Doing a runner

Well, the other afternoon, I made the ritual announcement 'shall we go for a walk then?'. TT understands the question well and immediately lies on her back and begins to 'paddle' with her paws. This, roughly interpreted, means 'you bet!' and as we were about to set off, her 'friend' joined us - this black and white mutt with long pointy ears. Not wishing to adopt any sort of 'Pied Piper' label, I walked quickly ahead of them but they interpreted this as 'let's race' and trotted dutifuly behind me. About 20 minutes down the road, having crossed the river, I met a couple of woodcutters and began to chat to them with my two 'companions' in tow. A second later, I turned round and noticed that TT was no longer with us. The mutt and I exchanged annoyed glances. Clearly out company wasn't enought to keep her interested. A quick look around satisfied me that she was no longer in the vicinity. As there is a fairly busy road that circumnavigates the village, I thought it best to walk back in the hope of meeting her at some point. I must admit, I did feel somewhat embarrassed at that point. After all, she had 'invited' her friend to come along and then done a runner. I was left with this mutt, luckily not having to make polite conversation or to cover the fact that she had left without a word (!). Finally arriving back home, I turned the corner to see her sunning herself on the doorstep seemingly without a care in the world. For whatever reason, she'd had enough and trotted back home of her own accord. Tut, talk about highly strung. Her mutt pal then walked away, clearly offended at having been blown out and even though I scolded her for her bad manners, she just rolled her eyes and had a good stretch, clearly unconcerned at the furore she had just caused.