ask what kind of animal we should give the kiss of death to next. We didn't have much trouble selecting our next 'victim'. Only a couple of months before losing Magic, Hopefield had taken in a 2 month old lamb they had called Tilly. Many of you will remember we had a cat of the same name, immortalised on the spacecraft interior on the inner sleeve of our "Creavolution" album. She'd died a couple of years previously, so it seemed fitting. This poor little lamb was unwanted simply because of a nasty abscess on its leg. Sometimes it's a shame you can't take them home! Look at her. I mean, how cute is she? Poor little thing didn't last the full year of the adoption. Next time, we promised ourselves, maybe just this once, we'd go for young and healthy...

This is Rosary as a little ween, taken not long after she came to Hopefield, not that her breed grow particularly big anyway, they're actually the smallest native breed in the British Isles. Originating in the south west of Ireland, the breed is called 'Dexter', which just happened to be our favourite TV series at the time. We started to adopt her in September 2008, and I am pleased to say that our fifth adoptee is still alive and well these six years later! In 2010, Brian Blessed became a Patron of the sanctuary. He's like a proper actor, he's been in 'Doctor Who', and he's made a record with Hawkwind, how cool is that? We're seriously considering adopting him next. Another recent Patron is Leona Lewis, but she hasn't done either of those, so we'll leave her for somebody else. Past Patrons include Jodie Marsh. She was never from Essex, surely?

Another busy 'Open Day' at the sanctuary, always thoroughly enjoyable...

Which brings us more or less up to date. At the time of publishing, the sanctuary has been ploughing on for three years with neither of the founders at the helm, I asked them how Paula & Ernie's absence had affected morale and how things were going for them in general?

"After three years without Paula and Ernie, Hopefield is growing from strength to strength, but always in their memory. We are pushing the sanctuary to new limits to try to educate people about animal welfare. We are also working hard to give a 'forever home' to those animals in need. Paula and Ernie are always in our thoughts in everything we do."

I could recall that the tenancy agreement with Tesco was due to run out in 2012, sometime around the time we were relocating to Lancashire, when we rather understandably lost track of just about everything else, so I inquired as to how things had turned out in the end and what the current state of play was?

"With regards to Tesco, we renewed our lease, although they would not give us any longer than 10 years. We can not really comment on anything else regarding this as we don't really know ourselves, Tesco keep everything under their hats."

Which simply leaves the question I would hope all the animal lovers amongst you will be asking - how can we help?

"There are details on our website about ways to get involved, and we also have another website for our open days etc, although all our events have finished for this year now (2014) because of the bad weather."

My thanks to the good people at Hopefield for taking time from their eternally busy schedules to talk to us, I'm sure Paula & Ernie would be so happy to know their work lives beyond them. Oh, and do give Rosary a big hug from Uncle Magic & Auntie Sammi.

If you'd like to help, you'll find all the details a click away...

http://www.hopefield.org.uk

http://www.visithopefield.co.uk

Ernie with our Sammi, way back in 2002.  And the adventure continues...