in article , ev at
wrote on 6/4/03 6:28 pm:


"Sacha" wrote in message
...
in article , ev at
wrote on 6/4/03 4:22 pm:

A badger's bite can go clean through the bone of a man's finger and have
you
*seen* those claws?! They use the claws to unroll the hedgehog and go for
the belly. We found a poisoned one in a nearby lane two years ago and I
rang the RSPCA. The girl said "can you pick it up and take it to a vet?"
I
just sort of sat in a stupor for a second or two and asked her if she'd
ever
tried picking up a badger. Turned out it was a call centre in
London......and we're in deepest Devon. She kept asking me for the name of
the lane we were in - lanes here don't *have* names! After a few similar
experiences with the RSPCA, my belief in them is severely dented.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk


Good job you knew how dangerous they were, you could have lost a finger and
never mind the vet, you would have been in the Hospital :-))

People don't understand how things are down here in the sticks, do they? We
are 17 miles from the nearest large supermarket, 1 and a half miles from a
shop of any sort, and as for ambulances etc. forget it, it takes so long
explaining where we are that you would probably be dead by the time they
arrived. Might as well bundle the casualty into the car and drive to the
hospital yourself, probably much quicker. Derriford is the nearest, and
that's about 20 odd miles away. And as for names, as you say lanes here
have no names!


You seem even more stick-y than we are. We're about 4 miles from Totnes
(which has a Safeway) and 2.5 from Ashburton and about 30 mins drive to
Newton Abbot. One thing that helps country-dwellers is to get co-ordinates
of your house's position and stick it to the telephone both up and
downstairs. Give that to any fire engine, ambulance station etc. It's
quite important to have that info. When I was originally house-hunting in
Devon, I looked at a house in Sampford Spiney and was told that there are
especially built fire engines and even ambulances for those particularly
narrow lanes. Mercifully, I've never had to test that for myself.
Nonetheless, I'd take your measures and put the casualty into the car but in
our case the nearest is supposed to be Torbay. However, the roads are
twisty so given an emergency, I too, would zoom onto the A38 and head for
Derriford. We're about 30 minutes from Exeter and 30 from Plymouth but I
know the way to Derriford!
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk