Mrs Downs Diary December 1

As we slept the sleep of the just (just plain exhausted that is) I dimly recall agitated barking in the yard. Meg, our Labrador, who is supposed to be chief trouble-shooter in the yard at night, was fast asleep in front of the Rayburn.

By The Newsroom

Published 29th Nov 2005, 16:23 BST

Updated 8th Jun 2018, 03:35 BST

She has wheedled her way into the house and can be heard snoring away or yipping excitedly as she chases rabbits and pegs pheasants in her sleep. So the only other guardians of the farm, Nell, Holly and Bud were in their kennels, and not free to physically challenge any intruders, but were obviously aware that trouble was afoot.

What a dumb pair we were. Instead of just burying our heads under the pillow and wishing the dogs would shut up, we should have got up to investigate. Then we would have found our intruder, Mr Charles Fox, pre-empting our feast with his own.

All that remained the next morning was a flurry of forlorn white feathers and a pen of very agitated ducklings that had suddenly woken up to the reality of farm life and that there is no such thing as a free bowl of barley and a fox free pen.

Mrs Down's Diary appears every week in the WSG. To read the full version of this article, see December 1 issue