Festive fun and games

Christmas is a time of fun, festivities, food and, in some cases, misadventure. Things don't always go quite according to plan for our dedicated vets...

- Briony Reed

I wouldn't be Christmas without a nativity donkey. These stars of the show need their vaccinations just like anyone else, and it is our intrepid vets who must administer them. Rebecca Hamilton-Fletcher recalls an encounter with a prickly individual named Holly.

"I'd only been qualified for a few months, and Christmas was just around the corner, when I was sent out to give Holly, the local vicar's donkey - and star of numerous nativity performances - her annual flu vaccine. Holly was known to be extremely vet-phobic, but I was assured that the vicar's wife was excellent at managing her during stressful procedures.

"My heart therefore sank when I arrived to find the vicar himself waiting, with a benign smile on his face. I dismally observed Holly snorting in the corner of the stable, with an upside-down headcollar around her neck and the leadrope trailing on the ground, as the vicar explained that his wife was indoors with a cup of tea, having been trampled on while catching Holly just five minutes earlier.

"Normally my approach with such a patient would have been no-nonsense and robustly agricultural. But I found myself instead cowed into ineffective servitude by the godly and tranquil presence of the vicar, and I wobbled up to Holly with all the assurance of an earthworm.

"Sure enough, Holly launched herself at me... and I hit the deck. I came round a few seconds later, lying amid the straw with the vicar leaning over me, apparently praying. I wondered briefly whether I was in fact dead, finding myself momentarily bemused by  the festive irony of the many stars (and even angels) circling around in my dazed vision.

"As my brain began to clear, I became aware of the vicar standing up abruptly and moving towards the back of the stable, where Holly had come to a standstill. He proceeded to admonish her thoroughly - using language that most certainly would not be found in the Bible...