BBC Radio Cumbria

The refuge is 100 years old or at least the organisation behind it is.

The National Equine Defence League was started by Francis Cox in 1909 to campaign for better working conditions for the pit ponies working down the mines.

Joe the crow

The inaugural meeting was chaired by Jerome K Jerome who wrote the book "Three Men in a Boat".

In the 1920's, Carlisle Animals' Friends which had been started by local man Alfred Brisco merged with the League, and its work expanded to help dogs, cats and other animals.

There's a surprising amount going on at the refuge.

I'd not been until fairly recently and had no real idea of the scope of its work and how many animals are there.

They include horses (still including pit ponies amazingly), donkeys, sheep, cattle, goats and ferrets....plus dogs, cats and other small animals.

Some are permanent residents.

Others are waiting for new homes. 

I went to meet five of them and you can listen to their stories by clicking on the links at the top right of this page.

Joe the Crow is a long term resident.

He came in injured and is now too tame to be returned to the wild.

He talks as well, although his repertoire is limited!

He can say "hello" and "wah, wah, wah" which is his attempt at impersonating the dogs in the nearby kennels apparently.

He is very tame although he was wary of me when I was in the aviary with outdoor manager John Logan.

Pixie seems unphased by the camera!

Pixie the cat is another permanent resident.

She is little bit temperamental and the refuge doesn't think she's suitable for re-homing.

Despite this Julie Hardy, who's in charge of the dogs, cats and other small animals, is very fond of her.

And when I visited there was clearly a strong bond between the two with Pixie begging to be stroked.

She's also not at all camera shy as you can see!

Abbie the cross-Staffordshire bull terrier is waiting to be re-homed but she's not new to the refuge.

She was actually hand-reared by staff here along with her eight siblings after their mother died.

She's quite happy at the moment sharing her run with another similar dog.

Despite the breed's sometime fearsome reputation John Logan says Abbie has a great temperament.

It was tricky getting a photo of her though.

She was far too interested in everything else going on around her but we got there eventually!

The refuge has quite a few horses including a contingent of French ponies rescued from the continental meat trade.

The refuge gave them a home in order to bring attention to the sometimes cramped conditions in which they are transported to the meat markets.

Lexi and her foal

Lexi is one of them.

She arrived pregnant and with another foal in tow.

Both are now very happy at the refuge.

She's expecting again.

Ian Slater, who's in charge of horses, ponies and larger livestock says that eventually the hope is that her and her foals will be re-homed to make nice riding ponies for some lucky children.

My last port of call was the ferrets and Sandy the ferret in particular.

Although the refuge does have quite a few ferrets waiting for new homes, Sandy and her three shed mates are actually owned by the refuge's director, Heather McClean.

She lives on site with her family and the ferrets live in a shed near her house. Sandy was a stray.

The other three were a result of an unexpected litter caused by their father's slightly dodgy vasectomy!

Sandy chewing on some flapjack!

They have a bit of a foot fetish apparently and so I was asking for trouble when I went into the shed in flip-flops!

Heather said they would just sniff my feet but a few seconds later I let out a yelp as one of the ferrets decided to see what my little toe tasted like!

Luckily it didn't break the skin but we did the rest of the interview outside the shed! 

I really enjoyed my visit.

The staff are clearly devoted to their animals.

I was tempted by the cats I have to admit but I resisted asking if I could give one a new home!

But even if you're not looking for a new pet it's a nice place to have a wander round and you can even have a coffee in their new cafe afterwards.