There is a breeding colony of sloworms in my rear garden, which faces south. The cat from across the carpark, at the bottom of my garden, is fascinated by the little and the large slithering creatures. My cries to him to leave them alone as they are a protected species cut no ice at all. The sloworms were there when I moved in in 1984, and no doubt the colony will be there after I leave and move on.
When I first moved in there were also some common lizards, but I have not seen any for many a year. Likewise the hedgehogs that used to frequent my gardens front and rear, have disappeared. The occasions when I had hedgehog families in my front garden would often lead to a group of people on my garden wall (about two feet high) at dusk, watching the mother and little ones pottering about amongst the shrubbery eating the slugs and whatever else took their interest. One of my cats at the time was Basil, a hyperactive cat if ever there was one. One of those cats that they would say 'needs an experience owner'. Baz would sit in the path of the hedgehogs and remain unmoved (literaly) as the hedgehogs snuffled and pushed at him to get off whatever squishey eatable delight Baz was sitting on at the time.
