I had to (had to! poor, poor me!) put "liz jones" into the Mail search box. Perhaps they thought this diary entry was a mawkish tear too far.

Strange. Everything else seems to be working properly on the site today... that's why I wondered, just for a brief second, if Liz had somehow crossed a line so awful they had pulled today's Dreary without allowing anyone to read it!!!

But of course not - just my wicked imagination!!

It's like a particularly bad episode of Black Beauty or Follyfoot, with a bit of moany international jet-setting thrown in.

The awful thing is, if you strip out the 'Liz' connection, it's a really sad thing to read today - a horse who's had a hard life, rescued, happy, but unable to overcome heath problems to the point where it's kinder to put them down. My grandfather kept horses and I earned my teenage pocket money mucking them out, feeding and looking after them. I got very attached to them and remember being devastated when my 'favourite' of them all had to be put down. From that point of view the story did provoke a personal emotive reaction in me. But none of that emotive reaction was was for Liz - and I'm pretty sure that's not what she intended when she wrote it!

If the events portrayed in today's diary had been written by someone else, or in isolation without all the other guff we've had to put up with over the weeks, months and years, I might have been able to include Liz in my emotive reaction, and others would also be reacting with more sympathy than derision. Somehow, Liz does a very good job of making feel derision on a regular basis, no matter what the subject matter.

Such a shame she can't see or understand how and why she strips out people's natural leaning towards sympathy for her being in some of the situations she describes, when we would most certainly have no trouble with that natural leaning with someone else's portrayal of them.

If she were a "good egg" about things occasionally, she might get a bit more sympathy. If she approached things with a sense of humour (a sense of humour, that is, which doesn't involve pulling somebody else down) and a bit of stoicism, people might like her better.

It's almost as though the MoS wants to hide her Drearies ...! Just type 'Liz Jones' in the 'Search' box, top right, and all the Jones witterings will come up.

As for the horse - very sad but I'm glad the poor animal is out of its misery at last. Still trying to work out how Jones bought THREE houses for her ... have I missed a house somewhere?

And I don't know if she's noticed, but horses don't need a house. They are usually quite happy with a stable and a bit of grass.

That's what I was trying to say! You did it better than me!

So true. LJ's auto-pilot mean-spiritedness desensitizes many readers to genuinely heart-rending events in her life.
Same priniciple as the attached bad taste urban myth >
http://www.snopes.com/movies/actors/attic.asp

Miss Jones knows rock all about looking after more than a gold fish. And I wonder about her "assistant" and her credentials.

I'm no expert, but my life has been spent around animals. And hard decisions have to be made, The moment to have put the rescued racehorse out of her misery was before surgery.

It's dreadfully sad to say goodbye. I know that. But one has to be realistic, however much it hurts. And not dodge the decision out of selfishness, or because (much more unforgivable) there's a "diary" to be written.

Seriously? You had to go to Montreal and you flew into Toronto??? WTF, there are multiple daily flights from the UK to Montreal.

Tap water is safe to drink in Canada, so why the stop over "no water" in the room?

I'm sorry she had to have her beloved pet (and yes I'm calling the horse a pet because Lizzie wasn't being treated as a horse) to sleep. Most of us have had to do the same over our lifetimes.

I'm just glad the poor horse finally had a doctor who cared enough to say "enough"

Having a hot sweat was she?



Seriously, what a ridiculous and over-dramatic term. What's the matter with plain old 'cried'? Or 'tears streamed down my face' if she must. My face leaks water when I'm having a hot sweat!

It's a shame about the horse and I have nothing really to add to the excellent posts that on here other than to agree that it can't be argued that she does seem much more upset about her horse than her mother.

Perhaps with the "face-leaking" comment she is trying to prove to us she is A Writer first and foremost. And not a whining, feckless lump of misery.

And don't forget that the Baker forgot to make her toast.
What a b******d
How does he sleep at night?

Thinking about it though, why would a baker have no bread? I bet he had a freezer full. He is probably just sick of being insulted so he hid the bread.

The Baker has a lot on his mind, probably his ongoing business woes as someone referred to upthread. Could it have something to do with the CRISIS?

I really do feel for Liz's loss - it is never nice to lose a pet - but that horse was very ill for a long time and ultimately she needed to let Lizzie go. I notice that Lizzie is now "the love of my life", whereas the Baker, former love of her life, has been reduced to "not living up to my fantasies" and failing to read every word of her emails. It seems reasonable to suggest that Liz's idea of love is still locked into that adolescent phase of loving most the unattainable thing. A horse can't fail to notice your new hairdo or poke unwanted fun at your ability to type, or not read all the way to the end of your email, or demonstrate human failings in any way. So of course the horse remains perfect.

The Mail's decision not to link to the latest Diary-durge must be deliberate. Perhaps they thought "In which there's another death in the family" was not quite in keeping with their lifestyle casual John Lewisy type of weekend thing. Also, it's a horse, not a family member. I know some people think of their animals that way but, to me, it's insulting to people who are actually grieving for real family members.

Quite. Almost as if the MoS is ashamed of her... her other fartcles - her teeth, Brigitte Bardot 'interview' (faxed answers to questions) also pretty yawn-making.

This is the third horse that hs died in her care. Prematurely. In addition to God knows how many other cats, dogs and 'others'. This is not a laughing matter... she should be barred from keeping animals for life.

Nah, she won't necessarily have written the header and if they didn't want to print it they'd have changed it.

Hiding it is interesting. It shows them how popular the Dreary really is, because people will search to find it. Just because it's awful doesn't mean it's not train-wreck-level fascinating.

Hmmm. How on earth can this keep happening? Does she pick sick animals or is "Nic" not so great a carer as she's painted?

Wasn't Lizzy the horse that neither of them noticed had malnutrition, or something?

Cataracts. Neither of them noticed the horse had them until she was pretty much blind. Jones I can understand but for a "qualified equine behaviourist" and groom who tended the nag on a daily basis not to notice is unforgivable.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/...ie-crisis.html

No I'm sure there was another Dreary entry with another Lizzie crisis when the horse was found to be seriously underweight or something. If I have a moment later I'll see if I can track it down.

<changed mind >