Betty and the American

Hello Fans.
Hello Mr Gove. Please don't forget your promise to meet with me and Mary within 2 months and we are more than half way through that now.  Yes we Badgers and sensible Hupeople know you are busy but we are all sick and tired of the Conservatory Party egotistical power and preening games which will not help Hupeople or save Badgers' lives in our country.  Mary and I want you to be Prime Minister because if Mr Johnson wins he wants Fox hunting in London.  I don't think I will be safe either outside DEFRA.

Big Americans have featured in London recently. Donald Trump the Big Chief Executive of America (dis)graced our shores and caused a big hullabaloo.  He met The Queen. I do hope he was gentle when he shook her hand.  Those big businessmen apparently like to squash each others paws to show how strong they are. I hope her servants reminded him about her RSI from all that waving.  She probably has osteoporosis too at her age.  I wonder if she is at home in her castle now nursing her broken fingers.  In this picture you can see her keeping her hands well away from Mr Trump:

We spent £25  million pounds making Mr Trump safe which is considerably less than the £40 million the Government has spent on killing 70,000 badgers and is as big a waste of money.

Mr Trump left by the time I got to DEFRA but I did meet my own big American called Ken. who came to find out why I was hanging around Marsham Street.  Ken and I got to talking about disease and I explained that there is no scientific reason to justify the Government killing us Badgers.  He told me how disease often starts in Pigs and Chickens especially in China and India where they are kept in very bad conditions.  I didn't like to mention what Mary told me about the horrific factory farming conditions Animals endure in America but apparently that's OK because they have plenty of bleach and antibiotics solve that.  These pictures are of Chicken and egg farms in America:

A bit different from the lives Mary's chickens lead:

Anyway Ken said that not only are Chickens and Pigs the problem but Americans also have to deal with Creatures called Mexicans which are apparently riddled with disease and are trying to invade America and infect everyone. Ken is very keen for Donald Trump to build his wall to keep the plague out.  I had no idea what a Mexican was, perhaps a bit like a weasel or a rat, but Mary just showed me a picture on the internet oracle and I have to say that they look remarkably like Hupeople.  This is a picture of a Mexican I found 

Last week at Smith Square we met an old bearded Human calling in to see his friend in DEFRA.  He asked me lots of questions about Badgers.  He told me that old story about Badgers being responsible for wiping out Hedge Hogs; regular readers will know that, although we do like the occasional Hedgehog snack, it is farming, roads and housing development is killing off our Hedge Hogs, and they are also killing us Badgers.  He said there were far too many Badgers in the UK; he said 4 million.  Mary checked later and it is less that half a million, so DEFRA has killed 70,000, that is one seventh, of the 490,000 Badgers in the UK.   The Bearded Human said they should have killed more as we have no natural predators.  

OK we don't have Wolves and Bears any more but we do have metal boxes on wheels, who kill 45,000 Badgers on the road every year.  Then we have Farmers and Badger Baiters who kill us and hurt us secretly because they hate us.  A lot of us are dying of hunger and thirst especially as summers are getting so hot. He asked if DEFRA should give us Badgers contraceptives.  I do love my cubs but being dead is worse than not having cubs.

Anyway, on a less sad note I was hanging around the Great Peter Street DEFRA staff entrance musing about Huwomen's clothes.  So many Huwomen stagger around on shoe stilts, or High Heels as they call them, risking the health of their feet and falling over. 

Some of these Huwomen are supposed to be very intelligent and in positions of power but I am not sure I would take them seriously if they are wearing shoe stilts because how can they have their minds on the job when their feet are hurting and they are worried about taking a tumble?  And did you know that some bosses force their Huwomen staff to wear shoe stilts? Apparently it makes them look smart and sexy.  Badgers don't have to wear paw stilts to look sexy- we just exude it.   I tried on some old shoe stilts and think I looked very silly . I suppose it is a bit like what the Chinese used to do to their Huwomen cubs binding their feet in times gone by until the Foot Emancipation Society fought to stop it.  Perhaps we need to revive the organisation so women can wear flat foot coverings if they wish.

Do you know that DEFRA staff are still very nervous about being seen talking to me even though I am now An Institution.  One of my signs fell over yesterday but the staff member was afraid to pick it up in case the CCTV camera saw him. 

