‘Come out of there you silly cow!’ I said politely. But the cow just stared rudely.

      I spotted her in a pond near our home for waifs and strays earlier today. The thought that she was perhaps planning a water birth, suddenly crossed my mind. 'Are you having a water birth?’ I said, joking, of course! She just snorted through her nose at me and continued to stare.

      So I reached for my camera that was, as usual, hanging around my neck and click. ‘Got you!’ I said excitedly. ‘Now come out of there before you get foot rot!’

      ‘It’s cooler in the water!’ The voice startled me but thankfully it didn’t come from the cow’s mouth. I turned around and saw a man holding a camera with an incredible lens (obviously a professional) smiling as if I had said something odd. I said very little, nodded at the cow and made a quick getaway.

      Later as I passed the pond again, there was no cow to be seen and for a moment my heart sank at the thought of it drowning. How stupid I was, to be intimidated by a man and his camera. Now the poor cow had probably drowned and it was my fault!

      I turned towards the car and came face to face, yet again, with the silly old cow that lived to tell the tale.

This is a quick little tale for James and Rufus x

Rufus looked out of the window to see what kind of a day it was. His ears pricked up when he saw the sun and his tail wagged wildly.

   ‘It’s a good day for a walk in the park or a run on the beach,’ he thought, so he ran down the stairs and sat by the front door. But nobody came. He had forgotten that everyone had gone off to work.

     Rufus’s tail stopped wagging and his fluffy white ears flopped like a frown. What would he do now?

      He went into the kitchen and saw his usual dish of food and a bowl of water next to it. Yuk, he had gone off that food and refused to eat it. As he turned, Rufus noticed a cat looking at him through the window. He barked. A squeaky sort of yappy bark and the cat just watched him. Rufus had seen a similar cat before, a much fatter cat than this one. Then he had an idea.

      Rufus ran all the way back up the stairs to the attic. He put his paws on the window ledge and looked down at the roof. ‘I can climb down there,’ he thought and chase that cat out of my garden!’

       With one big leap, Rufus jumped out of the window and landed on the roof.  But poor Rufus slide over the tiles, desperately tring to hold on with his claws. He came to a stop, just before falling onto another roof below.

        ‘Phew, that was a close one!’ he said. His heart was beating fast, like a drum in his ears. Then he saw the cat.

         ‘I’m coming to get you,’ Rufus said and jumped onto the second roof. This time more gracefully than before.  ‘I’ll get that cat one way or another!’

         But when Rufus saw the cat something was different. It looked thin, thinner than any cat he had ever seen before. It was almost too weak to move. He couldn’t possibly chase an old cat that was starving, could he?

         The cat looked up at Rufus and managed a hiss. ‘Do that again,’ said Rufus,’ and I will chase you. It was no fun chasing a lazy cat. Feeling bored, Rufus decided to go back into the house. This isn’t going to be easy, he thought, looking up at the roof. Suddenly, the cat got up and jumped onto a table then onto the roof. Rufus pricked up his ears and followed him.

       The old cat climbed up the roof to the open window and jumped in while Rufus struggled to get up the tiles. He kept slipping and sliding and was worn out by the time he got to the top. The cat was waiting for him.

        ‘Thank you,’ said Rufus, ‘you showed me how to get back in!’ The cat lay down on the carpet and yawned. Rufus had an idea.

         ‘Follow me!’ he shouted to the cat and ran down the stairs with his tail wagging. ‘You can eat that!’ he said and tapped the dish of food with his paw.

         The old ginger cats eyes were wide open and his nose began to twitch. His tummy rumbled at the sight of food. ‘Well eat it then!’ said Rufus and the cat ate every bit.

          Later that day when the family came home from work, they were amazed to see Rufus and the old cat sleeping together on a rug.

           ‘It’s old Mrs Peppercorns cat,’ said the lady, ‘but now she has died I think we ought to give him a home.’ And that is what they did.

            And so the advenures began. Tomorrow he would slip out of the window again and this time he would go to the park on his own!

What a night! Driving home in the rain after a late shift on the ward, I suddenly realised how dark it was when a cow appeared from nowhere, in front of my car. Thank heavens, I stopped in time. With my heart racing, I sat listening to the flip flop of the windscreen wipers, whilst searching the darkness for anymore animals. That is when I saw them.

