Down on the farm

Our friend’s dog is nearing the end of his doggy days. He’s been ill for a while but this weekend they thought they would lose him. He has problems with his heart and the little fella is really struggling. He keeps collapsing and his breathing is laboured. In a last ditch attempt to improve the quality of his life, he is on new and stronger medication, but if he’s distressed or in pain, they will have to make the decision to have him put down – if nature doesn’t step in first.

It makes you realise just how much under your skin these silly, bouncing, loud, enthusiastic, occasionally smelly creatures are… I couldn’t imagine the pain I’d feel if it was Mr. Pluto. He's family. I know I’d be strong enough to cope as terrible as it would be though. You have to be. They rely on you totally and you can’t let them down.

Foot and mouth threaten to ravage the countryside again. Talking of not being able to imagine what something feels like, I can’t imagine the stress our farmers are under at the moment. Many farmers – to use an Americanism – bought the farm last time we had foot and mouth. Jobs and careers gone, farms and homes gone, hopes gone… so far it’s been contained and let’s hope lessons have been learnt and our bio security is much more effective this time (although the source might be a government lab, so maybe not...)

It might strike people as a paradox that animals that are reared for slaughter could be cared for, but there are farmers that care very deeply for their animals and to see entire herds of healthy animals wiped out is devastating.

You may think us city folk are fairly unaffected but it’s all degrees of separation. My partner and I want to buy a farm, we know farmers, we volunteer on organic farms. Even the people most removed from the great outdoors couldn’t deny that having our farming and possibly our tourist industry decimated is a very bad thing. We are all connected…

I never intended this to be a particular sombre entry but that’s how it’s transpired… I guess there’s a lot to be thoughtful and worried about at the moment. But as Maya Angelou wrote, and still we rise!