Odd looking cat

On yesterday evening's dogwalk, out along the cemetery run, I spotted a bit of movement about fifty yards away at the edge of a field. Looked like a cat so I put Sprocket on his lead. Luckily the dogs couldn't see it from their lower vantage spot. Kept right on walking, thinking it would spot us and scamper off. But it didn't. Just carried on sniffing around in the grass, totally oblivious to our presence. Then, amazingly, I realised it wasn't a cat but a badger. Strange to see one in broad daylight. Thought they only came out at night. Took the camera out of my pocket, slowly, so as not to frighten the animal off (had to do it one-handed - t'other hand was gripping Sprock's lead). Managed to switch the camera on, flick to bigger size and zoom in a bit (with just one hand) without gaining the badger's attention, then rattled off a couple of snaps. Typically, they were rubbish. All that was visible above the grass was the badger's back. But then it moved a bit and sort of faced our direction, so I hastily took another shot in the hope that it wouldn't be ruined by camera shake. By this time Sprock had spotted the animal and was tugging at the lead, eager to attack (like me, he probably thought it was a cat - hates 'em), but the badger just kept right on badgering. With all the kerfuffle we were making, it was surprising that he (or she) didn't spot us. Anyway, job done, I put the camera away and dragged Sprock off up the track, leaving the badger to continue his evening stroll. Arrived home, downloaded the pics and was surprised to find that the badger was actually visible in a couple of them. Would have been miles better though with a proper camera, a telephoto lens, a tripod, two hands and Sprock tied to a tree with a blindfold. (Click photo to enlarge.)

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