Waving and drowning and an INVITATION

Hello Betty Fans,
I have a bad paw.  Mary took me to the Vet who said I have RSI ....from waving.  If you have seen me outside DEFRA you will know how I wave at everyone I see and that's a lot of waving every Thursday for the last 2 years.  

RSI means Repetitive Strain Injury and in caused by repetitive movements.  It is also called Occupational Overuse Injury and Overuse Syndrome.   I suppose standing outside DEFRA has become my Occupation... I wonder how many other Creatures have RSI from waving... I can only think of one, The Queen.  

Some people say The Huwoman Queen has an artificial hand that waves for her, but I don't think she does. I might write to her as we have the same Medical Condition in common.  Perhaps she will be my friend and stop the Badger Kill-Cull.

If you have been to London Town or if you listen to The Media you will have heard about Extinction Rebellion.  They describe themselves as:

 a socio-political movement which uses nonviolent resistance to protest against climate breakdown, biodiversity loss, and the risk of human extinction and ecological collapse.

I wonder if they include Badgers in "Biodiversity Loss".  As Badgers are part of Biodiversity. I suppose that means they don't want badgers killed.  I'd better have a chat with them. They have been lying around in the streets and gluing themselves to trains and to each other.  

Well, on Thursday I met one of the Representatives of Extinction Rebellion in Marsham Street and I asked for his advice.  I asked how come he managed to get an interview with Mr Gove for lying around for a week whereas I have been hanging around for 2 years and still Mr Gove won't give me and Mary an appointment.   He told me that I should lie in the road too. He said it's legal to lie in the road for 7 minutes and then I have to get up or I could be arrested. 

He was a kind and helpful Human but I don't think he really understands how life is for Badgers. 50,000 Badgers die on the road in Britain every year when metal boxes on wheels run over them, and that happens when we are scurrying  as fast as we can.  If we lie around in the road for seven minutes then hundreds of thousands of us would die and I don't think it would change Government policy. 

While I was outside DEFRA on Thursday minding my own Badger Business and giving myself RSI, a crazy Human kept calling to me.  Then he started yelling, "I'm going to shoot that Badger"  I was very worried . They took him away in an ambulance eventually; maybe he had mental health problems like so many Hupeople who want to kill Badgers.  I might have to call on the lovely Police Humen that protected me in Man Chester at the Conservatory Party Conference:

Mary has had an email from some Hupeople in Somerset and they want to come and visit me next Thursday.  They are even hiring a coach and coming all that way to London Town.  I do hope it doesn't rain on them and we can have a picnic; I hope they bring worms and peanuts for me.   Other fans like you can come too.  I start at DEFRA Smith Square (17 St John Smith's Square)  at 11.30 then move on to DEFRA staff entrance of Seacole Buiding Great Peter Street at 12.30 and then go on to Marsham Street at 1.30.  This is our regular routine.   

We didn't see Mr Gove this week, but it was local election day and he was probably sitting in a darkened room with the other Politicians chewing their finger nails. We did meet him last week when he was popping out for his lunch and he said Hello.  I have decided that it is time me and Mary had a meeting with him.  We only want a fifteen minutes.  It is difficult to see him because his Minders protect him from ordinary Creatures like me and Mary.  I bet if Mary was a Millionaire she would get to see him.  I suppose we are not important enough and we are not causing enough trouble, but I think we deserve a few minutes with Mr Gove because of 2 years of Thursdays, three visits to the Conservatory Party Conferences and Mary's back and my RSI and the 70,000 dead Badgers we want to speak up for.

If you are a literary Huperson you might have noticed the poetical reference in the title of my blog.  It comes from a poem by Stevie Smith.  Here it is for the less literary:

Nobody heard him, the dead man,
But still he lay moaning:
I was much further out than you thought
And not waving but drowning.

Poor chap, he always loved larking
And now he's dead
It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way,
They said.

Oh, no no no, it was too cold always
(Still the dead one lay moaning)
I was much too far out all my life
And not waving but drowning.

Mary says that's how she feels sometimes outside DEFRA when she thinks that no one is watching or listening.  I tell her that she has lots of friends at DEFRA and in the Badger Groups and they will not let her and me drown under the tidal wave of our sadness if the Badger kill-cull continues for much longer., 

When I started writing this Blog last night this next paragraph started "Mary still has five chickens which is pretty miraculous considering how the Foxes visit her garden".   Tragically just after dawn this morning the Fox ate Ginger.  Mary is terribly sad and says she won't leave the garden so she can look after them.  

I think it is still a good thing that she has them, even though she is sad at the moment,  because they make her laugh and they follow her around like adoring fans.  Of course they do because she feeds them!  They are getting more adventurous and wandering into the countryside.  They also prevent her growing food in her garden by taking dust baths in her seed beds.  They do enjoy that.  Mary has decided to grow her vegetables in pots where the chickens can't get at them.  Here is a picture of them having a bath:

Chickens are surprisingly clever and when Mary leaves the kitchen door open they dash straight in and eat the cat food.  It is their favourite food in the world.  Because of this Mary's other cat Lola hates the Chickens and has sabotaged the chickens by going to the toilet in their dust bath.  They really won't like that!  Lola is jealous of the chickens so is punishing Mary by destroying the vegetables she is now growing in pots.  No home grown vegetables for Mary this year!

I had better stop now and try to cheer Mary up over the loss of Ginger.  Mary is sad but philosophical about her loss because she understands that Foxes have their Cubs this time of year and have to feed them.  Still, Mary has just ordered an electric fence...

See you on Thursday!

Night Night,

Betty  🐾🐾🐾