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It could have all gone very wrong !


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Thanks to a gardening friend I was asked to try to track down a couple of rabbits that had managed to breach security in a big country -house garden. Though the place is well-netted it seems someone left the gate open for just one night and the next morning there were unwelcome guests making merry amongst the specimen plants .

I was assured that there were no burrows in the garden and that the bunnies would surely be found tucked -up in the shrubbery . I made no promises of success but agreed to run the dog about with the hope of driving the wayward critters into a long-net but just in case I stuffed a few nets into a bag and took some basic ferreting gear along with me.

This proved to be a wise (ok,lucky :whistling: ) decision. It was a big garden with similarly big shrubberies non of which interested the dog but I thrashed clumsily through them anyway . Eventually the dog made a mark at the end of a stone path and I unearthed the tinyest of gaps .

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Not big enough to qualify for the title of bolt-hole but I opened it a bit with my fingers and popped a net on it anyway . Then ,thanks to the dog ,I found a couple of rather old and dry-looking holes tucked in the centre of the nicely groomed yew hedge running alongside the path .

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It was a pretty enough spot but not a place that I wanted to have to dig to a lie-up in .

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I doubted that chopping my way into the hedge and chewing up the roots of the perfectly formed and well-established yew bushes with a spade to retrieve a ferret would have made me popular . I wasn't sure if such an entity existed but to be on the safe side I offered a prayer to the great God of Clean Bolting and with just about every digit and bodily apendage crossed and knotted I popped the ferret in .

One rabbit bolted pretty sharpish from under the hedge quickly followed by a second .I was about to congratulate myself on getting away with a bit of quick success when I realise that the ferret was onto something that did'nt want to move . It was only about a foot down though . This was a good thing.Unfortunatly it was under the path . This was not a good thing !. I was just considering my chances of pulling a few slabs up to retrieve the wayward animals and relaying the path hoping that the owner would put the lack of pointing down to frost damage when the rabbit shifted towards the tiny hole the dog had originally marked . The hole was still too small for it make a clean break though.Moving unacustomedly quickly for me I grabbed the spade ,spuddled-out a lump of turf and grabbed it before it could engage reverse .

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The gardener was over the moon and the owner gave me £25 so it all worked out very well in the end but it could have gone so wrong .

 

PS . I do now definatly believe in the God of Clean Bolting but I reckon he (or she ) has a cruel sense of humour ! :thumbs:

Edited by comanche
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It could have gone very wrong :D:D In fact, it probably should have :D:D

 

:D Yep. I've only just managed to uncross my fingers .How come I never seem to come across those lovely clean banks with neat little bunches of a dozen or so holes that are in all the books ? :D:thumbs:

Edited by comanche
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It could have gone very wrong :D:D In fact, it probably should have :D:D

 

:D Yep. I've only just managed to uncross my fingers .How come I never seem to come across those lovely clean banks with neat little bunches of a dozen or so holes that are in all the books ? :D:thumbs:

 

Thought that was just me :laugh:

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It could have gone very wrong :D:D In fact, it probably should have :D:D

 

:D Yep. I've only just managed to uncross my fingers .How come I never seem to come across those lovely clean banks with neat little bunches of a dozen or so holes that are in all the books ? :D:thumbs:

 

 

you would get bored!! haha

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