Caching

When Tata and Leonard had set off, the sun was out but there were some dark clouds lurking around.  It was nice and warm though.  Leonard thought his I-touch weather forecast was pretty accurate.

But as they drove off excitedly to the location of the first cache, the clouds loomed ever nearer. First there had been the disastrous magazine episode, and now it looked as if it was going to rain. Leonard shrugged. Even geocaching in the rain was better than no geocaching. And there was the lure of those FTFs.

The little crutch in the passenger seat next to him sighed. It was no fun taking all of Leonard's weight in wet weather and trying to make sure he stayed upright when all was muddy and slippery underfoot.

If it did rain, the little crutch hoped it was such a torrential downpour that it put even Leonard off.

But no. By the time they arrived at the first cache site there was a steady drizzle.

Tata got out of her Land Rover, and struck what she thought was a rather attractive pose.

"Ruff," she ordered Leonard.

"No Tata, I'm not taking your photo now. We'll take it when we find the cache, and when we get home I will upload it onto the internet."

Leonard never argued with her. She wondered what on earth was wrong, and sat quietly while he locked up her Land Rover. But she was suitably mollified by the thought that she would be published once again all over the internet. Like Leonard, Tata was exceedingly vain.

They all set off, the sad little crutch, the surprised and quiet dog, and the optimistic Leonard. In fact Leonard was not just optimistic, he was delirious with excitement at the possibility that he would bag at least one FTF, and possibly more.

The cache was easily found. Spot-on co-ordinates, and the prize of FTF. Leonard smiley happily at Tata and the little crutch. He was so pleased that he even put the little crutch in the photo. Not that Tata was happy about that and looked somewhat sulkily at the camera.



Off they went to the next cache. The path had turned into a river, but Tata loved running in the water. 

Leonard was sure that was how she damaged her toes earlier in the year but he didn't dare prevent her from doing it as she always told him how much she enjoyed it. In a very autocratic manner.



A couple more caches, including another FTF, and they decided to head home, after a very successful outing - barring the magazine fiasco of course, but Leonard had now forgotten about that.

When they got home, Leonard's first job was to hose Tata down as she was covered in mud. She just stood there patiently, lifting each leg as he hosed around her, regardless of how cold the water was. Then he towelled her off and they walked towards the door.

The little crutch coughed. The little crutch was muddy too. It had not been able to run up and down streams and river beds, and no-one seemed to think it wanted showering off and rubbing down. Leonard was in such good humour that he hastily cleaned up the little crutch and dried it off. The three of them went inside to bore Mrs Leonard with the detail of the finds. The magazine, as usual, was forgotten about and left in Tata's Land Rover.

Mrs Leonard met them with a broad smile.

"Leonora rang," she said.

Leonard's good humour rapidly started to dissipate.

Leonora was Leonard's really obnoxious, pretentious cousin. Who thought that she was far better than Leonard and insisted on pointing out what was wrong with his views, and his life. He was never actually quite sure whether she really had totally opposite opinions to him or whether she just cultivated them as a ploy to annoy him.

He groaned.

"She's coming to visit," added Mrs Leonard.

Tata whooped around excitedly as she adored visitors and particularly Leonora. The tired little crutch perked up a bit at the sound of interesting news.

Leonard sat down. Heavily. As he would, being overweight.

"When?" he managed to ask, although not wanting to hear the answer.

"Oh, soon," said Mrs Leonard non-commitally. "She didn't say when as she had to put the 'phone down suddenly."

Mrs Leonard drifted off to the kitchen before she was interrogated any further.

Leonard sat disconsolately in the chair wondering how on earth he could escape Leonora flippin' Smythe when he was on leave for three weeks and couldn't even go into work. Tata followed Mrs Leonard into the kitchen to catch up on the gossip, and the little crutch snoozed against the wall after a hard day out caching.