Dogs and Cars

Earlier I took Chris up to the A55 ( the main duel carriageway out of North Wales) so that he could be picked up by a minibus filled to bursting with a load of PhDs. They are all off to a five star hotel in Belfast for a week's conference and looked like for want of a better word, a knackered looking hen group out on  a mucky weekend.
I waved them off, loaded the car up with dogs and went off to do jobs.

William and Constance
aka Richard Madley and Judy Finnigan

It is a funny phenomenon, but I have always been entertained by the fact that all dogs generally LOVE car journeys.
I am strict with our four, and wont have any silly bouncing around the back of the car on any journey, so -from when they were puppies, they were always taken out daily, to get them used to the expected etiquette of "sit and be quiet" .

Constance being three and a half when she arrived had no such training, and it was a particular joy watching her first reaction to the simple experience of sitting in the back seat of a citroen berlingo.
Constance was neither frightened or excited at first. She was a little non plussed at being lifted up into the car ( at 25 kilos its not an easy job) but after she watched the relaxed reaction of the other dogs, she soon settled down, that was until we actually drove off....

Even today, every time we leave the drive, her little piggy eyes open just that little wider than normal with silent excitement and in her chosen position between the driver and passenger seat, she will watch the world with the look of a slightly shopworn Robert Mitchum. but a Mitchum with a bit of a fire in her eyes.
Every pedestrian will be scrutinised carefully every shop will be noted, and she, like William ,absolutely adores a supermarket car park as if they were visiting a place of 1000 pleasures!  They are places where literally hundreds of people can be watched with the precision and diligence of a FBI surveillance team on duty and all from the comfort of a comfortable back seat!.

Dogs are  so easily pleased.........that is the joy of them as pets 

and I never fail to smile when all four  line up patiently, noses against the car doors, waiting to go out on a five minute journey that you and I would think nothing about at all

we could learn a great deal about being happy with our lot from dogs

Company (CJ and Badger)

Loneliness is the most dreadful of diseases
Occasionally you will meet someone who just likes to talk and talk and talk...it's as though they have saved up all of their weekly unused conversations and let them pour out of themselves like water out of a garden hose.
You want to get away, there is always 101 things to do....but for someone like me, who has never really felt the pain of loneliness, it's prudent to stop and think a little more before you make your excuses and hurry on to something easier or more necessary.

I see lonely people at work.Those that are isolated by grief, finance,depression,apathy and fate.....and to bloody well  cap it all they are ill too....being ill AND lonely.....thats a bum steer if ever I saw one.

Yesterday I watched one of my co workers. I don't know her that well, we say hello in a kind of businesslike way and I make her laugh on occasion but that's as far as our relationship goes...she gets on with work and I guess so do I.... anyway as I was writing my notes... I watched her interaction with an elderly lady who was obviously very frightened with her condition. The patient was also alone in the world, having no documented next of kin or even a "person to be contacted in an emergency"., and  during visiting, when all the other patients had their relatives around them, I noticed that the nurse almost instinctively became more attentive and physical with her patient, cupping her face with her hand after she arranged her CVP lines and holding her hand as she administered her antibiotics.
Before I finished my shift I told the nurse that I liked the way she interacted with her patient and she summed things up nicely by saying with a bit of a sad smile "It's crap being by yourself..especially  in this fucking place!"

I have always been lucky when It comes to loneliness....I have never suffered it's destructive, gnawing pain. Some of that , I think comes from being a twin.....as a child there is always some other person there for you..........the rest I think comes from the fact I have always been lucky enough to be able to cultivate friends as well as being able to enjoy my own company....and this in turn has got me to thinking about how animals, so often, need that special contact of another warm body to keep them company.

Yesterday I put two orphans together. CJ the gosling and the chick that survived the badger attack (who I have now nicknamed Badger) now share the back garden shed.
After a bit of an initial squabbling match, both birds have settled down and for once in their short lives now have a constant companion in each other. CJ being larger and more confident has a tendency to bully the hen chick just a little but Badger seems oblivious to the odd prod now that a real, warm and animated friend has appeared on the scene. Last night at dusk I checked on the two of them. Badger had started to roost on top of a wicker basket in the corner of the shed, and right up with him was CJ.

Like that old lady on ITU yesterday, these little scraps of life, just needed a warm body to touch base with...............

Sometimes you just need to be inspired

I can't be arsed telling you the story about last night's badger attack ( 2 badgers versus 1 cockerel)
lets have a bit of cinematic chest beating instead!

CJ arrives

CJ looking at his new shed mate with a tiny bit of trepidation

Now before Tom threatens me with strangulation with my own poultry wire...this bird orientated blog entry is purely designed to resassure the surrogate father of a four week old gosling that his "baby" has arrived safely in his new Welsh home.

I have placed him in the shed under a heat lamp and for company have let Blanche's surviving chick loose with him, which panicked him somewhat as he has only had a pensioner for company since he was found alone in Guildford back garden four weeks ago.

He/she is a real sweetie!

