Remember the feral cats I was just introducing yesterday?

Well, I got home yesterday evening and discovered these on my porch:

Little wet babies

Yes, Magic Chef decided to have her kittens on a slatted porch three feet off the ground.

One of the kittens had fallen off when I found them and was laying on the ground, crying, so I picked it back up and set it with Mama. In other news, Magic Chef can now be called Magic, because she not only let me handle her newborn kittens, but she also walked up to me and asked to be pet. I guess the hormones have made her no longer a jerk!

I stood by the edge of the porch for a while and watched the babies to make sure they didn't fall off. She dried and cleaned one of them really well, but the one that had fallen was still soaked.

So defenseless

I was worried, and I still am a little, because this is her first litter. But, she purred and talked to them, so hopefully instinct will take over.

You can do it!

Eventually I went inside to change out of my heels from work and into my boots, and when I came back out, Magic and one of her kittens were gone. I waited a few minutes, and she came back and carried off the other one. I later discovered that she had stashed them in the insulation up under my house, which is pretty clever if you ask me. Although that probably needs to be fixed when the kittens are no longer using it.

She seems to be keeping an eye on them- I walked over with a flashlight to peer up into the hole and see if I could see them, and she walked over to see what I was doing- and she got in with them while I was standing there because one was crying. They are just so tiny! I want to intervene and bring them inside where they are protected, but I know that she is the best thing for them. It's hard to stand back and let nature take its course.

Before Magic moved them, Romeo discovered them when walking back from his bathroom break. He was so concerned; he could hear them crying and was trying to reach where they were so he could see and smell them. I obliged him by letting him jump up so I could hold him and let him see, but he couldn't get to them.

"Are these mine?"

The female cats love him so much that they didn't care at all that he was so close, not even when he got up on the porch and walked as close as he could get to them.

Hopefully in a few weeks the kittens will reemerge as healthy, playful babies. And hopefully, since their moms trust us, we can win them over quickly and then maybe find them homes when they are of age. And then, if everything goes according to plan, we'll be able to get Magic and Lexi spayed and hopefully have no more kittens. Maybe Juan Pablo, as well. There are so many generations living at my landlord's house across the pond that it's only a matter of time before another cat works its way over.

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Wacky Weather We're Having

Anytime I talk about the weather, I think of this quote from The Most Interesting Man in the World:

"He never chats about the weather, even in the middle of a hurricane."

And then I feel self-conscious. But oh well! We shall continue forth.

This Thursday through Friday, it rained. And I do mean RAINED. As in, there were two days in a row that I expected to have to float my way back to my house, and the entire town flash-flooded.

"Oh sorry, did you need to see?" ~rain

There was also lightning... lots of lightning. The kind of lightning that leaves me just knowing that I will no longer have any horses left when it's over, and always thankful when I go outside and they're still standing, unharmed.

But the storms did bring with them a couple of neat things, like this water-soaked spider web:

Gross but pretty.

And this fella, who was very confused about why I was crouching down in its face, poking at it with a shovel (for the record, I was trying to drag it out with said shovel so I could see it in the light/keep it from disappearing into the feed room):

I was told this is either a cottonmouth or a water snake... I'm leaning towards the latter.

It was a weekend for wildlife.

Following on the heels of the sudden snake, while I was getting dinner ready for the horses, I looked over and saw this:

Nothin' to see here...

It watched me for a while, which kind of freaked me out because raccoons are not typically seen out in the day unless they are rabid or have distemper (or, a later Google search informed me, they are mommas with hungry babies). But, this one didn't seem sick; it seemed more like it was just waiting for me to leave so it could try to break into my feed cans like a jerk.

I saw one again yesterday in the small paddock by the house, scrounging for dropped grain, and then another one last night also digging for more dropped grain. Possibly all were the same raccoon... I'm starting to think we have a new addition to the feral cat colony establishing itself on my porch. Yippee.

