A bit of History.........

I have had a long association with animals. I grew up with English Bull Terriers and Italian Greyhounds as the family dogs. Our cats were Burmese and Siamese. From as soon as I remember I knew that animals were going to be my life. I have spent my life working with animals and still continue to do so.

We Lived in Cape Town in the city. My parents had a farm about two hours north of Cape Town where every weekend and school holiday was spent. So I was very lucky to have the best of both worlds, the city as well as the opportunity to spend time as a "Farm Girl", feeding the pigs, rounding up cattle and sheep and searching for where the chickens had laid their eggs. Somedays we would ride for 3-4 hours searching for sheep that needed to be bought back for counting and medication.

Many moons ago I left school and went and did a "Stud Management Course", I then worked with Thoroughbred racehorses for the next 6 years. During this time I met D and fell in luurve. We then moved to a very remote part of South Africa and lived on a huge Game Reserve. I worked on the reserve putting together a mounted Game Ranger Patrol System. This entailed buying 22 horses and training 10 Game Rangers how to ride and care for their mounts. I was also responsible for the translocated Game. ( These are animals bought from other reserves where they are too many and relocated to our Reserve which was not at full capacity)

Over the period I lived there we introduced 22 Elephant, a pack of Wild Dogs and 14 rare Roan Antelope to the Reserve. This was the most amazing time. Living on a remote farm on a Game Reserve where at night the Lions would walk past the house. Daily problems at home included marauding Baboons and a nest of Mozambique Spitting Cobras.

My then Siamese "Sambuca" used to catch baby Black Mambas and eat them........... After this wonderful few years we returned to Johannesburg where I then started my work as a small animal Veterinary Nurse. So as you see my association with animals has ranged from Elephants to mice. I have been fortunate enough to make my passion my job. I cannot imagine a day when I don't have to get up and feed, water and care for four-footed friends.

We emigrated to Australia in January 2002 . I worked in Sydney as a Veterinary Nurse for a couple of years and then we moved to sunny Queensland. I still work as Veterinary Nurse and am fortunate to work at a lovely practice with amazing people. My boss has a special love for Greyhounds and does a huge amount of work for Rescue Organisations promoting Greyhounds as Pets. So this is how I got to love the Greys............every time a Grey comes in they are so trusting and easy to work with. I fell in love and it was not long before I began fostering Greys and then Adopting them!

PS - These photos are of me in my youth........aaah. Don't ya love the 80's "Punk Hair"

Si :-)