Late Posting Today !

My beautiful Maxie (taken on a walk around the garden this afternoon) turns 2 next month ....

Regular readers will know that I usually post around 11 am Tanzanian time each morning ..... well it's around 11 pm now, so I'm only 12 hours late today ;) Actually, I have been having a problem with Blogger this weekend (anyone else had the same thing happen to them ?) I could not post or moderate comments Friday/Saturday until quite late last night - so had no blog post prepared for today yet, by the time I finally managed to get online again.

We had a really relaxing family day at home today, with hubby taking the day off work and I didn't spend any time at the computer. So, no post from me today but instead I just wanted to pop in to let you all know why you hadn't heard from me yet !

Also thought it would be a good chance for Maxie to show her pretty face on the blog (the photo above was taken this afternoon) as it's been a while since I've 'featured' her. You can read about her and how she came into our family over here, aswell as see what a cutie she was as a puppy ! Maxie turns 2 years old next month, and is a very special girl - a real sweetheart who has a special place in my heart & is living a wonderful, carefree life instead of a miserable, unloved one chained up as a guard dog on a mine somewhere. (Which you can read more about in the post about her as a puppy).

I'll be back soon .....

Tessa Says 'Thanks For All Your Entries/Comments .....!'

It's a cat's life ! Tessa takes a nap in the filing trays in my office ......

Mum said I should just pop in to thank you all for the entries/comments on this post last week. The 'competition' has now closed, and a winner will be drawn soon & announced next week.

Until then, I'm just going to stay curled up in the filing trays in her office. Because I like sleeping in odd places which you can read more about (& see photos of !) over here. Mum says it's okay though, 'cause I had rather a rough start in life (which you can read about over here) so now she lets me have/do whatever I want !

Something Special ? Welcome, Lulu !

In last Saturday's post, I mentioned that we had to take a trip to fetch 'something special', and that I'd keep you all posted. Well .... here's what the 'something special' was ..... a dog called Lulu !

Lulu is actually Dibble's grandmother, and her family are relocating to Zimbabwe and could not take her with them, so we offered to give her a home with us ! The photo above shows Lulu getting out of the back of our car when we first brought her home to the farm - Maxie, Dibble, Josie and Mbwenya (not pictured) all ran to the car to welcome her !

In this photo above, she had just jumped out of the car and was surveying her surroundings for the first time ! She is 5 years old and is a Ridgeback Cross (Labrador, I think ?) She's had 3 litters but has since been spayed - thankfully, else I would've had her spayed straight away.

She's settled in really well so far ... is getting along with the other dogs ... and is a real sweetie - always wagging her tail and licking and 'smiling' at us ! She comes from a very loving home and was brought up with a little boy who is about my daughter's age - so she loves kids. He was very sad to see her go and gave her lots of hugs and pats as he said goodbye - his Mum was also very sad to say goodbye to Lulu - heartbreaking stuff ! We have promised to keep in touch with emails and photo's .... and they are happy that we are going to provide Lulu with a loving home.

This photo of Lulu was taken on our veranda yesterday - as you can see, she looks a lot like Dibble. I think she'll fit in well here, and we're lucky to have her ... welcome, Lulu !

Zonde

Zonde on the bed sniffing my then 10 week old daughter's toes - we had just recently moved to the farm (2005)

My daughter as a toddler, sprinkling flour over Zonde in our garden on the farm, two years before Zonde died

Justin made a bouganvillia 'necklace' for Zonde the day she turned 10 years old - here he poses with my daughter & Zonde outside my kitchen window, for a birthday photo !

I woke up this morning with a feeling of heaviness in my heart - it was a year ago today that you were taken from me. I miss you still. So much. Like all the other great heartbreaks of my life, I know that I will never completely get over losing you.

But .... although you no longer walk beside me, I will carry you with me in my heart, forever. I still love you more than words could ever say ..... my precious Zonde dog.

Zonde's Final Resting Place

We chose to bury Zonde under the shade of an old peach tree, at the bottom of our garden

Nelson used an old dried milk powder tin as a mold to fashion the 'pedestal' for the cross

Her grave looks out onto the Western foothills of Mt. Kilimanjaro .....

Fellow dog lovers will agree with me, I’m sure, when I say that although you can have many wonderful dogs in your life, there are a few amongst them who touch your life in an extra special way and that when you lose them, you never really quite get over it.

My dog Zonde was one of these special dogs, (you can read about her when I first ‘introduced’ her to you on the blog over here) and I sadly lost her last year to cancer (you can read my post – probably the hardest one I’ve ever had to write – about losing her over here).

Justin and I chose her final resting place …. a cool corner at the bottom of our garden surrounded by a small banana plantation and in the shade of an old peach tree …. with views out over Kilimanjaro’s western foothills. I think she’s happy there …. when I wander down to visit her grave (which is not often, I must confess – I just find it too difficult) I talk to her and I feel a sense of peace come over me. But goodness, how I miss her still and writing this post brings the heartache and emptiness of losing her flooding back to me again ….

But I don’t want to make this post a sad one. I want to share with you (because I was overwhelmed by the number of blog comments and emails I got from all you wonderful people last year when I posted about losing her) the story behind the grave you see in the photo’s above.

Zonde was such a special dog, and I wanted to mark her grave so that one day – when I’m long gone – she would never be forgotten. I have often seen small cement gravestones and crosses for sale along the roadside, and I decided to buy one of these crosses for her grave. I asked Justin if he could organize the engraving for me, but he said that they don’t engrave them – they just paint onto them. I wrote out what I wanted them to paint on to the cross for me, (“Zonde – 1996 to 2008”) and gave Justin some money on his next day off, when he was planning to head off into one of the bigger villages near the farm for some shopping.

