When I was about 5, we moved to a bigger house, not much better, but bigger. It had a huge yard (one couldn't call it a garden, as it was just an overgrown entanglement of weeds and wild flowers). The first day Ian and I went off to explore the terrain, and at the furthest reaches behind the house, we saw a scrappy fence and heard giggling. There, peering at us were two little girls with what looked like dozens of dogs, cats and chickens weaving between their legs, all scrabbling in the dirt it seemed ( the animals not the kids).
As children do, we made friends immediately and discovered that they were almost exactly the same ages as us andeven, as luck would have it, went to the same school. Wow, our first real friends. Priscilla and I have remained friends ever since that day(55 years).
I'm not sure what fascinated us more,these two girls and their wondrous back yard with bird aviaries, animl kennels and huge fruit trees dripping with produce, or the animals, They had everything that would make any child envious. About 4 dogs, at least the same amount of cats, loads of hens and chicks, a rabbit in a hutch, a hamster, and birds in and out of cages. It was a veritable zoo, and we loved it.
What wonderful days and years were to follow, times I often think of and grin with pleasure.
