I haven't purchased animals for company for almost two decades.There is a lot of wildlife I interact with and other people's non-human pals.

The house is full of the most amazing spiders at the moment all trying to hook up with that 'special person'.

Before that I was brought up around and for a while lived with cats until I discovered my hay fever was actually an allergic reaction to cats. I only discovered this after I was forced to leave my last non-squished cat with my ex.

My dad paid for a Macaw to be sent to this chilly country when I was very young and after he died I looked after her.

She was great, used to pick off my buttons and try to mate with my feet sadly she became egg-bound and died around the same time I was hospitalised for some months. I got better but she didn't.

Knowing she was there if someone old died leaving a homeless budgie or other caged bird I was usually pressed into looking after them.

They were all little people with different shapes. Each of the creatures I have shared my life with but particularly the birds. I miss them but I can't possibly cope with keeping a bird in a cage again even with the open cage policy I had back then. Also my ex was very cruel to them when I left. It's all rather horrific.

Birds are meant for their native environment.

The starlings that nested in our roof were funny too, even if they did fill the house with tiny spiders... oh the mice in the shed loved them, they were lovely.

Life is cruel, everything should eat cake and be nice to everything else.