Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Mumsnet classics

Relive the funniest, most unforgettable threads. For a daily dose of Mumsnet’s best bits, sign up for Mumsnet's daily newsletter.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

Original poster

Can't believe what I have just witnessed

212 replies

Patriciathestripper1 · 11/01/2017 17:25

Ok I'm not going mad but this did happen:
Went over to my stables to show Dh where I wanted my outdoor security light putting.
Whilst he was up the ladder securing it to the side of the stables I started tying up hay nets and doing waters (we have two horses and my DD pony)
When I went into DD's pony's stable and whilst doing his net I heard something 'plop' into his water bucket (large builders rubble type bucket)
I went to look and it was a mouse that must have just fallen in (we find them sometimes in the horses buckets dead in the mornings but not very often)
I shouted for Dh to come quick. I'm not a wimpy sort but I didn't want to touch it but also didn't want it to drown.
My daughters pony went over to the bucket whilst I was standing in the stable door and looked down at the mouse and then to my utter amazement he pushed some of the straw up the side of his water bucket asthough he did it all the time so some of the straw went into the water and the mouse climbed out!
I have had horses all my life (parents had them so brought up with them) and I have never seen anything like that. One animal helping another from a different species?
My Dh thinks iabu and the pony didn't 'help' the mouse out of the bucket but I saw it with my own eyesAngry so I know it happened.
After a lot of 'yes it did'. 'No it didn't' I tried to recreate it with my DD wind up fish which her pony promptly picked up out of the water bucket (I think he thought it was a treat I'd dropped in as she sometimes puts an apple in there for him to 'bob' to occupy him) and he bit and broke it Hmm but I know he did it.

OP posts:
Original poster
Patriciathestripper1 · 13/01/2017 13:07

Oh monkey he/she is lovely!
*earlgrey you should make it your New Years resolution to learn to ride!!

OP posts:
Badgerbird · 13/01/2017 13:25

What a beautiful thread Smile sitting here grinning and trying not to cry at all the gorgeous stories... Animals Rock!!

WelshMoth · 13/01/2017 14:09

Ben, my greedy, cheeky black lab was the so un-loyal. He's allow the house to be burgled providing the burglar threw him some food first. On a walk, he'd be legging it miles away until he decided to return. If you called him, he'd throw you a backwards glance, see there was no food, and keep on running.

Then, when DD1 was a baby in a sling, just a few months old, we were walking up the local woods and he was doing his usual run for freedom. In the distance were a group of lads - they'd clearly been drinking up the woods and were loud and bolshy. Out of nowhere, Ben crashed through a load of bushes gruelling and snarling at the group - he actually stood between me and the lads (who probably posed no threat, but we're still quite loud) and was so intimidating that the lads turned around and walked the other way.

I felt he was being rather protective of my DD. He was 17 when he died. Still miss him.

WelshMoth · 13/01/2017 14:10

Excuse awful typos Shock

StepAwayFromTheEcclesCakes · 13/01/2017 14:42

The cat also always sits next to anyone who is poorly. we don't have pets but love cats, once my Ds was off school sick and was laid out on the sofa all drowsy, back door was open and a random cat that we did not recognise and have never seen since, wandered in and sat on his lap all day.

smilingthroughgrittedteeth · 13/01/2017 14:49

Clever pony, I believe you we had a stray cat that got dumped at our gate, it was wild and wouldn't come near any of us but would curl up on my horses back to either keep warm in the winter or sunbath in the summer. One night my horse got colic and that cat refused to leave her, he kept winding himself around her legs to keep her upright

HappyFlappy · 13/01/2017 16:04

Agree that this thread is CLASSICS quality.

See to it, please, Powers that be.

MiscellaneousAssortment · 13/01/2017 16:53

Lovely lovely stories :)

(Ignores the one about the deliberate pigeon killer horse who gives me the heebee jeebies, shudder)

sherbetpips · 13/01/2017 17:00

Our cat didn't like to sit 'on' us - rather next to us or slightly away, that all changed when I became pregnant and every night she would climb onto my bump and 'kneed' my belly purring and fall asleep. Stopped doing it as soon as he was out!

MyWhatICallNameChange · 13/01/2017 17:31

This has reminded me of a pair of rats I saw down an alleyway. I was walking and they appeared from one side but one was injured, it looked quite old. Normally they scarper fast at the sight of humans by the hurt one couldn't go fast. I swear the other rat was helping it along, it was nudging it and wouldn't leave its side. I stood watching them as it helped the injured rat through the hole in the fence, and they disappeared into the undergrowth.

Realjournal123 · 13/01/2017 17:37

How amazing. Lovely story. Proves that animals are far nicer than a lot of humans as another human would prob let it drown. Thanks for brightening my day.

BigDamnHero · 14/01/2017 09:14

I've nominated this thread for Classics.

I remember once when DH and I were visiting my parents there was a kite or some bird of prey that attacked a pigeon. Things did not look good for the pigeon until another pigeon defended it and managed to distract the kite enough to let the first pigeon escape into a bush.

Our German shepherd is very protective of our boys. When DS1 was born she got so agitated at being put out in the garden when the health visitor came that she opened the back door for the first time and came barging into the living room to inspect the HV and make sure DS1 was okay.

