THE little penguin who waddled his way into the hearts of countless kids was not alone when he arrived at the Sherdley Park Pets Corner about 30 years ago.

For, according to Dennis Cunningham, whose late father combined the role of park gardener with mini-zoo keeper, Hopping Jasper, as the cute little bird was nicknamed, originally had five companions with him.

They came as a 'job lot' from Belle Vue Zoo . . . only to become target practice for mindless young thugs armed with airguns.

Though wounded in one of these sneak raids (half-a-dozen pellets had to be removed) Jasper managed to recover, giving further years of enjoyment to crowds of youngsters drawn to the pet enclosure. His companions were not so fortunate.

Eventually, though, all-alone Jasper succumbed to old age. But his memory has been revived in some lively letters appearing recently on the Star's letters page.

And now, a superb flashback photo provided by Dennis, from Tennyson Street, Sutton Manor, shows the pets corner at the height of its glory.

His dad, Joe Cunningham, who died a couple of years ago at the age of 82, is shown feeding a glorious assortment of deer, ducks, geese and fowl.

And very careful scrutiny shows Hopping Jasper, who earned that nickname from his peculiar waddling style, peeping in from the upper extreme left of this nostalgia-oozing snapshot.

Dennis has an assortment of anecdotes from his dad's days as pet keeper, including the time when a rather bad-tempered donkey was introduced to the compound.

"My dad immediately recognised it as a wrong 'un and didn't want to take it in," says Dennis, "but his boss insisted. Two days later it gave my dad a vicious two-footed kick which put him in hospital for a couple of days."

When he returned back to work after about a fortnight there was talk of putting the donkey down. But Joe wouldn't hear of this.

"Leave it to me, I'll quieten it!" he declared. He donned a pair of clogs, rushed into the stable, gave the donkey a hefty kick and then leapt on to its back, riding it round bare-back style.

"That donkey never gave a scrap of trouble after that," says Dennis. "That sudden shock did the trick."

On another occasion Joe was stock-taking, counting the birds at roosting time. Police, alerted to flashlights in the dusk, rushed across and were about to wade in, truncheons at the ready, to apprehend what they'd imagined to be thieves or pet attackers.

It took some hasty explaining before the vigilant bobbies let Joe return home.

Joe's own pet name for the penguin was 'Squeaky' because it used to pester him with non-stop squeaking sounds, trailing after him and pecking at his ankles until he'd fed the odd little bird by hand.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.