When people visit The Mother City of South Africa, Cape Town, your days become obsessively busy trying to pack as much as you can into a long weekend.  For all of you that know, Cape Town over the Easter weekend offers any intrepid traveller a feast of activities, including the Two Oceans Marathon, uncountable coffee spots, gourmet dining,  the magnificence of the mountain, mountain trails, ocean and a glorious choice of wine farms.

So, rewind a few years.  We had arrived in Cape Town, partied up a storm, run the Two Oceans Marathon and wound our  way around the beautiful coastline, sampling all along the way.

Boyes Drive, a beautiful road between Muizenberg and Kalk Bay, HEAVY end of the day and holiday traffic.  Our little hired sewing machine brand car, working it’s very hardest to get us back to the city.  When, suddenly I saw her…..a tan, older Dachshund lady, her eyes bulging with terror, attempting to cross the road.  Our car screeched to a halt (or I did) and out I barged to save the precious girl.  I bundled her into my arms, crossed the road, whispered all sorts of platitudes into her ear…….”don’t worry baby,”  etc etc..  I looked up to see the hired car perched on the pavement, cars streaming past, husband gesticulating to get back quickly.  Looked down at Precious, felt for collar, nope, no tag, no means of finding out her name or address.  Out the corner of my eye, I could see an arm waving me back to the car.  Off I marched, down Boyes Drive, lugging Precious, who was starting to feel a little heavy. From driveway to driveway I rang doorbells, nothing, nobody home. Husband was now out of hired car and going up the road in the opposite direction trying to assist.  Arms aching, perspiring, dog lolling, relaxed as anything in my arms,  I sat on the only low wall in the road.  Husband now muttering and on his way down to meet me.  Time ticking, deadlines to meet.  He reached me, red faced, and sat next to me saying nothing.  One of those more tense moments.

We simultaneously  took a harder a look at  where we were sitting.  The wall formed the outer wall of a pan handle driveway.  We stood in unison, and wandered down the driveway to the gate.  Rang, no response.  No big dogs barked. Noticed windows open, and in the far corner, some washing.  With no conversation at all, Precious was very carefully deposited into the garden over the wall. She looked back at us for a brief moment and waddled away.

We sprinted up the driveway, dodged some traffic, and dived into the hired car.

The adrenalin of the save, the depositing of Precious, and our escape was surreal, but no more than the confusion of the new Daddy, who must still be wondering how a dog with such short legs got into his garden…….