One busy day, up in Spirit World, there was a little Soul who joined the line of other souls waiting for their turn to choose what they want to incarnate as in their next life. This particular Soul was way back at the end of the cue, and spent a lot of time thinking about what he wants his next life to look like.

First, he wanted to be a King, but the Soul standing behind him in line reminded him that Kings and Queens are not really such a big deal anymore - they don’t live in Castles, surrounded by servants, or have the castle portrait painter paint their pictures.

This was rather disappointing, so he decided instead that he would be a Rich Child, and that he’d have the sort of parents who would dote on him and buy him everything he asks for. He certainly didn’t want to come and live a life of poverty and unmet desires! He was put off this idea by the Soul ahead of him, who had just returned from this sort of life. He declared that it wasn’t all that great - it came with so much public attention that he never had a private moment. No, he warned, it wasn’t worth it.

Nearing the front of the line now, he started to panic. If he couldn’t choose, they’d simply draw a random paper out of the box of Life Possibilities with his next life’s role written on it - and that could literally be anything. No, better decide for himself.

When he reached the front of the line, the Angel peered down at him, clipboard in hand.

“So, what will it be?” he asked.

Our little soul hesitated, wringing his hands and hopping from one foot to another, still undecided.

“Come on, we don’t have all day,” the Angel boomed, his hand already reaching for the box of Life’s Possibilities.

But then, inspiration hit. He knew exactly how he could live the life of a King, without all the battles and war and other nasty business, He could also enjoy the positive aspects of being a rich and pampered child, without the constant media attention.

He looked up at the Angel and, just in the nick of time, because the Angel’s hand was already reaching into the box of Life Possibilities, he shouted out, ‘I want to be a spoilt and loved small dog!’

Well, it would seem like Timmy made the right choice, and the Angels gave him exactly what he wanted. Timmy lives the life of a King - he even sleeps in a tiny dog bed that is built to resemble a castle. He rings a bell when he wants to be fed, and his servant, sorry ‘owner’, dotes on him and loves him more than anything else.

He even managed to get his portrait painted!

Gorilla was a Lhasa Apso x Spoodle with the most uneven and crazy fur that I’ve ever painted. Lhasa Apso’s are Tibetan temple dogs, and Gorilla took that role seriously. He claimed a cream armchair ( a Lazy-Boy reclinable one) as his, and when outside, he used a deck chair to sit on and meditate in the early morning sun.

Gorilla grew up with two girls, and he was seen as their older brother. He had such an old soul, that even though he was smaller in size, he was always the older brother.

When the family got into the car to go anywhere, Gorilla was the first to dash into the garage and wait for an open car door to jump into. At the beach, he sat at their towels and bags while they swam, guarding their things. When the cats took too close an interest in the Guinea Pigs, Gorilla would charge in and chase the cats away, and actually sit close by the guinea pigs until someone came to close the cage or put the the guinea pigs back to safety.

No one ever taught him this behaviour. He just did it. It was his nature to look after his people (and their guinea pigs)

Sadly, Gorilla died one day after ingestring rat poison. No one knows how he got it, or where he might have gotten it from. Gorilla is much missed his younger “sisters”. RIP Gorilla.

In the year 2013, a young girl was born to modern parents, in a modern world. But as time went on, they realised that their daughter was of another era… The Victorian era, to be exact. By the time this photo was taken of young Gabby, she was a mere 7 years old and already had a fascination with all things “olden days”, as she puts it, by which she means Victorian.

Sometimes, Gabby is a rich young girl, living in a manor house, and going for early morning constitutionals around the estate grounds with her father’s hunting hounds (in modern language that translates as taking the dogs for a walk in the garden.)

At other times, she is the kitchen maid, or the underservant or whatever other role she finds in the copious amount of books she reads, spending her day wearing as many underskirts and petticoats as she can fit under her dress, with an apron on top.

