Black and grey tattoo of a paw print beside the word Oscar in simple lettering, on the outer side of an ankle.

Paw print and the word Oscar on an ankle

Lettering · Ankle · Black and grey · Photo

A black and white photograph of a small paw print followed by the word Oscar, both in solid black ink on the outer side of an ankle and foot. The paw print has four toe pads and a larger main pad, and the lettering is hand-drawn with uneven, slightly rounded strokes. The background is dark and out of focus, so the pale skin and the tattoo stand out clearly.

Lettering Ankle Paw print

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

The gate at the top field had come off its hinge again, and Oscar was nowhere to be seen when I walked the lane at dusk. Dad had warned me about buying a collie pup from the Hendersons, said they'd sell you a dog with more opinions than sense. Three winters on, I'd have argued the point, though not that night, with the wind coming straight off Cold Fell and the sky the colour of wet slate.

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I took the lantern and the spade and followed the ridge wall. Snow had drifted thick against the hawthorn, and at the bottom of the ditch I found him sitting upright beside a ewe gone down in the drift, her breath steaming, one of her twin lambs already tucked against her belly. He didn't bark. He just looked at me, then at the snow, as if I'd been slow to notice. We dug her out between us, my hands numb inside the gloves, his nose working the wet drift like it owed him money.

When we got her onto the straw in the shed, the lamb struggled up on its wobbling legs, and Oscar lay down by the door with his chin on his paws and watched it the way Mam used to watch the kettle. I stood in the doorway with the lantern guttering. Behind me, in the clean snow of the yard, his prints ran from the gate to the shed in a neat line, the same small mark pressed again and again into the white: four toes, one broad pad at the heel, as though somebody had signed every step.