08/06/2026
🐶 THE BENNY BULLETIN 🐑
By Benny – Chief Stick Inspector, Professional Lamb Leader, and the sheepdog who definitely does NOT herd sheep (don’t tell my mum I said that)
Hello everyone! 👋 It’s me – Benny! You know me: the fluffy face you see trotting everywhere around Auchingarrich, the one who can lead a whole group of lambs on a mad dash around the paddock like I’m the king of the world… but if you ask me to actually herd grown sheep? Well. Let’s just say they look at me, snort, and wander off the other way. I try my best, okay?! 🥺
It’s been an absolutely chaotic, wonderful, very muddy couple of weeks here – so much has happened I’ve barely had time to nap in the sun! Let’s catch you all up…
🩺 VET VISIT: WEDNESDAY 3RD JUNE
Our fabulous vet, Emma from Forth Valley Veterinary Clinic carried out her regular inspection and gave a massive thumbs up. In particular the Squirrel Monkeys are looking fabulous. They have actually changed colour and are behaving so well. No more patchy tails and best behaviour during daily enrichment playtime.
🐑 All the lambs (my favourite little running buddies!) had their Heptavac – they’re 12 weeks old now, growing so fast! It’s a two-dose job, so we’ll be doing round two in 4–6 weeks to keep them fighting fit.
⚖️ I weighed all the pet lambs myself – well, okay, I stood very close while the keepers did it, but I definitely supervised closely. They are a terrific 14-17kg.
And little Tiddles is doing so well. Emma was very pleased with the progress and feels Tiddles should make a full recovery. I just have to ensure she gets plenty of outdoor walking - she has a free pass to the park to keep her active! I’ve been keeping her face clean as she drinks a massive 250ml each feed. She is the best!
🦘 Pacho the red kangaroo and our wallaby crew all got checked over – we took samples just to make sure everyone’s insides are as healthy as their bouncing legs.
🐾 THE BEST BIT: ALL THE GOSSIP & CHAOS
If there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s being everywhere at once, so I’ve seen everything this week:
✨ Ravioli the otter is officially the naughtiest resident 🦦 – he keeps sneaking off and stealing Orla’s dinner! The humans had to start sneaking him his own food and “stealing” it back for Orla to teach him a lesson. She’s got a whole collection of shiny stones that she loves showing off to visitors – what a show-off!
✨ Delilah the Dexter cow had me worried for a minute! She was all quiet and sleepy one morning, but perked right up the second dinner arrived. Turned out she was just having a grumble about the heat – honestly, same girl, same. ☀️🥵
✨ Yoshi our gorgeous parakeet is settled into her brand-new enclosure with lots of branches to explore.
✨ And of course… my moment of glory! 🎉 While the lambs were out having a run around the australia paddock, I joined in – and ended up taking the lead! I ran right out in front, herded them all (well… led them) straight back to the start, and everyone cheered! Turns out I am good at leading sheep… as long as they’re small enough to think I’m cool. 😎
🛠️ ALL THE JOBS & PLANS
We’ve got a busy couple of weeks ahead, and I’m helping supervise every single one:
✅ Kookie our kookaburra got fresh new woodchip in his massive 18m flight enclosure – he’s one happy bird! 🦅
✅ We’ve collected mountains of fresh browse – branches, leaves, all the good stuff – for everyone from the goats to the birds. I helped carry… well, I sniffed every branch to make sure it was safe. 🪵
✅ Move day! The tups are off to another field, guanacos are heading to the trekking zone for a change of grass, pet lambs are moving to the old garden, pygmy goats are going next to the keepers house, and our lovely Anglo-Nubian goats are off by the cafe! 🚚🌱
✅ We’re collecting poo samples left, right and centre – wallabies, deer, alpacas, guanacos, lemurs, wildcats, emus, feral goats… you name it, we’re checking it! It’s a Sh #*ty job but someone’s got to do it. Thank goodness it’s not me. It’s so important though to make sure every single resident is fighting fit. 💩✅
✅ We had a surprise zookeeper experience pop up last weekend! The booking form played a trick on us, but we handled it brilliantly – the family left over the moon, and said they’d be back again soon. Wuff wuff to the vet placement students who saved the day.
💛 A HUGE THANK YOU
Massive thanks to Emma, Alexa, Aiden, Honey, Jamie, Adrian, Ilja, Kenny, Anthony, the vet students, work experience students, and everyone who worked their socks off this week – you guys make this place the best, happiest home any animal (or sheepdog!) could ask for.
And special shout-out to Bogons Ltd and Simon and Steve, who helped instal our fabulous CCTV and new lemur live cam. 🙌
That’s it from me for now – I’m off to steal a stick, nap in the sun, and go check on my lambs. If you see me trotting around with a big daft grin on my face? You know I’ve just found the best stick in the whole park. 🐶✨
See you all soon – and don’t forget to wave if you spot me!
Lots of licks and tail wags,
Benny 🐑🐶
