Volunteering & Community – Tyler's Travel Tales

Daily writing prompt

What is your favorite place to go in your city?

Longford Park Pets Corner is my happy place in Manchester! It is a volunteer run mini farm with some of the coolest, cutest & craziest animals to grace the earth. Modern life is often so fast paced, we dash from one thing to the next, before you know it years have gone by. A digital detox is always a welcome time for me. I was very fortunate in the opportunities I had when I was growing up. However, without people volunteering & doing community work, providing me with those opportunities, things would have looked very different for me. So I always try to pay it forward & get involved in various volunteering initiatives where I can.

This led me to Pets Corner, where the furry residents are roguish & rambunctious, to say the least. I have included some cute photos below to brighten up your day! 😍

Frodo & Gandalf the goats, are a favourite with the children who visit. I must admit Frodo is my best chum, but I have beef with Gandalf. You wouldn’t believe that a goat could be so mischievous. If he isn’t knocking over the water bowls or chasing ducks around, he is staging a heist from the shed where we keep the muesli, his favourite treat.

Next up are the silkie chickens, who are the absolute divas of the farm. Truly funky looking creatures, I didn’t even know they were a thing until I joined. They are housed with Domino, who I also have beef with. If you don’t bribe him with mealworms, he will try to eat you instead.

Our ducks are awesome, but they are quite tribal & have formed into 2 rival gangs. Thankfully they’re more like the US blues groups who sang outside of stores, than the actual Bloods & the Crips.

We have a fat squirrel who doesn’t actually live there but we always catch him sat in the bowl of food we put out for the other animals, eating all day! He has cracked the evolutionary cycle, why hide food for winter when you can just hijack some for free?

Finally, we have 2 doves that have moved into the goat hut, we think they may be a married couple as they are always bickering. One of them only has one foot too, but that doesn’t stop them whizzing around having fun!

Spending time here also keeps me humble & grounded. Whilst I am so lucky to be going on the international trips that I do, I am never to good to get on my hands/knees & clean up after some animals. As always thanks for reading, I thought I would keep it light hearted today & post some cute animal photos. Let me know your favourite place or animal from my post in the comments. Next week I will be posting some funny stories from my Estonia trip, so definitely hit subscribe to follow along. 🫡