Heavenly Beverley : Foiling the Ranger.

Sunday 7 May 2017

Foiling the Ranger.

Beverley "enjoys" a part-time animal ranger to patrol the streets and pick up any strays. He is not a nice man. We first encountered him back at Brooking Street, when he was apparently responding to a complaint by a neighbour about our dogs barking at night. This barking was due to an increase in fox movements and all the surrounding dogs were noisy as a result. He was unmoved and suggested we set fox traps in the yard of the neighbour who had complained...

Then he questioned how we had managed to register all three dogs. As if we had diddled the system. He was definitely suspicious. Then he wanted us to microchip Sascha, who could die at any time given her age and Pip, who is so terrified at being handled by strangers, uses hot diarrhoea as a weapon of escape. When we refused and invited the ranger to leave our house, he was quite reluctant to do so. As far as we were concerned, he had entered our home under false pretences.

We have had nothing to do with him since we moved into the Residence. Until last week. This officious individual bailed up John our builder and declared if our dogs were seen on the street again, he would impound them on the spot. He also blamed all the dog deposits at the memorial park on our dogs and ours alone. We knew this simply wasn't true. We were speechless. We knew the dogs were prone to wandering and we were doing our best to keep them contained. Sascha's elderly bladder meant the unleashing of Noah's flood if she was unable to exit outside. We had been restraining Ruby as much as possible but as an escape artist, she was masterly in her efforts to sneak off when we weren't looking.

Michael had been hoping to reduce his physical workload to allow his ankle to heal after rolling it whilst painting the house. I remain physically disabled and useless since I stuffed my left knee. However, in view of the Ranger's threats, we had no choice. Some sort of enclosure would have to be constructed.

This has been accomplished after two days of toiling by Michael. He has used an interesting mix of old gates, mesh, wire and star pickets to create our own version of Fort Knox. We are able to reach both the new house and the washing line through two access points. Given the strength required by Michael to install the star pickets, the ground has shown itself to be very hard. This will reduce any potential escape opportunities by digging. Unless Ruby acquires an excavator.

And the fence will keep that dreadful little ranger on the other side of our happy little home.