The Abbotsford Pack

Before going any further let me make it clear before Julian and Jane Mawl proprietors of the Abbotsford Country House get lynched by their neighbours for harbouring foxes the foxes are not actually on Abbotsford land and were indeed several fields distant when we saw them first. Foxes you understand are not welcome friends but vermin as far as local farmers are concerned.

We saw them from the road playing just beside a dry stream with a hedge and a large tree with branches to the ground for cover nearby. There were a vixen and three small cubs when we first saw them. When we stopped the three cubs disappeared under the tree and the vixen watched us very carefully. I left Marion there with her camera and drove quietly off. After a little time the cubs started to reappear and play again and Marion was able to get some photographs which you can view on www.picasaweb.google.co.uk/idurrellmeister .

Having advertised their presence that the local farmers Will by now have laid poison down to kill them as they take a large number of lambs each year. Incidentally, in thus regard in the field next to Abbotsford there was a flock of alpacas which are kept and used for guarding sheep. Apparently they are far more effective than dogs and have the merit of producing extra revenue from their highly prized wool.