It’s been so long since I’ve written – seem to be managing a quarterly (at best!) scribble on here, and just as infrequently on to find time to enjoy reading all the lovely blogs I love to follow.. but have found myself with a wee hour in a cafe this morning on a sunny February day with a coffee and a view, and it’s lovely to get a chance to gather some thoughts on the last few months.
All has been ticking along well in our corner of the world, if in a bit of a whirlwind sometimes! I last wrote just as December was approaching, but realised when I looked back that I’d missed the chance to update on pet changes from further back – so will start, (as is often the way!!, and certainly always was back in the beginning of my blogging), with our animal contingent!
A wee introduction first of all to our new addition I realised I’d never found time to write aboutā¦ young Buzz, a dwarf hamster we adopted back in July – who we still consider our little baby but who is now 8 months old.
Just after we lost our last wee Sparkle hamster in July last year, we learned that our local hamster and small pet rescue, where we’ve been glad to welcome our last three hamsters from now, had just taken in a mum and litter of eight kittens, one of whom was our Buzz.
It was amazing to have had the chance to see his story documented from when he was two days old, to have seen pictures of him growing and changing with his lovely mum and his brothers and sisters (all of whom had Toy Story names by pure coincidence in what, for our girls, was – very appropriately – the Toy Story-est of summers!).
We brought him home when he was six weeks old and just a tiny wee soul. Buzz is a lovely hamster – he’d been well-handled from a couple of weeks old and is very friendly, and an industrious climber and player in his cage too. He’s a lovely part of our family.
As for the rest, theyāve mostly just been doing well and time’s been flying by – Charmer, our lovely Fell pony, is turning 27 in April. He’s close to the end of yet another winter and I’m delighted he’s done really well this year. We settled to nights in sooner, he’s been in every night since I think around the beginning of October and wouldnāt have managed without that, but has really thrived on the routine and enjoyed his days out in the field, and his evenings in the stable eating hay.
He’s had his teeth done this winter, and they’re doing not too bad for his age – we do have a plan for different forage should he need it but at the moment maintaining weight on his regular hay and his winter feed, and, though we’re looking forward to summer, he’s done really well this winter.
He did struggle for a bit with a shoe-less experiment we tried in the autumn, but now that he has his shoes back on is moving really well, and I’m really pleased to see him enjoying himself.
His little charges have been spending lots of time at the farm and in his old age he’s given up any pretence of grudging their attention and has just settled fully to letting them fuss over him and feed him treats all day long.
Rosie and Theo, our little cats, are almost 2 years old now, and are doing well. Both seemed to mature a little when they hit around 18 months in the autumn, with Theo a very lean springy boy-cat now and Rosie a slightly rounder little lady. They are both still very petite, and very content with life, spending time in their run out the back shouting at birds and enjoying the sunshine, having occasional dashes around the garden with us, and lounging around the house being top office cats while my husband works from home, with mad half hours tearing up and down the stairs chasing each other thrown in (usually when weāre all trying to go to sleep!).
Since then they’ve enjoyed their second Christmas, where they spent no less time climbing the Christmas tree than their first, just increased the number of baubles they could dislodge with each climb due to being slightly bigger!!
We’ve had the odd little break this year and have left them overnight a few times now, finding our way with what suits them for holiday care, something we were really nervous about navigating. In the summer, we were away once for 3 nights with family and once for 4 ourselves, and they stayed together in a local cattery we were recommended and were really pleased with. They seemed to do ok there, very happy to have each other and we would definitely consider again, but they do seem much more comfortable and happy at home, so we’ve also used, so far just for a night each time, a local pet sitter who calls in on them at home, which has been brilliant as they’ve got their own routine and comforts and they seem to do ok with that, especially since we’re never away more than a few days at a time.
For the most part though, we’re just all at home – they love that at least one of us is in almost all the time – and they seem to be very relaxed as they creep up to two years with us, which has passed so fast!
Itās also a whole year next week since we added Fish to our brood, our now 7-year-old goldfish, rehomed from our family. Fish-keeping was all new to me when he arrived with us, and Iām still really enjoying having him. Did lots of reading on goldfish back when he was new, and know that really still, ideally, he would have an bigger tank than he does or in fact best of all be living a pond life, but we did increase his tank space as far as we can for the space weāve got when we found a 120l tank online second-hand and transferred him over to that at the beginning of last summer. He seems to really enjoy having a bit more swishing room and flitting around. I still can’t get over how much there was to learn with a cold-water fish – filters and cycling and pH readings were all new to me, but it was really fun to learn it and I’m very fond of our wee Fish who always comes to greet me in the morning, ever hopeful of more food!
One final update – not an animal who is still with us, but once a part of the family always a part of the family! Our valiant wee Pidge, who stayed with us for a while last February when we agreed to take him as an injured unwanted racing pigeon, and who later went to the best temporary home with a pigeon rehabiliator a bit away from us. We had a lovely message not too long ago from the person who’d given him such a wonderful recovery and home for the time being, to say that Pidge (now renamed Willy, after his period of will-he-won’t-he survive!) had found a forever home in a beautiful place with lots of space to fly, adopted together with a mate who he was devoted to… if that’s not a wholesome ending to the story of a pigeon who stumbled across us in a storm, I don’t know what is. ā¤ We were glad to be part of his story and lovely to hear heās safe and well.
I’ve tapped away so much on pets I’ve barely time to cover the rest of us, but we’re all doing well. One big girl who turned 5 at Christmas, impossibly long-leggedy and grown-up now, and one whirl of an almost-3-year-old running headlong into everything she does and enjoying it all, and us just doing away, juggling work and kids. I’ve so much more I’d love to catch up on. We’ve just booked two trips for this year I’m soo looking forward to – one in just a couple of weeks time now just for one night to Stirling, where we first met and used to live, to show the kids some favourite haunts, and a longer holiday for 4 nights in the summer down to the Peak District in a caravan. I’ve still been meaning to write about our last year’s summer holiday, which I will when I can! And some catching up too on reading, which I’ve still been diarying away on my Instagram with, but will do a wee round up of 2022 reading on here, and maybe (just maybe!) get a monthly summary of books read this year too.
I really do love writing, and reading all your stories too, and I do hope all of you and families, pets, adventures and corners of the world are doing well too!
~ Life, Loves and Adventures ~ 