My fabulous, furry, four legged friends!

Things have been fairly quiet over the last few days with our ducks & hens, apart from the sad loss of hen Chicken Licken after a short spell of illness.

Even though we have had quite a few chickens come & go now it always saddens my heart to lose one.

Puddles is much recovered & is doing a wonderful job of playing foster mum to the rescued Mallard ducklings. Jess is all healed again & seems content with her ducky friends for company, so for now she remains is the back garden happily digging & shredding & uprooting things she shouldn't!

The weather this weekend was glorious & sunny, so I decided to make the most of it & spend some time in the garden with the dogs. I feel that I haven't properly introduced them yet, so here goes:-

The youngest at 2 years old is Mabel, an impish Jack Russell/ Yorkshire Terrier cross. She was looking a bit scruffy so I got the brush & comb out together with the scissors only intending to trim the fur from around her eyes. She was being so unusually good about being groomed that I decided to trim a bit more off here & a bit more off there, until - oops! - I had managed to just about trim her from head to toe! It was the neatest of cuts but I thought she looked gorgeous when I'd finished, just like a pup again!

Before....

and after!

Mabel is diminutive in proportions, but she has that big terrier attitude, believes she is indestructible & will kill anything that is smaller than her given half a chance! On our dog walks she has been known to kill & then drag a rabbit home with her, then spend the rest of the afternoon crunching it up in the front garden with blood & gore all around her chops! She has also been known to disappear down rabbit holes & not come out for more than an hour, once getting stuck & having to to be dug out, so now she is strictly on the lead on our daily countryside walks & the rabbit population is much safer for it! On the flip side, she is a loving little thing, me being her favourite person in the whole wide world & being curled up on my lap being her most favourite place in the world.

Our oldest dog at the age of 10 & looking like she needs a hair cut herself is Polo, our Westie.

Apart from brushing her I leave her grooming to the experts at the grooming parlour. She enjoys having a bath & loves the hair dryer, but isn't so good at being clipped! She especially hates having her paws touched by anyone - a bit bothersome when it comes nail clipping. I don't know how they placate her at the grooming parlour (& it's probably best that I don't know!) but here is a picture of her looking much prettier after a haircut:

Gorgeous, isn't she? In 10 years she has been through a lot with us & that makes her very special. She is faithful & fearless but even at 10 can be very wilful & when the crops start growing in the fields will, if not watched like a hawk, disappear after rabbit scents & not return home until she is quite ready! She has never caught a rabbit & in fact is completely trustworthy with our own pet rabbits, preferring to kiss them on the nose rather than savage them as Mabel might, but does love a good scent trail to follow!

At 6 years old our next oldest dog is Maggie, my beloved Border Terrier.

Maggie is my constant companion, a beautiful girl inside & out! She is playful, fun loving & affectionate. She gives the love she is shown back ten-fold! She is the type of dog who feels your moods intuitively & knows what her response should be to make you feel better. I can't imagine what life would be like without her by my side, so I hope we will enjoy many more happy years together.

And last, but by no means least, we have Meggie, our Border Collie / Whippet cross lurcher.

Meggie came from the Dog's Trust, Evesham, & is a special, but complicated girl! After being rescued from the streets she did not get on at all well with kennel life at the Dog's Trust, but was thankfully taken on by a wonderful foster mummy who looked after her for about 2 months before she eventually found her forever home with us. When we first had her she was clearly frightened of men & it took quite a long while for my husband & 3 sons to completely gain her trust. She had some strange habits due to her deep insecurities & would steal all sorts of objects from food packets, to glass bottles to cuddly toys & hide them all in her bed. She would panic if any strange males came to the door & would cower in the corner of the kitchen & wet herself. She was also a terrible food thief & we quickly learnt that anything edible must be kept out of her reach. Right from the start though you could look into Meg's soulful eyes & know there was something special that just needed reaching & with lots of patience & love we have unlocked a beautiful, loving dog with an awful lot to give. She is just the softest, cuddliest of girls & I can't imagine how anyone could have been cruel to her. I often wish I could climb inside her mind & erase any unpleasant memories she has so that she is no longer haunted be an unhappy past. Look at her here with middle son:

She loves her cuddles that's for sure!

We still have a little way to go with her. She can be unpredictable with dogs & people she doesn't know, especially men, so we have to muzzle her for safety's sake when we go for walks. Now she has her confidence back she can make herself big & scary when she feels threatened as the Parcel Link delivery man will tell you!! But taking on Meggie has been a rich & rewarding experience & when I look at her sprawled out on the settee with all four legs in the air & that lop sided grin I that know it has all been worth it!

