The cattle are scattered peacefully across the top of the bank, their winter coats burnished russet by the light. They know this south-facing side receives the fullness of the sun. Below me, a cock pheasant senses disturbance, hunches low and scuttles. I note with apprehension the freshly scratched-up patches where a badger has rummaged through the dung for worms – TB is a constant concern.
From the empty ring-feeder comes the scent – redolent of a beach at low tide – of the mineral supplement added to the hay each day. Fed before dawn, the beasts now lie cudding, eyes half closed, contented. A calf from last year stands alone, nibbling bramble leaves, more bored by the idleness than hungry.
Wow, check out those choppers! Puppies have 28 teeth and normal adult dogs have 42.
I approach one, examining eyes, feet, nascent teats. I move her tail aside and see a thick strand of dark, discoloured membrane hanging from her vulva. Her breathing continues with patient rhythm, but mine catches. She has aborted. I rest my hand on the soft warmth of her haunch, and sit with her for a moment in the stillness of the morning.
Use a Roll of Packing Tape to Pick Up Loose Pet Fur. Do your clothes pick up dog hair like crazy? Don’t have a lint roller on hand? One of my favorite life hacks for dog owners is using packing tape to pick off all that dog hair that gets all over your clothes.
A blood sample identifies a parasitic organism called neospora. Carried by the canine species and shed in their faeces, this is increasingly an aggravation for farmers who graze their livestock on land with public footpaths. It is without cure; once infected, the animal remains infected and will repeatedly abort. Her breeding life is over.
Farming is subject to many variables and, as in life itself, not all exposure to risk can be controlled. There are rich benefits for a herd that is permanently at pasture, but this close cohabitation with nature sometimes has a cost. How we delighted in the summer to see a vixen rearing her cubs in an abandoned badger sett; how we now rue that she chose to make her den there, beneath the tunnelled blackthorn, where the cattle so often sought sanctuary from the tyranny of flies and heat.
INTERESTING FACT ABOUT YOUR PET: Scientists believe that the world’s first known dog lived 31,700 years ago. This prehistoric dog resembled a large Siberian Husky.