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Not enough hours in the week

What I conceived two weeks back, the aim of writing a weekly blog has, unfortunately, at the first attempt become a fortnightly blog. Now, a few years ago I would have seen this as a very negative occurrence but, as I intimated in my first blog, there are now positive outcomes to be found in most, if not all, negative happenings that come my way.

The reason I was not able to write a blog last week was because I had been extremely busy and which saw the Animals in Hands road show traveling to North Shropshire, Leicester, Kenilworth, Wolverhampton, Walsall and Derby. During these visits I met some fantastic teachers and a great many knowledgeable, enthusiastic, well behaved and polite young people ranging in age from three years old to sixteen years old. I traveled to these areas to visit two Nurseries, two schools, an After School Club and to facilitate a birthday party in a Village Hall – this all proved to be great fun with extremely positive feedback being given!

All the traveling and facilitating kept me quite busy but, added to this, I went shopping for some new animals!

As I am passionate about animal welfare I have a strict rota in place to ensure no one animal is ‘out and about’ on consecutive days and many now might only go out two days each week. To ensure I am able to maintain this practise I am constantly looking to increase the number of animals I have to rotate.

Once bought, (all are captive bred), the work begins in handling the animals every day to ensure that they are comfortable with being held and that they show no signs of stress or discomfort. With some animals I have handled, such as my rabbits, guinea pigs and hamsters, this has taken less than a week to do. Others however, such as the Bosc monitor and the pygmy hedgehogs, have taken several months to become accustomed to being handled. There have also been one or two animals in the past that I have chosen not to take ‘out and about’ as they really have not been happy to be held, for even short periods of time and now spend quiet days basking under heat lamps in their vivariums back at base. As well as being very time consuming, handling the animals is also very therapeutic with the outcome of handling them proving to be rewarding t and, in the main, having a great many positive results.

How did the Animals in Hands journery start?

Several years ago I doubted if I’d ever be running my own business let alone running a business that would be far more of a pleasure than that of a chore! This was not because of self-doubt or a lack of ambition but basically because I was missing the opportunity I needed to get started in something that I really wanted to do.

Today, Animals in Hands is more of a passion than a business with my animals meaning everything to me; at times I can be totally consumed with them as they really do give me a great deal of pleasure. Don’t get me wrong, I have a life away from my business and I also enjoy the company of the human species, but to be able to spend a day working with animals and sharing my knowledge, passion and love of them with others is such a bonus.

The missing opportunity happened when I least expected it. I got into conversation with an Education Consultant at an event I attended at the LG Arena in Birmingham, who, during ten minute of just chatting, showed me that through the power of positive thinking there was nothing but nothing stopping me from doing what I really wanted to do! He put me in touch with a colleague who was a Head teacher and the rest is history. This was in the November, by the following April, Animals in Hands was up and running.

Don’t get me wrong – it’s a time consuming passion to have as a business, involving being round 24 / 7 and, like everyone else in business out there at the moment, times can be tough. However, in doing something that I really want to do and believe in, I begin and end each day with in an extremely happy and positive mood 🙂

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