My Family and Other Animals

My all time favourite book (and such a great title).

If I were half the writer Gerald Durrell was I would be very, very happy. His narrative is wonderfully descriptive, his observations fascinating and his love of life infectious. He truly would be my fantasy dinner companion.

Since I've started my blog I've been fortunate enough to come across some amazing story tellers including http://mrlondonstreet.blogspot.com/  http://domesticatedbohemian.blogspot.com/ and http://theviewfromthisend.blogspot.com/

(I know there is a better way to link to other blogs and when I find out how, I will use it, promise!)

I read lots of different blogs and probably spend far too much time doing it and I read them all for different reasons. Some make me laugh, some make me think and some completely captivate me and I can't wait for the next instalment.

It worries me that there are so many as yet, undiscovered (by me) blogs out there, I'm almost too scared to look.

Gerald and I share some similarities in our background. We both come from large, eccentric families with Mothers who cook and absent Fathers. We both shared a love of animals and solitude in our childhoods, no doubt being the result of living in said families.

The main differences between Gerald and myself (apart from the obvious) were that he was spent a large part of his childhood in Corfu whilst mine was spent in South Devon. He was home schooled where as I had the pleasure of Stevens Coaches to take me the hours bus ride to school up on Dartmoor, a perilous journey fraught with crashes, breakdowns and drivers that frankly wouldn't wouldn't stand a hope in hell of passing a CRB check these days!

I love my family, even more so now we are scattered around the globe and I love my animals because, well, they love me.

As I type I have a small furry black and white kitten named Bear curled up on my knee, purring like a mini Harley. Gus, My Border Collie is flat out on the floor, shattered after our trip to the park, one of the (many) good things about Border Collies is their herding instinct so, even though I'm reduced to a very slow hobble at the moment I can stand in the park holding a stick and say to Gus, 'round and round' and he will happily run in large circles around me while I occasionally throw the stick for him to retrieve. Thus, he is exercises with very little effort on my part.

I also have Tilly, my cat and new Mum tucked up in a box under the table with her three kittens snuggled up against her, what a good Mum she's turned out to be, I'm thinking of hiring her out as an example to some of the Mums I see in the park. One today had her two children strapped in a pushchair RIGHT NEXT TO THE SWINGS!! What kind of torture is that for a small child?

There she was, gossiping with a friend while her children sat there watching others run around having fun. When they started to complain she turned to them and said 'will ya shut up, I'm 'avin a fag'. Gus and I were half tempted to offer to play with them ourselves.

Upstairs is Figgy (the hamster) so called because he is small, round and full of fruit and nuts just like a figgy pudding.

I'm feeling slightly guilty now that while I can wax lyrical about my animals, my family hardly warrants a mention ….............. ok, I'm over it, after all, they aren't likely to read this are they? They may well have the odd cameo part in any future diary entries, then again, they may not. One thing you can be sure of, the animals almost certainly will!