Living with Children and Animals

It is widely accepted that you should not work with either children or animals, but sometimes just living with them is enough to need a Health and Safety notice attached. Still, although it might make life difficult (not to mention smelly and messy at times) it does give me lots of material for my books. And as readers are always asking me where my ideas come from, I thought I'd share the latest episode of Animal Antics in the Wilson household.

Number One Son is the main inspiration for me these days. I am writing a new series, the first title of which will be MONKEY BUSINESS. It tells the story of Felix, a boy who is as obsessed with all things animal-related as my very own Number One Son. Thanks to him, we already have two black cats, one black Labrador, several hundred black tadpoles, three chickens (only one of which is black) and five pupating Painted Lady caterpillars to take care of. And this morning we were treated to the arrival of an entirely new and unexpected animal in the house. A bat. A dead bat.

The fact that the poor tiny creature was no longer alive did not put Number One Son off, though. Oh, no. Before anyone could say "bat funeral", he had scooped the miniscule animal into a duster and was running to the car, shouting, "Just wait till I show this to everyone at school!"

A small voice in my head was telling me that this probably wasn't a very good idea. (Do bats carry disease? Did the school have rules about bringing dead animals into the classroom?) But NOS's enthusiasm proved a force to be reckoned with.

I wouldn't have minded too much, only I have a very strong memory of the last time we took a dead bat into school. It was four years ago, and NOS was in Reception at a different school. We awoke one morning to find a bat with unfeasibly large ears lying, leathery wings outstretched, tiny teeth clenched together, on our patio. Do bats drop out of the sky when they die, or can our cats fly through the air in pursuit of their prey? We will never know how this first bat ended its life in our garden, just as we will never be sure how today's bat appeared in our house. But NOS was not concerned with the hows and whys - all he was worried about was finding a container to put it in so that he could keep it "for the Nature Table, Mummy".

I was greeted at the end of that day by a rather green-about-the-gills Reception teacher who gently told me, "I am all in favour of encouraging the children's interest in wildlife, Mrs Wilson, but I am a little squeamish about bringing in dead animals. I had a nasty experience with a dead mole which was brought in by a child who had kept it specially in the freezer over the holidays - it started to defrost during Golden Time and the smell was quite overwhelming."

Let's hope Year 4 teachers have stronger stomachs.