Anyone who knows me knows that animals are at the top of my favorites list :-), after my Family of course. My first pet, when I was 3 years old, was a Maltese Terrier called Caesar. When I was almost 5 years old, we found a ginger cat called Fifi (a neighbour's cat) had had a litter under our house. Naturally, I wanted one, so our next addition to the Family was Puddles, named because he would put his wee paw into the bowl of milk, then made wee puddles on the cork tiles. And these two were the first of many pets to come. Unfortunately, there are few photos of me with any of my pets due to being camera-shy. I have an absolute truckload of all sorts of animals in my gallery, though.

Since my 'living at home' years, I have had several pets, including cats, dogs, an assortment of birds, pigs, tropical fish, rabbits & guinea pigs. I once had a wee kitten follow me home from the fruit & vege shop whilst living on Norfolk Island. After many trips trying to take the wee one back to the shop, the owner decided the kitten wanted to live with me! I named her Tiffany (after trying out the name 'Tiddles').

At one time, my aviary had around 50 birds (including babies, as I ended up breeding) a lot of the parent birds were rescues. At that same time, I had the guinea pigs, cat & dog. One of the guinea pigs, Maple, was a rescue & so was our dog, Snoopy. Throughout this time, I also babysat friends' pet cats & dogs. Once Snoopy passed away, I decided not to have any more pets due to losing more of myself with each pet, each time, but life had other ideas..... our daughters shouted a weekend away on my own for Mother's Day & I naturally came back with the resident motel cat that really wasn't being treated very well. The motel manager was due to retire & was concerned that 'Bill' would not survive well. Which brings me to the present. As I'm no longer in the workforce, this will mean I have more free time to spend with your little family members. I'm 63, have been married to my husband, Neville, for 29 years & we have two very competent, clever daughters who are both registered with Pawshake also. We moved to Ashburton from Rolleston, where we lived for 18 years. Thank you for taking the time to find out more about me & how competent or well-practiced I am at keeping pets company :-)