Lexi and Magic Chef

A few months ago, a mama cat (dubbed "Mama") and her two kittens showed up at the house, expecting to be fed. We obliged them, and although Mama has since disappeared, her two kittens decided to stick around and eat food and perpetuate the bloodline (lucky us)- one of them has recently given birth, although we have not found the litter yet.

Although they were very skittish at first, Lexi has become very sweet. She rubs on you, is constantly demanding to be petted (when she is not demanding to be fed), and the other day I picked her up without fuss and carried her to my truck to "take care of" a dead bird that was stuck in my grill. She disposed of it for me in much less time than it would have taken for me to get it out.

Magic Chef is still skittish and can only be touched when she is eating. Oh, what's that? You want to know why her name is Magic Chef? Well, let me tell you!

One day we were trying to come up with names for the cats that had decided to stay. One of them was laying on top of a broken dishwasher that was recently replaced in the house, moved outside, and never picked up again. I told my roommate, "Whatever brand the dishwasher is, that's her name," thinking it would be something like "Maytag". My roommate walked over and said, "Uh, it's Magic Chef". To which I responded, "So let it be known."

As long as the cat is a brat that runs away instead of letting me pet it, she will be called Magic Chef. If, one day, she decided to be more friendly, I will shorten it to a more society-friendly "Magic".

Living the good life

This male, who I suspect is the proud papa of the recent litter(s), decided after being fed here a few times that he didn't really need to go back to wherever he came from. He has the funniest, squeakiest meow, that's even funnier since he's a male cat. He can be very skittish, which makes me wonder if he was abused, but he has become very sweet towards me and will come up to me and let me pet him.


He has a range of names- I usually just call him the first thing that comes to mind. Some of these names include Powderpuff, Juan Pablo, Juan Carlos, Rico Suave (apparently he's Hispanic), Paul, and Casanova.

Ah, the life of a country bumpkin.

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Weekend shenanigans

So this weekend went too quickly... but it was super productive.

For starters, I worked almost 15 hours on Saturday. Yikes. The good news is that I get paid overtime. The bad news is that... well, I had to spend an entire Saturday at work.

Saturday night, my friend Elizabeth, who was in town for a young professionals event, stayed out at the house. I can't say I was super awake once she got there, as I had been up since 5 that morning, but at least she got a warm welcome from Fiona and Romeo who were SO EXCITED about having a visitor!

Sunday morning, she and I went to breakfast, and then she headed back home. Meanwhile, I drove over to Half Price Books and browsed (and bought), passing the thirty or so minutes until Patricia and Justin got done with church so I could meet up with them... for lunch.

I'd be lying if I said I didn't immediately eat another full meal after having breakfast. On the bright side, the Ninfarita didn't affect me at all like it did the others, because of all of the food.

After Justin and Patricia headed back to Houston, I went home and, determined not to sleep the rest of the day, changed into my boots, put on a hat, and grabbed my new shatter-resistant sunglasses that make me look like Jack Nicholson. And then, I got out The Weed Eater. I call it The Weed Eater because it is like a weed eater on steroids. It looks like a push mower, and it can power through just about anything- probably even small trees. This is great for me, because I cannot. I did have an incident the last time I used it where it sucked up about 15 hay baling wires, which was about as fun as you can imagine to disassemble, requiring wire cutters and some swearing.

After weed eating everything I could find, I got out the riding mower and, sporting a sexy little respirator to protect myself from inhaling all of the flying dirt and debris, mowed down everything I could find. Mind you, I had just done all of this two weeks ago, but it was already starting to look like a jungle out there again. Poor Fiona was having to wade through the grass to go to the bathroom, and Romeo was tracking all kinds of grass seeds inside the house, courtesy of his face.

Then, not feeling like I had tortured myself enough, I pulled out the tree trimmers and clipped the trees on the sides of the driveway that were blocking my view when I pulled out, along with the tree that scraped the top of my truck when I drove under it. This entailed me hanging precariously over the ditch, reaching out as far as I could, along with a lot of jumping and clipping midair to get branches out of my reach. I definitely cursed my lack of tall boyfriends.