Apparently the person who paints the gravestones/crosses was a bit taken aback, hearing that this was a cross for the grave of a dog ! Although I had clearly written the instructions out, the painter decided to add “Born” and “Died” to the years (as a ‘special service’ and at no extra charge, Justin informed me !) and as he speaks no English he painted “Die 1996” and “Deth 2008” instead of “Born 1996” and “Died 2008”. I have just left it like that though, because I know what it means and – odd person that I am - I don’t feel right about changing it !

The following week, Justin asked me for some money to buy ‘a small packet of cement, Mama. Because we need to put cement around the base of the cross so that it stays in the ground’. I gave him the money and that Monday Nelson, one of our part time gardeners, began to erect the cross. I left him to it (as Justin was overseeing things) as they wanted me to see the ‘finished product’ once it was completely done. So, I was very surprised when they finally called me to have a look a couple of days later, to see that they had completely covered the grave with cement and made it into a ‘proper’ grave !

I had just wanted a simple cross and a ‘bare earth’ grave, with smooth rocks outlining it and I had planned to plant wild flowers over the top of it. All the graves where people are buried here look like this, and I also felt conscious of the fact that I my dog (viewed by many here to be a worthless – and sometimes despised – animal) was now buried in a ‘human’ grave.

But it is done now, and I realise that Nelson and Justin only planned it this way because they know how much I loved Zonde, and how much more than ‘just a dog’ she was to me.

So …. I have decided to be happy with the grave – and the thought behind it – and I now know for sure, that long after I have left this earth, Zonde will always be remembered ….. her final resting place nestled at the bottom of the garden in a place where I know she was truly happy to have lived out the final years of her life.

That Tessa Cat !

That Tessa cat of ours - ever since there's been a baby in the house, she's been acting like one herself (as we didn't have her yet, when our daughter was a baby) ! She thinks that all the 'baby equipment' has been brought in especially for her ..... I've had to chase her out of the travel cot (above) .......

Shoo her off the nappy (diaper) changing station in our bathroom, below .......

And remove her from the 'Piccalo' chair ..................


And then there was that time I turned my back for a split second & I found THIS below ! (She was swiftly removed from that position !)

Huh ! Just who does she think she is, hey ?! (I ask her if she thinks she's a human baby & she just squeezes her eyes shut, curls up into a tighter ball - and starts purring !)

I must admit though, I never scold her too much because she did have a very rough start in life .... she was saved from abuse and near starvation as a kitten (you can read her story over here) ..... so I think she's entitled to a little 'babying' now and then - don't you agree ?!

(P.S. Just incase you were wondering, all our pets are fully vaccinated & regularly dewormed & I don't allow the cats to sleep anywhere near/on the baby, as some people have asked me about this !)

A Cat Called Oreo .......

About to be killed as he was seen as being a 'nuisance' - we gladly gave Oreo a home, and he has turned out to be no 'nuisance' at all !

Long time readers of this blog will know about the many dogs and cats I have given homes to over the years – many rescued from a life of misery and starvation – some brought back from almost the brink of death – and now living in the lap of luxury with more love, comfort and food than they could ever ask for ! (You can read, and see photo’s of, the courageous little dog who started it all over here).

We currently have 5 cats and 2 dogs that live with us, 2 stray village dogs living permanently in our garden, 5 cats which live at staff quarters and are cared for by us and 1 cat in the village. Then we feed & care for another 3 ‘stray’ village dogs on a permanent basis, and feed at least another 6 or so in the village that come and go.

By ‘feed and care’ I mean that we also ensure that their annual rabies vaccinations are done, they are regularly de-wormed and the ones which we can ‘catch’ are all spayed or neutered. We also help with small things like treating eye infections and superficial wounds. (By ‘we’ I mean Justin and I)

Of course it was never meant to be like this …. caring for so many animals …. When we moved to the farm in 2005 we came with our 2 dogs and 2 cats and that (we thought) was it. But over the years I’ve become aware of so many animals around me in need, and with no animal welfare type societies here (except for a small organization in the city) – who is there to look after these waifs and strays ? I can’t turn my back on an animal in need and slowly, over the years – I’ve ended up caring for more and more of them along the way.

Anyway, just a few weeks ago we welcomed a new cat into our home (even though my husband said ‘Don’t you think we’ve got enough now ?!’) …. he’s the young male pictured above, and his name is Oreo (named by my daughter – yes, after the cookies – although I don’t know why !)

My friend E. who also lives on a farm here in Tanzania and who happens to be a vet (you can read a little about that over here) asked me if I’d give this cat a home, as he was about to be killed ! He had been brought in (thankfully) by someone from a farm near theirs as he had been causing a lot of problems in the area – fighting with ‘tame’ house cats, scavenging for food and they asked her to put him down, saying ‘If he comes back, he’ll be killed’. Now E. has lots of dogs and cats herself, and she is very pro life and won’t put a healthy animal down, but she was scared to keep this cat himself, as he would surely return to his ‘territory’ and be killed. So, she asked if I would take him. Of coruse I couldn’t say no !

Oreo was a bit of a nightmare to begin with – fighting with all our cats and causing havoc in our peaceful household ! But he has since come to realize that he has nothing to fear (along with a plentiful supply of food and love !) and has settled in quite well, spending his nights on my daughter’s bed (I suspect he was cared for or played with by children at some stage).

The sad thing is that he cringes if you stroke him suddenly – he also runs and hides when he hears loud noises – so he’s obviously been chased or possibly even hit by people before. But he’ll overcome all that - with lots of love and cuddles !

E. says he has a bit of a ‘wildcat’ look about him, and along with his colouring (he has some spot like markings on his coat, too) she thinks that somewhere along the line he may have been the result of a wildcat/domestic cat crossing.

Anyway, he’s now been neutered and vaccinated and although quite thin, he’ll soon fatten up – and he can look forward to a life of comfort and love now !

