Posturing and puppies

A visitor to my blog recently drew my attention to a posturing rant in the Guardian newspaper  by George Monbiot.

The article was intended to express outrage at a proposal by Defra to permit the capturing of buzzards on shooting estates.

But was essentially a vitriolic and ill-informed attack on driven pheasant shooting with accompanying ‘witness account’ of what ‘actually goes on’.

And the witness was?  Monbiot himself.

What particularly caught my eye in the piece was Monbiot’s extraordinary claim to have been employed on a shoot as a loader in his teens.

If you want to know why I found this so odd,  drop into the Guns OnPegs website where you can read my article: Monbiot the Loader – an unlikely story

Puppies

On a brighter note, it has been over four years since we heard the pitter-patter of four tiny paws in our home, and I am about to remedy that situation!

I raise and train a gundog puppy every few years, to join my picking-up ‘gang’, and accompany us on our ‘expIoits’.  This time we have decided on another Labrador.

I have reluctantly decided not to breed from my own four year old lab bitch.   Mainly because her conformation is rather poor.   This will be the first puppy I have not bred myself for some years.

After some considerable searching, and several disappointments,  I have managed to track down a soon-to-arrive litter of fox-red trial bred Labradors.    The pups are due in about ten days time,  so please keep your fingers crossed for me that there is a bitch amongst them!

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