Yesterday, I discovered, completely by mistake that the Boomer Ball really is very tough indeed!
I once made the very big mistake of buying Takara a Boomer Ball... she ADORES this ball but it sends her mad with fury that she can’t get hold of it. When playing with it, she goes into a high pitched barking frenzy and starts grabbing at anything nearby that she can get hold of.
As such, she can only have it for short periods of time every now and again so that she doesn’t get too worked up and so that my neighbours don’t start a petition to get me evicted.
Unfortunately, I had forgotten that I’d left it in the front garden near the drive yesterday as she had been out in the back garden so I had popped it over the fence into the front. When we went out to the front, Takara found her ball whilst I was loading up the van and, unbeknown to me, lost it underneath the van.
It wasn’t until I heard a very suspicious noise whilst pulling off the drive that I realised where that ball must be by which time it was firmly wedged between the road and my van.
Moving the van down the road slightly was my first attempt at loosening the ball from the underside and I now had a free moving ball but it somehow wouldn’t come out – it seems the underside of the van was higher than the trim around the edges – how that dog got the ball under there in the first place, I have no idea!
My next trick was to line four house bricks up in front of each front wheel and drive up onto them. This I did but didn’t think about what would catch the ball as it rolled out from under the front of the van.
My joy at seeing the ball roll out from under my bonnet soon turned to despair as I saw it roll under the van parked just in front of me – Sheffield and its hills have a lot to answer for!
Thankfully, this van was far higher than mine and I just had to use a broom to manipulate the ball back up the hill to the back of the van where it was high enough to come out. Unfortunately it was also a lot longer than mine so it was a little tricky to keep the ball going up the hill long enough to get it out the back.
Still, half an hour after I originally pulled off the drive, we were out on our way to walkies, the ball was out from under the van with a mere dent and still entirely in one piece!
Moral of this story – always check under the van before setting off!