(If you’d like to read more about my pets or animals I've helped, you can browse through the ‘Pets’ category in the right sidebar.)

Footprints In The Fudge .....

As you know, I recently made some 'foolproof' South African fudge & posted the recipe on the blog. I had not made fudge for quite some time, obviously not since our daughter was born as she had never eaten it before and although she does not have a very sweet tooth (unlike her mother - I think she takes after her father who prefers 'savoury' over 'sweet' anyday !)she went crazy for it ! As a result, I was asked to please make some more - which I did a couple of weeks ago. As the fudge was setting, Toby sauntered across one of the trays - and left a perfect paw print behind as you can see in the photo above - isn't it sweet ?! (Luckily the fudge is beaten until almost cool & merely sets in the trays, else he would've burnt his poor paw !)

Toby, who I adopted last year, has quickly wormed his way into my heart. All my animals are special, but Toby just seems to have a little bit of extra magic about him. (I'm sure that fellow pet lovers will know what I mean by this !) Anyway, he has become my "kitchen cat" as he spends most of his day in the kitchen, (he sleeps on a cushion on top of the one fridge - that's him up there in the photo above) and very often I am aware of his eyes following me from above, when I'm busy with something that particularly interests him (like chopping up raw chicken or other meat, for example !) If I fail to notice him watching me, I'll suddenly hear a soft "meow" and then I feel obliged to give him a little treat - or two ;)

He also loves climbing inside the kitchen cupboards and drawers and sleeping there. Here he is on a shelf where I keep some of my tea cups & coffee mugs - I mean, surely he could've found a more comfortable place to settle in for a midday nap ?! (Have I told you that I collect tea cups and coffee mugs ? I am a complete & utter addict and buy them all the time. Just as some people can't resist ... shoes for example .... I can't resist cups or mugs. I have hundreds (? I need to count them sometime !) of them stored in cupboards in my kitchen and pantry. I've collected them since I was a teenager. Maybe I should do a blog post about them all sometime !)

Anyway, enough of my rambling .... I just wanted to share some photo's with you of my "kitchen cat" ! And confess about my cup/mug addiction ;)

Kilimanjaro Kitten Couture !

Jenny seemed to be quite unphased with her new attire, and seemed more annoyed at me trying to take a photo of her !

With just under 9 weeks to go until we welcome our new baby daughter into this world, I have been sorting through all the babies clothes, toys and equipment which I kept after the birth of our first daughter, and carefully stored away in our spare guest bedroom cupboards. As you can't buy things easily here, it pays to hang on to what you have and if you don't need it again, you can then pass it on to someone else who can make good use of it.

Sorting through all these babies clothes has made my daughter quite excited, and she has asked me for a few items to dress her dolls with. I gave her some, and imagine my surprise when I walked into her bedroom the other day to find that not only had she dressed all her dolls in the 'new' clothes, but Jenny, too !

I remember my sister and I doing the same thing with our beloved Ginger tom cat (rather originally named "Ginger") when we were growing up ! Jenny didn't seem to mind, and curled up and went back to sleep on my daughter's bed afterwards - and then I snuck in & quickly undressed her, as I'd hate her to go outside and get caught up in a tree or on a fence or something.

Justin thought that the sight of Jenny in "human" clothing was hilarious (I don't know how he'd react if I made the dogs all dog jackets to wear during the cold Winter months ?!) and politely told me through his laughter, that if Jenny went out into the garden dressed like that and was seen by the farm staff "they really would think that you were crazy after all, Mama !"

The Incredible Kitten Rescue Operation !

(Warning - extremely long blog post ahead !) One morning last week, Justin (if you are new to the blog, you can read about Justin over here) came to me to tell me that he had heard kittens crying in the farm workshop area & on further investigation had discovered two kittens which had fallen into the tiny gap between 2 of our storage containers (their mother had given birth to them on top of the containers, thinking that this was a safe place). These containers are permanent fixtures and are bolted/set into cement slabs with a roof running along the top as they get really hot inside. We use them for storing farm chemicals/insecticides, crop seed and spare parts etc. I decided to go and take a look. The photo above shows the gap between the 2 containers where the kittens had fallen - I know, it's hard to believe that they would even fit down there !

This above is a close-up of the gap. It was a little wider inside than it looks (but only just) due to the corrugated sides of the container - the kittens were wedged in there & could not move/turn around. They were resting on the 'lip' or rim of the container at the bottom, it was hot, there were bees flying in & out of the gap & I was LIVID when I found out that they'd been trapped there for 2 days & nights and none of the farm/workshop staff had bothered to alert us because as far as they are concerned, cats are like vermin anyway so the kittens were just left to die. THANK GOODNESS for Justin (who has worked beside me for countless years and saved so many many animals with me), as if it wasn't for him finding them & alerting me, these poor helpless creatures would have died a slow & lingering death. (The marks you see on the sides of the container were from a fresh tree branch we used at first to try and scoop them up & back onto the top of the container - to no avail !)

I should mention that at this stage I had managed to see both kittens by shining a torch (flashlight) into the gap. I was relieved to see that they were not newborn as their eyes were open, & I estimated them to be around 4 weeks or so. (If they'd been newborns, I don't think they would've survived as long).

When I saw the mother cat desperately pacing up & down the container roof and crying pitifully for her babies, I realised that these were Emily's kittens as she is a stray farm cat which I care for. (You can read her story over here). She had also not come for her food for 2 nights - little did we know that it was because she'd had kittens who were now in distress & that she refused to leave them. (Just after this photo was taken we gave her food & water up on top of the container).

