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.

The Honeymoon period is over!

Day 3

How quickly the honeymoon period ends. This idyllic existence has it's downsides. There is no such thing as perfection but being the die-hard romantic, please forgive me another time for believing the illusion. Yesterday after I spent 3 hours weeding, the heaven's opened and I was stuck indoors the rest of the time, which I wasn't complaining about because my back was knackered, but it's never fun when it rains on the parade! Or on your just hung out laundry! Being on the farm, the animals need care rain or shine. Getting wet is unavoidable and my city skin is not so waterproof, even if I am from Scotland.

My relationships with the non-human creatures deepens. You know family by the extent to which they can annoy you, and the animals have gone from being novel and cute to annoying (but still cute). After spending a good hour with Ricky the cat yesterday afternoon, today he has persistently come begging for a petting and a massage. If he could return the favour, I would gladly satisfy him but it doesn't work like that with animals without opposable thumbs! I resisted and ignored him. Ricky also killed a rabbit and dragged it indoors, and brought in another one half alive squealing for it's life. Maybe he meant well, but I'm allergic to rabbits! He wasn't to know. Besides, he's only doing what nature intended for him to do. The cirle of life and all that.

Humans aren't so easy to get close to, and I understand better why people choose the company of animals over their fellow humans. Animals are straighforward. You know that they need you because you give them what they want and they return that with affection and loyalty. It helps that no words are needed, because there's no lies, no manipulation, no ambiguities. Loving a non-human creature is easier, in many ways.

Baa baa today escaped multiple times from the orchard, and headed straight for the back door. Bleating and jumping up to get your attention because he wants to come into the house, making a racket, and then peeing allover the doorstep, allover the gumboots and shoes too. Then it's the chook's turn to turn on me! As I attempt to check for eggs under the nesting hen, she pecks at my finger and while it doesn't hurt, I get the fright of my life because I watched someone else pick up eggs without a problem the day before. I'm so scared that I hold up my arm to protect my face from another chicken. She doesn't look as agitated as the pecking hen by my presence but once pecked, twice shy! And then Dice is constantly around begging for scraps, even licking the cutlery in the dishwasher if you turn around too long. I feel like I know these animals better than the people in this house. Or maybe I'm just more fascinated by the novelty of living with non-human animals; they are what I'm more interested in talking about. A welcome relief from the complexities of human nature; the animals seem to have it all sussed out. What a day! I wish the weather would be drier and sunnier but it's not. Instead of wishing for what I can't have, I wish I would just accept things the way they are. Being a control freak, this is not a strength. These non-human creatures have a lot to teach me...

Here's a picture to make you smile. Baa baa trying time get through the catflap, even though he doesn't fit.

Z