Lammas August 7th 2004

Well - what a day... for everyone.

I was not scheduled to go help out at the show, but then I thought it may be interesting for my kids to go along so I got myself on the rota for helping. The arrangement was to be at the show ground for 8:30 am to help set up the cage.

The day got off to a really good start, we got from Bracknell to the other side of Reading in 15 minutes, but then on the road up toward Ipsden they had resurfaced and we go stuck behind a road roller going at 10mph... somehow we still managed to get there for 8:25 though, so we were on time... time ticked by... at around 8:50 some more people started to turn up to help with the cage - just one problem, no cage...

The Trooper had broken down and a break down man was on the way.

In the mean time Conor, my eldest son, had befriended a boy who was there and they had a dog. He barked a lot and scared Conor a bit, but I went over too and we introduced ourselves to the dog and he was fine. Unfortunately when Conor was over there at about 9am the dog was barking, he went to stroke it, and the dog bit him. A big canine going into the palm of his hand and grazes all along the back... this meant we needed to go to a hospital to get him checked out.

Firstly we drove over to Didcot as it was closest, but their hospital has now shut its minor injuries so we then drove down to Reading (about the same distance as Oxford, but we know the hospital). By the time we had sat in A & E and Conor had been seen, cleaned up and given a bottle of antibiotics and got back to the field it was almost 12am so I had missed putting up the cage.

Not a good start to the day saying I would help, then not - which unfortunately was a repeat of saying I would help in Cornwall and then having to cancel at the last minute.

During the day though I did a fair turn around the cage (talking to the public), in the merchandise tent and in the cage with the girls who mostly just flaked out as it was a very hot day.


Merchandise tent		Cage with tarp over to make some shade!





The girls had a bucket, but drinking from a bottle is more fun...


Meet and greets with the public

	Relaxing in the shade

Then a fence panel fell over and frightened the girls. So they needed some comforting...


Getting excited about sausages - the on site caterer supplied.



				Using the air lock


			I got some nice close ups of Duma. REMEBER - NEVER get complacent with the wolves. You ALWAYS need to be observant of their behavior and body language.

Then it was the end of the day at the show. They had a wonderful ceremony acknowledging and celebrating the elements and ancestors which was very moving. This was then followed by 4 (then 5) ladies getting in a paddling pool naked and smothering themselves with mud... all in the name of charity!

By now it had been a long, hot day and my kids were unfortunately getting restless to go, so after I had helped with putting the merchandise and the tent away I had to go and was unable, yet again, to help with the cage! Hopefully next time I will be able to!