Painting Gabby was a real pleasure, and I thought this pose, of her gently smelling the peach blossoms, wearing a dress-up dress that looks like it could once upon a time have belonged to a rich manor girl, really captured her personality!

Fred is a very special cat. Unlike most cats, who like to be solitary creatures, Fred had a best friend - the cat next door. Fred would wait at the neighbour’s gate every morning, and when his bestie came out, they would sit on the driveway for a while and groom and talk, before sauntering off together to go and do whatever cats do during the day.

When Fred’s bestie moved out from next door, Fred pined for months. He continued to sit on the driveway, waiting for his BFF all day long. His behaviour changed, and he seemed to have lost his appetite. Eventually, after nearly a year, he recovered. Fred is a lovely example of the complex lives of animals that we often overlook, and I thoroughly enjoyed capturing his beautiful pinkish-ginger fur.

Once upon a time, there lived a gorgeous Beardie x Collie on a rugged, lush, mountaineous farm up in the north of New Zealand with a pack of other dogs and couple of horses. Her name was Vicki, and beacuse she was so full of spirit and energy, and a bit fearless, she enjoyed running free on the farm and going out for walks with the other dogs. Vicki was not to know that this same spirit for adventure would lead her to trouble.

One day, as she was running up the path that led them into the wild part of the mountain, Vicki’s energetic spirit overtook her. Throwing caution to the wind, she ran off, only to hurtle down a steep edge. Vicki survived the fall, but her front leg didn’t. It had to be amputated.

But this did not stop Vicki for long. She was barely back from the vet, and already she was straining to head back into the mountains, tail wagging as if nothing happened at all.

P.S. Vicki’s full name is “Victoria Bitters”, which is apparently a beer for “a hard earned thirst”. I’m not sure how Vicki feels about beer, but her mother was called Brandy, and her son is called Whiskey. You would be forgiven if you assumed alcoholism ran in Vicki’s bloodline, but as far as I know, it’s all purely accidental.

Somewhere in the green hills of Tauranga, the birds are making an early morning racket, announcing the dawn of a new day. Enveloped in early morning mist, two cows are peacefully plucking at the grass, chewing slowly, and pondering their lucky lot in life.

‘We sure struck gold, didn’t we, Ruby?’

‘Indeed, we did! To think of where we could have landed up, on one of those nasty dairy farms…’ Ruby’s sentence trails off as she’d prefer not to think about what their lives could have been like.

Amber shudders. ‘Horrors,’ she says,tearing out another mouthful of juicy green grass, covered in little droplets of water.

The two cows are silent for a moment, before Ruby says, ‘You really should be careful with your horns, you know. Sometimes, you behave like more like a bull.’

Amber’s liquid eyes turn teary. ‘I said I was sorry,’ she whimpered. ‘You know it was accident!’

Ruby snorts. ‘You could have seriously injured her! And then? We’d end up on a dinner plate, as hamburgers!’

Amber gulps. The thought had occured to her as well. But she really didn’t see her bearutiful human, standing so quietly next to her, and when she swung her head around, she acientally knocked her with her horn. She hopes that the human doesn’t have too big a bruise a bruise today.

‘Well, just count yourself lucky that we landed up in a field, almost as free as those noisy birds, with a human who can speak animal. At least she can understand you. I’m sure she heard your apologies.’

Side by side, the two sisters continue munching on their new grass, waiting for the sun to come up and warm their backs and clear the rest of the mist, each busy with their own thoughts.

Yes, they sure got lucky that day when the animal communicator decided she wanted to start an animal sanctuary, and that Amber and Ruby were just the right animals to start if off with. They are, quite possibly, the most loved cows in the whole of New Zealand.

In a land far up North, where winter days are dark and cold and seem to last forever, and Summers are short-lived bursts of beauty, there lives a girl and her horse. Together they spend a lot of time roaming the still wild forests and, when the sun returns for a short summer season, swimming in the cold streams.

I don’t know much more about them, but I imagine that she’s still plaiting flowers into Runi’s mane, and enjoying the wild spaces available to them.