Well, since my friend Seren Teledu has sneaked onto the computer to write to you all I thought I would do the same.

 My name is Minnie Mouse and I am a very small terrier. I am half Yorkshire Terrier and half something else, possibly a hunt terrier or you might call them Jack Russell Terriers.

Like Seren I lived with my mum until I was about eight weeks old when I went to live with humans of my own. They treated me like a little queen. Anything I wanted I was given. I was boss in our house. I sat where I wanted to, I was not taught to be clean in the house, I would not let anyone else eat any of the dog food, it was mine, all mine! I did not realise that I was turning into a very horrid little dog.

One day one of my humans took me for a long walk. When we reached a big supermarket my human took me around the back of the store, tied me up and walked off. I sat and waited very patiently, but my human never came back. A lady found me when the store closed and took me home with her. She could not keep me, but a friend of hers who has Yorkshire Terriers said she would give me a home. She called me Bella. Bella is not my name so I ignored her. She thought I might be deaf, but I just ignored her because she was speaking to someone called Bella and I am called Minnie. I continued to be a very, very horrid little dog. After about five weeks the lady could not cope with me and took me back to the lady who had found me. She went to see another lady she knew and she said she would take me in. This is my new human.

My new human is very experienced with dogs. She used to compete in Obedience Competitions and also used to exhibit dogs in the breed ring. She said “Hello Bella.” Bella is not my name so I ignored her. My new human said “Bella isn’t your name is it?” I was quite impressed by this and sat in front of her and listened as she suggested various names. None of them were mine. Eventually she said What do you think about Minnie?” Well, I was really impressed this time because Minnie is my name. This human is really intelligent. I was so excited that she knew my name that I ran right up her front and licked her face, I raced around the house barking and I span in circles in front of her and wagged my tail so hard it nearly fell off. Because I am so small my human decided to call me Minnie Mouse instead of just Minnie. I like that name.

I have had to learn a lot of things since I came here to live. I have learnt that it is wrong to chase the cats. I have learnt that it is wrong to guard all the food dishes and not let anyone else eat. I have learnt that it is wrong to attack the others at meal times. I am still trying to learn that I must ask to go out and not poop in the house - the cats poop in the house in their toilet trays so why can’t I poop in the bathroom next to their toilet trays?

I have also learnt not to be afraid of newspapers and magazines. My new human does not hit me when I do things wrong, she just speaks to me firmly and say “No” and “Bad Minnie” and then patiently explains to me what I should be doing. Recently she acquired a walking stick. I was very, very afraid of the walking stick. I thought my human was going to hit me with the walking stick. She has explained to me that walking sticks are not for hitting dogs with. I am not afraid of it any more.

I am now learning to do obedience. I have learnt “Sit” and I have learnt the command to turn left. I have learnt to come back when I am called and now I am learning to sit and stay and to come back and sit in front of my human when she calls me. I am also learning to walk to heel and to turn right. This is a bit complicated because I want to walk faster than my human does. It is very hard work, but my human does not punish me when I get things wrong, she just explains it to me again and we try it again until we get it right. She makes it fun to learn because we play in between doing the work. I like to do things right to please her.

If you have brought a dog into your house this Christmas please remember that we need to learn what is right and what is wrong. If you do not tell us what is right and wrong how can you tell us off when we do something wrong? We learn best when you make it fun. We do not learn anything except fear if you hit us when we do things wrong. It doesn’t take long to learn to be afraid; it takes a long time to learn not to be afraid. If you google dog training classes you should be able to find one somewhere near where you live. They can help you to learn how to teach your dog to behave properly.

If you cannot cope with us please do not just drive us to somewhere strange and throw us out of the car. Please do not tie us up outside a supermarket. If you cannot cope with us then contact one of the dog charities that take in dogs when humans can no longer keep them. They will help us to find new homes and we will not be in danger of being run over. The PDSA, RSPCA and lots of smaller charities will be able to help. Google dogs homes and then search in the results for those in your local area.

Hi everyone

 My name is Seren Teledu, which in english means Television Star, but you can call me Seren (Star). I have sneaked onto my human’s computer while she is busy in the next room. I am a small marmalade cat and this is my story. I thought I would tell it to you now because so many people will have added a puppy or a kitten to their family over Christmas.

At first my life was great. I lived with my mum and my brothers and sisters. My mum made sure we had plenty of milk to drink and when we were old enough to eat meat her humans made sure we had lots of good kitten food to eat. I learnt to eat meat and dry cat biscuits and to lap milk from a saucer.

One day some strange humans came to our house and played with us kittens. When they left they took me with them. I was so proud to have humans of my own. If only I had known what was to happen next I would have fought tooth and claw not to go with them.

For the first few days I had lots of good food to eat, but then suddenly they stopped feeding me kitten food. I became very, very hungry. In desperation I decided to try eating what the young humans ate and I learnt to steal from them. I learnt to eat crisps, quavers, bread and butter, jam sandwiches, cheese sandwiches, mashed potatoes and baked beans among other things. These are not the sort of things a cat can live on and I became thinner and thinner and thinner. I worked harder at stealing from the young humans and I got shouted at and hit for stealing. The young humans also treated me like a toy. They picked me up by my legs, my neck, my tail and they squeezed me very hard. Sometimes they carried me upside down holding on to one of my legs or my tail. I hurt all over.