Anyway, I was very happy with the final result:

So manicured!

There are still a couple of trees that I could stand to weed eat around, but my screaming muscles today think it's ok to let them go.

Because of all of the yard work, I was super exhausted by the end of the day, so I created new ways to torture my horses that did not involve riding:

Sup.

Unimpressed, as usual

Poor Chica's eye flared up again with the Great Windstorm of May 2013, which is why it looks weepy there.

After getting everyone fed, I finally took some time to relax and watched the movie Clue while eating dinner, and then I started Douglas Adams' The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, which I'm excited about because I really enjoyed The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I'm aware that these are older books and not a new discovery, but they are just so clever! I'm super glad that it's a four-book trilogy.

I'm looking forward to next weekend- several friends are coming into town to hang out and paint the town red. The following weekend is another conference, but then the weekend after it- memorial day weekend!! At this moment I have no plans, nor do I plan to have plans. Three days of doing nothing except riding and reading and lounging about sound pretty swell to me right now.

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Reunited and it feels so good!

So back in 2009, after a lot of research and hanging out with reptile people, I decided that I wanted a bearded dragon. So at a reptile show in November, I bought a little tiny female bearded dragon for $20, along with two of my friends. The beardies were so tiny that one could fit entirely on my pointer finger.

Baby beardie!

I named mine Annabelle, for no reason other than I really wanted a bearded dragon named Annabelle.

Annabelle getting into the season's spirit

For a while, she went to work with me, she went on walks with me (and rode on my shoulder), she was just super chill and happy to go everywhere.

Photo taken by Larry Wadsworth for the CVM

After about a year and a half, I moved to my current house, and between the dogs, horse, cat, two guinea pigs, and dragon, I did not have a lot of time to handle Annabelle. She got to where she would get angry when I handled her (which entails her puffing herself up and threatening to bite me), so I stopped holding her. This led to the issue only getting worse. As a couple of months went by, I started feeling pretty overwhelmed by her. So I decided to find a new home for her, with a person who had more time to mess with her and take care of her.

I found her a home with a girl named Markie, who I got to be friends with over the last couple of years. Markie took excellent care of her, even getting her a bigger aquarium to live in, more decorations, and letting her try new protein sources.

A couple of weeks ago, Markie texted me. She was moving somewhere that she couldn't take Annabelle with her, so she wanted to know if I wanted to take her back. Long story short, I said of course, and so now...

A little bigger than when I last saw her!

 It's really cool to have her back, although it significantly adds to my animal count (and work load). I am currently at 2 horses, 2 dogs, 1 cat, 1 mouse, 1 Betta fish (at work), and now 1 bearded dragon.

Enjoying her basking rock and veggies

Annabelle eats a lot more more of a variety than the other animals. Whereas with everyone else I can just scoop food/feed and give that, Annabelle eats salads and pellets daily, and once a week she gets a meal of crickets. But thems the breaks with an exotic animal!

Unrelatedly, I worked a conference this weekend, and one of the vets brought this little one to the conference with him so that he could keep it fed and watch it all weekend:

Two weeks old!

I took on the grand task of entertaining it whenever it started crying. It loved climbing up and sitting in the curve of my neck. It was so, so  precious, such a tiny, wobbly little baby. I'm so thankful that someone cares enough to hand feed it and spend so much time taking care of it since its mother disappeared. And look at that precious little kitten face! Love.

Animals are great. But then, this is musings of an animal lover, so who's surprised?

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South African Travels, Final

Our final morning was kind of packed. We had a dart gun lesson/practice, brunch, and then the CityBug van was picking us up at noon to make the 4 hour drive back to Johannesburg. We got up and started packing, and then went down to shoot some guns.

Lining up the shot and using the tent pole as a brace

Dart practice was fun, and the men really enjoyed shooting the gun that made a sound like a firework upon impact. My favorite gun was a camo-colored one that looked like an AK-47 (even though it wasn't).