      Hundreds (so it seemed) of juvenile frogs, on their first trip away from home. As usual, they wait for the rain to come to prevent drying out. I prayed in that moment, that no other cars would come. But one did and I had no choice but to squeeze my eyes shut and wait.

       With only the lights of the car, I picked up a few of these incredible creatures. For many, it was too late. I wondered if any of them had come from our home for waifs and strays.

        My journey home was endless. My eyes scanned the road in front of me, avoiding the Army of frogs. Then back at our home for waifs and strays, I stopped besides the pond and listened to the sound of heavy plops as frogs jumped into the water. They were safe! At least for the time being!

 Recruiting for the First World War was something pigeons, cats, dogs, horses and even slugs and glow worms, were not prepared for, but thousands played a huge part in the war efforts and many were awarded medals.

     500,000 cats left Britain to work in the trenches as ratters with some being employed to detect gas. I can imagine, that many a man welcomed these creatures when stress levels were higher than most of us could ever imagine.

      Over 8 million horses died during the First World War, many on the front line.  The book/film ‘War Horse’ tells a tale of what life was truly like for those brave animals during this Great War.

       I guess many of you will be surprised (as I was) to discover that the slippery garden slug played his part too. A very important part at that! You see, every animal tested by the Army to detect gas, failed, with the exception of our slug! Exposed to mustard gas, the slug closes its breathing aperture, so protects his lungs. They were recruited and sent to war!

       To help them read their maps before going over the trenches, soldiers used Glow worms to guide them. How amazing is that?   

       And then there were the soldier dogs. Some were trained as messengers, others walked with the soldiers to warn them of approaching enemies and we have the ‘Mercy dogs’ that were trained to seek the wounded and dying on the battlefield. Many a Mercy dog sat beside a soldier as they died. The most decorated war dog in military history was known as Sergeant Stubby.

      Now I come to the paratroop pigeons or ‘spies’ as they were often called. These amazing birds (100,000 of them) acted as messengers between France and England in the First World War. However, in World War 11, Paddy Pigeon number NPS.43.945, an Irish carrier was awarded the Dickin Medal for being the fastest pigeon to break the news of the success of the D-Day invasion. But they all deserve a medal, each and every one of them.

      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, despite the enormous effort of the Blue Cross, which was funded by the British public.

      The National Archives in Kew, London, tell a sad tale of thousands upon thousands of animal ‘soldiers’ that were left behind at the end of the war, in the hands of Belgian and French butchers. Churchill was furious when he heard of their plight and arranged for their safe return home.

I pray the sun shines on you all, wherever you are. 

“Her soul died that night under a radiant silver moon in the spring of 1918 on the side of a blood-spattered trench. Around her lay the mangled dead and the dying. Her body was untouched, her heart beat calmly, the blood coursed as ever through her veins. But looking deep into those emotionless eyes one wondered if they had suffered much before the soul had left them. Her face held an expression of resignation, as though she had ceased to hope that the end might come.”
― Helen Zenna Smith, Not So Quiet...

From the monsoon forests to the Blue Mountains of Jamaica, from Indonesia to Malaysia but missing out Antarctica and the Sahara desert, from Argentina, Brazil and Peru, to our home in Wales, you will find the symbol of Love, Peace and Harmony, known to most people as The Dove.

     Unlike many humans, they mate for life and share the responsibility of their young. Many of us have heard the male calling woo-hoo to the female and witnessed them build their nests quite openly.

      In Genesis 8:11, a biblical story tells the tale of Noah releasing a dove after the flood in the hope it would find land. This gentle bird came back with an olive branch and Noah knew that land was close by.

      They were the sacred animal of Aphrodite and Venus, and the goddesses of friendship and love. They also symbolized the peaceful soul for many cultures.

      So why, when Christians use Noah’s Dove as a symbol of peace and the Egyptians a symbol of quiet innocence and not forgetting the Greeks and the Romans who saw them as a representation of love, oh, and the Chinese a symbol of peace and long life, are these gentle living birds at risk of extinction? Perhaps it is because they are hunted or suffer because of loss of habitat or perhaps predators can take the blame, only time will tell!