Mary and I were delighted to see our old friend, The Man with the Very White Shirt, again this week.  He has a very important job in the Government, but I can't tell you what because I am sworn to Secrecy.   He thinks Mr Gove would make a good Prime Minister.   We  were also made very happy when a young DEFRA man came rushing after us waving his sandwich.  I was happy because I thought I was getting his sandwich.  Mary was happy because he said how wonderful we were to be making a stand for the Animals.   Shame about the sandwich....

Mary hasn't been well the last couple of weeks as first she hurt her back and then she felt sick.  Her friends told her not to go to DEFRA but she did anyway.  She thought about tweeting Mr Gove to ask if his lovely driver could pick her up so she wouldn't have to carry me up and down the 134 steps she has to climb with her Betty Bag every journey.  But she is independent and she knows Mr Gove is very busy just now polishing his image, and his shoes, so he can be the next Prime Minister.   Still I don't think Mary should have gone this week as I could hear her moaning all night from my sett.  She is better now.

Oh, and she is getting six more chickens this weekend who are being released from the egg laying industry.  People such as Mary save them from being slaughtered when they are 18 months old and their egg production goes down. At least if she has that many chickens she won't notice if the odd egg goes missing...

Thank you to Tom and Jane and Kay and the other lovely Hupeople who have left heart warming messages om my blogs .  We love you and thank you.

Betty.🐾🐾🐾

Betty gets Assaulted

Hello Betty Fans, I want to tell you about Hope, Harassment and Heroes.

So much going on that we have been too busy to write anything. We have three whole DEFRA days to tell you about. Mr Gove features in our stories.

Do you remember my Invitation? Well, some lovely Hupeople came to spend the whole day with me.  Oh, they love Badgers and they came from the West Country where DEFRA is Kill-Culling so many of our kin.  They are so sad and do everything they can to save their Badger friends but horrible Humen with flash-bang sticks tempt the Badgers at night with peanuts and then they shoot them.  Some other lovely Badger friends came too from other places bringing big banners. Here are some pictures of my friends who came to support  me:

It was especially sad because is it rained and it rained and it rained.  My fur got so heavy that I could hardly stand up and I could ring water out of my paws. They all stood bravely in the monsoon conditions.  But perhaps it was a good thing because Mr Gove came out and felt so sorry for us that he stopped for a chat under his HUGE National Trust Umbrella.  One of the Huwomen, Hazel or Ali. spoke to him about the Badger Kill-Cull and asked him for an appointment with me as I have been doggedly (Badgerdly) hanging around outside DEFRA for two years.  He said, yes, he was aware of Betty and yes, he will see me within the next two months!  WOW!  Isn't that wonderful?

Mary is so excited about meeting Mr Gove that she has had several dreams about him.  In one of them he wasn't very nice and spoke Political Platitudes.  In the other he was lovely and said he would stop the Badger Kill-Cull.  I don't like to remind Mary that it is me, Betty, that Mr Gove wants to meet and not her   Mary wrote a long letter to Mr Gove confirming our  appointment and giving him my solution to the problem of Cow TB. I hope he has time to read it.  It is My solution .  I wonder if we should bring him a present when we see him; some worms perhaps or some peanuts.

Last week I had another lovely Badger friend called Susanna who stood with me and Mary all day.  She handed out lots of leaflets and we had chats and got to know each other.  Mr Gove smiled at us again.  I hope Susanna comes again but she had to take a day off work to be with us; what a generous person.  She loves animals and doesn't eat them; even worms!  She took some nice pictures of me:

This week at DEFRA was not so good because we had some problems.  A background problem was that it was very hot and me and Mary felt unwell.