I'm almost certainly autistic, DS1 already has a diagnosis and DS2 is being assessed so the household can be rather...fraught at times. When the boys are being particularly hard work and I start to get overloaded and start raising my voice our tortoiseshell cat always jumps down from on top of the freezer where she likes to lie and meows at me. Then she'll climb on me and purr for a couple of minutes until I've calmed down when she'll get off me and go back onto the freezer. Every time.

WelshMoth · 14/01/2017 10:42

Another memory I have...

In my mid 20's, I was struck with the most awful depression. It lasted about 2 years. One particularly poignant moment when I found myself on some lonely cliffs in the Portsmouth area. It was rough and windy and I was just walking . Out of nowhere, no trees, no shelter, just an exposed coastal path, a robin fluttered by my side. It flew ahead and waited then we continued like this for about 20 mins. When I sat on a bank, it landed on my foot and stayed there - I could hardly breath). It flew off eventually and I returned back to my car.

I know robins are curious little creatures and this was probably a random event, but it's little arrival took my mind away from something black and awful. I'll never forget it and I feed all my little robins and birds each winter now.

WelshMoth · 14/01/2017 10:43

Excuse poor grammar typos Blush

Littlegreyauditor · 14/01/2017 14:11

That's lovely *WelshMoth". I'm glad the wee bird took you away from a dark place.
My mum believes that Robins are messengers from deceased relatives checking in to see we are ok (don't ask), Red Admirral butterflies too. I've never asked why some dead relatives are butterflies and some are Robins. I just nod and make "hmm" sounds. Wink

Kelvingrove · 14/01/2017 14:52

Little grey, I am interested that your mum thinks this about birds.
The first Christmas after my Dad died our family spent Christmas abroad. As we were opening our presents a group of bright parrots came and perched really close to our window and when we opened the window they came even closer. My first thought was that this was Dad saying hello. I nearly said it out loud but managed to think before I spoke as it would have upset the others. It was a strange feeling but a happy thought.

Cherrysoup · 14/01/2017 14:59

I've only ever found a very flat mouse in my horse's table :( I did find a drowned baby rat in his water one morning, poor lad hadn't drunk anything, no wonder.

HappyFlappy · 14/01/2017 19:08

I've never asked why some dead relatives are butterflies and some are Robins.

Tat's interesting. I know that there is a sailors/ seamen's tradition that seagulls are the souls of drowned sailors and fishermen, but I hadn't heard the robin one.

Quite a few cultures (including Christianity) hold the belief that the sol can take the form of a butterfly, possibly because the Greek word for butterfly (psyche) is also the word for soul.

I have been involved in conducting funerals, and in two of them, a butterfly rose from the coffin and fluttered up into the nave. One of those funerals was a young soldier who was killed in Afghanistan, and it took place in January - not a well-known butterfly season.

As an emblem of hope and a promise of eternal life it could hardly have been improved upon. Everyone in the church was talking about it, and I know his family were enormously comforted, even his dad who said "I know it's a load of rubbish, but . . . "

Littlegreyauditor · 14/01/2017 20:39

When I moved into this house we had a literal swarm of butterflies in the garden. Normal, you'd think; we live in the middle of nowhere near some quite boggy ground, lots of dragonflies and similar. Only thing is we moved in December. Mum was delighted at this confirmation that the move was a good one for us. She looks for white feathers as messages too.

I don't believe or disbelieve in her theories. It's just something that happens that I choose not to scrutinise. I admit I have never seen a Robin, a butterfly or a white feather and not smiled and felt reassured, despite my inner science geek screaming in disgust. Grin

Sorry for the derail!

Ticketybootoo · 15/01/2017 09:02

Love this story !

dressinggownsandkidsintowns · 15/01/2017 09:21

What a fab pony, when my dd1 was learning to jump she got carried away and came off mid-jump the ex-racehorse she was on landed at a dead stop over her, if she had put her back leg down she would have crushed DD's back but she stood perfectly still with her leg up in the air till we were able to get to dd. When we stood dd up the horse immediately nuzzled her from top to bottom like she was checking dd was ok ! Neither the instructor or myself had seen anything like it.

EnthusiasmIsDisturbed · 15/01/2017 09:33

I have a lovely sheep story

My mums friend had two sheep (lived in the country not quite sure why she had two but had them since they were young lambs so they were like pets)

The farmer who lived next to her told her they were having their sheep sheared and would she like her sheep sheared she agreed took them over then went off to work. Her husband rang a few hours later in a panic he had arrived to pick them up but he couldn't see them as they all looked the same as he was one the phone they spotted him and ran over like two excited little puppies Grin appareny the farmer knew the difference so all would have been ok anyway

SuperFlyHigh · 15/01/2017 09:40

I have a story about my old cat Sooty, now sadly departed. A few years ago I was being badly bullied at my old workplace and felt suicidal (same time as relationship going bad), she came twice to my bedroom and slept on my pillow next to me, normally I shut her downstairs. I let her sleep with me other times too after that.

Trakhener · 15/01/2017 12:21

I float small pieces of wood in my horses water buckets so that mice and birds can get out when they fall in Smile I hated seeing them drown and the horses don't mind the wood.

HappyFlappy · 15/01/2017 20:28

She looks for white feathers as messages too.

Me as well Auditor

It means an angel has visited you.

Swipe left for the next trending thread