I often think about the animals that scurry through our garden at this late hour, the hedgehogs, polecats, foxes (lovely animals, despite being a relative of the wolf and not very chicken friendly!) shrews and rats ugh! And of course the mice!

    With less competition at night, the bat with its leathery wings, is a frequent visitor to our garden and contrary to belief, the bat is not blind. In fact, bats often have better eye sight than humans.

     There’s an owl that rests occasionally in the tree by the pond. With her heart shaped face, she has her eyes on shrews with their voracious appetite. And oops I mustn’t forget the frogs and the newts all gathering in their birth place and and soon to arrive are the toads with their warty skin and squat bodies.

     Sleep well all of you!

Our Earth is still, or so it seems. Down below, our village is quiet. Even the hens tiptoe around the garden with very little to say. A buzzard flies overhead, silent, graceful and with intent. Even the seagulls have retreated back to the crevices in the cliffs as though knowing, something is about to happen.

The sky is dull and heavy with its clouds rolled into one. The trees around our home for waifs and strays stand in yoga pose. Rooted to the ground, their branches stretch upwards, searching for light.

It’s winter, time is slow. Snow is on the way.

Winter at our home for waifs and strays is usually quite quiet, however, anything can happen and this winter is no exception. Everything, it seems, needs fixing, replacing or removing, but as animals continue to hibernate, this can be difficult.

Don’t worry, I shall only mention them once, but rats have been a problem. Using a humane trap, we caught as many as we could, and took them to a valley across the moors. It seems to have worked, for the time being, as we haven’t seen hide nor hair of one for quite some time. Fingers crossed they have taken the hint!

Many of our hens are quite old now, seven or eight years. However, they seem quite happy in their retirement, still wondering down as far as the pond. The younger ones look grumpy during these short, cold days and strut about with their feathers fluffed up to keep warm. Eggs are in short supply until Valentine ’s Day, when things begin to change.

Remember lolo, our rescued dog? Well she’s proved to be a valuable member of our home for waifs and strays and even my kind and unassuming husband has been trapped under her spell. She adopted two orphaned chicks last year and they still remain friends in the garden. It’s an incredible sight.

We did well with our garden allotment last summer and benefited from the fruits of our hard labour. Apart from the cabbage white butterflies, feeding off the lush green leaves, we managed to harvest most of our crops.

It’s the foxing hour and I can hear their shrill calls on the other side of the hedge. It’s always a worry but we do the best we possibly can. Thank you for looking in. Please call again.

I never wanted a pony as a child, there were enough wild ones loitering around the home where we lived and they always terrified me, especially when their ears went right back and they began to snort! But my sister did want a pony! She longed to ride with her friends across the sandy beaches that Gower is so famous for, and return home through the valley where I spend most of my time. And to my disappointment, her wish came true. Well sort of!

     One late summer’s day, straight from school my father took us with him to a farm on the other side of the moor.

     ‘We have to walk,’ he said, ‘because we might be bringing something back.’ I knew it was going to be a pony and sulked all the way there and all the way back, with a rather reluctant pony in hand.

     ‘That will be twenty four pounds,’ the farmer had said. ‘A pound for every month of his life, not bad eh! Need a bit of breaking in but he be worth it!’

      My father smiled and nodded his head and handed over the cash. My sister was blinded by the whole ‘pony dream’ and couldn’t see the potential disaster about to unfold. Me, I could spot it a mile away. This was no ordinary pony. They didn’t call him ‘Frisky’ for nothing!

      And so, after a two hour walk, we arrived home and put the pony in a makeshift stable my father had prepared. My grandmother stood on the doorstep waving her finger and shaking her head. For the first time, I shared her disappointment.

       Well, just as I thought, by morning the pony had gone! No, I didn’t let it go! It jumped a six foot fence from a standstill. The pony was wild and untameable!

       ‘No school today,’ my father said, ‘we have to find him!’ And find him we did, roaming around with the wild ponies on the cliffs. And the same thing happened a few times a week thereafter. But my father persisted in breaking the pony in despite it rearing up like a demented soul every time he put a rein on its head.