After shooting, we went and had brunch, and then everyone went back to finish packing their belongings. The van arrived about an hour early, so we loaded our suitcases up, and then some people went off to take more photos of the wildlife/birds, some people people hung around and talked with our South African friends, and I went and found a quiet place under a tree so that I could have a few final moments soaking everything in so that I did not forget a single detail of the place. After a little while, Antoinette joined me, and we talked about horses and South African languages and all sorts of other things. Antoinette, who is very New Age, told me that from my energy she could tell that I needed to have more confidence in myself, which is very true!

All too soon, it was time to leave. Everyone hugged goodbye and promised to keep in touch- oh, the wonders of Facebook! We climbed aboard the van and made the drive back towards Jo-burg.

We again stopped at "The Zoo" on our way, but this time neither Rebecca nor I ordered any cheese sandwiches. I got my habitual M&Ms that I had become addicted to over there, with their different sugars than the ones in the US. We reached the airport several hours before we had to board our plane, so several of us took advantage of the time to do some shopping for ourselves and to find some souvenirs for friends... things like a candle in the shape of a rhino and covered in different animal prints, for instance (I should have kept that for myself).

For the flights back home, we used Air France. I was a little more than surprised when the flight attendant walked through the cabin three times, spraying insecticide. Talk about feeling dirty.

After a delay, we were off. I don't remember much about that flight, other than the fact that I sat by two really nice women from Holland, because I took some Benadryl and slept through most of it.

We arrived in Paris, and Rebecca and I were super excited about the shopping that could be had in the airport. We were sad that our layover wasn't long enough to go see the Eiffel Tower, but I feel like I got a good preview of the French experience. For instance, I said "Bonjour!" and "Merci beaucoup!" every chance I got, and apparently I was pretty convincing, because several people proceeded to carry on in French to me afterwards while I stared at them blankly.

We did have a "rude Parisian" experience, as well. We went into a chocolate shop because, hello, and I greeted the proprietor as you are expected to do. I think she liked us until the moment she realized that we were American and only spoke English. For some reason, none of Rebecca's credit cards would work on her cash register, and she became more and more haughty the more Rebecca tried. Rebecca asked her "I don't suppose you take American dollars?" to which she replied "I'm sorry, I don't understand what you are saying", which I thought was a little fishy in the first place. Rebecca pulled out a couple of dollars and said "American dollars?" to which the lady replied, "But of course!" in a tone that let implied what she thought of our intelligence. Rebecca paid, and we got the heck out of there.

Apparently, the quality of the chocolate wasn't worth all of the pain and effort.

We boarded the plane to head to Houston about 9:30 AM, and the flight was the longest in the world. Every time I started to think that maybe, just maybe, we were about to begin our descent, I'd look at the flight monitor and see that we were still out in the Atlantic ocean. Hmph.

But finally, Texas appeared underneath us. We even flew right over my house- literally. According to the monitor, I could have walked outside, looked up, and seen our plane. The urge to roll the window down and scream "HI CHICA!" like I do every time I drive past her was pretty overwhelming.

We got back to the airport and said our goodbyes to each other. It was sad, because I had become really close to these people after spending so much time with them. I think being in an unfamiliar place together only served to strengthen the bond. I was also sad to go from being in a place where I had such purpose and where I got to do cool things every day back to the mundane daily grind. I'm still sad that I'm not still there. Next year's trip is going for two weeks, and I am super jealous!

After being flagged to go through Agricultural customs (where the group met up again, all of us being flagged), I walked into the area of the airport where people can come inside to meet their friends, and my mom was standing front and center, with tears in her eyes. She claims that an older couple had just met up with their grand kids and the grandmother was crying about not getting to see them often, which made her cry. Ok, sure thing, Mom :)

South Africa was amazing. I still can't believe that I was there, but I thank God for the opportunity to go every time I think about it. I will definitely go back some day. I'd like to see more of SA, and my new friends there, but I'd also like to check out Kenya, Tanzania, and Mozambique.

