Mrs Downs Diary

Birthday parties have certainly moved on and now seem to take place over lunch, for the Mums and Dads as well. Although most of the latter ended up in the front room with my son-in-law watching the cricket on their huge new plasma screen TV (Think that is what it is called. It's enormous.)

The high point of the charity lunch was a talk by a celebrity vet who includes a zoo among his clients. Very good he was too. Lots of chat about dozy polar bears, aggressive ostriches, wounded tarantulas and chimps addicted to flicking their faeces at him. Apparently he does not have a large animal practice. Far too dangerous I expect in comparison to that lot.

I returned home to flop onto the settee and have a restorative cup of tea. John followed me into the house. He had been sorting out cattle for market and carried with him the fragrant aroma of the foldyard. Cuddling up close he whispered into my ear. "Do you fancy coming to look at my moletraps?" Irresistible or what. I went.

The moletraps have been set in one of the fields that have recently been cut for hay. We did not go on this romantic excursion alone. John thought it would be a good occasion to try and reinforce some obedience training on Holly our spaniel. Meg, our Labrador is just getting too old to go out for long walks and will probably not be able to manage another shooting season. Holly is keen but scatty. She is also in season, so sticking to her side like glue, Bud our Jack Russell came along too.

This was not a good idea. Every time John told Holly to sit, and walked away from her, Bud seized on the opportunity to launch himself at her nether regions in a frantic piston like action. This distracted Holly from sitting still and sent her chasing off after John in an attempt to escape Bud's attention. He, with his point of balance cruelly terminated, just fell over.

For full story see West Sussex Gazette June 27