Time to meet the Menagerie

Yes peeps, I thought it high time you met the rest of the family..be warned, you could mistake us for a zoo! Lets start at the top of the pecking order with the dogs, Sally (golden retriever) and Cleo (cavoodle). Sally is 8 yrs old and was born here. Her beautiful mother Lucy, died at 14 yrs old and so we got Cleo as her companion.

Next in line comes Baxter. He came to us a few hours old with umbilical cord still attached. He was hand fed every 2/3 hours for weeks, and of course bonded to my daughter, so he got to stay. Never being much of a cat lover, it has surprised us all how much we love him. He is basically an indoor cat and is only let outside under supervision.

Hunter, is without doubt the most popular pet, especially with visitors to the garden. I bought him when he was 6 weeks old - the cutest little foal I`d ever seen. He was delivered to us when he was weaned from his mother at 6 months old and was still smaller than my golden retriever. He is very furry now to keep him warm in our cold winter but soon he will shed all the fluff and be thin and sleek. He is very spoilt.

Now the 'girls' come next. They keep us in eggs and turn over my compost as they scratch for treats. We haven't named this lot cause we've been through a few chooks over the years, thanks to urban sprawl making it tough on the local foxes. The 'girls' get locked away at night to protect them, but foxes are wiley blighters, especially when hungry.

We also have a pet bunny called Rollo who needed a new home (I get roped into all sorts of animals when your daughter works at a veterinary clinic!) he lives in his own house in the chook enclosure - 

- it's all very friendly here

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Alrighty, next, and also a huge favourite with garden visitors, are the fan tailed doves who live in a pretty dovecote at the furthest reaches of the garden. It`s a lovely protected nook next to the pond. I had the dovecote made for my husbands 50th birthday, complete with a pair of white fantails. People are always amazed that they don't just up and fly away! Well, why would they, when they have such a lovely home and get fed regularly! Two pairs live there now - they are very friendly and often fly down and coo to me while I garden. The females are sitting on eggs at the moment.

We also have two aviaries. I tried to take a pic of the finches but the little twerps wont stay still. On the other hand, my sweet princess parrots were only too happy to oblige. We have had Nathan for about 10 years and Esmeralda for 8. There are a few budgies and some quails on the bottom too.

And last but not least, our two Blue Tongued lizards which we have had for 9 years. They live in a large fish tank and I feed them as many snails as I can find - don`t need snail bait here.

Now I know you think, whew, that`s a lot of animals, but I havn`t even mentioned the two fish tanks inside or the multitude of koi fish in the pond....