Three people in our group came down with African Tick Bite Fever, aka Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, upon returning. Fortunately, the only thing I came down with was the travel bug- I'm ready to go and see the world now. Australia? On the list. England? Been wanting to go there as long as I can remember. Argentina? Get in the cart. Antarctica? LET'S DO IT!

The group, minus our photographer! Oh, and a couple of giraffes!

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South African Travels, Day 7

After another luxurious start to the day where we didn't have to be at breakfast until 7:30, we loaded up the van to head for the animals I was most looking forward to- CROCODILES!

Here's looking at you, Breakfast!

I know that Africa has lots of cool exotic wildlife, but for some reason, I would have been really disappointed if I hadn't gotten to work with a crocodile. Maybe it's because I'm a reptile fan, or maybe it's because I'm unexpectedly an adrenaline junky, but I was super excited when I found out we would be going to a crocodile research facility.

Before I get ahead of myself, this happened on the way to the crocodiles:

Where'd the trees go?

We were hurtling down a dirt road at probably around 60 MPH when suddenly Louis, who was driving us today, slammed on the brakes, causing all of us to fly forward in our seats. He came to a complete stop, got out of the van without a word, and walked back in the direction we had come. Upon returning, he presented us with this tiny chameleon, who he saw crossing the road. EAGLE EYES.

Seriously, I love reptiles

Apparently if you get caught with a chameleon as a pet in Africa, you get, like, killed or something. That may not be quite what Louis said, but the consequences would be dire. So we merely scooped this guy up and gave him a ride to the trees at the crocodile place (chameleon: "Thanks").

We arrived, and the set up was basically someone's house with a couple of small enclosures in the yard. Each enclosure had a pool in it. The enclosure we would be hanging out in had about 12 - 15 crocs of various sizes living in it.

And I wouldn't be true to myself if I didn't mention the horses that lived there. And show you a picture:

I bet these horses can move pretty fast.

We met up with the guy who took care of the crocs (who's name, alas, I never caught, so I will call him Mr. Crocodile), and he was about as cool as Conrad. You would have to be pretty cool to be able to just walk through a group of crocodiles without a care. Or something.

"This is the safer end. Notice I did not say "safe"."

We all waltzed into the enclosure, some with larger feelings of trepidation than others. Our first order of business was to sedate the bigger crocodiles with a pole syringe. This involved getting pretty close to the croc, finding the right spot on its tail, and jabbing the needle into it with enough force to inject all of the sedative. PS, the crocs jumped and snapped at you as soon as they were jabbed.

Also, crocodiles hiss. And it's pretty chilling.

A couple of people got started with their assigned crocodiles, and then it was Dr. Culp's turn. She got one of the nastier-tempered guys. When she stuck him, her needle bent, so it didn't get the full dose... meaning it would have to be done again, and now it was angrier than it had been originally. So this happened:

Dr: Culp: "Kristin, would you like to finish off the one I just did?"
Me: "Yeah!"
Dr. Culp: "You would? You want to do it?"
Me: "Definitely!"

followed shortly by:

Now, just hold still...

Kristin Sedating Crocodile

(Totally was ready to use the pole for defense if I needed to.) If the link doesn't work, it's on my facebook page. Add me!


After injecting the crocodiles, we had to wait about 45 minutes for the sedation to take effect. And then the real fun started.

Not yet sedated

A couple of the men wrangled two of the smaller crocodiles out and taped their mouths shut. Then it was time to start tackling the bigger guys.

Yes, tackling. Definition: say a lot of prayers, suck in a big breath to calm your shaking appendages, throw yourself down onto a crocodile, and hope that it doesn't see you coming first.

A couple of men exuberantly volunteered to go first. While they tackled, taped, and moved out their crocodiles to where they could be worked on (blood drawn, measured, weighed, and sexed), a couple of people practiced tackling the smaller, unsedated crocodiles in preparation for the larger ones. It had just become my turn to practice when I heard, "Kristin! Come get your crocodile!"

