The Rambla - A walk on the wild side - a short story written by M. E. Heed

I don't know whether it is my body language or when I put my walking-trainers on that Alfie starts running up and down the hallway, sensing we are going for a walk. I open the door for him to go out the garden but he stays right there next to me, looking at me expectedly, I say: “Good morning Alfie” and he looks at me with that angelic look cocking his head to the right side, wagging his bushy tail and lifting his ears gracefully as if to say: “come on let's go for a walk this morning”, but I don't say anything. Then I do the preparations, because with me it's all about following a procedure before we set off for a walk in the Rambla, maybe that's a give away! I put my Fitbit on my wrist, my phone in my pocket, sunglasses on, the walking stick on my right hand side and now we are all set to go. As soon as I reach for his harness and the lead he’s off, giving this short wolf cries of excitement as much as to say come on, let's go!

I open the garden gate, and he rushes out at such speed giving shorts barking woofs of joy. He knows to wait at the bottom after going down the steep hill, then we cross the road and now we are on the Rambla, walking on the wild side, and the fun begins for us. The lead is off and he's now running freely. It gives me great pleasure to see him happily chasing rabbits, but never catches any, rabbits are faster than he is. I also have fun walking on the wild side seeing rabbits crossing my path, I hear a Yellow Oriole camouflage on the branches of a tree singing and its companion replying from another; a black bird flying right across in front of me with its beak full of food rushing to feed its babies; colourful butterflies having a dip on the flowers for some nectar. I keep walking and I see a snake crawling into safety after shedding its skin leaving behind the old one which I stop to admire with attention. 

Alfie comes back to me every so often to make sure I'm still around and he's off again to continue his sniffing and chasing. 

I continue walking, inadvertently the sounds of my footsteps disturb a couple of partridges who were busy feeding on grubs, and they fly across onto the other side of the Rambla for safety. 

At a distance I see a lady who is standing still looking at something. As I walk near she is waving and pointing at the brow of the hill. I look but don't see anything. I'm concerned that it could be her loose dog she's making me aware of. I call for Alfie to come over and put him on the lead in case her dog is a vicious one. But the closer I'm to her I understand that she is pointing to this silhouette at the brow of the hill. It's a long distance away which takes my eyes a while to focus on the target then I see him. I've never seen such a magnificent creature even at a distance you can admire the Iberian Ibex displaying elegance and power. He stands with his majestic beauty for a few minutes observing his panoramic view then he walks down the brow of the hill saying to us: “I, too, walk on the wild side”!!