A Little of This, A Little of That

Some news from around the farm: Coco, the baboon pictured as a baby with me below in 2010 has grown up and found she'd rather live with people than with other baboons. Every day she climbs a tree and jumps out of her enclosure and can be found wandering around by the lapa, knocking on Marieta's kitchen window, or peeking into the kitchen looking for a handout. She's about the size of a border collie and is rather polite. But she is, after all, a baboon, and some people don't feel comfortable looking up from their lunch to find a full grown baboon sitting next to them.

When I was here for three months at the beginning of 2010, Coco slept with me each night and we became close. I don't know that she remembers me now. She usually approaches me, and I hand her one of the peanuts I always carry with me to feed various animals. She accepts it gratefully and politely, but I don't' see any light of recognition in her eyes. She doesn't bite me, though, so I'm happy with our relationship. Marieta is working on a solution to this daily problem.

Second item: Murray the Warthog (aka Happy Meal) has a gaping wound in his hind end. It just showed up. No one knows if a dog attacked him, he got himself caught on a wire, or Missy Jo the Leopard reached through her fence and snagged him. But it looks gory. The volunteers who are part of the veterinary program here are working with him. I feel so sorry for him. He's such a sweetie. So I have been spending some time on the lawn with him, allowing him to get warthog spit all over my pants. He seems to enjoy it.

Third, we're introducing Koema, the 10-week old cheetah, to Sesa and Sesadi, the 10-day old cheetahs. Slowly. We let him sniff them so when they're ready to be playmates, he'll be used to them. Today, he got a good whiff of them and then started to lick them. Good sign.

Finally, Marty, Kaatje, and I talked Marieta into a walk this afternoon to see all the lions. We took the dogs--five of them. Most of them grew up with lions and are just vaguely disturbed when the lions rush the fence aggressively. But one of them, Monster, (a black lab/dachshund mix--don't ask how that happened, we don't know), had never really had an encounter with a full grown lion, let alone three of them rushing the fence. He took off running and disappeared into the bush. I''m sure he'll find his way home, but there is the slightest chance he's in Botswana by now. Poor baby. He may never be the same. We laughed till we cried. (Don't think I'm cruel. I'm going to check on him now.) BB