Rosie the cow is led into St Peter’s Church by Mary Nicolle for the animals and pets service last Sunday. (0852689)

AFTER almost four decades of writing for a living, I suppose I could be forgiven for thinking that I’d seen it all – or, at least, most of it.

Not so, as I found out last Sunday when I saw a cow being led into St Peter’s Church in Sark, followed by a horse.

Once inside they joined, among other creatures, Oliver de Carteret with what looked to me like a hamster but could have been a guinea pig, a chinchilla, Ann Rive’s 80-year-old tortoise Fred – she was outside with horse Hugo and Jake the dog – and enough caged birds to darken the sky had they all been released.

The occasion was Sark’s first service of thanksgiving for pets and animals – an occasion which all but filled the island’s Anglican church.

The Rev. Richard Bellinger said that it did not matter if any of the animals had ‘little accidents’ – there were plenty of volunteers who’d offered their services as ‘cleaner-uppers’ – but that was before Mary Nicolle appeared through the church door with Rosie the cow, closely followed by Karen Pollard and one of the family’s horses.

Presumably those volunteers breathed an audible sigh of relief when, having made their starring appearance, the cow and the horse were led out.

Richard told me after the service that the look on many of the congregation’s faces when they appeared inside the church was an absolute picture.

Interestingly, there were among that congregation a number of people who had travelled from Guernsey especially for the service – something that demonstrates that there are many strings to the tourism industry’s bow.

Chief Pleas sat last week, interrupted only by a pleasing acknowledgement in the luncheon recess of the huge amount of service this community receives from volunteers. That was the presentation by the Lt-Governor, Sir Fabian Malbon, of Good Conduct and Long Service medals to former members of the island’s Fire and Rescue Service.

The fact that the minimum length of service for the award is 20 years and there were several recipients who’d served in excess of 30 years says it all and, apart from reflecting the community’s thanks, there’s little I can add.

The sitting itself was little different from others this year – long on decisions on the nod and short on discussion and debate.

Richard Dewe summed up frustration felt by a number of members when he referred to the Development Control Committee’s claim that they wanted more input from the public on the new housing occupancy law and asked how anyone could comment when they had no idea what was in the DCC’s most recent (10th) draft.

Seneschal Reg Guille suggested distributing that draft to conseillers – but not the public, which puts firmly to bed any notion that open government is alive and well.

The DCC also disclosed that since writing to all households in June about developments for which no consent had been obtained, 10 retrospective applications have been received, although the committee added that none ‘has yet been received for the developments that triggered the letter’.

That means that the DCC is apparently content to allow what it contends are breaches of the planning law to continue. And I thought that one of the principal functions of a law enforcement agency was to prevent the commission of offences.

l The email address for comment is fallesark@sark.net.