Christmas for Animals........what joy?

Christmas is supposed to be a time of goodwill, fellowship and peace on earth. It's also the time of year when more animals are slaughtered than at any other time.........so that humans can over-indulge.

When you are doing your Christmas grocery shopping please spare a thought for all the millions of pigs, cattle, sheep, veal calves and chickens whose short lives will end horribly in industrial slaughter plants.

Let that thought determine what you buy and prepare for your Christmas and New Year feasts.

If you can't bear to go without meat at Christmas, try to find meat products from animals who had a decent quality of life before they were processed?

These two dear little faces imprinted themselves on my aching heart and I can't erase their images. Crated veal calves longing to be out on lush pastures with their mothers.

Standing on slatted floors and underfed an iron free diet to make their meat pale.What's wrong with us? How can we deliberately inflict months of cruelty so that meat has a particular colour or flavour?

Plan your Christmas and New Year festivities with joy and love in your hearts........but most of all with compassion!

Thor 4 months after rescue.

It's such a joy to see his transformation.

He looks like burnished copper now and is fit and well enough to be castrated. But that will have to wait for another day!

Thor's progress.

Wild and anxious.











Thor, the little pony stallion that was rescued from a bush racing ring has made steady progress. He's gone from being a scraggy, ribby, scared little pony to a pony with attitude.

Like so many rescued equines, he started off scared but easy to handle. He was (and is) covered in scars. His ribs and hips showed and what got him through the first few weeks was his devotion to Chimmy, his little blind friend.

When Chimmy died,we all took a step backwards and Thor was devastated. I thought that we would loose him too. But fortunately, although he called and called, and mourned for Chimmy for weeks, he kept eating and drinking and healing.

With the healing, a whole new Thor has emerged, feisty and full of spirit. He's turned into a bit of a handful and I'm pleased, because it proves more than anything, that his spirit wasn't broken the way that little Chimmy's was.

He's more confident now ..........fat and shiny..........and he prances up for his feed bucket twice a day. He's made friends with all of the big horses and joins in herd activities.

I love watching him eat, looking at the gleam on his coat and the gutter on his fat little bottom where the bones used to show.

What a difference!

A donkey-shaped hole in my heart

The little heart that beat against the great tide of heartache stopped tonight.

Annie's head was on my lap when she died. I felt so privileged to be with her. She has left a donkey-shaped hole in my heart forever.

Letting Go

Annie has seemed stronger for the last two days. She's eaten more........... begun to make real donkey noises again and consumed more food than she has all week.

But I know in my heart that this is the end of her time on earth. Baghera, the wild farm cat, was sitting with her tonight when I came to feed her late feed. He is such an untamed creature and yet so calm and tranquil.

He purred and purred and licked all of the hay and detritus away from her nostrils, while I prepared her bottle.

Annie drank everything, gratefully tonight.........but I can see that her heart and soul have moved on and tomorrow her little fragile body will leave too.

My darling baby Annie..............go in peace.

I have learned such joy, gratitude and humility from you.

Where there is life.............

The goslings have been a source of wonder and laughter in an otherwise exhausting week. Annie is still very weak and dependent, but continuing to eat and drink well and today...... for the first time in the nine days since her collapse, she managed a tiny bray when I went in with her breakfast!

She is such a delicate and fragile creature, that she reminds me of a little porcelain animal, with her huge eyes, long eyelashes and delicate bone structure. Her temperature and breathing rate remain normal and her bowels and bladder are working well. (Believe me!....... I do the mucking out.)

Sometimes, I long to collapse next to her in the sweet-smelling hay, put my arms around her frail body and sleep for days. I spend hours stroking her, doing Ttouches and massaging her thin little legs. Her tiny hooves aren't much bigger than a R5 coin although she's nearly a year old. Keeping the flies off her is a mission and so is keeping her cool in this sweltering heat. Thank heaven the hayshed is open on one side and I have a herbal fly repellant to sponge her down with.

I've started singing to her, during the long regular feeding sessions. Mostly songs from "Fiddler on the Roof", "Oliver" and " My Fair Lady". Her preference is for "Oliver" so far........ possibly the orphan connection? The theory behind the singing is that she'll either be
frightened into standing up or, out of sheer desparation.........find enough energy to kick me!

The baby geese, in contrast, have abundant energy. Their parents are attentive and intelligent and a little on the obsessive side. No-one else can go through my bedroom garden without being savaged by Piers, though thankfully I'm allowed unlimited access. (There had to be some payoff for feeding Pandora on her nest twice a day for weeks.) I've never been accorded goose status before, but these two clearly regard it as a compliment and who am I too argue?

Lives end and lives begin

Annie is drifting away slowly. No human love can anchor her to the earth that separated her from her mother and her best friend.

And Piers-Goose, her protector and companion through the last few days has had to focus his attention elsewhere. His wife, Pandora, after many failed hatchings....has produced 4 beautiful and perfect little goslings.

Piers and Pandora have taken them up to visit Annie in the hay-shed numerous times in the last 48 hours, often while I'm there feeding Annie.

They are truly awe-inspiring little creatures and they give me such hope for the future.

I've had to fish them out of nasty places and help them over obstacles, and their parents have enough faith to let me handle them without attacking me. What a privilege!

My heart is so touched by Piers visiting Annie........ and bringing Pandora and the babies to visit her today. There is so much that we don't know about inter-species communication.