A couple of you have asked about Woody again, There is no change in her condition, other than she is still loosing weight. How long she can go on loosing the weight without her being to weak to get about, I really don’t know. We know now that there is nothing else than we can do for her, other than try to keep her comfortable, and try to let her enjoy the sun and grass for as long as we can, through the summer. It is difficult to have to make a decision to have her put to sleep. Not because it would be a shame, because of our feelings, but for what enjoyment she may be getting being out with the other Horses, through the Summer. To make it easy for Lady, when she come home later in the week, it would be better if Woody was not here, if we have to put Woody to sleep when Lady is here, she will be lost, as she does depend on Woody.
As most people I do find it difficult to cull animals. If there are reasons to have them culled, I know that I have to do it, and I will know what I have done was right. Two years ago we had a female Wild Boar that had to be culled. We had five Wild Boar, four Sows, a Boar and what ever young that had, they lived in the fenced orchard, with part of a barn at one end, that they could bed down in. Every now and then they would escape. They would dig under the wire fence, that was embedded into the ground to get out. They were very easy to catch. After being caught, they would go for a year or more before they decided to try it again. On one occasion one female decided that she liked the outside of the orchard more than in. It did not matter what we tried to stop her getting out, everything we did try, failed. We put up electric fencing inside the fence, every other of the Boar, once stung, would keep away from the fence. Not this female, she would go straight through it, and dig her way out of the orchard. If she broke the fencing wire, all the other Boar would be out with her.
We tried shutting her in, by partitioning off an area in their barn. Some how she managed to climb out over a four foot fence. We made the fence over six foot high, next morning she was out again. I even electrified the fence, that did not keep her in. She was so good at climbing, that in another life she must have been a Steeple Jack. Sometimes when she escaped she would be away for up to a week. Wild Boar come under the Dangerous Wild Animal Act, that impose on me, certain conditions. I was breaking those conditions big time, and I was liable to have been prosecuted . After failing to find her a new home, I knew that I had to cull her. It would have been no good getting the Veterinary to cull her, as we never knew when she would be back. One evening as I was feeding the other Boar, she returned. As I do not own a gun, I had to phoned someone that I knew who did, and I shot the animal. It was not an experience that I would want again. But I knew that I had no alternative, and I had tried all that I could, not to have done it. This is how I will be with Woody, when it is right to put her to sleep, I will call the Veterinary in.
I managed to get another camera up on a Swallows nest. The chicks are about three days old. I also. I also found another Swallows nest with five eggs, I would think they they will hatch at about the same time as the single chick leaves the nest.
As I was writing the Diary, the Fox that has been charging in and scattering the Badgers, to get food , has just done it again. This time however one of the Badgers was not frightened and stayed put. You had better watch out Foxy.