Emily is the only stray farm cat (to my knowledge) who has not been spayed as she is too wild to catch & put in a travel crate to take to the vet & Justin & I have both been bitten quite badly by her whilst trying to do this in the past. To make matters worse, I am no longer covered by my rabies vacination as the booster shot was due when I was in the early stages of this pregnancy & as a result I could not have it done. (So I have to be very careful when handling stray animals now that I am pregnant.) I don't know how, but I am going to have to find a solution to this problem soon, as she has to be spayed !

After trying to use a stick to gently scoop them up had failed, my husband (who by this stage had come up to the house for lunch & had been dragged into the whole rescue operation !) suggested that we try to move the containers apart by gently forcing them with the use of a hydraulic jack. We hoped to make the gap just big enough for the kittens to crawl out on their own. For this we needed a tractor (above), which he quickly pulled off a planting job at the bottom of the farm, plus we had a total of 10 staff members assisting us !


Here you can see my husband & some of the staff assisting him to set the hydraulic jack between the 2 containers. Justin is standing in the foreground of the photo, in the black t-shirt & denim shorts. The hydraulic jack plan didn't work. So we were back to square one again ! (Meanwhile the kittens were mewing pitifully, very distressed by all the noise around them).

We now decided to remove part of the roof covering the containers, our only other option was to try and 'fish' them out from the top. Here above you can see one of our gardeners, Hemmed, beginning to remove the iron sheeting & roll it back.

We then got some thin steel poles & asked the farm welder to quickly weld them all together to make one long pole. We fashioned a wide hook at the end, which I wrapped in layers of soft masking tape so that it would not hurt the kittens. Justin, Isaac (another one of our new, casual gardeners) & Hemmed climbed onto the roof and tried to use this hook to gently scoop each kitten up, & gently carry it to the surface. Easier said than done, it was a very tricky exercise due to the gap being so narrow. This part of the 'rescue operation' took around 3 hours ! Eventually everyone cheered as first one kitten was brought up, and then half an hour later, the other ! We placed them both into a travel crate (Emily had hidden away in fear at this stage & was nowhere to be seen) as there was no way I was going to leave them up there alone, & brought them down to our house.


The kittens were both (naturally) terrified and very shaken. We let them out of the crate into a quiet room (above) and although they were so wild (hissing and spitting if we came too close) I managed to see when they walked and moved that neither was injured in any way. I realised they were too young to lap milk from a bowl (we tried !) let alone eat solids. I have raised orphaned kittens before, & the only way to feed them at this age is with a syringe. Impossible with these 2 so wild ! Of course nothing is better for any living creature than to be with it's mother at this age, so we knew we had to reunite them with Emily as soon as we could. I was also worried that after almost 3 days of not being able to feed them, her milk may have begun to dry up.

Justin & I waited until nightfall, then returned to the containers where she was pitifully crying on the top, calling out to her babies who were no longer there. I lifted the crate up for her to see them, and she went crazy ! The kittens, too, began to meow when they saw her ! As she usually lives on top of the roof of Justin's house, we decided to take both her & the kittens back there. This entailed a walk through the workshops, across the yard, on to a road & down to staff quarters & I never thought that she would follow us, but as scared as she is of human's - she did !

Once we got to Justin's garden, we released the kittens from the crate & Emily took them to safety underneath a chicken coop. The following day Justin told me that she had moved them up onto the roof of his house during the night, and was happily feeding them.

Later that same night, Emily came to our house for food as she always does. Only this time it was different. She meowed and weaved between by ankles, rubbing and purring and following me through the house (she usually sticks to the kitchen & store areas only) & would not leave me alone, purring loudly and head butting my ankles as she did so ! I'd like to think that in some way, she was thanking me for helping to save her kittens, I'd like to think that in some way she now knows that not all humans are to be feared.

I have since asked the workshop staff to nail planks of wood across the gaps (roof side) between the containers, so that this never happens again. As they are a God fearing bunch, I also told them in no uncertain terms that not telling anyone about these kittens to begin with, was not very Christian-like and that God would punish them one day for turning their backs on animals in need - their day would come, and it it were to EVER happen again & I found out about it ? Well !

I rewarded all the people who helped me with the rescue operation and thanked Justin for alerting me to the fact that these kittens even existed - for he, too, used to think that dogs & cats were worthless beings - until he came to work with me several years ago & realised that quite the opposite was true ! I've managed to change just one person's attitude towards animals & that has had a domino effect ..... and for me, that is better than just sitting back and doing nothing at all. As one of my favourite sayings goes "To change one life, is to change the world entire"........

Update On Our Newest Family Members !

I thought it was time to update you all on our 3 newest family members, who all joined our household just before Christmas ! Above is Maxie, (you can read about her over here) who you can see is growing up fast & has also become a dog who sleeps on furniture - as all my animals do (well they have to be comfortable, don't they ?!) This is one of two chairs in the corner of my office (where I sit everyday blogging away !) and she spends most of her time either there or under my desk. Sweet little puppy, she often gets kisses on the head when she's sleeping 'cause she's just so CUTE !

Then above we have Toby (looking slightly annoyed as Maxie was trying to jump on the bed as I was taking this photo !) , and below is Jenny (you can read how they both came to join our family over here). Both have gained weight since they've been with us, although you can still feel Toby's spine a little when you run your hand along his back, he is in much better condition & has been christened my "Kitchen Cat" because he is forever hanging around the kitchen (even when he's not hungry !) In fact, I've moved the bread bin and a few things off the top of my big fridge in there, and put a cushion up there for him to sleep on. This is now his permanent 'spot' ! (Will have to take a photo of him up there to show you soon).


Jenny is growing into a gorgeous cat, with her glossy jet black coat and piercing yellow eyes - what a change from the fragile, bony little creature that first came to us. She purrs like a tractor most of the time & her favourtie pastime is sitting on the side of the bath when I'm in there, trying to scoop the foamy bubbles out with her paws. The other night she jumped from one side of the bath to the other and fell right in - luckily it was not too hot & I was in the bath and could quickly get her out ! (She is also really great with my daughter and lets her carry her around, dress her up, groom her and paint her coat with kiddies eyeshadow !)

