Leaky gumboots are like leaky condoms. Useless.

Day 6

I'm having difficulty with the mortality rate in a country home. And with this dreadful Wellington weather. While I was stuck indoors cleaning, Ricky the Abyssinian cat brings in a still living mouse and drops it. As the mouse attempts to hide in a handbag, Caesar the Hungarian Vizsla then hunts him out and chews his head and I hear the crunches. Meanwhile, I watch fixated and repulsed as nature takes its course. I rationalise it; Ricky thinks he's showing his love for the humans, and Caesar's just doing what he's genetically predisposed to do, yet those feelings resurface from when he brought in the one dead and one practically dead rabbit 2 days before; feelings of repulsion, panic, empathised terror and a physical turning in the stomach. Being unaccustomed to country living, and deathing!, I could not go near the mouse and had to wait for the youngest son and his friend to return and 'fling' it outside.

Baa baa was biting my knees before he got his morning feed. Glad I had jeans on! He was super hungry but I don't think he knows that I wouldn't be very tasty. The animals here remind me of babies and toddlers. Both want food and cuddles, warmth, sleep. They familiarise with the world through touch, sight and taste. The animals retain that curiosity and innocence but children grow up and rationality begins to kicks in. Spending time with the animals has been an opportunity to understand them, and us, more. It certainly makes me think deeply about how we treat animals and use them for our personal interests.

Day 7

Today I'm back at Big Sis and Big Bro's recharging, doing my laundry, filling up the car with petrol, and returning my gumboots to the shop because they're leaking. Leaky gumboots are like leaky condoms. Useless. Thankfully leaky gumboots are returnable. Think it's worth forking out for a quality make. Afterall, I'll be here for a year or two.