be walked on a lead at the moment. Once we are on open land the lead of choice is a retractable lead. For those who are new to the dog world as I am, this is long lead that extends and retracts into a small hand held device and allows your dog to move a few meters away from you to explore whilst allowing you to have control over them.

The story unfolds on a clear, blue sky sunshine day in London. A Saturday, which means that every man and his aunt are out on the common having a picnic and playing football. It is such a luxury to see the sun that I cannot wait to get out the door with Akira. She is so grateful to be out that she walks beautifully next to me all the way to the common. Here we amble around happily, watching the kids play and the grown ups fall asleep in the sun. Akira LOVES chasing a ball but she needs to stay on the lead and I am kicking the ball just in front of her so she can pick it up and bring it back to me. This seems to working well and she is enjoying a bit of a play. Again I drop the ball and... it bounces... it all happens in slow motion. I see the ball fly far from me, she also spots it and takes off. 35 kgs of muscle chase after the small blue circle. My brain begins to scream at me---- NOOOOO!--- but my body freezes. I hear the long line extend- ‘ZZZWEEEE’. At last my legs defrost and I begin to run but it is too late! ZZZWEEE and then click as Akira reaches the end of the lead. I try to run as fast as I can but my legs just cant move fast enough and I cling to the lead for dear life. Then, I launch into the air and fly for a few meters, landing on my stomach. My sunglasses fly from my face, the bag empties all over the grass as I  get dragged another meter and stop. I look up from the ground just in time to see Akria trot back over to me and drop the ball at my head.  Shucks, I hope nobody saw that!

Who needs to pay to go on a roller coaster when you have a huge dog?