The Daily Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 2645 by Angharad Copyright© 2015 Angharad

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This is a work of fiction any mention of real people, places or institutions is purely coincidental and does not imply that they are as suggested in the story.
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I decided to keep quiet about the dream as it may never be more than a dream, a figment of my unconscious; however, I shall endeavour to be at that match and watch to see what happens. Big Bertha got her comeuppance in the end but what happens if I’m unable to fix Danielle’s leg?

It wasn’t worth thinking about. If I couldn’t fix it, they could lose the game and she could lose her career just as it’s beginning. Life can be awfully cruel, but not as cruel as humans. I just learned that seven deer were found with bite marks on their rear ends suggesting they were harried by dogs, then their throats were cut and they were disembowelled. Two others in a similar state were found a few miles away. This was in Dorset, near Poole and Bournemouth. Whatever happened it was illegal but it suggests that dogs like lurchers were involved and some very callous humans.

I’m aware deer have to be culled or we’d be overrun with them, but this sort of cruelty has no place anywhere on this planet. I was glad to hear the police were asking for witnesses so they could try to stop such disgraceful behaviour. Hunting with dogs is illegal, though it’s been suggested the Tories will bring back foxhunting. If they do, it will guarantee I never ever vote for them again, not that I’m likely to anyway, but it would guarantee it. Personally, I’d like to see Tory hunting made legal. They desperately need culling as we’re greatly overrun by them, easily distinguished by vacuous expressions, total self interest, and lack of compassion.

Of course people will disagree with me but that’s their right, which is more than the poor fox had.

I suppose we should be grateful that the deer species that were killed are numerous unlike black rhinos, which are virtually extinct because of poaching for Chinese traditional medicine or Arab dagger handles. Both are repulsive and in the case of the former, based on systems which have more in common with magic than science.

The future of wild species of birds and animal is looking bleaker and bleaker as humans swarm all over the face of the planet destroying all it touches. Climate change will ultimately mean the only polar bears that exist will be in zoos, half the species of birds in the UK are in decline, some dangerously so which coupled with mass shootings all along the Mediterranean coasts, means that migrants such as swallows are present in smaller numbers each year. Species like cuckoo are quite rare despite the call being iconic. Skylarks are declining rapidly because of changes to farming practice hay giving way to silage.

It’s not only farmers, the increased use of land for housing or commercial purposes means that habitats are disappearing or becoming fragmented which affects the breeding viability and gene pool of more sedentary species such as dormice. Unfortunately, the species who thrive with humans, such as the brown rat Rattus norvegicus, seem to do well whatever we do and will probably be here after Homo sapiens has long disappeared—possibly as a consequence of its own folly.

“Why couldn’t we come with you?” asked an angry Trish with Livvie offering her physical by standing beside her sister and nodding in agreement.

“Come where?”

“Dormousing, we know what to do, don’t we, Liv?”

“The car was full, I had some new people to show what to do, didn’t I, Danielle?”

“Yes, Mum.” She then disappeared to have a shower and probably go back to bed.

“Like who?” demanded our resident genius.

“I’m not standing here and bandying words with a nine year old,” I blustered and for a moment Trish was dumbstruck. I retreated to my study and told her to find something to do as I had to upload figures to the survey coordinator. These would then come back to me along with the rest of the surveys being undertaken which would then be integrated with the rest of the data we had.

For the moment, we’re doing quite well with our dormouse figures but it only takes something like a cold winter or wet one to upset that. The data is important because it tends to suggest what works and what doesn’t with regard to release and conservation. With other species it tends to indicate where resources need to be allocated. For instance if the government was really adamant in its supposed control of grey squirrel numbers it would be interested in encouraging pine martens to breed as there appears to be a direct correlation between the presence of pine marten and decline in grey squirrel population—as per the Irish study.

David did us homemade sausage and mash and it was delicious as it always is. This time he made chicken sausages with leek and mushroom—they were out of this world and everyone wanted more. The pot of potato he has to do is quite frightening, it’s almost like a cauldron—perhaps I should get him a pointed hat.

Helen showed me a picture of a breast plate worn by a French cuirassier at Waterloo who had been hit by a cannonball—it had a punched a hole right through the armour and the unfortunate man inside it. He would have died pretty well instantly. He was identified as a twenty three year old Frenchman. According to the article in her paper, the heavy cavalry were feared by infantry during the Napoleonic wars. However, the usual defence was to shoot the horse from under them. If this happened the rider would be trapped under his mount, unable to move because of his armour and could be killed at leisure.

The French cuirassiers were equipped with a pistol and long stabbing sword. Apparently, the British cavalry who were lighter and armed with sabres found that if they could get in closely to the French, the long sword was useless and the rider could be unhorsed by punching him in the face, or as they went by a sabre slash to the back of the head/neck area tended to stop them.

I shuddered when I saw the details if this inhumanity to each other in the name of empire or whatever other grandiose term they had. But most revolting was the use of teeth extracted from the corpses at Waterloo to make dentures—imagine wearing a denture made from the teeth of soldiers who’d died in battle—it doesn’t bear thinking about. It’s coming up to the two hundredth anniversary of Waterloo on the 18th of June, which ended for good Napoleon’s campaign and made Arthur Wellesley a household name as the Duke of Wellington.