my girls

[scott]

 

 

[annie]

beautiful..you say your 'girls'...who is who here? 

 

i have a yellow labrador who used to retrieve for the guns, she's too old now. but she has never swam much to my disgust...no amount of pushing, or coaxing has ever made her go in to water for anything more than a paddle....

[FUJI]

Great shots of a well loved working dogs........I used to watch them in action both at the Royal Show and The Town and Country Festival at Stoneleigh Show-ground near by......Sadly both of these fantastic events are no more.

I'm giving a wry smile here......Why?.....

What will Phil say about a dog with a dead bird in its mouth?

FUJI

[Phil]

What will Phil say about a dog with a dead bird in its mouth?

 

Didn't see that one coming

 

I'm guessing it's not the dog that shot the pheasant  

[NannyFerret]

I have friends who hunt with ferrets and also one who hunts with his ferrets and Hawk. I'm not a particular fan of any hunting and couldn't go and watch.

The year before last I saw some hunters shooting the wild ducks from a distance and I didn't like it at all, but if you are brought up in the country then I guess it is more accepted.

On saying that, there is one sport that I will never be able to abide and that is fox hunting where the fox has to suffer so much. At least shooting is quick.

Apart from my little rant, it is as the others a very good shot and shows country life.
I love your girls!

[annie]

pheasant shoots have never bothered me, and the birds are collected and used for food. i have always gone beating, or picking up with the dog.

 

i don't go if they go rabbiting with the ferrets, or lamping, and i certainly don't agree with a pack of knobs on horse's chasing a fox either. 

[Phil]

with a pack of knobs...

 

[NannyFerret]

I have been told by a person who used to go rabbiting that if they didn't do it, then they would be poisoned on the farms to keep the population down, along with many other  wild animals and birds.

The one good thing that came out of this person going rabbiting is that all the ferrets that passed through the rescue benefited from the rabbit for nourishing food.
He didn't go in the kit season or when there were still young around on the principle that he wouldn't leave young to die slowly on their own.
It wasn't a subject that was brought up too often because of the way I feel about hunting, but on the other hand, if I am offered some rabbit for my ferrets then I will take it for them, because it's hard to get in the city and very expensive when we can get hold of it. It has been killed in the same way and it's also very nutritious for them.

I was fed on rabbit from the rag and bone man and home reared chicken when I was young, as we were still on rations after the war and my mum and dad did the best for us.

 

Scot, you have certainly opened up an interesting discussion here.  

[FUJI]

Yes Scott.......what have you started? ;-)

Don't worry the cat vs dog debate crops up in a friendly bantering way on here, thank goodness we all love our pets so much that we fight their corner when required.

Nanny, I too was fed on stews made from scraggy rabbits during and just after the War, I don't remember any vegetarians, allergies, or fads, we were all just too hungry, we ate what was put in front of us or starved, I've eaten, Horse, Whale and a strange fish called Snoek, all introduced into the British food chain by a desperate Government. What was put into wartime sausages no one has ever found out......at school it was a punishable offence to leave a dinner plate not wiped clean with the quarter of a slice of grey bread supplied for the purpose.

You young-uns 'ain't lived.

FUJI

[NannyFerret]

I agree, Fuji, a good debate is good and also a good remissness too. Especially when it's remembering what our parents did and sacrificed for us. 
Even though my mum and dad are gone, I still have great love and respect for them both. 

I was a difficult child who wouldn't eat half the time (no stopping me now lol) and had to be coaxed to eat the cockerel or chicken which I had seen running about a couple of days before.

It was my dad who used to tell me how good it was for me, and yet he himself was a vegetarian. The reason being that he lived right opposite a slaughter house when he was a child and could see a lot  of what was going on.
I think I have heard about the strange fish but never had it. Lard on a slice of bread with a sprinkle of salt was a treat for supper and a small tin of Nescafe was a one every couple of months thing and a cup of coffee was a treat once in a while. I only drink coffee now.

I remember my dad asking what I wanted for one of my birthdays and was in my element with a new torch. The kids want and get presents costing hundreds of pounds now and then they want to upgrade there electronic games etc. the next year.
I even remember my dad soling his boots with old car tyres so that us four kids could have a pair of leather boots once a year for the winter and when they needed mending, they were taken to a cobbler down the road to be repaired with  proper leather.

As you said, Fuji, I think we had a far happier childhood as the kids have these days. Perhaps because we valued what our parents could afford to give us and also valued our parents for the effort that they went to to give us what they could.

[NannyFerret]

{Whoops! my quote frame disappeared, Perhaps I'm not doing it right.