So, there you have it - our latest 3 family members, who are all doing well. We now have a total of 9 cats and 7 dogs - well, 5 'house' cats/pets, 4 farm cats which we feed and care for, 2 'house' dogs/pets plus 2 village stray dogs who live in the garden, plus another 3 stray dogs which we feed in and around the village area. I'm pleased to say that all but one of them has been spayed/neutered and all have been vaccinated and de wormed & not one of them is hungry or sick anymore. I said to my husband, no more pets now, we have enough ! But of course if there is a dog or cat in need or being neglected/abused I will take it in without hesitation. I've long since learnt to "never say never" - each and every one of my animals is a blessing to me, anyway !

Meet Maxine !

Meet Maxine - the newest member of our family !

A few weeks before Christmas, my husband gave me a German Shepherd puppy as an early Christmas present.

Now, first off just let me say that I am against buying dogs or cats because I think that there are enough unwanted animals in this world & that by paying for a pet you are creating a market for them, when it is far better to just go to a shelter & give a home to an animal in need. Yet on the other hand, I also understand that for some people this is not possible (for example, if your local shelter only has adult dogs and you need a puppy who can grow up with your children, or get used to your other dogs/cats & there are none available).

If the buying/selling of pets is properly controlled, and people are responsible pet owners (having their pets spayed/neutered as soon as they become of age) and love and care for their pets properly, then in itself it is not a problem. Unfortunately here in Tanzania though, we have many expats who are here on short 2 year contracts who buy animals here, then do not take them home with them when they leave. As a result this creates a problem with lots of unwanted animals, who are simply then given to staff if no suitable home is found for them, and these once cared for animals are – for the most part - then forced to live a life of hunger and neglect.

Anyway, I was reluctant to pay for a pedigree dog (which are very hard to come by here, with German Shepherds being the most widely available – sadly, many are bred just as security dogs for our gold and Tanzanite mines) because of all the above reasons but on the other hand, many local dog breeds here are inbred and have ‘dodgy’ temperaments and I have first hand experience of local dog breeds biting children etc & we just could not take the chance with a young child in the house.

So, to cut a long story short, since the devastating loss of my beloved Zonde, Dibble has been very lonely & as we were to be away quite a bit over the festive season, we decided to get another dog, and my husband found Maxine (Maxi for short) for me !

So, here she is – she was born on the 11th of September this year (a date that no one will ever forget) & was around 10 weeks old when we got her. She has settled into the family well, and romps around in the garden with Dibble all day and gets on with all the cats and human members of the family and the garden and farm staff are quite impressed as they have never seen a dog that looks like her before ! (Justin tells them proudly that she is a ‘police dog’ as of course German Shepherds are associated with police dogs here, and that she is very vicious and very clever and will grow up to be very big !)

I am glad that we have given this sweet little dog a permanent and loving home, and that she did not end up as a guard dog being kept on a chain guarding some mine for the rest of her life, but will grow up as a much loved member of our extended family - watch this space as I post updates on Maxi as she grows up !

Meet Our 2 New Family Members !

Toby is a male, & is around 9 months old

Jenny is a female, & is a few months old at most

Last night the main diesel generator which runs the entire farm & our house, broke down. It has recently been overhauled, so this was totally unexpected. As luck would have it, our back-up generator runs on petrol, & the last of the petrol had been used earlier in the day for the lawnmower to mow our lawn. Oops. So we’ve been without power since last night. All is sorted now, thank goodness – which is why I’m a bit late with my blog post today !

I wanted to introduce you to our 2 newest family members – Toby (the grey & white cat) and Jenny (the black kitten). A few month’s ago a friend of mine said that a friend of hers was moving back to Canada at the end of this year, and needed to find a home for her male cat, Toby. As all our cats are females (& some of them do fight a little) I thought that it would be good to have a male in the mix, not to mention the fact that I wanted to give this cat a good home. So, a few month’s ago I went to meet Toby and his owner, & I agreed to take him when they left at the end of the year. (His owner very kindly had him neutered, de wormed & vaccinated before he came to us.)

Between the time I agreed to take Toby and now, his owner had also taken in a little black kitten (female) who needed a home – so she asked if I would consider taking both, as they had become good friends. Well, of course I couldn’t say no ! So that is how we came to welcome Toby and Jenny into our home almost a month ago now.

Another reason I wanted to take Jenny is because I know on the farm she will be safe. Many people here are superstitious about black animals and many of them are used in Africa for witchcraft purposes. (I can count on one hand the number of pure black dogs/cats I’ve seen in 11 years of living here). I don’t speak of Tanzania – because I don’t know for sure – but I do speak for South Africa where it is a known fact that black animals are in high demand for witchcraft and satanic rituals, especially in the Urban areas like Johannesburg. So at least here, I know that Jenny will be safe, yet if she had gone to a home in the city – well, who knows what might have become of her.

Both cats were very thin when we got them. Jenny was being fed a diet of dry adult cat’s pellets which I could see she was battling to chew properly as they were too big for her. She was all skin & bone and so very fragile when I held her. Toby, too, although furry and in otherwise good condition (he had a mild eye infection) was very bony – you could feel his spine as you ran your hand down his back, and his chest bones also stuck out.

Although these 2 cats were in a much better condition than most, all the other animals that I’ve ever taken in here in Tanzania have been skin and bone. I am so sick, sick, sick and tired of seeing animals in this state. Animals living on the brink of starvation. Young puppies with ribs sticking out, rummaging in rubbish dumps or dogs eating rotten carcasses which have been hit by cars and left on the roadside.

