Hi, it's Megan-Leanne's little Animate helper-here again!

On Sunday the 16th of May, i walked some dogs with Leanne. The dogs were called Bonny and Betsy.  We walked up the road and saw some rabbits - Bonny used to chase them, but she's too old now.  Betsy runs along the road with us - she doesn't need a lead on.  On the way back, Bonny sped up because she knows that she gets food when she gets back home!  When we got back we fed them and gave them a chew afterwards.  We had to put some cream on Bonny too, because she has a problem with her skin.

Well, what a week last week was!  I think i've travelled the length and breadth of Britain in a week without even leaving Teesdale!

Here's a brief 'day in the life' of an animal minder!

7:30am - Horses at Ingleton

8:45 - Alpacas at Copley

9:45 - Cats at Woodland

10:30 - Dogs at Newbiggin

11:10 - Farmwork at Eggleston

1pm - Walk dog near Barney

2pm - Walk dog in Barney

(Sit down for a few minutes!)

4:30 - Cats at Woodland

5pm - Alpacas

6pm - Visit a new customer

8pm - Dogs at Newbiggin

9pm - Home!!

Phew!  Now, i do have to say that not every day is like that!  Sometimes i only have a couple of things to do in a day, so it really is a case of being flexible and taking the ups with the downs.  But even though i am exhausted after a week like the one above, and barely get chance to see any humans during that time (!)  I love the variation and the animals and i feel very honoured that people are happy to trust me with their homes and animals! 

Well, Whizz has produced her foal!  She had a little filly who is now a few days old and despite her mothers' persistant galloping and naughty antics, she arrived happy and healthy and is a cheeky little squealy thing!

Once i get my new phone sorted, i'll try and put a picture on here of mother and foal!

I'm hopefully going to be taking a lamb up to Deerbolt visitors centre over the Easter holidays!  It'll be a little bit of amusement for the kids - many of whom come from very urban areas and have never come up close to one of the animals we take for granted in this area. If it happens, we'll try and get a picture in the Mercury.

That's all for now - busy easter hols!

Hi, i'm Megan.  I'm 10 years old and i help Leanne out with Animate sometimes when i'm not at school.

Last week we walked Storm and Roxy to Grassholme reservoir.

We walked along the road a bit and then went down to the reservoir.  I walked over the cattle grid and Leanne took the dogs through the gate so they didn't get their legs stuck in the cattle grid!

Leanne let me walk Roxy for a while, because she is smaller than Storm, and wouldn't pull me over!  When we walked over the bridge, Roxy kept chasing the stones that we kicked.  The bridge was fun and you could see where the water went from the reservoir.

It was fun!

 Phew..end of lambing time for me!  I've been doing nights for the last couple of weeks and it catches up with you after a while..especially when there's other work to do all morning too!  A lot of big lambs this year - they took some...encouraging to come out - poor sheep! Thankfully lambing time coincides with a quiter time of year for me, so i can fit it all in.  BUT, then comes Easter and the animal minding fun and games start again!

Staying on the birth theme; i'm helping some customers with their horses at the moment, and several of them are in foal.  One of them (aptly maned 'Whizz') is due in the next couple of days, but does she walk quietly into the field, feeling delicate and well, heavy?! Nope.  She does not!  She barely gives you chance to get the headcollar off and then she's off down the field, 100 miles an hour, mud flying everywhere, until tea time, when she's calmly back at the gate again...mad!

There must be something in the air, because i was on Luke, my fat, hairy pony the other day, when he decided he'd had enough of this excersize lark and promptly jumped a barbed wire fence!!  Thankfully, he managed to clear it (so no excuses for any jumping competitions in the future!) and everyone was fine. So i'll end this blog the way i started...phew!