The
most recent fruit of my loin was visiting early this morning; I was
still in my jim-jams when she arrived. Probably just as well that she
was about: I was keen that Fudge had company today. He'd been in an
odd mood since yesterday evening and I was somewhat worried about
him. He's probably just overdone yesterday's walk (much as we all
might have done), but he was very unsettled yesterday. And I have
been wottying.
This
worrying is yet another reason why I never wanted a dog.
As
always the news boiled my piss. More so than usual today. Read
this story: "The owners of a Suffolk petting zoo have
been found guilty of failing to adequately look after their animals"
and so it continues in that vein. The average reader is going to
think the worst and give up after a paragraph or two still thinking
ill of the place. If they are ever in Norfolk they might remember the
place and avoid it. they might mention this story in passing to
others, and so bad feeling about the place would spread.
But
I know that zoo. I know the owners. These charges are just wrong.
This sort of thing wouldn't happen there.
And
it didn't.
When
you actually get into the details of the case all cruelty allegations
turned out to be utterly unfounded. What the zoo keepers were guilty
of was administrative failures.
Trivial paperwork hadn't been completed in the right coloured ink.
The fine imposed on the zoo was the lowest that the judge was allowed
to give, and in summing up the judge said to the keepers. "Ladies,
a lot of people get a lot of pleasure from your animals. Keep up the
good work"
One wonders why news agencies didn't publish that bit.
I
suspect that all of the news that we hear is like this; we are given
a rather biased version of one side of every story.
Mind
you I had a smile at one of the pundits who was on the radio today.
Apparently the Prime Minister and his puppet Nick have
been making speeches about how well the coalition government is
doing now that they are at the half-way stage. I can't pretend to be
a fan of this coalition, but the pundit was right when he said that
there has probably been a lot less public squabbling between members
of this government than any of the previous governments in recent
history. I suppose the Con-Servatives and the Dribbling Democraps
have to be seen not to be at odds with each other.
Meanwhile
I have made some more progress with organising my diary. One or two
more events have appeared in it. However I'm still awaiting dates for
astro club outings, and I really need to pencil in dates for some
serious hikes.
I'm
awaiting developments with the two Teston kite festivals. The most
recent communication that I've had from the management makes me
rather sceptical about the June festival going ahead this year. Or
ever again. I'm not sure that I would miss its going. once a year is
enough; personally I'd like a repeat performance of the small camp
that we staged last June. Maybe this time with one or two of the
"Teston faces" along. I might just start smiling in
the appropriate direction to get this one rolling...
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