Week 268 ( 10th - 16th Oct 2008 )
Hot weather, lazy tigers and boyish antics
10th October 2008: Hulooo was running at full speed with the springbuck skin dangling from his mouth, its legs flapping as he ran. Coco and JenB were growling at one another over who’s turn it was to chew on the bone between them when Hulooo brought the skin over and dropped it onto the squabbling brothers this led to a three-way tug of war with Hulooo the victor, to celebrate this momentous achievement he dunked the skin in the water trough a couple of times before taking it out of the water and dropping it covertly, but JenB saw it fall and pounced on it before Coco could say “springbuck skin”. After having fetched the meat for all the hungry cats we worked out a scheme of how we were going to clean 327’s camp and decided that the best way to keep him out of our hair was to drive down to the 40ha camp, drop his food and then one of us would have to drive back up to the top whilst the other person dragged the carcase through into the 3ha camp by which time the vehicle will be on its way back and all that would be left is lock the gates - which is exactly what we did. The first two legs of the process were completed in record time with 327 almost galloping behind but by the final leg he was so tired he could hardly put one foot in front of the other but as soon as he smelt the meat he acquired his second wind and immediately climbed in, boots and all. Then we scuttled around the camp picking up bones and bits of skin and also cleaned the water trough, we accomplished this all in under ten minutes and were terribly pleased with ourselves especially when we looked at the mountain of bones that was now outside the camp. Sir Guzzelot (327) received his food at 17:10 and by the time we left he was still eating.
11th October 2008: Hulooo carried a leg inside, he then sloshed it around in the water for a bit but developed a terrible thirst and let it go whereupon it sank to the bottom. Hulooo tried poking his foot into the water, didn’t like what he felt and shook the water off next he tried sticking his nose into the water but found that it was way too deep and snorted, blowing bubbles. He then decided that he would have to drink all the water in order to retrieve the leg - but who wants to drink water at 05:50 in the morning - so, having run out of other options he just had to use his foot. At last he could retire to the breeding box to chew on the bone. JenB and Coco also came into the breeding centre at this time and spent a while under the bed playing. Afterward we amused ourselves by throwing the bones we had collected in Sir Guzzelot’s camp onto the back of the pickup and just as we were almost finished he came to see what we were doing. We told him that he now had clean water and a sparkling pantry and had some witty comment about it being high time.
12th October 2008: Luckily for 327, he only had two laps to run before he could eat and in my estimation he really deserved his Blesbuck, what with having to run in this heat and all. He didn’t require a second invitation and dragged the buck to his most favourite tree and suffocated it before settling down to feast, it remains to be seen whether he carries it into his pantry or not. We then took a drive up to Cathay and TigerWoods and they were doing absolutely nothing interesting. Cathay was pacing and his nibs was lazing around, the only movement he made was come up to me to investigate the water that I was pouring into their trough, having satisfied himself that it was in fact just water he returned to his lugubrious lazing. Cathay roared for a while but eventually fell silent having received no reply from anybody.
13th October 2008: 327 had not, after all dragged his buck into the pantry but left it under the tree; he himself was nowhere to be seen. Madonna was lying on the rise at the top walk-through gate finishing off last nights meal and hardly paid us any attention. Whilst she was eating we toddled to 327 and spied him crouching down in front of his pantry and yes, the blesbuck was inside. He didn’t have much to say to us in the line of gossip and for a change, neither did he have anything to moan about. We fed Madonna in her own camp and as a result received her blesbuck legs by airmail for the first time since she gave birth. The method of delivery made no difference to her just as long as it wasn’t wildebeest again.
14th October 2008: During our morning visit Hulooo and his brothers were lying around the corner of the breeding centre, Hulooo was sleeping, JenB was eating and Coco was watching him eat. We left to check on our other children and found on our return that things were much as we left them, Hulooo was still sleeping, JenB was still eating and Coco was still watching him eat. A short while later the cubs started playing tug of war with the springbuck. Hulooo had the buck around the nose and the two younger cubs were each latched on to a leg. Having gained the upper hand, Hulooo dashed away with his prize and jumped onto the tiny bit of the floor extending beyond the mesh and tried to run with it, unfortunately the floor is only as wide as his paws and the buck’s horns kept on catching in the mesh. Determined not to lose his advantage he sprinted to the far corner with his brothers hot on his heels, some more tug of war ensued again with Hulooo the victor. Suddenly it was extremely quiet we had to investigate and found everybody snoozing.
16th October 2008: The whole day had been incredibly hot and we could get no rise out of the gang, JenB and Coco were at their customary stations on top of the pole shelter and didn’t get off until the sun had already set and even then they just moved their laurels to another place and carried on resting until way after darkness had fallen and we could no longer see them, although we could hear sporadic growling it was none too friendly. This heat is really making the animals suffer and only once night has fallen is there some respite.