Welcome friends! Today I will introduce you to some familiar faces from the farm. Meet our pets; all with their own unique characters!
The Farm Dogs - Woody and Titch
Woody is our very enthusiastic farm terrier, who is into everything and has a lot to say for himself! We had Woody as a pup, after we sadly lost our dog in a car accident. He is rather fond of chasing pheasants or anything else that happens to cross his path, although lucky for them he rarely catches anything! He loves to ‘help’ when we are moving cattle and more so if he can hitch a ride on the RTV!
Woody is a very busy boy, by the evenings he loves nothing more than curling up by the Aga, or even trying a sneaky move to get on the settee!
Titch is a dog of gigantic proportions and really does have the heart to match! We re-homed Titch when he was around 18 months old. He is a very loyal friend and shadows me where ever I go. When he is running at full pelt I love to see how much ground he can cover with each stride! After spending so much energy outside, he is very content to curl up on his enormous bed and sleep it off. Woody and Titch are on the opposite end of the scale when it comes to size, but they are the best of friends!
Lady GaGa & Bart, Lisa & Maggie - the farm cats
Lady came to us from Cleobury Cat Rescue many years ago as a ferral cat (hence ‘GaGa’). After months of feeding and coaxing, she learned that the grass is much greener as a family pet and so took up residence on top of the boiler in our utility room and her bed is still there to this day. She even managed to win Woody and Titch over, maybe by hyopnotising them with her steely green-eyes?! She may be getting on in years, but still manages to bring us the occasional ‘gift’ to the house.
Bart, Lisa & Maggie are the latest addition to our farm felines. Again, rehomed from Cleobury Cat Rescue in February 2021, they will have a long and happy life keeping the mice at bay!
Shadow the Shetland
Shadow is quite the matriarch of the farm at 29 years young. She is a standard Shetland pony and stands at just 38 inches to her withers. Dont be fooled by her age and small stature – she is a little power house and what she lacks in height she makes up for in personality! She loves treats either sweet or savoury and often can be found taking herself off to graze on the garden! Her party tricks are a two-barrelled buck and charging off when not wanting to be caught 🙂
Rooby & Stevie - the chickens and
Chaz & Dave - ducks
Mawley is home to a few chickens and ducks, who all have their own characters and personalities. Rooby in the picture is a Rhode Island Red hen, who wanders into the kitchen and office looking for a bite to eat. Her feathered friend, Stevie, is also known to jump up onto the desk in the office and settle down for a preen 🙂
We have two ducks, Chaz and Dave, both Indian Runners we incubated and hatched for children to see at our last farm open day. We did have 5 ducks, but unfortunately we had a visit from Mr Fox, so now we are down to two.
The birds are usually free range on the garden, but at the time of writing (March 2021) England has a chicken and duck lockdown, due to cases of Avian Flu. Hopefully it wont be too much longer before we can let them out and Rooby will be back under the kitchen table trying to catch a crumb!