      ‘It’s a wild pony daddy,’ I kept telling him, ‘and he will not be tamed. You should set him free to live with the others. It’s obvious that is where he must have come from.’

      In the end, and despite the cries of my frustrated sister, Frisky was eventually sold and as I gather, the same thing happened again and again, until one day Frisky escaped the clutches of everyone and was left to live and breathe on the moors I still call home. Thankfully, we never did have another pony.

       Today, as I drive through Gower, I often see the wild ponies and wonder if any are Frisky’s off springs. I hope so!

The Purple Poppy

(A tribute to animals of war)

By J.J.Moffat

Recruiting for the First World War was something pigeons, cats, dogs and horses were not prepared for and neither were the glow worms or the slugs. Millions of animals were taken from the comfort of their homes to join the Army. They marched beside soldiers, bewildered, frightened and without choice.

     In France, trenches soon became infested with thousands of rats, breeding young ones and spreading disease. And so it was, 500,000 cats were employed as ratters. Many a man welcomed these creatures, not just because they killed the rats, but they raised morale which helped temporarily to relieve the stress of war. Quite often, when the sound of the guns blasted above them, the cats lay with the dying soldiers.

     Above the trenches, come rain, wind, or snow, soldiers on horseback raced to the front. Over a million mules and horses had been deployed from Britain alone, with the rest being shipped from North America at a thousand per week. Eight million horses died during The Great War, mostly from war wounds; foot rot, influenza, ringworm, starvation and gangrene. Hunger was a major problem, so sawdust was added to their food to slow down digestion. And despite all their efforts, these brave animal soldiers of war, often succumbed to the relentless bombardment and suffered from debilitating shellshock.

     Once again, when threatened by mustard gas, the Army turned to animals for help. They tested many of them for the detection of gas but they all failed, with the exception of the innocent garden slug. Why, may you ask? Exposed to mustard gas, the slug closes its breathing aperture, so protects its lungs. Recruited immediately and without training, they were marched to war!

      Back in the dark, dank trenches, winter loomed with the promise of being the coldest that France could ever recall.  Soldiers struggled to read their maps and letters from home and morale was low. Then along came an enormous army of glow worms. Not your average soldier by any stretch, but they proved their worth by joining the ranks and living in jam jars. It seemed that nothing could escape this terrible war! 

     Soon, the trenches, built from sandbags and wood, were occupied not only by soldiers, but cats, glow worms, slugs and dogs. It is no wonder, that typhus, dysentery and cholera soon followed. The unsuspecting dogs, once someone’s pet, were trained as messengers and enemy detectors whilst others became Mercy dogs on the battlefield. Carrying medical supplies in a box attached to them, these brave canine soldiers sought out the wounded and dying. Sitting besides the bloodied men, their cries merged as one.

     Americans didn’t use dogs, until they discovered a stowaway on board one of their ships. That dog, ‘Sergeant Stubby’ became the most highly-ranked and decorated service dog in military history. Around a million of these dogs died in action.

     The war was not only being fought on the ground, but up in the sky where pigeon ‘spies’ flew between France and Britain and frontline trenches. Strapped to them were messages, vital to the soldiers. These amazing birds (100,000 of them and probably more) fought the enemy falcons, released by the Germans in the battle of the sky. These birds of prey could bring the pigeon spies down when all else failed.

     And so this bloodiest of wars, with a total loss of more than 9 million soldiers, not counting civilians and the animals that supported them, ended at 11 o’clock in the morning of the 11^th day of the 11^th month in 1918.  But for the animals, their war was far from over.

     The National Archives in Kew, London, tell a sad tale of thousands of animal ‘soldiers’ left behind at the end of the war, in the hands of Belgian and French butchers. The same thing happened after Wcess Royal, unveiled the Animals in War Memorial in Hyde Park, London. This was designed by an English sculptor to commemorate the animal soldiers that served and died under British Military command, throughout history.

At the going down of the sun, we will remember them.W2. Churchill was furious when he heard of their plight and arranged for their safe return home.

     In November 2004, Princess Anne, the Prin