Blue Skies Over Wildflower Lock (The Wildflower Lock)

Chapter 35

The incident left Daisy feeling altogether shaky. She had been so sure it was the man from the marsh. So sure she had chased down a complete stranger on a street. What was wrong with her? Obviously, the impending trip was causing her far more stress than she had realised, so much so that she was imagining people, although it was a reasonable mistake to make. Both men were of similar age, build and hair colour. If only she’d actually thanked the man properly, then maybe she wouldn’t have felt this constant urge to find him again.

The detour to race after a runner had taken them in the opposite direction to the vets, and as such, they arrived only a minute before their appointment time.

With a deep breath in, Daisy stood outside the door. She had wanted this to be a trip of firsts for her but hadn’t expected her first trip to a vet to be on that list.

‘Come on,’ she said, looking down at the dog with a feeling of trepidation filling her. ‘Let’s see if we can find your owner, shall we?’

A small bell jangled above the door as Daisy and the dog stepped into the vets and headed to the white desk.

‘Good morning,’ Daisy said to the woman sitting behind a computer. ‘My name’s Daisy May. I rang earlier. I’ve had a dog following me for a couple of days. I think he’s a stray, and I wanted to get him checked out. See if he’s chipped and hopefully reunite him with his owners.’

The woman looked down at the amiable dog, its tail still wagging. ‘No worries. If you’d just like to take a seat, I will call you as soon as the vet is free.’ The woman gestured to a row of seats on the other side of the room. After another word of thanks, Daisy headed over and took a spot between a large bull-mastiff, who was wearing a cone of shame and trying to scratch unsuccessfully, and a cat who was whining incessantly in its cage while the owner was desperately plying it with treats as they tried to make it stop.

‘Aren’t you a lovely-looking chap,’ the mastiff owner said. He reached out a hand to stroke the collie. Immediately, the dog began barking. Daisy pulled tightly on his lead.

‘Shh,’ she said, before turning to the gentleman. ‘Sorry, he’s just loud. He barks a lot around strangers. But it’s mostly just noise.’

‘No worries. I should have kept my distance. I forget they’re not all as soft as this one.’ With a wide grin, he reached down and rubbed the mastiff’s belly. The dog’s tongue flopped out of the side of his mouth as its tail whacked the ground. While the owner carried on lavishing attention on his dog, Daisy looked back at the collie. Was it mostly noise? she wondered, thinking about what she had said only seconds before. She had certainly never seen the dog do anything other than be totally friendly, but perhaps she would need to be a little more cautious. After all, she knew next to nothing about him.

After close to fifteen minutes, Daisy was finally called in to see the vet.

‘Daisy, isn’t it?’ the vet said. She was a young woman, with dark hair plaited down her back, and a pair of glasses hanging from a chain around her neck which she put on as she looked at the computer screen. ‘And this is the stray you’ve brought in?’

She frowned as she looked at the dog, pulling her glasses off to reach out a hand. Once again, the barking started.

‘Shh! Stop it,’ Daisy said sharply. ‘You don’t need to behave like that, do you?’ Immediately, he fell silent.

The vet looked at her, confused.

‘Sorry, I misunderstood. I thought he was still a stray. I didn’t realise you’d already adopted him?’

‘Adopted?’ Daisy’s pulse rose. ‘Oh, no. I haven’t. At least, not deliberately. He’s been following me for a couple of days now. Well, following my boat, then stowing away.’

‘Following your boat?’

Daisy didn’t want to go into all the details. It sounded completely insane to believe a dog would follow her just because she’d spent half an hour throwing a stone for him. But then, didn’t you hear stories about cats that travelled miles from war zones to be reunited with their owners? Only she wasn’t his owner. Definitely not.

‘He’s very friendly. I’m not entirely sure he is a stray.’ Daisy said.

‘Well, he certainly seems to respond very well to you. Let me get him up on the table and see if we can find a chip. We can have a look at the rest of him while he’s there, too.’

The vet’s scan was thorough. Along with weight, temperature and checking for signs of fleas or skin conditions, she checked several areas multiple times where chips were normally placed, just to be sure. However, five minutes later, she was certain.

‘So, he’s definitely not got a chip.’

‘Definitely?’ Daisy replied, even though she’d watched every part of the check-up.

‘Definitely. And he’s not that old. From his teeth, I would guess he’s about a year at most.’

‘Okay… So does that mean he’s a stray, or he’s just not chipped?’ Daisy asked.

At this, the vet pressed her lips together before letting out a sigh.

‘To be honest with you, if someone is going to have a dog and not chip it, they’re not the type of people that should be dog owners. It’s illegal, to start with. They certainly don’t deserve someone as lovely as this young man.’

Daisy looked down at her four-legged friend, who was currently lapping up the vet’s attention. His behaviour had been the same with her as it was with Yvonne: a series of barks before he relaxed. He was good with people. Surely a dog like that must have had a human at some point, so what had happened? Had an owner taken him in then changed their mind, deciding he wasn’t worth the stress? And how old could the dog have been when that had happened? The thought made her feel physically sick. Right now, though, she didn’t have time to think about that. There was one far more pressing issue that needed to be dealt with.

‘So, if he’s not chipped,’ she said, drawing the vet’s attention away from the dog and back to her, ‘what happens now?’