If you’re new to my blog, you can read about all the animals I’ve rescued by browsing through the “Pets” section in my categories to the right. You can also read the wonderful rescue story of Mbwenya, (and see her incredible 'transformation' photos !) one of my very first rescue cases here on the farm & who is now the happiest (& most loyal) dog you’ll ever see.

Please, if you have the time, also go to the Animal Rescue Site link (purple one) in my right sidebar and click to feed an animal in a shelter in the US, you can also click on the FreeKibble link to donate food to dogs & cats in need. It’ll cost you nothing but your time, and every single click helps. Thank you !

Thank You's ..... & A New Look !

Sunsets mean endings, but also new beginnings .....

(Sunset from our front veranda a few weeks ago)

I just want to say a great big THANK YOU to every single one of you for your lovely comments and emails after the loss of my beloved Zonde on Monday. It really does help to ease the pain a little, knowing that there are so many people around the world who care … I appreciate each and every one of you and wish that I could meet you all in person one day !

Justin and I picked a beautiful spot to bury her, under a peach tree in a quiet corner of the garden overlooking the foothills of Kilimanjaro. Justin, who has cared for Zonde for the past 8 years of her life is absolutely devastated. He says that Zonde was the first dog he ever knew that taught him what wonderful creatures dogs are & that knowing Zonde made him realize that dogs are loving, feeling, intelligent animals. All our staff have given their condolences which is unusual because traditionally people here do not make a great fuss of an animal dying. Our gardeners and askari have all stood around the grave, and told us how very sorry they are. Given the fact that Zonde used to chase them all and bark at them if they got too close to the house and generally make their life a misery, I think this is amazing and a true testament to the wonderful spirit she had, and the effect on other people’s lives, & it is wonderful to think that her memory will continue to live on in their hearts.

Having my mother-in-law staying with us & being out of my usual routines, plus the fact that we’ve been away on safari and my heartbreak with Zonde means that I am so behind with my emails and so many of you have sent emails to me that I promise to reply to soon. Please don’t think I’m ignoring you ! Also, all the blogs I regularly read I have not even visited for a week or so now – likewise all the comments I get I always visit the blog of the person commenting, as you can see I have not been commenting at all lately but I will be back soon to catch up with my fellow bloggers !

I have over 100 photo’s from my safari to sort through and I will be starting to post some of them and write about our weekend away soon – we had a wonderful time and it was nice to be back in the Tanzanian bush for a few days.

I also wanted to say (well of course I’m sure you’ve already noticed it !) that I have finally re vamped my blog as I wanted something more personal than a standard blogger template & something that reflected my personality a little more. I know I promised a new look ages ago but you know what they say “There’s No Hurry In Africa !”.

I want to thank Diana of Sass n Scrap Designs who helped me with the design & who was so patient with me as I am quite fussy & was very specific about what I wanted, and I made so many changes along the way until I had exactly what I wanted & with Diana’s skill and creativity, it looks exactly as I pictured it. Thanks, Diana !

I hope that you all like the new look - please do let me know what you think of it !

Last but not least, thanks once again to each and every one of you who ‘reads’ me. I have had almost 30 000 hits since I started this blog 8 months ago and I cannot tell you how much it means to me to know that so many people the world over read me every day. I have always loved writing and have always kept daily diaries – blogging is a natural extension of that for me & I have to be honest, living the life I do can feel quite isolated and it can be lonely at times & as I sit typing away in a remote corner of Africa, looking out over my banana trees & Kilimanjaro beyond & at times only having the company of my husband, daughter and staff for weeks on end, it makes me feel less isolated knowing that I am connecting with so many people out there in the ‘real’ world. So ….. thank you !

Devastated

ZONDE - 25th July 1996 to 13th October 2008

My beloved Zonde has gone. She died on Monday night, soon after we returned from our safari. The cancer which had so evilly invaded her beautiful body, finally got the better of her. Just as it was my decision to save her over 12 years ago so, too, was it ultimately my decision to end her life - as I could not bear to see her suffer and made the decision to allow her to be put to sleep once our vet advised me that she probably only had a few weeks left to live. The post mortem revealed tumors in her spleen, thyroid and liver. The vet was amazed that she was still so fit and strong, considering. She had a great will to keep on living and up until last week was still acting like her normal self – going for short walks, jumping up onto the couch, chasing the farm motorbikes up and down the fence and begging for treats at supper time !

I had some quiet time with her on Monday afternoon before she left me. I lay beside her, holding her and hugging her with my face buried into her soft fur as I cried my eyes out. She lifted her head to gently lick my arm, reassuring me (as she has done so many, many times before) as my tears soaked her fur and I sobbed that it was okay, she could leave me now – she could go and rest and that I would be okay. Thanking her, for years and years of companionship and for everything that she meant to me.

I feel as if someone has cut me open and scooped all my insides out. I feel hollow and empty inside and I cannot stop crying. Zonde was my constant companion and walked beside me for over 12 years. I don’t know how I am going to live without her. I just don’t know what to do. I keep thinking that she is here, yet she has gone. I can’t quite believe it. Will I wake up and find it is all a dream ?

My darling, beloved, precious Zonde dog. I don't know how I am going to walk through life without you constantly by my side. I am going to try, though. But my life will never be the same again. That much I do know.

I will miss you always. My angel.

"Not the least hard thing to bear when they go from us, these quiet friends, is that they carry away with them so many years of our own lives."
John Galsworthy

Visitors From Japan ...

I set the tea table up on the veranda where it would have nice views out over our garden ...

Last week we had some clients from Japan come out to the farm. They are bean buyers, and after a tour of the farm they came back up to the farmhouse for afternoon tea. I was going to serve the tea on a table out under the fig tree, but the grass/lawn in that area is still dry and brown after our cold Winter season, so I opted to serve it on the veranda instead.

