Tuesday, 23 April 2024

We used to rescue animals.

Last week I wrote a blog post "Thinking about getting a pet!" and I said that if we did get one it would have to be a rescue one as all the pets I had as a child and teenager were rescued. There is a story behind every one of them and I thought they were stories worth telling.

animals on a farm

The first animal I remember my dad rescuing was a pony that we named Chips as we already had a pony called Scampi and we had a thing about matching names. My dad rescued her from being slaughtered. The person who owned her wanted rid as he was short on money, he said to my dad if you get a trailer to get her you can have her for £30 which at the time was still an amazing price. It was a mad dash but we saved her after the drama of finding our trailer with a puncture and having to borrow one. She was beautiful to look at but imagine a horse with PMS. That was her, she bit, kicked, galloped off with me on her back, threw me off (no wonder the guy wanted rid) but I did love her.

My brother and I rescued a dog. We lived on a farm in a pretty rural area. The nearest house to us was a 20 minute walk so when we saw a dog tied to a nearby gate we thought it was strange especially as we knew the farmer who owned the field and he didn't have a Springer Spaniel. My dad went and asked him if he knew anything about it an he said it had been there since early that morning. My brother and I took the poor thing some water and food and gave it a stroke and it was friendly. We carried on our day and went and checked if it was still there just as it was getting dark and it was and we decided then to take it home. My mother said she was having nothing to do with it but my dad rang around a few people he knew and spoke to the police and they said if no one comes forward to claim it, just keep it and we did and Judy became part of our family.

My dad had a skip hire business and all the yards that had wagons had guard dogs. We had a fantastic one, Rocky! He was very scary unless he knew you. One time a few guard dogs escaped from their yards and got a little carried away and one had pups. Most of the pups were sold but the runt of the litter was going to be disposed of so my dad took it in, hoping it would be a good guard dog. It wasn't! It would be more likely to lick you to death than scare away any intruders. He ended up being called Mouse. After a year or so he was retired as a guard dog and moved onto the farm where he spent his time being best friends with the cows.

Millie the Border Collie was brought home by my dad. He had been somewhere and saw someone mistreating a dog. He had words and the person told him take the dog if you want it so he did. She wasn't a trained sheep dog but could herd the sheep without any instruction. He came home with Muffy the kitten when a farmers cat had too many kittens and some were going to be disposed of. Our older cat was not too pleased and always looked at Muffy like she was a disgrace to the family. She was a menace and if she could get into any trouble she would. lol

My dad used to buy race horses, calm them down and then sell them on as normal horses. His friend had the same idea but had no idea about how highly strung race horses are. This guy was at a loss what to do with these horses so my dad took them in. They were nutcases but were left in a field to calm down for a year and then turned into the nicest of horses. They were given new names with their new attitudes. Rosy and Red. One went on to do pretty well in show jumping competitions and the other was the first horse for a teenage girl.

My mother had the patience of a saint! Have you ever heard the saying you might use when you ask where someone is and they say "gone to see a man about a dog" you never really knew with my dad, whether he would come back with a dog, cat or horse. hehehe

Have you ever rescued any animals?

7 comments :

  1. It sounds like you had quite a menagerie growing up! We had two dogs and during lockdown we had a hamster.

    #MMBC

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  2. I loved reading this, how fantastic to rescue all those animals, especially the horses!

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  3. Our current dog, Malone, is a rescue and our family dog before him, MudLynn was a rescue as well. My daughter would rescue all the horses she could if she had a piece of property and unlimited income to take care of them.

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  4. I'm so happy I read this post. I love everything you said and all your stories.

    I rescued a hamster, bought one which was going to be killed, even our cats were rescued. For me the options would be either rescue or pedigree with great background from a well-known breeder. So, with an exception (a dog from a backyard breeder who nearly died as a puppy, but I had no experience with dogs at that point and didn't realise he was sick when I bought him), I only had rescued (literally taken from the street, not an organisation) or pedigree (his parents were European champions).

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  5. I just clicked over to read about your life in the country. What an amazing place to grow up. Who needs electricity...ha, ha! We have always had "rescue" dogs and cats. There are so many stray animals in the southern US.

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  6. Wow! You and your family rescued so many animals, that's wonderful! Years ago when my eldest was 9 we moved to our current house which has a small outdoor space. We kept our promise and got a rescue dog-it was a fox terrier. Sadly it wasn't a good experience at all as the previous owner must have mistreated him. He didn't like to be patted and he bit my son and mum. I wanted to take him back to the RSPCA but my husband and son wouldn't hear of it. He was with us for about 2 years and then he ran away and got hit by a car.

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  7. I love this! You rescued a lot of animals. Do you miss living on a farm? What a lovely way to grow up.
    We have rescued dogs, and of course our Brucey babes is one of them and he's just the best. It's very rewarding. xx

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