Good morning all. We had got half way round the fields this morning when Max decides we should take a little diversion and check out the top pond. Ok. So we walk to the bankside and I get distracted by all the thistles growing through the willow I cut down last winter, not noticing where the little dog has gone to.
Next I hear the sound of something going into the water. Not a little splash but a deep sounding
spa-doop plop, more like what you would hear if you threw a brick into a few feet of water. Now Max weights exactly 4.75 kg, I know that because we popped him on the scales yesterday when we called in the vets to get his wormer and flea treatment. I reckoned the chances of Max throwing a brick into the pond had to be slim, so made the pretty safe assumption that he had thrown himself in. If it had been clear water I wouldn't have been that worried, but this pond is the one that keeps attracting aliens and there is still a wild tangle of
Crassul helmsii all around the margins that could so easily wrap up and drown a little dog.
The ripples radiating out across the water gave me a good clue where to look. I called out his name, but got no reply - not that he does often answer if he is up to mischief, or, it would seem, attempting suicide. I climbed into the pond. The recent rains have kept the water level up, even the "shallow" margin being exactly the same depth as my wellington boots. Nothing. Then I noticed the rushes moving a couple of yards further along the bank. I climbed back out in time to see a very bedraggled dog climb out - with a huge baby coot firmly in his jaws.
He let go when I told him to leave, although sadly the coot was badly injured, so I had to put and end to it's short life. At that the little dog jumped in and claimed back his prize, carrying it back down the track for a long way before finally deciding that coots are at the bottom of the list of wildfowl when it comes to flavour.
Farmer, your poor wife, having to cope with everything at once. I guess even in America genuine TLC is something money can't buy, but if you could she deserves a whole pallet load.
Kyle - thanks for thinking of me with all the metric measurements, something we may get to keep after our European experiment
. Anything I measure that is less than an inch I use millimetres, more than a couple of arm's length it's metres, yet for everything in between I still use good old fashioned inches, which I find much easier to see with a tape measure.
