Foxglove

WE set off as the last of the crimson was fading from the evening sky, which timed us nicely to our destination as night spread across it.

It was warm, and moths appeared in our headlight beams, fluttering around us as we drove slowly through the gate and looked for rabbits.

You might ask us what the point is of shooting rabbits that will be dying of myxomatosis very soon, and the answer is twofold.

Shooting them now will spare them much suffering, and we know that those which might last the full three weeks before the disease finally claims them will eat as much as a healthy rabbit in those weeks.

So our pest control is timely and necessary, and we have planned it so, ever since we saw the first myxomatosed rabbit in this area, a few days back.

For full feature see West Sussex Gazette September 10