Sanctuary now and forever more Dec. 31, 2006

I ended the year in the only way possible – with the family – with the animals, all together at Brooks Mileson’s animal sanctuary. Brooks himself was looking good, back to health, hissing at Oscar the ostrich and fairly chucking carrots to the stand-off stags.

Being from the north-east Brooks was wearing little more than a t-shirt in the cold.

As well as the Shetland stampede, which would make any misery smile at the rollicking and frollicking, headbutting (they are pretty small) and charging about , as well as the parrots which heckled Hellos louder and louder as you walked away, as well as the funny monkey things and the pot-belly pigs et cetera et cetera et cetera (600 animals in all?) ... there was Misty, the white horse, returning to the land of the living despite the abuse she suffered at the hands of the clumsy, careless, hateful wankers that once housed her. She smiled for me with those eyes. Brooks is up at the crack of dawn to feed her.