Bread, butter, mustard, ham, butter, bread. Sometimes he was out of butter and sometimes the bread was a little fizzy with age, but that was the plan every morning. Stuart always had a routine. The slight disappointment he experienced every lunch time at the office was always forgotten by the time it came to making … Continue reading Cheese & Pickle Day →

“I won’t be long,” Martin told her as he did up the toggles on his coat. Hilda sat quietly in a shaft of light coming through the slim window of the flat’s hallway, her long whiskers highlighted in the sun. “I’m just popping to George’s again,” he went on, as though she understood. “So I’ll be … Continue reading Show Me Where it Hurts →

It was Andrea’s final consultation of the day. She was running a little behind, as was not uncommon in her position as a locum vet. Most of her shifts involved getting to grips with a new computer system, different administration and clinical protocols… Even small things like learning where the vaccine fridge was took time. Her … Continue reading Keeper →

It’s a nicer day than it has been for a while, isn’t it? The smell of the wet ground, the sharpness of the wind, the leaves changing colour… I’m so proud of him for coming outside to experience it. Sure, they find joy in their little homes as well but that’s not where the changes happen. That’s not where … Continue reading Everything is Nicer Now →

Not everyone opens the bags. We’re supposed to, of course, to make sure the animal inside matches what the forms say it should be, and remove any collars that have been left on. But it’s time-consuming and, depending on the state of the animal when it died, it’s not always a pleasant thing to do. You … Continue reading Watch →

The cat wakes me up again. Having said that, I don’t think I was entirely asleep. In the mornings, she’ll do it by stepping on my face or sitting on my pillow and tapping my nose. But now, at night, it’s the noise that wakes me. She’s been doing it a lot recently: resting at … Continue reading I Live Alone →

It was 2020 when the first announcements were made. “The beginning of the end of factory farming,” came the headlines. “Light at the end of the food crisis tunnel.” “Playing God: a victory for activists.” I only skimmed over the articles at the time, but the gist was that laboratories had successfully grown edible meat … Continue reading Daisy →

It smells strange here. The air is sharp and bright tasting. I think it comes from the big water. I’ve seen waters before that I thought were big, but the water here, his water, is different. It’s alive here, it chases me. I can hear the sand and the shells rushing around beneath its drag, … Continue reading A Good Boy →

They used to come to my stable to cry. It was all very sudden. One day they’d be here grooming me and caring for me. They’d sit in the loosebox and I’d watch them cleaning my tack and laughing and playing while they swept the yard. The younger one would always sing to me while … Continue reading Ghost →