We like to spend longish holidays visiting our grownup children in Europe but worry about our animals, all rescues (except the bossy parrot). We can easily get someone to just feed them but we prefer to have people who will spoil them with love like we do. Our five dogs are Belle, Dobby, Tikka and Bond (yes, James Bond) and most recent rescue White Boy. They all live outside but have a sheltered open area of our lowest floor to sleep in. (We actually call it the dog lounge.) Belle, our alpha female, was found at the bottom of an abandoned well and taken to the RSPCA. Dobby, who spent a full year at the RSPCA, before we adopted her, was a "cane dog" - a dog that lived by its wits in the sugar cane fields. Tikka was a little tiny puppy which we rescued from another animal home after she was left in the road to be run over. James Bond I picked up from the cane fields on my way back home from my bike ride. He was already blind in one eye and was dragging a long heavy chain round his neck. My husband didn't think he'd last the week but, four years later, he's still enjoying life fully, although now completely blind and mostly deaf; he'd rather trot fast and bounce into things than walk slowly and not. White Boy was rescued from a walk by Bath beach he was a little trembly thing and I didn't have the heart to leave him at the RSPCA as they had over 100 puppies they were looking for homes for.
Our tomcat, Tom Sawyer, was rescued as a semi-wild kitten from the farm up the road one day when we went to get some eggs. Kitty Swift, barely a year old, I picked up in the cane fields one day coming back from a bike ride. (Are you seeing a pattern here?)
Kaia is our African Grey parrot, who speaks in all our voices and is very entertaining. She wasn't a rescue but we've had her from 6 weeks old. She got her from a friend who breeds them. Her wings are clipped and she likes to hang out in a bare tree outside of our kitchen most days.