I thought I’d take a photo of the view they had from the tea table, for you to see. I served them Tanzanian tea and freshly brewed coffee accompanied by something sweet (Gingerbread) and something savoury (Cheese Puffs) – look out for the recipes for both of these on the blog soon !

They really enjoyed it, commented on the beautiful views out over the garden and beyond and remarked how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful spot !

When we have visitors I usually put Zonde and Dibble in a back area of the garden as they can get quite boisterous (jumping up on couches, licking people etc) This is the only time in their lives that they are ever ‘locked away’ from us, & they simply hate it ! They whine, bark and howl (Dibble) and try to jump up through the burglar bars across the windows at the back of the house (Dibble again) one of which is a window to the guest bathroom (so I always have to remind people when I show them to the toilet – “Just ignore the dogs howling through the bathroom window & sticking their heads through the burglar bars !”)

The amusing incident of the afternoon was when everyone was sitting drinking their tea & coffee (I moved the food onto a low coffee table where they were now all sitting, so that they could easily help themselves) and my daughter came along onto the veranda with 2 village strays in tow (Josie and Mbwenya), walked up to the coffee table, helped herself to a couple of slices of the Gingerbread and promptly fed them to the dogs ! (The guests all politely smiled and acted as if nothing had happened !)

Of course all the dogs usually get a little treat when we are eating out on the veranda, and how was a 3 ½ year child old to know that these were, infact, business clients and feeding their refreshments to stray dogs was not really the ‘done’ thing ?! I thought it was all quite funny and my husband asked her nicely to please take the dogs back into the garden, and off they trailed behind her, hoping for another slice of the Gingerbread !

When our guests left, they presented me with a beautiful piece of 100% silk cloth as a thank you, which was very kind of them. (Obviously the dogs weren’t as badly behaved as I’d thought !)

Bathing The Dogs

Justin bathing Dibble earlier this month. Bathing the dogs has become a form of great amusement & entertainment for the staff !

Our dogs all get bathed once a month, after which they are Frontlined (tick & flea treatment) – the cats are too, only they don’t get bathed ! The Frontline is imported (and expensive) but I won’t take a chance on using anything else for my “indoor” animals, especially since biliary (a tick borne disease) is rife during certain times of the year and I have heard stories of people losing beloved pets here due to this awful disease. I also don’t want ticks in the house as we humans can contract tick bit fever, which my poor daughter had recently and which we have all had before, too.

The village dogs are dipped once every 2 weeks and during the rainy season (when ticks are rife) , once a week. Justin goes into the village and dips the dogs up there, and we provide dip for anyone who wants to dip their dog and Justin does it for them. (The village children simply love watching this event, and shriek with delight !)

Most local people here do not love and care for their dogs, or even feed them. They believe that dogs (like hyena, jackal and lion) should ‘hunt’ for their own food and the thought of taking a dog to the vet, or even bathing a dog – is completely foreign to them.

So, you can imagine that the monthly dog bathing (& towel drying) episode is a great form of entertainment for the farm staff. The first time we moved here and did it, word quickly spread and we had all the garden staff and workshop staff (peering over the fence) watching us - according to Justin it was the talk of the day amongst the farm staff (some who were out in the fields and had not witnessed the event did not believe the staff who had seen it !).

Justin was teased a lot in the beginning but everyone is now used to this monthly event. Although he says they still think I’m crazy getting the dogs bathed once a month, and that he is crazy for doing it. I tell him that’s okay – it’s fine to be crazy – and that he must tell the staff the main reason we bath the dogs is so that they keep the beds and couches clean when they jump up to sleep on them.

That should keep them quiet, and make the monthly bathing pale session in comparison !

Update .... From The Zoo !!!

A kiss for the cameraman ! Dibble turns 1 year old this month.

Ollie's favourite spot for keeping warm ... on top of my computer at night (when my daughter's in bed & she can't be bothered by her !)

I thought that it was time for a pet update – or rather, a zoo update as my husband often comments “This house is like a zoo !” (Well, I did warn him when he asked me to marry him that I wanted a house filled with “animals on every surface” one day !)

This month Dibble turns 1 year old and my beloved Zonde turns 12. I am truly blessed to have spent 12 wonderful years with Zonde, who as you know, has cancer. She is doing okay. She is comfortable, and stable and every extra day I have with her, I am grateful for. Josie and Mbwenya are also still doing well and are coming for food every night.

We still take food in to the village to feed several other stray dogs on a daily basis, too, including a white female dog called Snowy who we recently had spayed and treated. She had 3 puppies when we found her, 2 of which had died of starvation but the 3rd puppy, Whiskey, has found a wonderful loving home with a volunteer vet. Snowy is now living with Justin’s girlfriend in the village, and we are responsible for her daily feeding and care.

Buster, a dog who I have yet to tell you all about, was abandoned here by the previous manager when he left the country (!!) and we took over his care when we arrived about a year later. All this time he’d been living off the rubbish dump and scrounging what he could from the village. He is now living with our askari (night guard), Simon who he comes to work with each evening. I still have to tell you about Simon someday - he is a real character and has been with us for years now, too. He loves chickens and they even sleep in his house with him – my kind of person, you see !

Anna, the recently found stray grey cat, has been taken to the vet and spayed and vaccinated, as has Suzie, the cat from Frank’s shop. The ginger cat I wrote about who was sheltering in the old chicken coop turned out to be a male, who we (Justin !) have named Bruce. He is very wild and so far will not allow any of us to touch him. (You can read about all 3 of them by clicking the link at the beginning of this parapgraph).

Anna (Justin named her after his girlfriend !) and Bruce live up at Justin’s house along with Emily who is heavily pregnant at the moment (she lives under one of the rooves up there along with Bruce). We tried to get her into a travel crate to take her to the vet’s recently (thinking that if her kittens were born in captivity we would have a better chance of taming them and finding good homes for them and then spaying her) but she bit Justin on the hand, and then disappeared for a couple of days.

