The venerable letterbox of the Daily Telegraph is host to a wealth of animal owners and observers. Not to be outdone on any subject, comes a menagerie of musings and meditations on a topic very close to their hearts. A collection including correspondence from dogs, notes about peacocks, admonitions on horse owners and scapegoats for cats.

From the farmstead to the front room, big and small, feathered and furry can be found amidst these pages. How to gauge the political leanings of your terrier - there is a simple test for that. Useful pointers on subduing a disgruntled heffer that prove effective in urban and everyday environments as well.

Whether you live with a labradoodle, spend your weekends twitching or simply watching the tortoises go by, here is the best assortment of animals as gathered by the readers of the Telegraph.

Iain Hollingshead spent two years on the Letters to the Editor desk before becoming a full-time feature writer for The Daily Telegraph. His more serious assignments have included reporting on the student riots in London and interviewing everyone from Michael Atherton to Gurkha veterans to a member of Seal Team Six, the elite unit which killed Osama bin Laden. His less serious assignments have included taking a bath in Las Vegas with six albino rabbits, spending three days behind the scenes at the Miss England competition, camping outside Westminster Abbey for the Royal Wedding, eating in five Michelin starred restaurants in one day, learning to flirt in Pizza Express, learning to Dance in Mamma Mia!, performing stand-up comedy to 300 eight-year-olds, training with the Royal Marines, climbing into a Spitfire and experiencing a Brighton nudist beach first hand. He now writes freelance for the paper. He has edited four bestselling collections of unpublished letters from the Daily Telegraph for Aurum.