One day one of the adult humans picked me up and put me in a cardboard box. I felt the human carrying the box out of the house. I thought they were taking me back to my mum. We walked for quite a long way and then the box was put down. I heard things being dropped on top of the box and then the human just walked away. I tried my best to get out of the box, but I was just too small and too weak. When I heard humans passing I mewed, but no one seemed to hear me. I became more and more frightened. Then I heard some more humans and mewed as loudly as I could. I heard lots of things being moved and then the box was opened. There were some teenage humans. One of them lifted me out of the box. They asked the people at all the houses near where they found me, but no one knew me. Then they took me to another house and knocked on the door. A human answered and the teenagers asked if she would take me in. At first she was reluctant as she already had two adult cats an adult dog and a new puppy she had taken in only two weeks before after she was abandoned at Asda by her previous humans. When she looked at me properly she changed her mind. It was because I was found in a cardboard box that had contained a TV, and because my human is Welsh,  that I got my name Seren Teledu.

She put me in a special cat crate and gave me a dish with a small amount of cat food on it. I could not believe my eyes - real food! I gobbled it up as fast as I could in case it disappeared and then sat bolt upright. After a few minutes I remembered that my mum had told me I must wash my face after meals so I quickly cleaned my face and whiskers then I sat up straight again. I was very frightened and very, very tired as I had been in the box for several hours before I was rescued. I was afraid to go to sleep in case it was all a dream. Eventually, I could stay awake no longer and fell over in a heap fast asleep.

When I woke up the nice human showed me where the toilet tray was and then she gave me a small drink of milk. I was still very, very hungry, but she said I could only have tiny meals as it would make me ill to eat too much when I was so very thin. After I had another rest she picked me up and settled me on her knee. She started to stroke me, but it hurt me to be touched except on my head and face and the end of my tail so she just stroked my head and face with one of her fingers. Next day she took me to see the vet. He was very angry that I was so thin, but gave my human advice on how to help me to recover. He said I was between 8 and 12 weeks old.

It has taken me three months to recover from my ordeal. For the first two months my tummy found it very hard to cope with eating proper food. I am growing into a big, strong cat. I am growing my adult teeth. I am learning not to steal food, but I still cannot resist crisps or jam sandwiches. I have a good human, two good cat friends, an old dog who is very comfortable to snuggle up to and a young dog, Minnie Mouse, to play rough and tumble games and chase around the house with.

If you are not sure how to look after a cat please, please check out this site on the web which is run by Cats Protection. It has lots of leaflets on it all about looking after cats and information about important things like neutering so we cannot produce loads more kittens.

If you are unable to keep your cat for some reason, please do not just abandon it or worse still put it in a cardboard box and leave it out with the bins for the cat to be crushed to death in the bin lorry as so nearly happened to me. If you cannot cope with your cat there are lots of cat charities out there that will be only too pleased to rehome your cat for you including the RSPCA and private charities and cat rescue groups. All you need to do is Google Cat Rescue and search in the results for places in your town.

I was chatting with my friend Irene over the Christmas break and she was telling me about this area during the War. She was only seven when the war broke out and was thirteen when it ended so she remembers quite a bit about it.

 Not long after the War started she and her brothers and sisters were all evacuated to the country for safety, but their mum missed them so she went and fetched them all back home again. They lived near Daisy Mill (the big Repo TV place) on Stockport Road not far from what is now Longsight Police Station. Daisy Mill was used during the War by the Army Pay Corp and because it was an Army base constant attempts were made by the Germans to bomb it. It was during one of those raids that a bomb landed in MacKenzie Street, just off Northmoor Road, and flattened two terraced houses. That is why when you walk along MacKenzie Street today there are two houses that are completely different to all the rest.

 There was a prisoner of war camp (POW Camp) just behind Daisy Mill and Irene can remember standing at the side of the road watching the prisoners being marched out and down into Manchester to be put on trains to take them to other camps. There was also a POW Camp where Bellevue Speedway is today.

 Where Longsight Police Station is today was a big coal yard with a high wall around it. Coal, along with just about everything else, was rationed during the war and people never had enough. Irene and her brothers and sisters used to take a big Silver Cross pram out at night and go down to the coal yard. Some would climb over into the yard and some would remain with the pram. Those in the yard would throw coal over the wall and the rest would load it into the pram. Lots of people used to steal coal from the yard.

 One night they went to liberate another pram load of coal, but just as they were arriving at the yard the Police launched a raid as they had heard that people were going to be stealing coal that night. Irene and her brothers and sisters ran away as fast as they could. She and one of her sisters had the pram and ran away from their house towards Kirkmanshulme Lane. Back then Longsight Station was there, near to the entrance to the Asda car park. Irene and her sister had the brilliant idea of trying to steal some coal from the station. There were huge piles of coal there for the steam trains. They managed to sneak past the nightwatchman and stole a pram load of best anthracite. This was the best coal there was and during the War it was kept for the trains. When they got home they realised that the coal was in big lumps, far too large for the fireplace in their house. Irene and her brothers and sisters spent the next week sitting out in the yard every evening smashing the coal up into smaller pieces with hammers.

 Irene also recalled that one day she was taken ill and needed emergency surgery on her neck. The ambulance came to collect her and her mother to take her to the hospital. She tells me she was terrified, not about the operation but because they had to drive through Deansgate in the middle of Manchester to reach the hospital and there was a major air raid taking place at the time. She said you could hear the bombs falling all round them and that the ambulance was rocking and shaking with the shock waves from the explosions.

There must be loads of people living around here who can still remember what it was like to be here during the war.

Check out the BBC World War II People’s War web site. Also Imperial War Museum North. Here is a web site about the Manchester blitz.