Children's Page

Animal life on The Apple Farm 

by Willem Traas

In the last newsletter I wrote about Bird- life on the farm. This time I will write about four-footed animals on The Apple Farm. 

Donkey: 

Janey is her name. She often roars loudly. She will have a baby next June. When it's grown up Mr. Gerry O'Looney from Cahir wants to buy it to keep his horses company. What is a baby donkey called I wonder? 

Goat: 

Our goat died last year. She is buried in the paddock. Her name was Judy and we got her from O'Connors pet shop near New Inn. She must have been the oldest goat in Ireland. She was 24 when she died. John Anthony Hally in Loughloher has a very old goat too. He often gives us hay. 

Bullocks: 

They are like calves. We feed them apple pulp in the winter. Sometimes they seem a bit drunk because the apple pulp ferments and is like cider. 

Charley: 

Is our top dog and something like a sheep dog. He came from Listowel in Kerry. He used to go to the shop there in the morning to meet his friends. Now he waits in the morning for John Haide the postman. He sleeps in the shed.

Katy:

She is a Labrador and very friendly. Sometimes she eats apples. When she wags her tail her whole body swings. She sleeps in the timber shed. 

Bobby:  Is a West Highland terrier. He travels with me in the car. He does not listen to me. I first thought that he was deaf, but that is not so; he hears everything. He too runs after the postman.

Rabbits: 

We have hundreds of rabbits on the farm. They would eat the bark off the trees. So we put netting around them. Rabbits are very good runners and escape in burrows when the dogs go after them. You can catch them by putting salt on their tails. Rabbits are rodents. Mice and rats are rodents too. We have to put poison out around the farm to keep them out. 

Hares: 

They are bigger than rabbits and sleep on the ground.

Foxes. 

There is a family living in the double ditch between Casey's and us. Foxes eat rodents and I saw one eating strawberries. Sometimes they eat small lambs too. Soon we will see the Tipperary hunt with all the Ladies and Gentlemen on their horses with their pack of hounds. 

Badgers: 

are night-time animals. They are black and white and have a long. snout and shiny paws for making deep burrows in the ground. There is a badger family nearby. Badgers are protected animals even though some farmers dislike them and say that they spread T.B. in their livestock. 

Squirrel: 

Once we had a squirrel family in our beech trees. They have long bushy tails and eat nuts. There are red ones and grey ones. 

Stoats: 

I see them from time to time. They are thinner and smaller than a cat with a bushy tail. There are mink too which escaped from a farm near Ardfinnan.. They are not native to Ireland. They stay near the rivers and there are none living on our farm.

Cats:

We have no cats but Mrs. Stapleton has. Almost every day I see Mrs. Stapleton and Mrs. Murphy walking and the cats follow them. 

Hedgehog: 

We have hedgehogs on the farm. They eat snails and slugs. Sometimes they fall into the cattle grid so we have to check it and rescue them. One day Bobby spent an hour barking at one that he found. He couldn't harm it because it was too prickly. 

Frogs: 

These are the smallest four-footed animals on the farm. They live in the long grass and eat insects. The dogs don't know what to do when they see them. 

Autumn competition winners: Aoife Maher,  Cormac O'Donoghue,  Orla Fogarty, Mairead O'Shea

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