Saturday. Animal stories.

 It’s a very dull Saturday, but only weatherwise. I am going out for lunch with a group of former A-level students. We’re going to a Spanish restaurant in Manchester that I’ve not visited before. More on that in tomorrow’s post. 

The world continues in its chaotic fashion. Palestinians are still dying in places which they were assured were safe. (I have adopted the media trick of saying that they are dying, not that they are being killed by Israeli forces!) Biden is still putting his foot in from time to time by doing things like confusing names of presidents in conflict zones. And he might be upsetting Israel by promising aid in the first place to Ukraine! Mr Starmer hasn’t managed to move into his new Downing Street residence because he’s too busy running around to summits here and there. But Jeremy Hunt’s children have apparently left notes for the Starmer children, something at least one of the newspapers has described as “sweet”. I seem to remember an episode of The West Wing where everyone was being urged to leave notes for those who would be replacing them in governmental positions. So maybe it’s an American thing.

Granddaughter Number One has been telling us tales of woe about some of the animals in her collection: an ailing dog and cat are the current problem. Coincidentally a chess-playing friend has just dropped some books off for Phil, on his way apparently to visit his cat. This is the cat that used to be his but now lives with his niece and is old and ailing and ‘is on its way out”. So basically he’s going to say goodbye to it. 

I’ve been coming across animal stories this week. First there’s the story of a family who took over the care of a fox which had been sort of adopted as a cub by an old man in heir neighbourhood. When the old man went into hospital and never returned, the family took over care of the fox until they realised it was looking hungrily at their small baby. They stopped inviting the fox into the house after that. 

Then there’s the couple, in California inevitably, who have a big house with a pool, situated close to where the Angeles national forest begins. Bears began to visit their garden, come up to the windows and watch them having breakfast, and eventually swimming in their pool. Would you want to swim in your fine pool after a family bears had swum in it? After all, most people shower before going into the pool as well as when they come out of it. Then there’s the question of not being able to leave your French windows open in case a bear decides to wander in and get a little closer to where you are eating breakfast. 

No, on the whole I prefer not to share my home with wild animals. Come to that, I’m not a fan of sharing my home with domesticated pets either.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!