At Smith Square a man yelled at us saying that Badgers are "the worst predators in the countryside " and then ran away up the stairs into DEFRA Nobel House.  Mary asked him to come and talk about it but he ignored her and ran away.  He was clearly a coward. I tried to reassure her that he was jealous because Badgers are actually the Best predators in the  countryside- even the foxes get out of our way  

Things got worse when we moved from Smith Square to Great Peter Street.  That was where a Human threatened to shoot me a few weeks ago.  This week a Human shouted at me and hit my face. We were very scared and Mary began to cry because she gets upset when Hupeople are aggressive particularly when they are drunk and irrational. I got drunk once when I ate lots of rotting apples.  I felt very ill afterwards... This is a picture from the internet oracle of an angry drunk Human, but of not our Human in case he gets revenge:

But two lovely heroic Human Badger friends came to our aid and saved us from the nasty angry Human.  They stood by us and calmed the Human down and called the security Hupeople and kept us safe.  We are so  grateful for their kindness.  One of them, who wants to remain anonymous, said he had to protect Betty Badger because she is "an institution".  I thought an institution was where you put sick Hupeople but apparently it also means "a custom or tradition that has existed for a long time and is accepted as an important part of a particular society".

Betty is an Institution of DEFRA.  

But that wasn't all.   When we went round to 2 Marsham Street we noticed a bicycle with a big bag on it attached to a railing .  I have heard all about Bombs so I was very scared and tried to get Mary to take me home.  But the security Human called Bob was very brave and put his life at risk to save us.  When the Human who had left is bike returned  Bob gave him a very firm telling off.

We saw Mr Gove again today but he  is very preoccupied with preparing to be in the race to be the next Prime minister now that the Cupboard (or is is the Cabinet?) has nearly destroyed Mrs May and they want to replace her.  Mr Gove is always very neat, but today I think he had a new suit on and he was beautifully groomed with not a hair out of place.  He didn't speak to me today because he was hurrying off to a meeting.  Mary said that his chance of being the next PM would not be enhanced by being photographed talking to a Badger. Although apparently it is OK to be pictured with a Cow.....  

or a dog.....

On the subject of dogs a very sad thing happened.  Do you remember the homeless Pimlico Dog? We saw him today wandering along Marsham Street.  We ran down the road trying to help him because he looked tired and thirsty.  Then we heard that he was with a "rough looking man" so he had a friend but, sadly, he was so thirsty that he was drinking out of the Home Office Moat that has Chlorine in the water.  Mary will be getting help for the Dog.

Mary wants to tell you that she still has 4 chickens, She has achieved this by spending her life savings on electric fences and cages and by staying awake all night worrying and getting up every time she thinks she hears something.  I think the chickens will be the death of her.  She put her new expensive night camera out and has discovered that foxes wander around her garden all night.  They have their cubs now so have to feed them so she understands why they ate her chicken.   She said she might as well get more chickens now to improve the cost benefit ratio.  I said that I could only see the cost and little benefit to having chickens if she doesn't eat their eggs- or even give them to me.  She says they make her laugh; there hasn't been much evidence of that lately!

When Mary put out her night camera she discovered that I have a new Badger friend.  Here is a picture of us playing together in her garden along with one of the foxes.  His name is Bertie Badger and I think we might mate soon.  I will never forget my old mate Brian but a Badger has needs....

Just as we were leaving to go home today we met a Human who came to talk to us about Badgers and Squirrels.  He had a packet of peanuts in their shells and he was on his way to feed the Squirrels.  One who is called Cyril the Squirrel likes him so much  that he sit on his shoulder to eat nuts.  DEFRA wants to kill Grey Squirrels but he thinks we need lots more in London as there are so many parks and not enough Squirrels to go round.  What a happy loving Human and a positive note to finish on.

Night Night,

Betty 🐾🐾🐾

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  🐾🐾🐾

Betty Suspects Foul Play

Hello Betty Fans, 
We had lots of entertainment at DEFRA Smith Square this week because we spent an hour watching a Human loading up around two hundred Lenovo ThinkPads from DEFRA and taking them away   Mary said there is an important message there; it suggests that DEFRA has given up thinking.  

I said it is clear that part of DEFRA don't think anyway if they can go ahead with a Kill-Cull that isn't justified by science.  One of your famous scientists called Thomas Edison said "Five percent of the people think, ten per cent of the people think they think and the other 85 per cent would rather die than think"  Knowing what I have learned about Hupeople, that sounds about right.  Mary thinks, sometimes, and it often makes her unhappy when she sees how cruel and irrational the world is.

I was fascinated by the Human stacking all the boxes and putting them on pallets and making them rise off the ground into his big metal box on wheels.  And all the time he was showing off his bottom.  I wondered if he was trying to attract Mary as a mate but she said it's what some Workmen do.  It was quite distracting. This is an example of the phenomenon. 

