Sentimental times

I use sentimental in its original sense, something which promotes feelings, rather than its modern sense of a person who is too keen on, too readily experiences or is too readily swayed by common feelings, usually about children, cuddly animals or romance.

The first was getting home from Wimbledon to find a small white dog hovering about our door, clearly hoping to be let in out of the rain and to be fed and watered. A dog, without a collar, perhaps some kind of terrier flavoured mongrel and which I had remembered seeing wandering about the next door garden earlier in the day. BH kindly but firmly rejected the dog's advances, while I fretted about whether we ought to do something. Maybe phone up a doggie friend who would know what to do. Luckily, the dog did not reappear in the morning so has presumably either moved onto pastures better or been recovered by its owner.

The second happened when I was chopping up the Christmas tree for the compost heap, rather than handing it over to the council for recycling, suddenly thinking that it was not right to have chopped this handsome small tree down for our transient amusement and now to be chopping it up altogether. A rather silly thought given that animals will not get on very well without consuming plants somewhere along the way, but a thought none the less. A glimpse of how one might fall into the hands of the vegans.

The third was the second of the hand-me-downs from Bourne Hall (see 5th January), 'Black Beauty', a DVD which had clearly been played many times and has now been retired from lending service, my purchase being prompted by having read (if not re-read. I am not sure if I read it as a child but I am fairly sure that my sister did) the book last year (see 24th October 2012 in the other place and 4th November 2012 here). The story was enhanced by the presence of Sean Bean on leave from the 11th Essex Light Infantry and sundry other charectars recognised from the world of costume drama and/or ITV3 crime, while the rather snooty little review in our TimeOut bible of such matters asked 'what can a horse do to engage the emotions?'. Having now seen the film, I can only think that the reviewer had never owned a cat or a dog, never mind had to do with a large animal like a cow or a horse. Or even known someone recently bereaved by a pet of many years standing - this being my own case, with several such having popped up in TB over the years. People who have probably spent more time over the years with their pets than they have with their children - this not being meant in any perjorative sense, it is just that it easy to spend a lot of time with pets, particularly when the children are no longer about.

Anyway, the film did its business alright and got one well onside for the life and times of the big black horse and well onside for horsey welfare, although not to the point where I did not wonder how the film people got the horses to do their circus style cavorting when left to pasture by themselves. I have read that horses are handsome and handsomely behaved animals when in a wild or semi-wild state, but I don't know whether they would behave like the ones in the film. Have to find a horsey person to find out.

All in all, clearly getting more sentimental, not to say maudlin, with advancing years.