Animals in my life :

Animals have always been an important part of my life and my involvement with animals can be subdivided into two broad categories :

~ ~ Our Pets ~ ~ Wildlife Rescue ~ ~ In Loving Memory ~ ~

I've always had dogs and cats in varying combinations, and we've also had various Small Furries - rabbits, Guinea pigs, rats, gerbils, hamsters etc. - whilst the children were still at home. At one stage we also had two ponies, Barley and Ben; the current menagerie is featured below :

Beamer : pedigree Large Munsterlander 13 yrs old April 2009. We've had her since she was 7 weeks old. ( LM website here)	Scully : cross-breed, 10 yrs old and probably Labrador/Collie cross but as she was an abandoned puppy we don't know for sure. (Dog site here)	Poppy : another rescued puppy, 6 yrs old Sept 2009 - supposed to be a Border Collie but there's a lot of Jack Russell in there too!
Bounce : found badly injured by the roadside and nursed back to health; nobody claimed her so we adopted her; now about 11 yrs old.	Ben : we've had him since he was seven and he's now in his thirties! Ben is now enjoying a well-earned retirement out at grass. Update : Ben died peacefully on 10.08.09 at the age of 33. Rest in peace, old fellow.	Birdie : a house sparrow, hand-reared from a featherless nestling, now 5 yrs old and far too tame to release - her website is here.

Wildlife Rescue :

There can't be anything more rewarding to an animal lover than being able to help in some small way with wild creatures in distress. My daughter and I try to do our bit: as she has a degree in Marine Biology and is also a Veterinary Nurse, it wasn't a total surprise when she decided to train as a volunteer Marine Mammal Medic; as I was always her driver when she was called out on rescues, it was a logical step for me to train too, and we're now both members of British Divers Marine Life Rescue (Yorkshire and Humber BDMLR website here), involved in rescuing stranded seals, cetaceans (whales and dolphins) and even the occasional seabird.

... and these are just the ones where I remembered to take a photo!

Although we can't bring our Marine rescues home to look after them, I do occasionally have other wild creatures in my care when my vet nurse daughter brings injured birds, brought to the surgery by well-meaning members of the public, home for me to care for : lately I've taken in a Carrion Crow with a broken wing, a baby collared dove washed out of a nest in a storm and fed on cat-food by its finders who thought it was a sparrow because it was brown, and assorted sparrows and greenfinches, most of which I nursed back to be strong enough to make the journey to the Weirfield Wildlife Hospital in Lincoln to be rehabilitated before being released back into the wild. Birdie is the only one who has remained with me - she was a tiny nestling when she was brought to me and by the time she was fully feathered and ready to fly she was also far too tame to safely release and she is still with me, over five years old and undoubtedly having outlived most if not all of her siblings! She has her own website here, where you can read her full story.

 

 

Website revised September 2009; all contents including web set and all images copyright © Dianne G Davies 2009.