Pet Portraits and Wildlife Art

As promised some pics from my display, I was slighty disappointed (more than a little actually) that I didn't have more portraits to cover the walls. It seems I will need to get some more example portraits sorted out for future displays! More work!

Anyway, when we got home it turned out to be quite a nice afternoon so we all went out to play in the garden

And as you can see Willow and her football took centre stage. Willow is obsessed with football, she has 3 and carries them around with her everywhere just on the off-chance someone somewhere will throw it for her. She has lost them in hedges, in the wood and in the boot of the van due to her inability to be parted from her torn and chewed piece of rubber! She has now taken to following me relentlessly and dropping it on my feet to ensure I notice she wants to play!

I also thought I'd show you all the silver version of the appenzellar you met yesterday (here is one of the Elvis' as well)

And then I wandered around the garden and actually realised for the first time that at least 2/3 of our pets are rescued either because animals and birds have been dumped on us, were facing death or because we took pity on them! The 3 chickens above are from 36 we rescued from an egg laying farm in the Hendre in Wales. After a year of prolific laying hens are usually slaughtered because they lay less, they still lay mind you and we get an ample supply from them. We travelled quite some way to get a few but found they had 10,000 birds about to be replaced so we threw the bird cages on the back seat and rammed as many as we could into the boot of our car as well. It did turn out to be a very messy business but these hens have repaid us dividends by laying well and mowing the orchard!!! When we collected them, most were bald and looking quite poorly, in fact a few did die from poor health but the rest are now happy bunnies and run around in the orchard all day long.

Then we have Pierre (at the front). He was about to end up on a dinner plate, we were assured he was female, alas it was untrue and now he is embroiled in a torrid ménage à trois with George and Mildred. He has tried unsuccessfully for 3 years to part them but they have eyes only for each other and even with the addition of several other 'spare' females, he is uninterested and insists on trying to lure Mildred away (grey and white goose) much to George's annoyance and he manages to give Pierre a hefty peck every now and then to put him in his place. Pierre got his name as he is half Toulouse Utility so we said he was a bit french!

We've also gained 6 speckled sussex hens from a lady who was getting divorced and had too little time for them, they are lovely birds but don't actually lay so now we know why she gave up on them! Still we've kept them for a few years and I'm sure they are relieved to know they won't face the chop!

You've all met Willy the chocolate dutch rabbit, he was ordered from a pet shop by a lady who wanted a pair but then didn't want the male, he was left in the shop all alone with no friend for over 6 months until we popped in one day.... the rest they say is history!

I could go on and on with a story for each pet we own but I wonder what happens to all those other little pets that become too much of a hassle, I hope there are plenty of other softies like me out there that keep taking them in because the thought of what happens to them if they aren't so lucky just makes me feel just so sad.

If you like my work please take the time to leave me a comment or become a follower. If you would like to win a pet portrait of your dog, cat, horse or any other pet please see my new competition. The competition has closed for this year but there will be a new one in 2010. Join in the fun and vote for this year's winner by following the links here.