My love for all creatures, great and small, was obvious form a very young age.

I was lucky to have had a wonderful childhood,  brought up with an assortment of furry friends and scaly oddities..... a Dalmatian called Jana who lived until she was fourteen, a shed full of guinea pigs ( they were Mum's)  hamsters, gerbils, terrapins, fish, tortoises, newts, toads, and a rabbit, but no cats.

I've made up for that now !!

I was the girl who carried home - in a basket upfront of a pushbike - the dying crow I had picked up from the roadside: who placed a hedgehog  I'd pulled out of a puddle on the kitchen work surface ( which , to my Mother's despair, quickly became coated in fleas !!)  who begged Mum to go to my Gran's to collect snails form her iris bushes to keep in jam jars fed with lettuce; who hatched butterfly eggs in the house, that escaped and covered my sister's bedroom wall with tiny, hairy, black caterpillars !

As a young child I remember saying to my Mother "When I grow up I'm going to fill my home with animals".

My Mother's reply was " You will grow out of it...."

Walk this way ...........

Guinea Pigs

At one point there were nearly thirty living here - people had a habit of dumping them on me when, for genuine reasons, they couldn't keep them any more. There are only two left now, the cats have become such a major part of my life that I decided to let them slowly, in nature's way, decline. They are sweet, gentle creatures that need company. They chatter way to each other, and love to graze on the grass in the sunshine. I say that I won't have nay more when these have gone, but they have been part of my life for so many years that I'm unsure of that last statement !!

AXOLOTLS ( At home fondly called "The Creatures")

I've always been fascinated by the weird and wonderful, and when I first sew an  albino axolotl in a pet shop I was captivated by this strange kind of' cut creature. I didn't take the little chap home because I didn't know anything about them. Instead, I went away and did some research.....Along came Lucifer ( Lucile?) in 2006, followed last year by a little albino fellow named Pong Wiffy.They eat an abundance of earth worms - which I dig up rain or shine, grow at an alarming rate to reach a foot ( 30 cms)  in length, live as long as a cat, re-grow lost limbs to perfections. Maybe they are strange, but there's something very appealing about them !!

                               Lucifer ( or Lucile )                                                                          Pong  Wiffy  

THE CHICKENS

I visited Ardingly Smallholders Show several years ago, taking home with me three little Pekin bantams. Sadly only one of these originals is still with us, Amelia - she is a little sweetheart ! A few years back, on my 40th  birthday, a single egg she'd been keeping warm hatched out. Basil Forty ! They now live together. Basil isn't as laid back as his mother.....he'd pick a fight if allowed, and struts his stuff forgetting he's just  a tiny bantam !! At the other extreme, Smeagle is a very daft, laid back, gentle lavender Pekin cockerel.                                    

        Last year four scruffy Salmon Faverolle chicks made theirs entrance.  They live down the garden in the purple blackberry shed, roaming free during the day.

Hattie, Daisy and Maisie have become very tame, beautiful girls.

 The cockerel " HRH Zachariah Cockerel " ( so called because he's all the colours of  crown of precious jewels) is a little more timid. Chickens make nice pets. are creatures of habit, and are far from stupid with very individual personalities. But, they need their own part of the garden as they are naturally destructive and noisy !! In February, His H.R.H   Zachariah went to live in  a new home,  after a complaint abut his very loud cokadoodling !! I made that choice rather than him getting an Asbo ! Zachariah  now lives in a very nice home with his new girls at Mackenade Farmhouses, near the farm shop.

You can see him there, over the fence with his new harem! I wish him  a long and happy life and thank you to his new family for taking him in for me....Last Saturday, nearly two weeks on....Kye and I went to visit Zachariah. he doesn't live far away, so it was more of plucking up courage, unsure  of what to expect and how I'd feel . We couldn't see him to start with, then there he was, without a care  in the world, pecking around in the middle of his new family. He'd made himself quite at home, the big fellow didn't recognise us, that's ok, as long a he's happy, he was....I walked away with a smile on my face. Zach had come up trumps, and still the King !!

 Long Live Zachariah Cockerel !! "Cock-a-doodle-doo !"

               Amelia           R.I.P                                Amelia                                                              HRH Zachariah 

        Amelia passed away on 01/07/08   Such  a gentle girl, thank you for your seven years of life...      

                       Basil                                                                    Basil                                             The Salmon Faverolles

Smeagle                                          Smeagle

Handy Tip : "Scaly Leg mite can be easily and economically be treated with surgical spirit"

The Dog ( Yorkshire Terrier, DOB 16th April 1994)

"D-D" came to live with us in October 1994, so she 's now an old lady, slowly losing her teeth, going deaf, chooses to go to bed by 7pm. She still leads an active life, chasing a ball in the garden when the sun shines - guarding the alleyway against other dogs! She's just part of the family and I can't imagine life without her...

"Stefan The Gardener"

A Final Word

Please think very carefully before taking  any creature into your home. It should be for life, they do grow up, and it's our duty to care for them, finding them just as appealing as they grow older - and allow them to become fully fledged members of the family.

I am always happy to offer advice if I can.....

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