... as she turns side way on, you can see that all her coat has been restored ... even in June nearly half of her fur had gone due to an attack of sarcoptic mange which ravished the local fox population last winter. Thanks to treatment from Derbyshire Fox Rescue and good nutrition - including vitamin tablets, liver and sunflower oil, she's in remarkable condition for her advanced age ... calculated at 5 - 6 years ... average life expectancy of a UK fox being about two years.
Saturday 28 August 2010
RAMBO STILL GOING TO HAVE A GO
As Rambo's TDS Ultra Trail Mont Blanc had been abandoned due to extreme weather conditions, I was convinced it was over for him. I emailed him at 01:55 hrs thinking he'd retrieve later but got the following message back immediately:
Starting CCC at 10 trying to sleep now.
The CCC race had commenced quite a few hours previously, so I can only think that the TDS entrants have been given the choice to abandon or stagger their start into this race ... I'll monitor the race stages and keep you informed ...
Friday 27 August 2010
RAMBO SHELTERING AS EXTREME WEATHER FORCES DELAY IN ULTRA TRAIL MONT BLANC
THIS IN 2 HOURS AGO LOCAL TIME:
The UTMB started on time and is now being cancelled due
to the severity of the
weather. We arrived for our coach transfer to Italy
at 9pm and are now
sheltering in the sports centre while they decide
if our start will be delayed
or cancel our event as well, so I was right to
be concerned about the bad
weather forecast. The UTMB had to be stopped in
part because of a mud slide on
way up to the Pass into Italy.
They now have a logistical nightmare about
repatriating them or transferring them to Courmayer
to start again in morning.
The CCC has reached Switzerland & is also experiencing
bad weather. No idea if
they are keeping us waiting to see if we start
later rather than cancelling
outright. Bit difficult as hard enough to start
at midnight starting at an as
yet undisclosed hour would be probably harder.
I have no spare food/drink pre
race than I had allowed for on a midnight start.
At least we are indoors in the
dry rather than struggling over a high pass
in stormy weather!
With regard to logistics for bad weather
on OMM and recent experience in
Borrowdale it is very sobering. RAMBO
Thursday 26 August 2010
R's Sole now steps up
... to the oche to award - and as there are now only hashers in the bar, we can get going - we are The Party Hash, after all ...
Flip Flop downdown
... and we are very sorry if we upset the two diners who leave during the downdown ...
Wednesday 25 August 2010
Tuesday 24 August 2010
KC reunited with his dad, Archangel
... after three weeks on holiday at Cruisedog Towers with Mr Cruisedog ... but he's overjoyed to see his master again - as you can see ... Mr Cruisedog and I will miss him ... a lovely little lad.
Monday 23 August 2010
And after ...
... our return from a very muddy, slippery and obviously wet excursion over the cliff tops ...
Sunday 22 August 2010
All quiet on the western front (of Maidencombe)
Everything back to normal for Mr Cruisedog's nightly cliff top patrol. Both vixens relaxed and confident and the old badger boar snatched a banana from my hand. There are three things that disturb rural foxes: the presence of humans - especially off road; windy conditions which always 'spook' them ... and heavy rain - like cats, foxes dislike getting wet - badgers don't care.
Have to go out later tonight
... as our last port of call is near a holiday cottage let. Last night at about 01:15 am the lights were on and they were pretty noisy - so much so that My Vixen (not to be confused with Meadow Vixen, higher up and to the north of Maidencombe) was decidedly spooked and Mr Cruisedog and I had to wait for about twenty minutes for her to summon up courage to approach. I'll tell you how we got on a bit later ...