I am pretty sure I blanched; the only excuse I could think of was, "But I haven't practiced on the smaller one yet!" My pleas fell on deaf ears, however. I made my way into the enclosure to the sound of a death knell (possibly just in my head) and slunk over to my crocodile. He at least had something covering his eyes (probably a clothing remnant from the last person that had tried to tackle him). Mr. Crocodile showed me where to stand and informed me to not hesitate, or else I would get hurt.

K. Got it.

I counted to 3, and then threw myself on top of the crocodile, using my hands and body weight to shove his head to the ground. Crocodiles do not have strong opening muscles in their mouths- only shutting- so it is possible to hold their mouths closed. As soon as I had his head pressed to the ground and was confident he wasn't going to throw me off, the blindfold was pulled off, and I worked my hands down his snout, making sure a) I was holding it closed and b) I wasn't accidentally working my fingers into his mouth instead. Especially considering the fact that he was hissing and growling at me.

Too close!

I help his mouth closed while they taped it shut, and then I held his eyes closed while they taped over them. We then loaded him up on a board and carried him out to be measured like the others. And by the way, a sedated crocodile is still quite capable of moving and snapping his mouth. He's just a little more sluggish.

This whole time, the two unsedated crocodiles were just out and about. While everyone else was occupied, I walked up to one and tapped its tail with my boot. It whipped around so fast that, had its mouth not been taped, I probably would have lost a foot. I just laughed at it like a cocky jerk. Had it been tape-free, however, I probably would have wet my pants.

This crocodile did not appreciate the idea of being blindfolded

For the most part, I stood by and watched the others work on the crocodiles... until Dr. Derr called me over to draw blood on one. I sat on its back like it was a horse and Mr. Crocodile helped me find the vein in its head. And then I drew blood. From a freakin' crocodile.

After we were finished working with them, we moved them back into their enclosure. But here we encountered an interesting conundrum: the crocodiles had to be placed in the shade so that they didn't fry, and there was only one shady place. Meaning that we had to set them right next to each other. And then- oh yeah- remove the tape holding their mouths shut.

We had to strategically remove tape so that someone did not get trapped in a corner, surrounded by free crocodiles. Still, when I was called in to release mine, knowing that only a couple of feet away lied some of its tape-less brethren, I was shaking so hard that Mr. Crocodile had to help me untape it. And then I jumped off it so fast, I probably could have won an Olympic medal in something.

Fortunately nobody, including Mr. Crocodile and Louis, who were quite at home amongst the toothy beasts, got hurt, and we packed everything up to head back home.

On the way, we stopped at a shopping mall to eat the lunch that Michelle had packed us. While we were sitting, we received a call that one of the breeding reservations had a sick wild dog that needed to be looked at. So, we piled back in and headed to the park, where we had to wait at the entrance for our access to arrive.

On the way, we ran across a local man selling sling shots, and the guys in our group about bought him out. So, since we had a little free time while waiting, they all set up a can and practiced using them. Rebecca and I, horse girls that we are, went over and visited the horses that were living right at the entrance of the park:

Boys will be boys

Side note: the horses were covered in ticks. I don't think Chica would like Africa very much.

When we finally got back to the wild dog, the day quickly got even better- for suddenly the guide turned towards the pen next to the dog pen and yelled (in a very high-pitched voice) "Roscoe! Borris!" and two hyenas suddenly appeared. They knew it was not dinner time yet, so they were pretty tentative, but I was determined to get a good picture of them.

So spotty

We discovered that we could walk down the road a bit and get closer to them, but they were pretty skittish around all of the people. Most of the vets got bored and wandered back, but Pat and I stayed put, and our patience was rewarded.

A liiittle creepy

I managed to coax one of them up pretty close to me, where he giggled (!!) before jumping back into the bushes.

He he he

Eventually, Pat and I decided to join the others, and I noticed as we walked away that we were being stalked.

Quickly, while their backs are turned!

