Norah Messenger, Proprietor of Chestnuts Bed and Breakfast and Norah’s Ark, small animal boarding, Low Moresby, Whitehaven

Employer: Self-employed

Age: 67

Where are you from? About 100 yards away from where we live now.

Where do you live now? Low Moresby, a couple of miles north of Whitehaven

Where do you work? The B&B is in-house and the small animal boarding is here too, but I do go out and about to feed animals in their own homes when needed.

How long have you done this job? We started the B&B in 2008 and the Ark a couple of years later.

Talk us through a typical day: We start cooked breakfasts from 7.30am so obviously I need to be up and ready to prepare it for them. We cook to order so that everything is fresh and tasty, whether it is a full English or just poached eggs.

Clearing up is a joint effort between myself and Bob, my husband. Bob then sets about changing and cleaning the guest rooms while I go outside to feed the animals in the Ark. These can range from tiny hamsters, guinea pigs and rabbits to ferrets, tortoises and lizards.

We have two separate sheds, one for furries and the other for reptiles and ferrets. We also look after birds such as parrots and budgies but these come into the house as they need more company.

Cleaning out the hutches and cages can take hours when we have a lot of animals in and that comes next in the routine. Only once I am finished the cleaning can I go shopping for bed and breakfast supplies and usually large amounts of fresh vegetables plus rabbit pellets, hay and bedding.

Our days are often ruled by times of arrival and departure of either human or animal guests but afternoons are usually spent walking our dogs and gardening before the process of feeding starts again.

We sometimes have animals on medication so must keep a particularly close eye on these. We have occasional crises whereby something has to go for a vet’s appointment but this is all part of the job of being “in loco parentis” to the animals. In among this, I have several cat/fish/chicken clients who I go to regularly.

What do you like most about the job? Meeting different people (although that can be a mixed blessing sometimes), learning about different pets and ensuring they are healthy and well while they are with us and sending them home happy.

I love to leave the Ark smelling fresh and hear the crunching and munching of lots of tiny mouths as they eat their “supper”.

What do you like the least? Waiting around, either for people to arrive to stay or coming down late for breakfast as this not only spoils the food I have carefully prepared but also sets the day back. My one real moan about the Ark is not the animals themselves but people arriving or collecting much later than arranged.

Why did you want to do this job? The bed and breakfast came about after Bob took voluntary redundancy and our children started vacating their bedrooms. We do have a lovely home and decided it was time it paid us back by providing an income.

The Ark grew from us having lots of pets ourselves and the realisation that other people needed theirs cared for. We started with a shed specifically designed for the purpose and quickly outgrew it so we have tripled in size with regards to hutches, cages and vivariums.

What jobs have you done previously? Since I started work at Marchon fifty years ago I have done numerous admin jobs, from medical records, library, invigilation (yawn), Income Tax and secretarial but the longest and most enjoyable post was for the World Owl Trust at Muncaster as office administrator. We still have a few owls living in aviaries in the garden and guests love to see them up close.

What qualifications or experience do you need? There are no actual qualifications needed to run a B&B, apart from Food Hygiene, but you need plenty of room, energy and patience.

Obviously we need to be friendly and helpful and I think this comes across in lots of the lovely reviews we receive on booking sites. For the Ark we need to know as much as possible about the care of the animals as we have had up to 14 different species in at once, we need to have a love for them, not be squeamish and not mind getting piddled on or worse.

What is a typical salary for this job? Obviously the money we earn depends on other people’s wallets so two weeks are never the same.

January is quiet for bed and breakfast but summer is non-stop. Prices for animal boarding range from £2 per day for a hamster/budgie to £5 per day for a lizard that requires heat, lighting and live food. From these amounts we obviously have to pay for food, heating, bedding etc., but the income helps us to go on holiday, usually to Austria on our Goldwing Trike.

Any advice for people wanting to get into your profession? Don’t think bed and breakfast is simply that, it also takes patience, understanding, tolerance and sometimes a bit of biting your tongue.

Animals are also not always easy so this is not for anyone who just wants to cuddle a bunny all day, I can still be outside cleaning out all evening if we have a changeover of guests.