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| Copyright © Mark Kelly 2025. |
For me there are two such stand-out moments of 2024 - one in the cold, wintery beginning of the year, and the second during the sunny Spring.
Both took place whilst I walked, Chica, one of our Spanish rescue dogs, along the footpath that runs parallel with the local river (River Ely) that cuts through Talbot Green and into Pontyclun. It's a lovely walk that takes you past houses at various points with a small field in between. Great for dog walkers, joggers, or folks taking a stroll.
#1: JANUARY 2024.
I was due in work for an early shift at the hospital starting at 0700hrs, so I was up at 0500hrs to take the dogs for their individual walks to start the day. I headed down towards the river path with Chica, her harness fitted with flashing light strips and my pocket torch fully charged.
We strolled past the row of houses that faced towards the river along the tarmac footpath, the trees and bushes to our right muting the sound of the flowing river at the bottom of the steep embankment, but even that didn't block out completely the fact the river was running fast from the previous night's rainfall.
Chica and I approached the underpass (photo below - X marks where trolley was), which has no fitted lighting, so my torch came into play.
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| Copyright © Mark Kelly 2025. |
Instantly I see something on our path ahead. Closer inspection reveals it to be a local store shopping trolley, the kind and size that would allow an adult to sit comfortably inside it. My mind boggles as to what people get from dragging a shopping trolley a quarter-of-a-mile and dump it in the underpass?
Chica, being a very nervous and scared dog, didn't want to go past the trolley, so I had to move it aside and next to the fence, and we continued our walk to the field which lay 50-60ft around the slight bend in the path. At the field, Chica did her business, I bagged it and we turned around to head back home, depositing said bag into the poop bin on the slight bend of the path just before the underpass.
But something isn't right - where's the shopping trolley? Gone. I looked over the fence to where the river flowed. Don't be stupid, I thought, my torch flicking left and right. How the fuck does a large shopping trolley vanish within five minutes of my passing by and no sound? Those things, no matter what, make a sound when moved. And over tarmac and gravel, then broken concrete slabs? No way. There was nobody around on our way through, no sound of voices of people approaching, and Chica, being the neurotic nervous dog she is, would have reacted to the sound and alerted me - she can hear bicycles approaching before I even see them, that's how good her hearing is. But no reaction from her at all.
No shopping trolley. No sounds of it being physically moved. No people passing us with said trolly, and no sounds of it being dumped in the river. Still a mystery to me.
#2. MAY 2024.
So the sun is out, it's a lovely Spring day and I decide to take Chica down to the river field for a walk, and it's around midday. It's warm, but not uncomfortably so, and there's a slight breeze. Beautiful day.
Once more we're walking past the houses facing the river, and up ahead of us I see a woman with a small boy - I recall his mop of blond hair - and they are stood next to an old wooden telegraph pole, and the woman is helping the little boy, I guessed to be around 5yrs old, to take a pee. In her other hand she has a Terrier breed dog on a lead, which is busy sniffing the bushes next to it.
So I hang back, give them privacy and time, plus, Chica is nervous around people, and is prone to slipping into 'flight mode' if people get too close, or we get too close to them. So we wait.
The photo below shows with an arrow as to where the little boy stood, and the red oval denotes my position when I paused with Chica to allow the woman and the little boy to conclude nature's call.
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| Copyright © Mark Kelly 2025. |
The little boy's business is done, the women tidies him up and off they continue with their walk ahead of us, travelling in the same direction, heading for the field. They follow the path for roughly 30ft and then disappear out of our view as the path bends and dips slightly as it heads to the underpass.
Chica, being a dog, has a brief sniff at the little puddle left by the small boy, and we follow on. I see the boy, woman and dog starting to turn on the path ahead as we progress into the underpass, then they once again disappear from my view.
Now Chica and I reach that slight bend, and as we come into view of the path ahead I see the woman and the dog, and by now they are next tot he small field, so I'm waiting for the little boy to reappear, assuming he's playing in the tall grasses of the field. The woman pauses to bag her dog's business. Still no sign of the child. Oddly, no sounds of a child laughing, playing or even calling to the woman, and she doesn't even seem the least bit concerned?
Chica and I walk past the woman and dog, who are now turning to head back the way they came. And still, no sounds of a child within earshot, and no calls from the woman to the little boy. She doesn't even look around. Just walks away casually with her dog.
I'm bothered by this, and thankfully Chica does her business almost immediately. I bag it and we head back. So the woman has probably four minutes walking time ahead of me, and by the time I reach that old telegraph pole she's a distance ahead, walking alongside the houses. And still no sign of the little boy, or any indication the woman is looking as to where the boy has gone, and certainly no calling out to the boy.
So where the fuck did the little kid go? The woman was the only other person in that area, other than myself. The footpath along the field is straight as an arrow, so I would have seen anyone else walking the kid if they had met up. To this day, I'm utterly baffled by this?
And there you have it - two accounts of strange experiences when out dog walking with Chica down by the river.
The shopping trolley was a bit of a freaky one, primarily due to the hour of the morning, the pitch black and silence, but the little kid encounter? That's on a whole other level for me.
As usual, I'll leave you with some music. John Murphy - "In The House - In A Heartbeat".
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