Best Of

to show the crap on here re benefits being £70 a week. Why work for minimum wage.

Oh my God, you posted an image.

One of my best photos of a fox, taken in October on the south bank of the Thames near Greenland Dock, opposite Canary Wharf.

I set up wild life cameras. A few years ago, in my compost area, I got a video of a vixen with her cubs feeding from her and her trying to get them interested in a rat.

In our previous home there was a badger sett in the woods at the bottom of the garden. We were visited most nights in the spring, summer and autumn.
I often regret leaving that house, but it was far, far too big for an elderly couple.

Labour seeks to ban trail hunting in the New Year

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g9y20j259o

I can see no reason for this except spite.

In the words of the Labour manifesto 'it is being used as a smokescreen for the hunting of wild animals' and in fairness this is true. There have been so many examples. Only the other week hunt saboteurs recorded exactly this from a drone - clear hunting of a fox.

The hunts only have themselves to blame for this. It is a shame because a British tradition could have been kept if it had adapted, but they seem incapable of doing so and keeping to the law.

The original ban was done out of spite too and has made it difficult to keep fox numbers down and protect sheep and livestock and pet rabbits etc

Classically those who don’t live in the countryside see foxes and badgers as cute and cuddly, as per Countryfile, Springwatch etc. They also seem to imagine old and sick foxes go off to a nursing home at the end of their lives.
Life in the wild is tough. Our countryside, so beloved by many, is totally artificial. It needs maintaining. Part of that is to manage foxes, badgers, deer etc. Now you can argue about the best way to do it, but at some point it needs doing.

For sure, but many people in the countryside have also been on the receiving end of these hunts’ arrogance and seen them trespass, destroy property, trample gardens and kill pets in pursuit of their perverted so-called ‘sport’.

Labour seeks to ban trail hunting in the New Year

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g9y20j259o

I can see no reason for this except spite.

In the words of the Labour manifesto 'it is being used as a smokescreen for the hunting of wild animals' and in fairness this is true. There have been so many examples. Only the other week hunt saboteurs recorded exactly this from a drone - clear hunting of a fox.

The hunts only have themselves to blame for this. It is a shame because a British tradition could have been kept if it had adapted, but they seem incapable of doing so and keeping to the law.

The original ban was done out of spite too and has made it difficult to keep fox numbers down and protect sheep and livestock and pet rabbits etc

They should do zoning for fox hunting. Focus on urban areas.

Plenty of potential demand for hunts here in the South East London suburbs. It seems there’s a fox in every back garden, and another rifling through every food caddy that’s not been tightly clipped shut.

The height of the walls and fences might be a challenge for the horses though.

We have to feed ours every night. It's a sort of protection racket they run. If you don't you end up having to pick up their crap in the back garden every morning.

I used to not mind them but now having a cat it's a slight worry.

Our cats would chase the foxes out the garden.

All other things being equal, cats are more than a match for foxes.

I gather urban foxes are now emboldened to take cats, which they never used to be.

My black cat chases our local foxes when he spots one. Which is frequently: they’re in the garden daily.

The whole metropolitan/rural culture war angle here is silly. Foxes are arguably a much bigger pest in the city than in the sticks. I’ve never seen one on my vineyard, unlike the “wild” (yeah, right) pheasants that get raised in cages then released en-masse ready to chow down on my crop each year. I cooked 2 last night as micro-revenge.

We also have rabbits. The bastards not only dig warrens right under the vines in the root zone, killing dozens of them, but they decided the black piles of bird netting I’d left in the vineyard ready for bagging up would make a nice warm bed to shit on. So I turned up yesterday to find each one covered in countless little brown pellets.

I’d love to have a dog now I’m retired but I can’t get over the thought of pickings it’s shit up. I remember once a dog walk with my mother and her dogs. One took a runny dump and she was trying to clean it up and it was like a dirty protest in The Maize.

I was wary of it before we got ours but soon got used to it. My mother in laws dog once did a shit so runny it resembled chicken korma. No way to clear it up, so I scarpered (and felt bad, but what was I to do?)

I nearly (until a chest infection for me) was planning to dog sit this Christmas. The range of comments for this Shit-Poo (therapy) dog was quite extensive. There's quite a lot more, including a different set of required behaviours for the room used for therapy.

• Sit
• Lie down
• Spin
• Leave
• Come
• Wait
• Stay
• Walk with me
• Touch
• Hold paw.
• Sit pretty
• High ten
• Dance or wheely

When I last heard the owners were stuck at Dibai en route to Thailand.

What’s the difference between “sit” and “sit pretty”?

Or do I not want to know…

Sit pretty is sitting on their hind legs front paws up. Some think it is a bit cruel and not good for dogs. I have no idea, but we haven't taught our dog to do this.

The most important thing to remember about dog-sitting is to keep the pooch away from water. Otherwise you don't know what evil will befall them.

David Walliams rescues dog from the River Thames
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-14877856

Walliams isn’t all bad then?

I’d love to have a dog now I’m retired but I can’t get over the thought of pickings it’s shit up. I remember once a dog walk with my mother and her dogs. One took a runny dump and she was trying to clean it up and it was like a dirty protest in The Maize.

I was wary of it before we got ours but soon got used to it. My mother in laws dog once did a shit so runny it resembled chicken korma. No way to clear it up, so I scarpered (and felt bad, but what was I to do?)

I nearly (until a chest infection for me) was planning to dog sit this Christmas. The range of comments for this Shit-Poo (therapy) dog was quite extensive. There's quite a lot more, including a different set of required behaviours for the room used for therapy.

• Sit
• Lie down
• Spin
• Leave
• Come
• Wait
• Stay
• Walk with me
• Touch
• Hold paw.
• Sit pretty
• High ten
• Dance or wheely

When I last heard the owners were stuck at Dibai en route to Thailand.

What’s the difference between “sit” and “sit pretty”?

Or do I not want to know…

Sit pretty is sitting on their hind legs front paws up. Some think it is a bit cruel and not good for dogs. I have no idea, but we haven't taught our dog to do this.

The most important thing to remember about dog-sitting is to keep the pooch away from water. Otherwise you don't know what evil will befall them.

David Walliams rescues dog from the River Thames
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-14877856

A Walliams Fidler story!