I have never really understood when the humans say that. I mean the wet stuff is pouring out of the sky, so it is raining. I don’t like the rain and other than the ducks here at the sanctuary none of us do. If it is raining, we would much rather have breakfast in bed and stay there until it stops. Sometimes the humans make us go out into our fields so they can clean our bedrooms, but we just go into our field shelters and have a meeting and sulk. We discuss how we are going to make twice as much mess that night to get them back for making us go out – hee hee.
Anyway, back to the point. I have come to learn recently that this phrase “It never rains but it pours” has two meanings. The volunteer humans have been saying it a lot recently. On one hoof they mean the weather has been very wet. They come to the sanctuary to look after us dressed from head to toe in coats, waterproof trousers, hats, gloves, and boots. I don’t know why they don’t just get a rug like we wear. They are funny but we are very grateful that they come and give us cuddles even though they are all soggy. I try to lick the rain off them, but they aren’t keen. I don’t know why!
On the other hoof the phrase apparently means lots of things are happening all at once. George the cat tells me that he overhead the volunteers talking when they had a tea break. I don’t know exactly what that is, but they seem to have a lot of them!
They said there was a quiz night a little while ago to raise money for the sanctuary. I asked George what a quiz was, and he said it is where the humans laugh a lot, cheer a lot and ask each other questions to win a prize. The only kind of competition I know about is popping over jumps to win a rosette. George says he thinks they might have done this too.
Anyway, he says the quiz was a great success and everybody enjoyed it and that there was food and a raffle. He said they raised lots of money for the sanctuary, so I am expecting lots of carrots and George, and his cat friends are waiting on a fish delivery any day now.
The most exciting news for us is that we recently welcomed four new pony friends.
Two of them are my old pals Hamish and Hogan. They have been here before. They went to another home for a long time but unfortunately, they have had to come back because the lady who had them couldn’t keep them anymore. That is sad because the lady, and Hamish and Hogan were quite upset.
However, H&H as we call them, know everyone here and we are cheering them up. The volunteers are pleased to see them again and making a big fuss of them – I hope my carrot rations won’t be affected!
Then there are the two new Shetland ponies. They are called Annie and Woody and are very sweet. Annie says they are 23 years old so a bit older than me. Their owner is elderly - older than 23 I think - and needs to know they are going to have a forever home into their old age.
They miss their owner but do love it here and have made friends with their neighbours Charlie and Gussie who have made sure they know about breakfast in bed if it rains and pours!
Now we had some very sad news when one of my very best friends passed away before Christmas. It was Starsky the donkey! We all loved him, and he has been here with us for such a long time with his brother Hutch. It just seems strange to not see him. Hutch misses him very much, but we are all looking after him. The volunteers are making sure we are all OK and we get extra cuddles – especially Hutch. I don’t even mind if Hutch gets my carrot rations.
Christmas was a bit sad without Starsky, but we made the best of it and the volunteers made sure we had our presents, and we each got a gingerbread man in our dinner which was yummy.
Puck the pig told me he had a get together with the other pigs after the humans had gone home one night and they have decided to write their Christmas lists early this year to make sure they get everything they want. They were a bit disappointed last year when they didn’t receive the tickets to Peppa Pig World, but they are sure it is because there wasn’t enough time for the Christmas postage.
Well, I had better get back to hiding in my stable in case they think I want to go out in the pouring rain!
Thank you to everyone who supports us at the ABC and have a Happy New Year from all the animals… and humans too.
Love from
Buddy the Shetland – 17 and half years old!
