The Educator

by Peter Hanscomb

It’s Saturday night , one week on from my wildlife encounter with my nephew, ( just another night blog ) and our new neighbours are having a small housewarming party. Not that that bothers me , the music isn’t to loud , rather a sedate sort of do really so as I said the Lack of an invitation is ok. Anyway I have work to do.

Around 9 pm I find myself in a relatively normal position, waiting on the drive for GG the fox to arrive so I can dispense his mange tablets. He has started to arrive just like the local buses, almost on time and nearly always two at a time as he always brings a mate with him.  GG arrives and tablets taken , he seems to be doing well and looks a lot better. Then from no where there’s a shriek and off the foxes shoot .

It turns out the proceedings have been watched by my five children from the housewarming, all aged around 10 years old. One of the little ones had got scared , worried that the tiny fox might run and atteck the small gang of kids. I spent the next 10 minutes explaining about urban foxes , and to my amazement one of the youngsters was very well informed about our local wildlife. When I started to explain that GG was ill , he asked if it was mange and if he would be ok.

We all stood behind some bushes in their front garden and play a strange sort of game of statues. Sure enough the foxes returned , plus we also watched one of my visiting hedgehogs arrive. Hopefully a magical few moments for my new gang members ?

One really sad point , even despite one member of my new gang being surprisingly well informed , not one had seen a real hedgehog , and only one had seen a fox. If our world is ever going to survive and we the human race live in harmony with all the other species that live on earth , our next generation have to be better informed. The focus on the environment and oceans is great , climate change is real but so is the threat to our local wildlife , great and small.