I am trying to – albeit slowly - get the entire community of feral cats in the area spayed & vaccinated. They won’t allow any other cats in to their territory, so once I have the population here under control, we should hopefully have no further problems or litters of kittens being born into another cycle of starvation and neglect.

Tammy, Ollie and Tessa are all well and happy and keeping snug and warm during our cold winter months.

Thanks to everyone who clicks out of my blog via the “Animal Rescue Site” button every day. It’s in the right sidebar and clicking on the link provided in the site it takes you to, provides free food for animals in shelters, only takes a minute and costs you nothing …. so click away as often as you like …. just a small act like this, can really make a difference in the life of a needy animal.

A Gift of A Goat

To pot, or to pasture ? To pasture, of course ! (You can see by the photo that he is a really handsome fellow !)

A couple of days ago, my husband came home for lunch with a surprise gift on the back of his pick-up ... a live goat ! A local Maasai had given it to him as a thank you gift, for helping him out last year with free bean hay for his starving herd of livestock (who are now doing well). The goat is an adult male, a prized member of the herd and my husband was honoured to receive such a gift – a Maasai’s wealth is judged by the number of livestock he has, so for him to give my husband this goat, was something very special indeed.

The goat has been walked for miles to the bottom of our farm road, where he was put onto the back of the pick-up and brought up to the house.

The house and garden staff, on seeing the arrival of the goat, started grinning and chanting “Nyama ! Nyama !” (“Meat ! Meat !”) Well you know me - I am a sucker for any type of animal and there was no way that goat was going into the pot, so I quickly set the record straight on that one !

Now this poor goat ran around and around our garden, bleating (do goats bleat ?) … making a huge noise, trying to call all his friends (who are now miles and miles away) and Tessa, one of our silly cats, followed him all around the garden (until the goat sniffed her face and she dived for cover under a nearby shrub). The dogs were also amused by it - Dibble tried to get the goat to play with him, and Zonde just stood there and barked at it.

It was quite a sight, as you can imagine … a cat chasing a goat, followed closely by a 3 year old with 2 dogs on either side of her, and me with my camera and all the garden staff standing watching us, wondering why on earth we were making such a fuss over a stinky old goat !

When the goat started eating my bougainvillea hedge, and then proceeded to follow my daughter into the kitchen (yes, you read that correctly – the kitchen !) my husband and I decided to have a little chat. We agreed that we could not keep the goat (it is not used to the dogs, it would eat everything in my garden, it would be lonely without other goats to keep it company etc etc) and offered it to Justin. He has a girlfriend in a nearby village who keeps goats, so this goat could join her herd. (Justin promised me that he would not eat the goat !)

My daughter was, understandably, upset as she was rather hoping that the goat would be a new pet. So my husband (not me - can I just stress that here !) promised her that we would get her a baby goat soon, to rear ourselves and get used to the dogs, which we could fence off a section of the garden for etc … so, all I can say on that one is …. watch this space !

A Calorie Counting Cat ...

Tessa, after she had been put on her special 'diet' and had already lost some weight

Well, not quite. Rather …. a cat on a diet ? Earlier this year when we took Tessa (you can read the story of how she came to us here) to our wonderful vet’s for spaying, they returned her to us, saying that she was too fat to spay ! I was both taken aback and amused at the same time .... in fact, I wasn’t quite sure what to say. (Which, for me, is pretty rare as I usually can’t stop talking !)

Apparently, much like humans, if cats are overweight it makes operating on them difficult as the fatty tissue does not heal well – if at all. As Tessa was carrying most of her weight on her stomach, and this is the area they needed to cut to perform the operation, it would be unlikely that it would knit together and heal well and, the vets sadly informed me, they had lost 2 cats to septicemia through this over the years, and therefore would not take the risk by operating on another fat cat.

So, we were sent home and Tessa was put on a diet. Justin was amused by this, as Africa and dieting do not really go hand-in-hand. To give you an example, fat people are valued and prized in society here – especially the women – the fatter the better as fatness is a sign of health, wealth and in women, the sign of a good child bearer. If you are too thin you are deemed to be weak, sickly and poor. If you are too thin, you’d better watch out ‘cause your husband might just find himself a fat woman on the side ! In all the years Justin has been with us, I’ve been taking thin, starving cats and dogs and fattening them up (Tessa being one of them !) and now we had to make Tessa thin again ? (Ha ! This time, he thought, Mama really HAS gone mad ….)

Anyway, Tessa was put on a diet of meat only (no more expensive, imported dry cat food for her). I could no longer leave a bowl of dry cat’s food out on the counter for the other cats to snack on whenever they felt like it. It had to be locked away in the cupboard and fed to them ‘on the sly’.

But, Tessa is the greediest cat I’ve ever known (I think this stems back to her being starved as a kitten – now she feels she has to eat everything in sight, all the time, just incase she never gets any food ever again ?). She would eat the dog’s food, try and eat my daughter’s cereal in the morning if she left it unattended on the table. She would eat crusts of bread left out for the birds (bread ? a cat ?!) and one night, I even caught her licking the empty dinner plates which were about to be washed …. she wasn’t starving, she was getting enough food. Just not as much as she wanted. She would sit in the kitchen at lunchtime and beg like a dog for food. It was terrible.

So, Tessa on a diet has been a bit of a nightmare in our house and although she’s not as slim as she should be, as she was on heat for the first time last week (and escaped from the house and spent 2 nights in one of the nearby villages “Tessa has found herself a boyfriend, Mama” as Justin put it) she was taken to the vet yesterday by my husband, who was traveling that way for work related stuff. Luckily, she’s (almost) reached her goal weight and was accepted by the vet for the operation. So we can all breathe a sigh of relief … and take the locks off the fridges !