David is absolutely fascinated with animals. It is a strange mixture of fascinated and terrified- he spots every dog on every journey but cowers if they sniff him. He has previously declared that he is going to be a Vet when he grows up, which is a little worrying as apparently vets have hugely high depression and suicide rates. He has also considered working in a zoo but we have made it clear that it is a calling, not a career.

As a birthday treat, we arranged a keeper for the day event for David last October. After looking around the local ones (and being stunned at the prices) we eventually hit upon a one focussed on children and a (comparatively) reasonably priced one at £65 down at Dudley Zoo. (Now £95 due to overwhelming success).

Anyway the weather was good on the day, the keeper chaperone was great with David and he had a whale of a time. She even made the shovelling out of the shit a bit of fun for him down on the petting farm.

Dudley zoo is unusual in that it is a quite compact site but spirals up a hill to an old castle on the top of the hill so getting around involves a lot of steep paths or a ride on the land train.

David’s favourite bit was feeding the penguins, although he did say they were rather smelly.

As an aside, I once interviewed some contestants live on-stage for a Miss 18 Plus Area final in the Aston area. On discovering a contestant was a Vet, I asked if she had ever had to put her arm into a cow as per James Herriott. When she replied that she worked in a small animal practice, I immediately (and perhaps not thinking of the reaction) enquired as to whether she had ever had a finger up a Hamster…

This definitely gave us a big Woof and when order was restored, we restarted the interview as if nothing had happened… until she said she was a Vet again, at which point we both corpsed…