Pauline’s page Dear Friends,


What a mixture of highs and lows the past few months have been. The orphan season swung into action with badger cubs and fox cubs all arriving at the same time. The cubby hole was very busy for nearly two months with several small cubs arriving over a long period and because of the drought, we are again looking after very small cubs that have found life very difficult. They are coming in severely dehydrated and incredibly thin. I think we will all welcome some rain when it comes as life has been very hard for the wildlife.


It was a shock to all of us when Simon discovered that Rocky, his Great Dane, had died in his sleep. There had been no clue of him being ill, a nice way for him to go but Simon was devastated. I must admit Rocky was a bit like having a Shetland pony in the house but we all loved him.


Easter was very busy and visitors were able to see both badger and fox cubs. It seems that since then, the hours in the day have never been enough and I do apologise for those of you that follow my blog that I just haven’t got around to it. I promise to be back with it again soon.


We had another tiny goat kid brought in to the centre having fallen off the cliff at Brean Down. He had a broken leg which has not healed properly although he still uses the leg to scratch with. Mr Tumnus, as he has been called, now has a Jacob ram lamb called Domino as a friend. No


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doubt they will both be popular with the visitors on open weekends.


Sadly we have lost our beautiful Kestrel, Amber and also Windy, the Barn Owl. Both of these birds worked so hard at talks and collections, helping us promote the work that we do and to teach people about our birds of prey.


Amber was hatched in 1998 so has lived a long life in captivity. She was a cruelty case having been taken from the nest by children who kept her in a canary cage for nearly six months until taken by the RSPCA. Unable to go back to the wild, she spent the remaining years of her life here at Secret World with our bird handlers ensuring that she had a happy and safe life. I am sure she and Windy have saved the lives of many other birds by teaching people about how the best way to see wildlife is in the wild.


I made a huge mistake of buying a black Labrador hoping she would worm her way into Simon’s affections. We ‘share’ her, with my share being the vet bill, doing the feeding and clearing up the puddles (which thankfully have now almost stopped). She is in her terrible teens at the moment and believes that the shop in reception is an endless supply of toys to play with. She has already cost me £25 in soiled goods!! Everyone now knows that if the toy has a price ticket on it, it needs to be confiscated as soon as possible ! She loves it when Simon takes her to the beach or the


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