Gorse in the sunshine

This afternoon I went walking along the cliffs with Alfie and Indie, it was gloriously sunny and as the tide was out the beach looked very inviting. (See extra) I decided to walk down the steps towards the beach as the sea looked so beautiful. Then Alfie vanished. Alfie who is never more than a foot away was not to be seen. The steps wind down to the beach below and I could not see him on the path  below. I could not see far above and so thought it was most likely he had gone back up. He wasn't at the top and nobody who came along the path had seen him.
I called Miss T who was at home and asked her to look out for him as he might have returned home. She set off and came along the path, nobody had seen him. I waited at the top and she said she would go down and see if he was caught up anywhere. He was sitting on a bench in the sunshine near the bottom. He was shaking and clearly sad to be lost. He was delighted to see her and scampered up the steps ahead of her. 
It was very strange that he didn't come when he was called, he is never more than a metre away from us and usually stays with Indie, very odd and out of character. It certainly wasn't the nicest experience and we were so glad to see him again.