With the cool steel of the whistle banging against my chest, I picked up speed. I continued to scream her name, my voice getting shriller. I couldn’t lose her. I just couldn’t. I was supposed to be the one looking after her, for pity’s sake!

I had adopted her. I was supposed to be the person who was giving her a better life, not losing her in a field, with the darkness descending!

I screamed her name again, racing onwards through the tall fronds of grass, until a flicker of movement to my right made me draw up.

Harley?

I started to run across, but disappointment clawed at me. It wasn’t her at all. It was a fox, all sharp-featured and russet-coated.

Then a bark made me gasp. Oh, thank goodness! Harley must have seen it too.

I searched ahead of me, hoping to see her, until my attention honed in on Harley’s flapping ears and the fox streaking into the undergrowth. There she was!

“Harley!” I puffed. “Oh, thank goodness. Come here! Stop!” The underarms of my sweatshirt clung to me in patches under my jacket.

I took another ineffectual puff at the whistle. It fell away from my lips as I loped on, feeling increasingly desperate. I couldn’t lose her. Where had she gone now?

Darkness was beginning to bleed across the skyline and the air was cooler.

I felt as if I was stuck in slow motion. I picked up speed but Harley was infinitely faster. She was dragging all the energy out of me. Right. That was it. I made up my mind to restart my gym membership.

If anything happened to her, it would be my fault. Rescued from a puppy farm in Edinburgh, only to tumble down a well when I was supposed to be giving her a safe, loving, and secure life.

A disagreeing voice argued there were unlikely to be wells situated in the area, but my imagination was streaking ahead of me.

I stopped, bending over to inhale ragged gasps of air. Tears gathered in my eyes. “Harley!” I yelled into the countryside. “Where are you?”

Then came a louder bark. My heart gave a little lift of optimism. This one was closer.

I straightened up in time to see her bomb under a hedge. I let out an agonised sigh and took after her again. The hedge led out onto a woodland floor of twigs, fallen leaves, and bark. At least it wasn’t a main road. Pictures of Harley gambolling in front of a car flashed in front of me again.

My breath was now coming in shorter, sharper bursts.

I was about to give the whistle another blast when I stumbled and almost fell over something. I realised the object was Harley. She plonked down in front of me, her tongue rolling out of her mouth as if she were grinning from ear to ear.