Tidbits

It's my last full day on Harnas for this trip. I leave tomorrow for Windhoek and for home on Friday, arriving midday on Saturday. It's been a wonderful trip. I've tried to cover a lot of stuff, but here's some tidbits I've missed.

We've had a baby vervet monkey around the past few days. His mother had to be separated while she recovers from an infection, so the baby is with us. They'll be reunited as soon as the mother is ready. Meanwhile, he jumps around like a crazy thing. It's amazing how much baby animals can do from birth, considering how helpless human babies are.

The baby warthogs are out and running around the garden now. They're only about the size of a kitten and they are so adorable. Unfortunately, they'll grow up to be arguably the ugliest creature on earth! It must be evolution at work that ALL babies are cute. Perhaps mothers wouldn't feel as compelled to care for them if they were ugly.

Nearly every evening an hour or so before sunset, I take a pack of dogs for a bushwalk. Last night there were five, and it's my job to keep them together and near me. The one in the picture above is named Spice--a chow cut to look like a little lion, appropriate for Harnas. We often walk past the volunteer village to a big waterhole there. The dogs chase off the springboks and wildebeests and take over the place, jumping in, swimming, drinking, and cooling off. Then we head back home, where they do the same thing at one of the smaller waterholes near the lapa. It's good exercise for us all, and it gives me my daily dog fix.

I captured this image of Max, one of our LifeLine cheetahs at a waterhole just before a storm hit. I thought you might enjoy seeing the landscape.

And finally, I have to end with yet another picture of my newest baby, Tyson. I spent about 90 minutes lying next to him this morning, cuddling and stroking him while I whispered promises that I'd be back as soon as I could--and begging him not to forget me. It's always hard to leave Harnas, but this year might be the hardest because of him.

But it's time to go home, go back to work, and make enough money that I can come back. See you on the other side of the world. BB