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Original poster

anyone (else) afraid of farm animals??

40 replies

zubb · 02/10/2004 19:17

I try to be brave in front of the kids, but today as we were walking round a farm I hated the animals that were wandering free getting anywhere near us.
We had loads of ducks following us at one point, and I started to make ds1 walk really fast, but he wanted to look at the pigs that were in a fenced of area nearby, so I turned round and shouted 'go away'. FGS what was I thinking! As if they would understand.
There are donkeys that walk about as well and I always steer well clear of them. I can't even feed the goats & sheep.
And don't get me started on birds...

OP posts:
roisin · 02/10/2004 22:40

And Tiptop too - thanks. This was actually on holiday in Cornwall, and we don't have beef cattle round here at all, so it isn't something I come across usually. (Cumbria's OK - I'm not scared of sheep!)

marthamoo · 02/10/2004 22:44

I have known a few Ramsbottoms in my time (have never been to the place though). One of my best friends was Bracegirdle before she married - wicked name!

And my student MW when having ds2 was Hepzibah (that's Hardy isn't it? Is it Return of the Native?) I kept imagining grateful Mums after her delivering their daughters saying "oh, what's your name...we'd like to call our daughter after you" and then going "OMG - you're called WHAT?????"

tiptop · 02/10/2004 22:56

I'm just about to head for bed, but before I go...

roisin - You're welcome. Can I just say one thing generally, about sheep? My sister and I used to have to feed the rams. There were about 40 of them. One of us used to be the decoy and run into the field with some concentrates in a bag and the rams would run after that person. The other one used to then nip over the gate and put the real food in the troughs. The rams would realise they'd been had and chase back to the troughs. At that point, the 2nd person had to run like heck for the gate. There was one horrible ram I called Bullyboy. He was vicious. He could break your leg if he got close and rammed his head (pardon the pun) into your leg. I saw him a few years later when he was old and not much of a threat, and I'm so daft, I actually felt sorry for him! How soft am I?

Miaou - What is your hen called? I hope she settles in. I love chickens. The name is interesting. I haven't looked it up on the map - I asked dh. He's so good on geography. Thanks for the invite to the meet-up! Only several hundred miles away, then!

JanH - Yes, I thought that I'd heard the name and not just made it up! A bit much to have it as a surname, though! Poor soul!

Tickle - Some friends had a parrot, and I liked the look of him until they said that he can bite really, really hard.

Miaou · 02/10/2004 23:05

Tiptop, don't know about the hen, I'm thinking along the lines of Scrambled .....

The hens were NOT supposed to get names as the males will be destined for the pot and therefore not pets - but dh called the cockerel Lunch for a joke and it's stuck...Fortunately the dds are very pragmatic and accept that one day for lunch we will have Lunch IYSWIM!

Tickle · 03/10/2004 09:34

Never got round to eating our chickens - had to give them away as they were destroying dh's veg garden . but dd1 did name them all: barbie, princess something or other, etc etc. luckily the names changed frequently enough that i was never scolded for forgetting!!

On the subject of names - my reception class teacher was a lady called...

...Bunty Horniblow.

No joke.

V nice lady too!

bonniej · 03/10/2004 09:42

I took my dd to feed the ducks at our local park yesterday and it was like a scene from an Alfred Hitchcock film . It wasn't the ducks so much as the big geese. As it's getting colder they obviously aren't getting the regular supply of bread givers they're used to and near enough attacked us when we turned up. We were surrounded and it was really frightening. I was scared they were going to go for dd. We had to make a dash for it to escape. I certainly won't be doing that again in a hurry

Miaou · 03/10/2004 10:40

bonniej, as much as I like farm animals, I do not like geese or ducks. I once stayed in a self-catering cottage with some very aggressive geese in the shared garden - we had to make a dash from the car to the door and could never sit outside - and the owner couldn't see what the problem was

nikkim · 03/10/2004 23:18

Was it stanley park bonniej?

Dp took dd to stanley park this morning and she complained that the ducks chased her for food and snapped her hands, dp said they were acting as if they hadn't been fed in weeks. Yet the last few times we have been in warmer weather they were obviously overfed and couldn't be bothered swimming over for food never mind chasing us!

linniewith2 · 03/10/2004 23:36

I hate cows pigs horses and sheep.........my dad works on a farm and I used to go lambing with him in the school holidays and was fine then! but as Ive grown older (30 now!) I have grown to fear them all..........strange

Mirage · 04/10/2004 09:35

Hey Tiptop,I was bought up on a farm too & we still name our animals.

We had sheep called Clint (after Clint Eastwood),Jon Bon Jovi,Chocolate (her lambs were called Treat & Smartie).

The cows were called, Granny,Weewee,Humpy,Horny,Spiteful & Petunia to name a few.The bull was always called 'dad' regardless of his proper name.

I'm not scared of any animal,but don't like geese much.

agy · 04/10/2004 09:43

So, one cow was called Spiteful, was it Mirage? See - speaks for itself - they are dangerous!

tiptop · 04/10/2004 10:38

Mirage - So my family isn't the only crackers one around! My sister had the bright idea of naming all siblings from a brood/litter/whatever from a well-known group of names. So 3 kittens got called Snap, Crackle and Pop. Then you always could remember who were brothers and sisters. Our cows were often called Judy by the farmhand. I don't know why. I think he just wanted to keep it simple! I'm not too keen on geese, though I've never been attacked by one. We had 2 geese and a gander - Mabel, Lucy and Atwel (spelling?). They used to attack my Mum regularly but no-one else.

Miaou - That self-catering cottage owner was way out of line! I think I'd have reported her to the Tourism Board if she belonged to one. Mind you, I do complain a bit.......

Original poster
zubb · 04/10/2004 10:47

so glad its not just me then! Will remember the stick out in front tip - thanks tiptop. Have to admit that I tend to keep ds2 pushchair between me and the animals

OP posts:
bonniej · 04/10/2004 11:27

nikkim, yes it was stanley park. We've been loads of times and it's never been like that before. The poor things must have been really hungry but I'm afraid someone else will have to do the feeding as I won't be going back any time soon

tiptop · 05/10/2004 09:42

zubb - I loved that pushchair comment! Very tongue in cheek! Btw....I always talk to animals. If I'm cursing them it would be something like "You useless, mangy, black and white/brown/spotty, four legged, scrappy, soon-to-be-on-a-plate, bunch of misfits!" I'm sure they'd have heard it all before! My dog is bi-lingual, so they do pick up language skills amazingly well! Though, of course, she gets told that she's a beautiful, black and white, gorgeous sheepdog. Which is all true!

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