I should know better

Still recovering a bit from Ireland, I realise that the one thing I didn`t manage was to find out much more about the little bitch supposed to have gone to a puppy farmer. It now seems that she is living in a travellers` camp in the south of Eire. I`m not sure what her fate will be. The travellers concerned were expected to turn up at the show in Dublin but didn`t, so I couldn`t assess whether they seemed to be puppy farmers or not.

Maybe we all worry too much. Papillons are tough little souls. I only have to think of my Xena and her daughter Siggy, both constantly yearning to walk on the wild side. They are notorious for finding holes iin the fence and going off to hunt their own dinner, coming back chomping proudly on pieces of rabbit. If it was wrong, they did it. And they`re only sorry you caught them, and yes, they`ll do it again.

Since foot and mouth the land here has much less stock on it, and as a result the deer are multiplying. I freuently see them at dawn and dusk, crossing the orchard. One evening I was out with Xena and five hinds came slippping past, down the hill.

Xena`s eyes gleamed. She looked at me.

"Bloody big rabbits!"

"Go on then," I said, "bring one back."

And she was off, a litle streak of black and white eeling through the long grass.

A tired muddy Xena panted up the hill some time later. She grinned up at me, tongue hanging out to her knees.

"Bloody fast rabbits !"

And she swaggered off to boast to the others about the one that got away.

Tomorrow I`m off to Worldcon.... haven`t been to one since the last time it was held in Glasgow. I`ll keep you posted.