Finally its time to return to school, I’m glad for anything that can keep my mind off the major issue, not that it will, its all I think about at the moment. I’m trying to keep positive; the nearest report of it is over three hundred kilometres away, too far to reach us everyone keeps telling me.
I didn’t watch the television when I got home as when I arrived back my mum was sitting all hunched over the receiver of the phone in floods of tears. I knew instantly it was bad news and worst still, mum had to break it to dad. I pressed the answer machine button and I was soon away off the devastating news foot and mouth had been found on a farm just five minutes from our farm.
Dad walked in, mum’s face was still as white as a sheet. She felt for my hand under the table and gripped it tight. She stammered slightly but from gentle and calm encouragements from my dad managed to tell him. He was just as distraught as us about the news. He looked from one of us to the other in disbelief, in unison we nodded our heads to show him we were speaking the truth and we knew it was harsh.
School was cancelled until further notice for fear of spreading the disease. I spent the majority of the day helping dad out on the farm. We inspected all the animals for any signs of foot and mouth. Thankfully we found none but we knew we weren’t safe, no one was.
It became worse everyday; the farm next to us caught the disease. All the animals were burned. The fire glowed orange and had a smell similar to that of the blacksmiths. It made me sick just thinking about it. I knew my dad cried though he never did in front of me or mum he was trying to be strong for us for himself.
It was my fault, I had put our animals to death, and it was something I would have to live with for the rest of my life, murder. Yes, our animals soon caught the disease. It all started one morning when we were eating our breakfast we caught glimpse of one of our sheep limping across the field. Simultaneously me and dad both flung our chairs back and raced up to it only to find what we already secretly knew deep down, blisters, another sign of foot and mouth. Mum phoned the vets who carried out test which confirmed that it was indeed foot and mouth.
As a consequence our farm was blocked off with entry only to be given to vets and to the slaughterers. Our animals were shot before being piled up together with railway sleepers to be burned. We were all in floods of tears as the smoke drifted over house I threw up three times that night.
It’s been a week since our animals were slaughtered to death. I sit in my room all day crying I can’t help it. If I’m not crying I’m staring out the window in a trance almost. My dad has spent practically the whole week on the farm, he has been told he has to pull down all our farm buildings and then disinfect the land before rebuilding them again.
I can’t stand it any longer I have to tell them that it is my fault the animals caught the disease. I find them both and sit them sown with strong cups of coffee, my parents don’t drink alcohol. I break down, once I start I can’t stop I tell them how just before the farm next door had the disease I had been walking across there and probably brought back with me as it is not evident for three weeks after. They persistently told me it was no ones fault it could have come onto our farm by many different ways, by the wind, vehicles anything. I refused to believe them though, I couldn’t.
Good news! The foot and mouth is nearly all gone so we can soon get back to normal, or try and rebuild our lives again anyway. We are going to put in an order for three pigs and a herd of sheep. My school has been really kind to me; all my teachers and friends have written me letters.
The foot and mouth has been hard on everyone. For a while it felt like it was splitting our family apart but now I feel it has bonded us closer together.
