McLeods Booksellers

Bodacious: the Shepherd Cat by Suzanna Crampton

$22.99 NZD

Category: Animal Biographies

BODACIOUS: THE SHEPHERD CAT is a heart-warming and charming tale in which Bodacious tells us about life as The Shepherd Cat on Black Sheep Farm. 'I am Bodacious, The Shepherd Cat , and this is my story. I wasn't always called Bodacious. I must have been called something else in my kitten-hood in the nea rby city of Kilkenny, but it's all a bit of a mystery to My Human. As far as she's concerned, I appeared one day and have never left. It's a secret I plan to keep.' Written from the perspective of Bodacious the cat, this is a beautifully written memoir of Bodacious's life on the farm and everything that entails -- early mornings, frosty starts, beautiful sunrises,adventurous rare-breed Zwartbles sheep, hard work, entertaining animals, mouth-watering food, kind people and idyllic country living with its highs and lows. The Shepherd often tells Bodacious her favourite story of how she went out to buy red ribbon to wrap a gift for her friend, but instead came home with a gift for herself: a daring,assertive, ambitious cat looking for a home. But soon The Shepherd realises she needs Bodacious as much as he needs her. As soon as he arrives, Bodacious saunters around the farm like he owns the place and immediately establishes himself as Top Cat. But Bodacious isn't content to pad round the house and curl up by the Aga, and soon he befriends a farm cat called Oscar who trains him in the ways of the farm. As well as Oscar, Bodacious gets to know all the other animals on the farm -- cats Miss Marley and Ovenmitt, the scruffy border collie/fox terrier-cross called Pepper, and The Big Fellow, to name a few. With wonderful characterisation, humour, sharp observation, and a plucky attitude, Bodacious shows us the ropes of Black Sheep Farm. As we soak in the atmosphere of the house, the orchards and the fields, we also learn how this Top Cat Shepherd got his name - by being 'Big, bold, beautiful, bolshie', as his Shepherd always says... ...Show more

Smoky the Brave by Damien Lewis

$34.99 NZD

Category: Animal Biographies

The World's Smallest Dog with the World's Biggest Heart Smoky the Brave is the extraordinary, touching and true story of a heroic dog and her adoptive masters in the jungles of the Pacific War. In February 1944, as Japanese military advances threatened to engulf Australasia, a tiny, four-pound Yorkshir e terrier was discovered hiding in a Japanese shell scrape amidst the thick jungles of Papua New Guinea. The GIs who discovered her presumed she had been some kind of Japanese army mascot, but it soon turned out that she understood neither commands rendered in Japanese nor English. A mystery, she was adopted by Corporal William 'Bill' Wynne, an air-crewman with the US 5th Air Force's 26th Photo Reconnaissance Squadron. Living in Bill Wynne's tent, sleeping on a piece of green felt salvaged from a card table, and sharing his rations, Smoky became the de facto mascot of the regiment. She went on to fly numerous photo-recce and air-sea rescue missions, cocooned in a soldier's pack hanging next to the machine-guns used to repel marauding Japanese fighters. She was awarded eight battle stars, surviving dozens of Japanese combat raids on Papua New Guinea, and braving a typhoon that ravaged Okinawa. After saving Wynne's life by warning of a falling shell, as their landing craft approached an enemy-held beach - a shell that killed the eight men that Wynne was standing beside - he nicknamed her the 'angel from a foxhole'. In one of her most famous exploits Smoky parachuted using a special rig designed to fit one of the world's smallest but toughest dogs. In perhaps her most heroic exploit of all, Smoky ran a cable through a seventy-foot pipe no wider in places than four inches, to enable telephone lines to be run across the recently occupied airbase of Luzon. Her efforts saved hundreds of ground-crew from being exposed to enemy bombing, preventing injury and loss of life. Amongst her many other awards, she was given the PDSA's Certificate for Animal Bravery or Devotion in 2011, a relatively new class of PDSA award. ...Show more

How to Mend a Kea by Janet Hunt

$27.99 NZD

Category: Animals

The little kaka that lost its way; the kereru with the broken wing; the tuatara that went floppy; the whio that couldn’t fly, the kea with the broken foot...All these stories and more from Wildbase, the remarkable New Zealand native animal veterinary hospital, told by expert natural history writer Janet Hunt.This is the perfect book for everyone who cares about our wild creatures and wants to know more about how they are helped when they are ill or injured. Children, parents and teachers will be entranced and inspired by the stories of how skilled vets can cure our endangered species. ...Show more

Backyard Chickens: How to Keep Happy Hens by Dave Ingham

$39.99 NZD

Category: Livestock

A henkeeping companion to the bestselling Backyard Bees, covering everything you need to know about keeping chickens even in urban areas.

Slow Down and Grow Something The Urban Grower's Recipe for the Good Life by Tess Robinson (As told to); Byron Smith

$45.00 NZD

Category: Gardening

A blueprint for living the good life in the city - how to grow the easiest food plants in small spaces and recipes to make the most of them

Ginny's Herb Handbook (Stickered Stock)

$9.99 NZD

Category: Gardening

Ultimate Fruit and Nuts (Stickered Stock)

$29.99 NZD

Category: Gardening

Cat Encyclopedia by Dorling Kindersley Publishing Staff

$24.99 NZD

Category: Pets

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Bono: The Rescue Cat Who Helped Me Find My Way Home by Helen Brown

$35.00 NZD

Category: Animal Biographies

Having survived a brush with cancer, Helen Brown, happily married with three grown children, took stock of her comfortable suburban life and found it wanting. So when she was invited to visit New York, the city that never sleeps, she seized the day and accepted. Perhaps, she mused, she might never retur n.There was a catch, however: would she foster a homeless cat during her stay? Visualising a dozy, sweet-natured snuggler with a name like Mavis, Helen agreed. But the cat she met in the Manhattan shelter was anything but dozy. Instead, Bono, as he was called, was wide-eyed and unpredictable, a bundle of nervous energy with a feisty attitude and punk haircut to boot.After a shaky start, Helen and Bono began to get to know each other. And, as winter turned to spring, cat and woman explored new beginnings and past heartache, only to discover that, in the end, home is where the heart is, wherever that may be. ...Show more

SMALL LIVESTOCK HOUSING A CONSTRUCTION GUIDE by JACOBS, JOE

$14.99 NZD

Category: Livestock

Anyone who is interested in keeping birds, poultry and other outdoor varieties of caged animal will know that the most expensive part of their hobby is probably purchasing the housing. However, for a modest financial outlay it is possible to make your own livestock housing and this practical book shows you exactly how to do it. What sets the book apart from others is that the author has taken the time to try his own ideas out. He has actually built all the housing projects that are described and has taken photographs at the important stages of construction. ...Show more

The Horse Encyclopedia

$24.99 NZD

Category: Livestock

Pruning Fruit Trees - A Beginner's Guide by Kathleen Irvine

$27.00 NZD

Category: Gardening

This is the grown up version of the funny little pruning book Kath Irvine cobbled together a few years ago. A bit of a cringe, in hindsight, but that little book is what got her here. That and Fern Publishing. Together they've gone over and over her writing. Every word has been weighed up. Order and str ucture and tense challenged. They've walked the line between tidying up her terrible grammar, and retaining her quirky ways. Pruning Fruit Trees has been a big extra to life. The house is super dusty and please don't look in the oven, but it's been worth it. Her focus is on helping beginners, but she also hopes to give experienced pruners new eyes for trees. Calm trees is her overall aim. A less is more approach to cutting with a focus on training as well as pruning. This doesn't mean wild, woolly things that need ladders and compact and productive are my guiding lights. ...Show more