So know you've met them properly & I'm sure there will be lots more doggy tales to follow...

Happy birthday Maggie!

Today is Maggie's 6th Birthday! Maggie is our Border Terrier. We have had her from puppy & she is the most loving, beautiful dog you could ever wish to own. We have four dogs altogether & I know you shouldn't have favourites, but quietly she's mine! We just seem to have had a special bond right from the start & I absolutely love her to pieces. At home, wherever I am Maggie's sure to be! She's a very special girl & I feel lucky to have her in my life. So happy birthday Maggie, here's to lots more happy years together.

If you're a mad dog lover like me, here's a fab recipe for dog birthday cake:


To make a cake big enough for 3 or 4 dogs, you’ll need:

250g beef mince
1 grated carrot
75g Oatmeal
75g flour
30g butter
3 eggs

Fry the mince until brown, add in the grated carrot and continue to cook gently for a few minutes until softened. Meanwhile, mix together the flour and oatmeal and rub in the butter. Beat in the eggs to form a sticky paste, and then add in the mince and carrot, complete with any juice from the pan. Knead the mixture together and press it into a well-greased cake tin. Cook for 30 minutes in a moderate oven (around 180 degrees Celcius) and then turn out and allow to cool.

If you want to go completely over the top & decorate it, use low fat cream cheese, cottage cheese or plain yoghurt & sprinkle with small doggy treats or crispy bacon pieces!

Animals are such a tonic!

I've been feeling under the weather with a flare of my fibromyalgia / cfs symptoms, which fortunately is a relatively rare occurrence these days. I try to do everything I can to shut it out & reduce it's affects on my life as much as possible, but it's at times when I feel unwell that I especially appreciate having firstly my very caring family & secondly my lovely animals around me.

The dogs were very confused because normal routines went out of the window. Because my blog has been filled with duckling & hen stories you wouldn't have guessed yet that I'm a massive dog lover, or should that be a massive lover of dogs? I may be heavier than I'd like to be, but not massive yet! We have four dogs; Polo the Westie, Maggie the border terrier, Meggie the lurcher & Mabel the Jack Russell / Yorkshire Terrier cross. They are all very special & I promise I will introduce you to them soon! They all sat outside the bedroom door while I was in bed & were besides themselves with excitement when I finally emerged. They were then glued to my side in case I disappeared again, nudging at me & wanting to be as close as possible to me. I do love them so! When I feel recovered I will treat them to long walkies & lots of extra pats & cuddles to make up for being a rubbish mummy these last couple of days.

Later I spent a quiet hour out in the garden with Chalk & Cheese the ducklets. They are about 8 / 9 weeks old now & far too big to be called ducklings any more. Here are some up to date pics:

'Chalk'

'Cheese'

They are so grown up now that it's time to start thinking about taking them up to our little bit of field & introducing them to the hens, Khaki Campbell ducks & geese. I want to do it while they are still small enough not to be a threat to Pop, our gander, but big enough to pretty much take care of themselves & free range with the other birds. They are really quite good at foraging in the garden now (with the odd treat of mealworms, lettuce or grated carrot) & only eat a bowl of their growers pellets in the evening before bed time. In fact they have become a bit too good at free-ranging! At first the worst they did to my raised beds was squish a few onion & shallot plants. But now all that remains of my baby leeks & beetroot plants is one small dug up beetroot & bare earth! However, sat watching them in the pleasant evening sunshine was such perfect, peaceful bliss that I really didn't care one bit. Cheese was especially funny listening to & watching the wild birds in the garden whilst chilling out in the pool, his crest feathers rising & falling inquisitively. Chalk was busy preening herself. She's still more feathered than Cheese & her beak is starting to develop it's red colouring.

Another thing that put a smile on my face was receiving my first parcel from Primrose Hill Studios. I have never opened such a beautifully wrapped package before! My little covered notebook & gingham lavender heart were made by a lady who clearly puts a lot of love into her craft work. Have a peak at http://www.primrosehillinteriors.com/.

And yet another big thing to be very happy about is that eldest son has passed his first year exams at Uni, with a first in Artificial Intelligence!!! I'm so excited & proud of him! Middle son has finished his GCSE's now, but he has quite a long wait for his results - fingers crossed that he's done as well as he deserves to after working hard for them.

So clearly no reason at all for feeling sorry for myself here! My life is full of so very much to feel happy about & I'm a very lucky lady. Onwards & upwards as they say.