Holly is the tiny Yorkie who has the personality of a lion and yaps at everything, including cars, cows, sheep and pheasants.

Then along came Barney, our fifth Great Dane. When the fourth died at 13, Terry said no more big dogs which is how we came to have Holly. Then in 2007 he was persuaded by our daughters to get another Dane, which is why we look ridiculous when we take them out walking together. As Barney is also younger than Holly and she bosses him about, he thinks he is only the same size of Holly. He is a harlequin Great Dane and looks like a fresian cow calf. However, he is very soft, Callie can do anything with him, it is just his size that can be intimidating.

There are a couple of grey and white kittens, William and Smog. They are not very adventurous at the moment (July 2010) as they are only 3 months old. However, I am sure they will eventually discover the delights of hunting for mice and rabbits then fetching them back to show us how clever they are!

Then we have the chickens. The original ones that we had for a number of years got killed by the fox in spring 2008. The replacement ones then got killed by the gamekeepers dog a few months later. So, we have some fancy black and white ones which the gamekeeper brought round as a peace offering. They have not been very productive egg wise (also due to the fact that a couple have turned out to be cockerels!), so we have now got another new batch of all different colors and varieties some speckled and some white hens. Once they are established, the guests' children are welcome to collect the eggs from the nesting box on the side of the chicken house. I am not sure if we will be allowing the chickens free range once again after the previous experience of the fox and the dog, so we will just have to see how it goes. For those of you who only buy free range eggs, you may or may not know, but chickens do not lay eggs once the weather has cooled. There are lots of months of the year that we get no eggs at all and have to buy feed for them. The only way to ensure year round production is to have them in a cabin with heating and light, which then, does not make them genuinely free range. Every year we have the wild ducks that live on the pond for a few months and then disappear.

The orphan lambs that are passed onto us by a farmer down at Scorton, sometimes they are just one of triplets that is just too much for the mother lamb to rear, appear in the spring. In the last few years we have done quite well at bottle rearing them and they grow to adulthood and then go back into the flock once a new lot are due to arrive. This last year though (2008) out of a dozen lambs over a few weeks, we managed to keep not one longer than 4 months. It was really disheartening to be bottle feeding and looking after these baby lambs only to have them die on us. Although I am told lambs and sheep have a tendancy to die for no particular reason and welcome to sheep farming.

For those of you that remember some of our other pets I will give you an update. Daisy our tabby cat died at the grand old age of 23. Considering that she was born to one of our original cats, that was one heck of a hole when she died.

Tom the stray that came to stay, died mysteriously in spring 2008. He was a lovely ginger cat with a beautiful tail and loved saying hello to the guests. He was sick on the Friday, a bit quiet on the Saturday and died very early Sunday morning before I was due to take him to the vets on the Monday.

The white duck that lived on the Old Stables pond died summer 2008, possibly of old age as we had him quite a few years. The large ugly, but tame. The Muscovy duck that we had, called Vasco, unfortunately, got reversed over by one of the joiners who was working on the new cottages. It was an accident and the joiner was quite upset about it!

Rascal, the little dog that we got from the dog rescue that loved chasing the balls, went to live with Janet the artist. She got a bit grumpy and I could never really trust that she would'nt bite, so it was safer to let her go and live with someone without little children and where she would be the centre of attention.

Baa, our first lamb that I found on the lane whilst out walking years ago, had to be sent away. He grew into a full Ram although he thought he was a dog. When he was out in the field you just called his name and he would come running, unfortunately he would'nt stop and he wanted to play and have his head scratched. Whilst he was very friendly and tame, a few of the guests children would go into the field with him despite being asked not to. So, as a result, before someone got hurt, he had to go. One of the consequences of guests doing their own thing!

Dana, the huge harlequin Great Dane died at the old age of 13. Her back legs went and although we managed for a couple of weeks by lifting her onto her legs, eventually the vet had to be called. Rather amazingly, she was replaced a few weeks later by Holly the tiny Yorkshire Terrier! (Terry's idea!)

The pond in the side garden of the Old Stables contains quite a few large fish, but it is frequently the target of a visiting heron. Whilst I love seeing and feeding all the other birds in the gardens, this bird is not welcome, so feel free to aim something in his direction!

You will see lots of pheasants during your stay. Typically, the males are the fancy multicoloured ones with the large tail feathers. The females are rather dull in comparison. From the end of July they are released from the breeding pens in the surrounding woods. There are quite a few local shoots in this area and the pheasants are reared in their thousands by the gamekeepers that are employed full time by the syndicate members. When they are released, many live to survive another year, although quite a few do get knocked down and killed on the lanes. Particularly in the autumn when the acorns have blown down from the oak trees onto the road, they just stand there eating the nuts and seem almost suicidal. Occasionally you will see a pure white pheasant. These are not meant to be shot and the penalty for doing so can be £50 minimum or pay for the drinks for the whole of the shoot!

On the bird tables and nut holders in the gardens are many varieties of birds including the Greater Spotted Woodpecker, which can also be heard drumming away. They live in the big oak tree at the end of the tennis court and in the dead tree in the other field. There are blue, long tailed, coal and great tits in abundance. Nuthatches, siskins, wrens, bullfinches, chaffinches, green and gold finches. Swallows, house martins and swifts all come back from their tropical holidays year after year and still manage to find somewhere to nest even if it is in the garage or up in the eaves of the roof. We seem to have acquired a resident sparrow hawk. It has decided that the bird table in front of my house and the Piggeries is a self service buffet! It waits under the cover of the climbing roses and even rather cheekily on the rail under my front porch! Then it swoops onto whichever unsuspecting little bird is feeding at the table and that's it, lunch sorted! But word has spread, the birds are definately giving my feeding table a wide berth, something will have to be done! At night there are bats swooping around and the occasional owl can be heard and seen sitting on the rooftops. There has always been buzzards in the area, but this year they seem to have been about a bit more and you can hear them mewing as they are gliding over.

In the field we have hares. This past year the field looked so lovely covered in buttercups that we did'nt have the grass cut. As a result the wildlife in there seems to have really prospered. It is normal when driving up through the field in the evening, to have rabbits running for cover. Best of all, the deer have got braver. They usually would walk along the side of the field so they could jump into the woods quickly, now they walk in the gardens of the cottages or across the field making it easy to see them. Morning or dusk is the usual time to see them. Depending on the time of year, they can be a lovely red colour or a dull brown, but it is normally the white bottoms that you see moving first!