Moving to more serious matters, we did sneak into Tony Juniper's Wildlife Trust talk last week and we met lots of our Hupeople Badger friends.  Here I am in Mary's car in a bag:

Mary's comment after the talk was "Fine words butter no parsnips" which I think means  he spoke very well because he is a clever academic but we are not sure if any of his fine words will translate into anything practical.  

Worse, Mr Juniper admitted he didn't know very much about the issues surrounding the Badger Kill-Cull. I think Hupeople will be queuing up to educate him when he starts as Chief of Natural England on 23rd April.  Me and Mary will be at the head of the queue.  Questions to Mr Juniper were carefully controlled but Mary waved her arms around so much that she was allowed to ask one of the three questions from the floor.  Actually, she sneaked in a lot of questions very fast so no one could interrupt her. She asked how we could protect wildlife unless farmers could be stopped from cutting down meadows before the wild flowers have a chance to flower and feed the bees, and how we would stop the farmers using nasty chemicals that kill insects and wild plants.    Here are some Nettles and Cleavers we saw when we were out walking last week.  These nettles won't be much good for Peacock Butterflies:

 Mary asked about shooting for sport and said how 40 million Pheasants and Partridges are put into our countryside every year and we kill our wildlife such as Buzzards and Weasels and Foxes and Ravens to make sure the Shoots are profitable. And she said that eating dead animals is not green and if we were serious about global warming and saving our wildlife then we should be vegan.  Mary does rant....

We were left quite disheartened and aren't sure if Mr Juniper will be the Badgers' Saviour after all.  Here is a picture of a Badger and her Cub who lived in Devon until they were shot so we remember who we are fighting for:

I have been making friends with all the wildlife in Mary's garden, even the Chickens.  They remind me of toddler Cubs and are so full of exuberance and very noisy.   They are really enjoying living in Mary's garden and are doing things they were never able to do when they were living in cages laying eggs for Hupeople's breakfasts and cakes.  They are related to jungle fowl and like nothing more than hanging around trees,  Here is Ginger:

The cats are more like cool teenage cubs.  We have lots of lovely pheasants and we have Mallards and even Mandarin ducks in Mary's pond which is very small so their feet probably touch the ground.  Mary's garden is a wildlife haven.  The Muntjac deer are very frisky and spend most of their time thinking about mating  (like Hupeople and Badgers) and putting their noses up each other's bottoms.  Here is a nice video of a Muntjac deer sniffing Mary's camera:

But the handsomest of all the Animals in Mary's Garden is ME Betty Badger.  Here is a video of me:

When you see how beautiful we Badgers are don't you wonder why so many Hupeople want to hurt us?  Only 2 days ago Mary was checking out a local Badger sett which is very busy with a Spring clean and she saw a dead Rabbit right by the entrance.  "Hmm.." she said, "I wonder if that is poisoned so that Foxes and Badgers eat it and die" .   

So Mary carried it home and it is now in her freezer waiting to be sent for something called A Nally Sis.  Natural England did that for Mary before when she found a dead Buzzard.  They said it was killed by Rat poison.  So many people use Rat poison and it kills so many of our wildlife such as Owls and Crows and Red Kites and other animals who eat their dead little bodies.

Hupeople always seem to want to poison things .  Do you remember that beautiful Fox Cub that was killed with Strychnine last year?  Mary and her friend Tom took it in their arms to Tiggywinkles to try to  save it but it died in agony.  That's what some Hupeople do to make the Pheasant shoots profitable.  They killed 11 cubs near Mary's house and she cried a lot.

When Mary got out of bed on DEFRA day this week she was troubled when she trod on something soft and furry.  It was a dead young Rat brought in by Rufus, who used to catch leaves and bring them home but he has stopped being a vegetarian.  This is Rufus with a laurel leaf:

Mary is very matter of fact about Rats as they often hang around her house - literally:

She took the Rat out for the wildlife to eat and it was soon soaring into the sky in the beak of a Crow to be food for its young.  Ah; the cycle of life.  Nature abhors waste.

