The Animals

Guanacos

Guanacos may be rare in the UK but they are plentiful in their native South America and are members of the Camelid family.

Unlike the alpaca range of colours, the guanaco only comes in shades of brown. They are larger than an alpaca but smaller than their close descendant, the llama.

Our Guanacos are called Agnes, Winnie and Cathy from Mrs Brown’s boys, as they are all different shades of brown.

Donkey Bond

13 September 2017 was a game changer. A little grey and white miniature donkey popped into the world. When we arrived, his mean mummy was trying to kick him and refuse him access to the milk bar.

From experience, we know this can mean that the mum knows something is wrong with her baby and she knows it won’t survive.

As humans, we don’t give in so easily. It was now evening so we scooped the little fella up and brought him into the cosy farmhouse kitchen and prepared a warm bottle of alpaca milk.

Night shift followed with warm milk every 2 hours and Cilla, our Irish Wolfhound, offered him a source of warm cuddles and comfort.

As morning dawned, it was clear that this little fella was not weak. Mum still refused to feed him so we found ourselves with a super cute house guest. Best think of a name for him then.

Having Googled, silver haired legend, up pops Sean Connery. Perfect, Balnuith Sean Connery had arrived. John pipes up “that’s just silly, I’ll call him Bond” ………and so Donkey Bond was born!

The little fella stayed in the kitchen, enjoying his comfort and warm bottles. He believed he was a dog. Fortunately the dogs house trained him. He played with toys, clip clopped around the kitchen and generally had great fun.

Come December, the Christmas tree and all things sparkly became a source of entertainment, ultimately, decorations could only adorn above the Donkey Bond threshold.

In the New Year, our house guest had out stayed his welcome, if I’m honest, there may have been a smashed bottle of gin involved!

A deluxe igloo with straw bed was placed strategically outside the conservatory so he could still wait for his doggy pals to come out. This plan was somewhat flawed as Cilla would open the kitchen door for her long eared buddy. Donkey Bond then opened the dog food cupboard and a huge picnic would ensue.

Donkey Bond’s Garden Life was over when John found him running around the garden with his new designer jeans, stolen from the washing line!
Donkey Bond still thinks he is a dog and doesn’t like other donkeys, until Doris arrived. Young Doris came out of her trailer and instantly fell in love with Donkey Bond, she follows him everywhere…….and he hates it!

Irish Wolfhounds

Since my first encounter with a stunning Irish Wolfhound boy named Shamal, I never forgot the dream to one day have one of these magnificent hounds.

More than 20 years later, the dream was realised when Cilla Bark came crashing into our lives. My friend Hazel, at Hazianne Irish Wolfhounds, set me off on this challenging adventure.

Cilla is very funny, naughty and fabulous. She loves a party, especially the buffet, she may even be the inspiration behind the ‘All You Can Eat’ buffet strapline.

At our first show, the judge also deemed Cilla quite magnificent and awarded her Reserve Champion status which has qualified her for Crufts for life. Cilla views show days as a source of cocktail sausages and an opportunity to steal our friends’ lunches.

Cilla was soon joined by the much better behaved Dolly Barkin. The joy of seeing these amazing hounds galloping around the farm is heart warming but they do love a sofa and a little cosy at the kitchen AGA. Dolly loves showtime and was a prize winner at Crufts 2020.

In 2019 Cilla had a stunning litter of pups from Fran Barnbrook’s Bumble, of Bribiba Irish Wolfhounds.

Cilla never does things by halves, 10 amazing bundles of hard work popped out. They are all living their best lives in their fabulous new homes which brings us to Amy Winehound, who stayed on the farm and continues our Irish Wolfhound adventure.