March 14th

On the subject of livestock, I was thinking of keeping rabbits. Apparently a rabbit produces a cubic metre of droppings a year, which would activate a huge compost heap.  But our last rabbit, Lucy, was eaten by a horrible fox  back in 1994, and I wouldn’t want to go through that again.  Hens, of which we have a couple of dozen, produce more than enough compost activator.   Our son Tim just told us the following sad story.  He was taking a shower the other morning when he heard the most awful screaming sound coming from his neighbour’s garden. Looking out the window he thought he could see a large cat grappling with their giant pet rabbit on the back lawn. Dressing as quickly as he could, he ran round and banged on the neighbour’s door to tell her.  When they went out into the back garden the rabbit, a huge breed,  was dead,  and the predator had been crippled by a vigorous kick from the bunny as it had fought back, and was hiding in the border.     It turned out not to be a cat, but a mink,  which had obviously come in from the railway embankment next to the neighbour’s far wall.  The RSPCA subsequently came to capture the animal, not too difficult as it could no longer walk, and presumably put it out of its misery. But this is proof that generations of mink, released from mink farms by animal activists twenty years ago or more, are still breeding and predating our pets and wildlife.  They have obviously grown even bigger in the process.   And all this drama happened in urban Liverpool last week!

You may notice that blog entries like buses are coming in batches! I have saved them in draft and have now popped them on the website. Feedback from my loyal readers is always welcome!