This summer’s multiple heatwaves have thrown our walking habits into disarray.
Instead of our usual two walks a day, the morning one being fairly lengthy, Flossie’s had to make do with one short, perfunctory outing.
We set off early, before the sun’s heat becomes too much. Everybody we’ve ever met in our neighbourhood is out with their dogs, including the professional dog walkers with their vans, trying to complete their circuits before the temperature reaches scorching levels.
There are a lot of greetings and chats along the way, meaning that what was intended to be a brief excursion becomes an extended expedition.
Inevitably, the topic of the day is the extreme heat. Dog walkers, particularly, enjoy discussing weather conditions since we notice the various nuances each day.
“It’s going to be another hot one”, I say, rather pointlessly to my neighbour, as we’re on day 15 of it being exactly the same. And that’s another talking point. It’s not usual for us to wake up to boiling sun every day, so we discuss this at length, along with the state of our wilting gardens, how difficult it is to sleep, and the nearby fields that are now fried to a crisp.
Flossie waits patiently while I have similar conversations with everyone we pass. She’s grown used to this new routine and has an instinct to conserve her energy, ambling along beside me, at half our usual pace.
When we eventually get home, I close all the blinds and curtains in an attempt to shield us from the heat.
We stay inside the darkened house like vampires until the sun goes down. At around 9pm, Flossie ventures out and lies in the garden. We are both exhausted from our efforts, even though we’ve minimised movement.
It’s been like this for weeks.
Until this morning when I was woken up by a strange noise. It sounded familiar but I couldn’t immediately place it.
Then I realised.
It was rain.
It was quite a relief.
As published in the Bath Chronicle, 27 August 2026
Suzy Pope is a certified copywriter and newspaper columnist specialising in pets, business and lifestyle. If you would like help with a writing project, please get in touch.