Our backyard is purpose-built to be filled with gorgeous, feathery, clucky chooks. I’ve been dropping hints to Billy Goat about how useful they are because they provide eggs and are fertilizing machines. Plus the kids were already in love with Florence and Myrtle – a couple of hens living at their cousin’s. Billy Goat was blind (or deaf) to my subtle hints, but finally figured that the kids might want pets when they wrote him a not-so-subtle letter. So with that we took a trip to the local animal shelter and selected a….rabbit. OK, the chook-convincing still needs work, but we’ve made progress on the pet front.

It didn’t take long to choose from the four that were available – one was white with red eyes, a temper, and totally freaked out the youngest knuffle kid. Peter Rabbit, however, was a chilled out creature that had been found in a park in the middle of the CBD. He happily hopped about while the paperwork was completed, and as a new name was negotiated and agreed. Tommy.

Tommy likes beetroot leaves, mint, and running under the house and into the front yard. There may not be any eggs, but there is plenty of fertilizer. And as for the chickens – well they’re compatible with rabbits – aren’t they?

xx Nanny Goat