I think it is very odd that the Politicians are allowed to go on Holiday this Easter when they haven't sorted out Brexit.  We shouldn't take a holiday until a job is done which is why Mary and I wont be having a recess because we haven't stopped the Badger Kill-Cull yet. The Politicians have been misbehaving in Parly Ment and Mrs May did say they couldn't have a holiday but then she changed her mind because they threatened to throw her in the Thames River. 

We met lots of fans at recent DEFRA trips. This week we met Mark whose Partner heard us on the radio.  Mark was lovely and reminded me of a Hare with his bright eyes and quick movements- and lots of hair on his face.  He was so kind to us.  Several Hupeople shook my paw and I was very careful not to scratch them because I have very long and sharp claws.  

A huge Human told me how he loved Badgers as he had them in his garden near Croydon and feeds them treats every night.  They come right up to his door and bring their cubs to meet him.  Isn't is wonderful that there are kind Hupeople around who love Badgers?   Hello to Mark and the Big Human and the Hupeople who always talks to me and to all those who say Hello Betty and Well Done Betty and Keep it up Betty. We had lots of selfies done which are now zooming around the Internet Oracle and the Twitter. You make Betty feel very happy.

Me and Mary were very touched when nice Tom wrote a comment on my last Blog in the form of a poem which squeezed our little hearts.    I wrote a comment back that says, 

Dear Tom,Mary and I were overwhelmed by your lovely words. At first we didn't know who you were writing about because you made Betty and Mary seem such special Creatures and we are just an ordinary Badger and Old Huwoman trying to make a stand against cruelty evil and stupidity. 

So thank you for making us feel that someone notices and cares while we stand around waving and saying hello to everyone. We would like to think that we are making a little difference and you help us to feel that might be possible.

Love, Betty xxx

I think that's a good place to stop so thank you fans.  Oh, and don't forget to THINK!

Night Night

Betty 🐾🐾🐾

Betty gets Rejected

Hello Betty Fans.  I was so looking forward to meeting Tony Juniper, the new head of Natural England next Tuesday, when he talks to the Wildlife Trust.  This is Mr Juniper:

Sadly,  I have been rejected by the Wildlife Trust. Mary just got an email and it says, 

" I am concerned that you are intending to bring your badger costume with you to the event. Please can I ask that you do not disrupt the event this way – we have to be mindful of the security and enjoyment of other attendees to the event. I’m afraid that if you do turn up with your badger costume you will not be allowed entry to the event. Whilst we appreciate and applaud your passion for the protection of badgers, and The Wildlife Trusts have been firmly anti-badger cull, we do not feel that this event is the right space to raise those concerns in this way. "

I don't know what they are talking about a costume for, but basically they say that if I come with Mary they will turn me and Mary away and because I will be disruptive and a threat to security.  They are probably worried that I will spread TB.  I am a very quiet Badger and I wouldn't cause any trouble or spread disease. I am really sad as I so wanted to meet Mr Juniper.  Perhaps Mary can hide one of the cubs in her bag and they can sneak a note to Mr Juniper and report back to me on what he says.  I wonder who told them I wanted to come...

The last few weeks have been very exciting because I have met Mr Gove 3 times and he has said Hello.  He also looked at my posters and I saw him stop and think.  When he becomes Prime Minister he will be all powerful and I think he will stop the Badger Kill-Cull.  I also had a long chat with Mr Gove's driver who is the kindest of men and always checks I am OK and not cold or thirsty.  He had never met a Badger before and he thinks I am a very clever and determined Badger. He is very loyal to Mr Gove because he believes him to be a good man and he doesn't tell me his secrets; well none that I am going to share here.  Mr Gove has a new black car.  I think it is armour plated now that he is going to be very important. 

The last two weeks have been very warm and I am dreading the summer as me and Mary got heat stroke last year in our furry coats.  I think Mary is getting too old for all this standing around and keeps complaining about her back. But she is as stubborn as a Mule and I think she will keep on coming with me to DEFRA even if I have to carry her.

I met one of my big fans today.  She is called Margaret Mary and wears a bright yellow raincoat.  She likes Badgers so much that she has a Badger tattoo on her back.  She had to take off quite a few clothes so we could see it.  The CCTV that records everything outside Marsham Street should make interesting viewing.  Mary wants a Badger tattoo now....     In fact, while writing this she has just bought on Amazon a temporary Tattoo drawn by Ali Chappell-Bates to see how will look.  I wonder where she will put it? I think I might get one for Mr Gove.....

