Amy and I went to Cannon Hall Farm today. I had half expected that there would be some sort of Christmas event this week. You know the sort of thing, ducks dressed up as Santa, goats with baubles hanging from their horns, or pigs wrapped in tinsel; but no such luck. The entire place was virtually deserted. The schools haven’t broken up yet and it’s too late in the term for any organised trips. Add to that heavy fog and temperatures three degrees above freezing and you have one empty farm.
As is the norm in these places, included in the admission was a bag of food to give to the animals. Every thing was going well initially. We had a look at the ducks and a quick tour of the rabbits and guinea pigs. It looked like the lack of other visitors wasn’t going to have that much of an effect on our trip.
I first realised that Amy wasn’t going to enjoy herself when we got to the large animal section. Without warning a pen full of goats began flinging themselves against the fencing and she shrieked in terror. Everywhere we went led to a similar scene; deranged donkeys, lunatic llamas and screwy sheep all rushed towards us, bleating braying or baaing franticly. It seemed that the lack of visitors to the farm had led to fewer bags of food being distributed and as a result the whole place was full of ravenous livestock.
Fortunately we found a quiet corner and a couple of friendly goats who were more than happy to relieve us of our food in a more gentle manner. Once they could see our white paper bag was empty the rest of the animals became a more sedate and Amy started enjoying herself a bit more. The rest of the visit went without incident; we even managed to get a bit of Christmas shopping done at the gift shop.
However, if Amy wakes up in the middle of the night crying about sheep wanting to eat her I won’t be that surprised.
I should feel badly that I found the idea of Amy being stalked by ravenous animals funny, shouldn’t I.
The beasts at petting zoos (especially the goats) are relentless. Our kids are usually scared, and you can see by how incredibly round the bellies are on those animals that they’re very well nourished–from attacking and pushing down little children for their handfuls of corn!