At the Guardbridge Hotel we are set back from the main road and in good weather it is always pleasant to relax outside, either in front of the hotel or in our Beer Garden.

Welcome to our pets, we are delighted to be able to share these with all our visitors and now you.

Although we call this section “Pets Corner” all these animals are actually our pets. We have 2 ducks, 2 miniature Shetland ponies, 2 dwarf lop eared rabbits and 2 pygmy goats.

We have George and Millie the Aylesbury ducks. George is 10 years old and is now an old man.

He and Millie have been together for almost 1 year and although Millie lays one egg most days we have not yet been fortunate enough to have any ducklings!

Fingers crossed for the future, watch this space.

The Pygmy Goats are Wallace and Simpson (Simpson is the white one). These brothers were born in July 2006 and are real time show offs.

Pygmy goats make the most amazing pets, these are the first goats we have kept and the love and fun they give us is amazing.

The boys love nothing more than getting their collar and leads on and going for a walk, they are very well behaved and walk like any pet dog on the lead

Goats love to climb so therefore we have provided them with a climbing frame which they adore.

We are delighted that at the end of this month Wallace and Simpson will be joined by Hamish and Harry another 2 Pygmy goats, half brothers to Wallace and Simpson.

These chaps will be 3 months when they join us and we are very excited at the addition.

In June 2007 we were very lucky to add Harry and Hamish to our Pygmy Goat collection.

These 2 young chaps have now made themselves at home and as each day passes they get more interested in becoming tame.

Wallace has made himself the Alpha Male of the group.

Sharing the paddock with Wallace and Simpson are Jasper and Bonnie, Dwarf lop eared rabbits.

Bonnie is currently 8 weeks old and only added to our family yesterday following the sudden death of Poppy.

Poppy is the silver coloured rabbit in many of these pictures and is sadly missed. However, Jasper is now happy as pie with his new friend and Bonnie is doing well.

The miniature Shetlands are Danny and Tiny Tim, both will be 3 years old this year.

These boys spend their days grazing in their paddock and again enjoy getting their head collars on and going for a walk over the old footbridge.

They, like all our pets are very tame and love the attention given to them - especially when you have a carrot or apple for them.

This is Solstace and Darcey, both 1 year old and half sister- born 2 days apart.

These girls are Palomino ponies and have settled in well with Timmy and Danny.

As well as all out door pets we have 2 Cocker Spaniels, Gynty and Topsy.

These are mother and daughter and are blue roan.

Again we have been very fortunate as these are superb girls and crave constant cuddles and attention. Gynty was Crufts qualified but neither of them see the show ring these days.

These girls enjoy their days indoors but are well known faces around the hotel.

The final of the pets is Alfie, a 6 month old Hans McAw Parrot.

These are the smallest of the parrot family and Alfie adores lying on his back and getting his tummy tickled.

He is trying to talk and is now saying a few words.

He is a character and a half and sometimes makes a guest appearance for our guests where he loves showing off.

This is Blossom, she brings so much love and fun to the herd. 

We are planning to breed her later on this year so keep watching for updates!

July 2007

Over the last few months we have been very busy extending our family.

Following the death of Poppy we introduced Bonnie to be Jasper's new mate. They are both
getting on great together and Bonnie has grown so much in such a short space of time.

We then decided that we would extend the duck family, so are delighted to tell you that we now have 8 Buff Orpington ducks, born May 2007.

As if that was not enough yesterday we bought 3 Roman Geese. Sadly, as yet these geese have not been sexed and as we re-homed them we are unable to say how old they are.

Anyway, they are a welcome addition to the pets’ corner. They are relatively tame but love to "hiss" at you to show they are the bosses, but they are great fun.

And if you’re lucky you can sometimes admire the wildlife in the River Eden which flows past the bottom of the garden!

Today there were swans and a heron but quite often you will see seals and otters too!

Web site design by Forth Business Systems