I had to pop to Canada later that day so the time had come to deal with Neil, who was hanging in the back of my Land Rover making the place a little stinky.

Here he is, and what a fine chap he still is if you ignore the fact he is a little floppy and skanky.

On a closer examination of our patient, it appeared that the injury he had sustained by being hit at high speed by a car had caused some of his spine and various other shattered bones to peirce his skin and make him a little delicate as far as his body went. It didn’t look like plucking him with the skin intact would be that easy but none the less, I tried.

Ok, as you see, it wasn’t a great success. It looked like in this case, the best bet would be to get as many feathers off him and basically gut him and fillet him there and then. He doesn’t need his wings any more though.

With most of the feathers off, it was time to dismember the poor chap and make a start on that rather damaged body. They don’t make it easy.

Ok, now the messy bit – You may want to close your eyes for this bit is you are squeamish. Luckily, you can’t smell it, though in fairness to him he wasn’t too bad.

Finally… As they say on Blue Peter, here’s what your Neil should look like in the end.

And of course there are some leftovers, but they are quite cute really.

I am sure we will see more of Neil later, but for now I have a flight to catch. Bon Voyage! Oh, whilst I am gone, remember to practice the Pheasant Plucking rhyme:

I’m not a pheasant plucker, I’m a pheasant plucker’s son and I’m only plucking pheasants till the pheasant plucker comes.