There is always a lot going on  at Marsham Street.  Remember we had the bottle and we had the hupeople saving squirrels?  Well last week we had Hupeople trying to stop slavery. The protesters were lovely and caring and we took lots of pictures.  Here is one:

There have been odd going on at DEFRA in Smith Square.  Last week they were bringing in huge rolls of cable.  Mary sat on one because she was tired.  They say they were repairing the lift, but I do wonder what they are really doing.  

Also today they delivered a truck load of coffee. to Nobel House.  Mary says they are stockpiling coffee because of Brexit.  I am bored with Brexit because it makes Hupeople forget about everything else important such as Me!  Oh, and my Badger friends. The wheels of  Government might screech to a halt without coffee so they need to get plenty in.  Either that or they are hoping to make a big profit by selling it when supplies dry up.  I think Mary would sell her soul for  a cup of coffee in the morning.    Here are just a few boxes of that special coffee in DEFRA's doorway.

We were just writing this Blog when a Tweet came through with the heading  

New Defra study finds badgers have same bovine TB strain as cattle.

The data showed 40 out of 363 tested badgers (11 per cent) were positive for Mycobacterium bovis, all with the 17:z genotype previously identified in this area.(17:z) associated with HS21 (the hotspot area) had not previously been identified in cattle herds in Great Britain. Current investigations have concluded that disease is most likely to have been introduced by cattle imported from Northern Ireland.

That might sound very confusing to most Hupeople and Badgers but Mary explained it for me. Remember how I said that the way to stop TB spreading is to stop moving Cattle around?  In Cumbria an infected Bull was brought into a farm in a place called Shap from Northern Ireland and then transmitted TB to local wildlife which spread to more Cows.

The wildlife are the innocent victims of importing infected Cows, but what does DEFRA do?  They don't stop Cow movements but let in an infected Bull come from Northern Ireland and he mates and infects loads of Cows, These Cows infect wildlife including Deer and lovely Badgers . Then they kill the Badgers..!

Mary says this is Alice in Wonderland logic.  She just said very loudly: STOP CATTLE MOVEMENTS AND YOU WILL STOP NEW OUTBREAKS. It is the Cows who are making us Badgers ill AND YET WE GET BLAMED and are killed as scapeGoats to poor farming practices and testing regimes. 

I sometimes wonder if those Hupeople in DEFRA have any brains at all.

I am so upset by all this that I want to focus on something much more positive: Spring. Isn't it wonderful to see the leaves coming on the Trees and the Bluebells pushing up.  Remember, Badgers eat Bluebells.   The Worms are stirring in the earth which makes us very happy because Worms are our favourite food.   The main trouble now in my life, apart from the Kill-Cull, is Mary's Chickens because they eating all my Worms. Mary doesn't know this but the Chickens are laying and hiding eggs all around her garden.  She hasn't discovered them and I eat them up while she is asleep in bed.  This was my latest find: 

I was so full when I had eaten them all and there was the bonus of a couple of tasty Pheasant eggs too.  Please don't tell Mary.  In any case she doesn't eat eggs but gives them to her neighbours.  Since I am her friend it only seems right that I should get first pickings

Mary is a bit annoyed with me because I knock her fence down every night because I have to get in to eat the peanuts she puts down. for me  The problem is that the Chickens keep escaping.  She is covered in scratches where she is chasing them through the hedges.  They make her life hard because she has to get up earlier and earlier every morning to let the Chickens out because they like to get up at dawn.  Mary gets up before six every morning and she is losing friends because she has to go to bed so early rather than having fun with them.

I did offer to bite the Chicken's heads off but she didn't like that idea. But I think we have solved the problem. Mary has invested a lot of Money in a Chicken Guard automatic Chicken coop door opener so she does't have to get up so early.  Even though she installed it (all on her own) a few days ago, she still gets up early because she worries it won't work. 

Time to go and look after the cubs so their mother can have a rest.  I am a grandmother and aunty Badger now and I love playing with the little ones.  I smile and weep at their innocence and the possibility that they will not live beyond the Autumn when the next Kill-Cull will probably start.  Life is so hard for Badgers.  

Lots of Love and Night Night

Betty🐾🐾🐾