By this time our farm stay was up and running. Our guests would arrive and see Mungo, our German Shepherd Dog, barking their arrival and Trog, tiny despite being fully grown, purring away. The most usual reaction varied between wariness  to abject fear of Mungo and exclamations over the sweet little cat.

Trog had shown her colours early in our arrival when on a visit from Darrell she flew like a bullet from under the house wrapped her two front legs around his Kelpies neck and bit so quickly that she was back under the house before anyone knew what had happened. That she loved us I have no doubt as she followed us around like a dog and we learnt to read her face, as did Mungo, and we could see subtle changes in her eyes that alerted us to an imminent attack. She had no fear as not only did she attack dogs she also went for the cows when we took them their hay. She could be sitting on your lap being patted, purring away, obviously in seventh heaven when suddenly she would sink her teeth into your arm, on occasion hitting bone. I developed a theory that because of her separation from her siblings at such a young age she had not been taught how to behave socially.  She knew she was stimulated but could not distinguish when to attack and when to purr.

She is also the only animal that I have ever known that had to have pay back. If ever she was hurt or felt hard done by  she would not settle until the perpetrator of the deed had been dealt with in a painful way. An example of this was when a guest accidentally pulled her tail slightly when Trog made an unexpected movement. Trog bided her time and almost an hour later bit deep into the person’s ankle then quickly disappeared. Guests soon learnt to give her a wide berth.

Mungo on the other hand wooed our guests with his sweetness. He was a gentle dog with not a bad bone in his body. He could sense when people were wary and he would just lie inching closer to them as their fear receded. One dog phobic woman insisted on having her photo taken with him sitting on the step together. She said she had to have proof as no-one back home would believe her.

Every morning Mungo would do the rounds of all living creatures on the farm to check all was well. This would include our guests. One morning the husband had got up to go to the toilet so Mungo decided to keep his side of the bed warm. Our guests told  us that the wife turned over in her sleep and cuddled into him; waking with a start when she realised that she was feeling hair where here husband was bald and hairless.

Both Mungo’s and Trog’s personalities ensured our guests a memorable stay.