The next few blogs will be self-indulgent. Those who do not like such things should find another blog to read. Without reservation I can recommend, www.pilgrimpace.wordpress.com or www.thisestate.blogspot.co.uk should you need to escape from my thoughts.

The next few pieces (I cannot quantify a number) will use the recovery of Frodo, who is my long-haired lurcher dog. Frodo was found to have bone cancer in his back right leg. The vet gave us a clear choice: amputation or euthanasia. Frodo is recovering from the op, and can run relatively freely in the garden and by bartley green reservoir. It is harder given the waterlogged conditions of most places for a three legged hound to get around. Pippin, his canine brother and companion, just prefers not to go out in the rain and is waiting for me to turn off the rain.

Inevitably, Frodo is not perhaps as nimble as he was. He is though just as agile in many ways, he can jump in and out of the van; on to the sofa, push his way past his brother and navigate his way around the Lego Star Wars Death Star that is in construction in the Vicarage. He can still spot a feline personage in Vicarage territory, and still gives chase.

What I have noticed though is that he stops to sniff a whole lot more. Or perhaps the reality is that I allow him to sniff more, to add his own wee-mail to the assortment of smells canines leave behind. Indeed, he has caused me to change. A walk, when it is with Frodo, is now not a route march with the aim solely being getting from beginning to the end as quickly as possible. He cannot do that any more. Now we are going more slowly, I see and notice things more.  I see more people or rather people see my doggy companion and want to know what has happened. Together we are not going so fast that we miss things. That is not Frodo’s doing. I think it reasonable to assume that he would have been happy always to linger over smells and smiles far longer than I ever have been. It is perfectly possible that this dog knows more of how to be a dog than I know at times of how to be human. He is in his own doggy way challenging me to re-think what it means to be human.

It seems that at the heart of humanity should be vulnerability. This is not a new discovery. I hope because I have learnt this again from a loyal friend, I might have the courage to learn it deeply.

Such vulnerability involves walking slowly. Only in walking slowly will we be able to see fully and be seen at least partially. Time now for another walk with Frodo. For a couple of weeks after his operation, I referred to him as the three-legged wonder. That he is, but he has a name; for we are defined by who we are rather than by the perceived limitations of what we can and cannot do.