Welcome to the Mad House.

Hi, Its good to meet you dear reader, let me introduce myself and the rest of the mad house you will find lurking in these pages ready to attack your unsuspecting toes.

My name is Nikki, and I love animals – I always have from a very young age, a trait that was whole-heartedly encouraged by my equally soft-hearted father. It all started in the normal way, with a host of hamsters padding softly through our home, followed as I grew by the larger animals such as Guinea Pigs, Rabbits, and Cats… Although some of these are no longer with us, their stories may well end up sneaking in here from time to time for your laughter or tears.

There have been brief periods of time throughout my thirty something years where out of necessity I have been forced to live in a petless house, but even then, I normally found a way around it by “adopting” the local stray, or playing with whichever neighbourhood moggy happened to cross my path.

Approximately 10 years ago, I had a fateful meeting with one such neighbourhood kitty. I was sitting on the lawn in front of the house with a friend of mine, discussing generalities and putting the world to rights as was our want on a lazy summer evening – when out of the blue, this tiny black streak went hurtling past us with Toby, the local border collie, in hot pursuit. My friend and I looked at each other, and a look passed between us that if we should hear any sort of sounds of distress, we were going straight after the pair to ensure that Toby didn’t get too enthusiastic with the tiny kitten he had been chasing.

We were just starting to get worried by the silence, when Toby burst from the bushes as if the hounds of hell themselves were after him – imagine if you can, the surprise on our faces when a moment later the reason for his headlong flight appeared – yes, you guessed it, that self same tiny kitten had turned the tables on a dog more then eight times her size and was now chasing HIM across the estate.

Little did I know at the time that this fluffball would end up playing a huge part in my life just about a year further down the line, and infact, still lords it over the household to this day. That tiny kitten, was in fact my own dear Izzy, and how she became mine is a story for another blog.

Also in our mad house, is my ever loving, extremely indulgent, and very understanding husband, John. Who quite frankly will let me get away with pretty much anything, and can normally tell just from the look in my eyes when we enter a pet shop or shelter, if he will be gaining yet another housemate. I can’t express how much I love the man, who despite having his own reservations about some of our housemates, has good naturedly agreed to me having them anyway.

As well as Izzy, who is undoubtedly queen of the roost, we currently have two rabbits (Blackberry and Daisy, a bonded couple), eleven guinea pigs (Diva, Divine, Todd, Toffee, Hannah, Ginger, Honey-Lemon, Nutmeg, Midnight, Lucy, and Lulu), Twelve rats (Spot, Splat, Splotch, Ruby, Liquorice, Cariad, Precious, Blue, Luna, Maggie, Thelma and Louise), fourteen degu’s (Dilbert, Pinky, Dribble, Bag, Dougie, Squeak, Stitch, Titch, Pancake, Donut, Big Mama, Sweetie, Cupcake, Darling), three gerbils (Spatchcock, Ginger and Cinnamon), three ferrets (Taz, Dooky and Shadow), and two hamsters Cohnan (Syrian) and Marvin (Chinese).

You will also “meet” in these pages some of the precious babies that we have lost over Rainbow Bridge, including our guinea pig friends Patch, Nibbles, Fluff,  Fudge, Tinker, Daisy, and Amy.  Brambles, my dwarf lop rabbit,  her boyfriend Jasper, and our netherland dwarf grump Lola, our gerbils Mungo, Jerry and Honey, as well as a whole host of little hamsters including Aleksandr and Sergei who were the first of our welsh pets, and then finally, our rat babies, including Tess, my half blind albino rat, and her sister Lola (grey and white) to name but a few (if you want to know more about any of our animals, check out the relevant pages on our main site).

I think that is enough about us for now, but dear reader, if you are still with us here, maybe you will come back soon, and see what other tales (or should that be tails) I have added about our somewhat eclectic family.

See you soon.