"Hello, I believe you might be interested in an
Iguana?"
"Not especially
but I know a man who is, want me to get in touch with him?"
"Yes
please"
This is
basically how we came to be doing the work we do - we have to blame our Vet, an
Owl sanctuary and some friends for starting us off in this way. We have always
had a love of animals and in particular Owls and Snakes and coupled to that a
love of communicating (OK, Chatting) and making new friends and contacts that
we soon found that we had a skill in helping people make informed decisions
about what sort of animal suits a person.
After
finding homes for a a few animals it was recommended that we get in touch with
the RSPCA and see if it would be worth getting approval which we did and
got.
Very soon after
this we get another call from the vet asking if we can take a small lizard that
has come through Speke airport in someones luggage. "No probs" says us. "Good"
says the Vet - "oh by the way, the BBC want to film it, byeee". (click, dial
tone......) bugger!
We had a full day filming with the crew from "Rolfs
Animal Hospital" and what a great day it was. towards the end of the day the
producer asked us what we call ourselves and up to this point we thought we
were just Gary and Jane but she emphasised that we are an animal sanctuary - we
only had about 15 animals in at the time - so it was from the Beeb that we
decided that, well after all we are a sanctuary. What a surprise!
From our
short spell on the TV (a full 5 minutes) we became inundated with phone calls
from owners who for a multitiude of reasons wanted to get rid of an animal - as
you can well imagine!
After a while things started to get a bit cramped where we
were. This was probably due to living in a 3 bedroom semi in the suburbs of
Chester (with very tolerent neighbours). So we thought long and hard and
decided to sell everything we had and buy somewhere with a bit of land in North
Wales.
Phase
2
We found an ideal location about 4 miles out of Ruthin and plunged in
head first! It is on a tiny road up a mountain and it is a semi derelict
cottage with half an acre of land. Now imagine yourself in this position, Its
January, You are moving into somewhere in th middle of nowhere, there is no
heating, the windows are held in by bath sealent, the roof is tin sheets and
you have nearly 70 animals, half of which need heating and lighting, to move
from one house to another in a day! Oh, and ourselves and family as well. If
anyone says moving house is stressful they should try this lark!
After the
initial move we had the summer to build avieries, reptile room, tortoise
enclosure and terrapin pond. Oh, and the windows.
Remember that all
these critters need attention every day while all this is going on. We hate it
when someone says "did you see such and such on tv the other night?" because we
dont get to sit down and relax until at least 10pm every day.
Where next?
>>>>
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