And seeing that it is his 90th birthday , I will leave you with one of Prince Philip's funniest quotes

When asked if he would like to visit the Soviet Union, he snapped

“ I would not.!!!.....The bastards murdered half my family”

God Love You Phil



Be ready to ohhhhh and arrrhhhhhh

Couldn't resist

The Resurrection Of Jesus and more lame ducks

With Chris away in Broadstairs, I could indulge myself with a little bit of bad behaviour.

Jesus

Last night around nine I started a loud play fight with all of the dogs in the living room, and after a few minutes there were terriers all bouncing off the ceiling closely followed by a near hysterical Bulldog who decided to rip the stuffing out of a couple of old cushions in a fit of uncharacteristic playfulness..

So preoccupied as I was with the rough and tumble I didn't see a young woman standing in the window, nor did I have any idea of just how long she had been watching me make a tit out of myself on the floor; so gathering up the last vestige of dignity I possessed, I walked around to the back of the cottage to see what she wanted.

I vaguely recognised her, she lived in the next village and in the winter had adopted Jesus, the white cockerel from me, so It wasn't hard to work out that she wanted to return him.

She had the whole spiel ready.

He was lovely, she loved him dearly but she was going to live in Bristol and couldn't take him with her....blah blah blah......

I asked her when she was going to Bristol

"Tomorrow" she said without embarrassment

To say that I was pissed off was an understatement, what was I going to say ? Leave him alone in her garden and wait for the foxes to take him. She knew damn well  that she could dump him back with me

and against my better judgement, I agreed for his return.
* for those that don't know..Jesus was thus named as he was dumped by the field gate by someone unknown on Boxing day 2009!

So Jesus will be back! and he wont be the only one.

Last week I received an email from a couple wanting to re-home an orphan duckling that had presented himself to their retired father over in Shropshire... apparently the duckling is tame and rapidly outgrowing his rather nice conservatory.

After some correspondence I agreed for them to drop him off to me when they were off to Anglesey on Friday

And yesterday they thoughtfully sent a photo of CJ with his surrogate father for me to have a look at.

Yeap...he's obviously NOT a duck. but a robust looking gosling...

here's hoping he is not a gander!

Ebb and Flow

Five years ago I bought my first group of hybrid hens.
Out of the twelve that came to the field only six old hens now remain and these live out their lives in relative peace with Stanley the aging cockerel and Angostura the bad tempered guinea fowl.

The old hens keep out of the limelight. They potter away from the vital  and more "aggressive" hens and seem to enjoy their quiet retirement at the bottom of the field in the twilight sheltered accommodation zone between duck house and pig pen.

They all reminded me of how we as a society often view our older population.......they are in essence invisible.
They demand little, they "keep themselves to themselves" and in many ways they are basically thought of as being "unproductive"
Yet the old hens on the field are old for a reason.
They remain the most robust and brightest hens under my care. They are first to shelter in bad weather,, they understand just where the danger points are within the field borders and when danger rears its ugly head, they understand the only too well where to go to keep safe.

For the most part, it has been the kindness and experience of the older people of Trelawnyd that has affected me here in Trelawnyd.....this morning Pat, who wont be upset when I say , is well over retirement age, called down yet again to wrestle the much improved piglet into submission in order that I could inject her with another 1 ml of antibiotic...she will help me again tomorrow and again on Friday and will do so with good humour and care.
The red faced Welsh farmer, who again is in his seventh decade hurled great bags of  wood shavings over the gate a couple of days ago for bedding for the pigs and birds, and he did so without wanting anything in return.....as does Auntie Gladys who walked the length of the village just to leave us a carrier bag full of scones.

Ok I wont get too saccharine here.
We all know that some OAPs are the most selfish and insanely miserable old gits ever seen on the planet....but like my old hens, most that I come into contact here...are adroit old characters and dear friends

Right off now for a study day at work...... a day of health and safety......resuscitation and fire safety.......
(PHOTO  Whoopie Goldberg)
oh joy!

Texan politeness and 21's injection

Now I am not really a fan of "tv research"
Generally there are more holes in it than a slice of Swiss Cheese,and for the most part it is designed to be somewhat overly dramatic rather than intellectually rigorous .
Always a case of styleover substance
The general premise of this video centres around an actress/waitress being "homophobic" to a gay parenting family at a Texan cafe and the subsequent intervention by the general public when they challenge the waitress' rudeness.
As you may have expected, ( well I did), the rural community seems to be able to challenge the waitress' behaviour much more vociferously than the reported " city" diners did and although the video does flag wave the anti homophobic reaction amongst the Texan population, my thoughts on the matter centre around the fact that Southern people just do not tolerate rudeness in whatever form it is given.
Anyhow stick with the video!, and whatever you think of the diner's motivations, it does indeed capture that nice part of human nature
(look out for the letter that one young man presented to the lesbian couple....it's very moving)

21 had her second antibiotic injection this morning, which was an interesting experience to say the least. Jabbing a squirming piglet up the arse is a two man job and with Chris being away for the week, I was left lacking manpower, so eventually I had to conscript the help of  neighbour Pat, who fortunately,  is an old hand at piglet wrestling,
The second injection was therefore given right on time, and the little sow is looking just that little bit better this morning and has been able to put her sore leg down onto the ground for the first time

Thank goodness for good neighbours
and thank goodness for kind Texans