At some point, while I was playing with the hyenas, apparently the rest of the group was taking pictures of a lion and lioness that had come up to see what the commotion was. ALAS I missed them. I had no idea they were even there until we got back and were looking at everyone's pictures -face palm-.

We got back to the wild dog, who was very sick indeed- so much so that it didn't even react when Louis walked up to it and stuck it with a pole syringe. Once it was sedated, they lifted it up onto a flat surface to try and figure out what was going on with it.

Poor thing

I'm not sure what the outcome was- terms like "rabies", "distemper", and even "cancer" were tossed around- but I wish the guy the best.

When we left, it was getting into the evening, so we decided to go back home and have a "sundowner" on top of the mountain- basically, sit and watch the absolutely gorgeous sunset that Africa offered, something we had not gotten to do yet (and something I was really looking forward to before the trip). We headed up the mountain and were rewarded by this sight:

"This is where you wanted us, yes?"

 They were nice enough to stick around so that we could take pictures like this:

The most African of the pictures

There was some confusion on someone's part- certainly not mine- about which direction to look to find the sun, before this person realized that if she would just turn around, she would instantly be blinded by the sun as it sank. Ahem. But the sunset was spectacular, as hoped for, and it was a beautiful end to our last day.

In living color

The view

As it got dark, we stuck around and socialized with everyone. Louis brought his fiance, Antoinette, and she and I hit it off instantly. Turns out she owns a horse as well, so maybe someday she can come visit and ride with me! OR, even better, I can go back to Africa!

Heath took some awesome photos of the stars, and he set up some totally cool shots of us with the Southern Cross.

Southern Hemisphere stars

I was sad to go to bed that night, knowing that we would be leaving the next day. I could have stayed longer; I was not in the least bit ready to return. Our time seemed to pass so quickly, and I couldn't believe that only a week ago, on my birthday, I had been packing to go on this trip.

At least the next morning we had one more lesson to look forward to!

Photo credit: Credit for group photo with crocs and slingshot photo belong to Dr. Jim Derr . Credit for the photo of me sedating the croc and the Southern Cross photo belongs to Heath Culp of Poodledog Productions. Everything else is mine.

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South African Travels, Day 6

What do an eland baby and an adult rhino have in common? Scroll to find out!

Today marked the first day that we were able to sleep in a little. Breakfast was at 7:30, so sleeping in until 6:15 was fantastic. We had a pretty casual morning, since the only thing planned for the day was going to another game farm nearby and working on a few animals there.

We loaded up in our van and made the short trek over to the game farm. On the agenda today was removing a porcupine quill from a sable's ear, tending to a wound on a giraffe's chest, and redressing a pretty bad wound on a baby eland's hindquarters. The farm we arrived at was, in keeping with the theme, just beautiful. It even had the typical African tree everyone pictures when thinking about Africa:

Gorgeous

Paved road through property

S t r e t c h into the tops of the trees!

There were several houses planted throughout the farm, a couple of which were for sale, meaning that I could go live over there and just watch the farm's zebras, waterbuck, wildebeest, giraffes, sables, and elands go about their lives. I wonder how Fiona and Romeo would react in an encounter with any of these guys... I'm betting Romeo would probably run away while Fiona (tragically) tried to engage them in play.

We started off with the sable. Sables are apparently pretty aggressive, so we had to be careful once it was sedated and down. Something that we learned in class about darting animals is that, if you're going to use a vehicle to approach them to dart them, use something they are familiar with. For instance, if you go to a giraffe farm and the giraffes see golf carts go by all the time, then approaching them in a golf cart isn't going to raise their suspicions too much.

Derik got into the back of one of the farm's trucks, and off they went through the pasture to the herd of sables.

Unsuspecting.

He picked out the one with the quill and darted her. When she finally went down, we raced over to her in the back of our truck.

Ouch!

Stephen performed the "surgery" and removed the quill. Fun fact: sables are one of the only animals that panic less without a blindfold than with. The more you know!

The herd watched on as we messed with one of its members, along with a separate herd of zebra. I really thought they were going to charge over to take her back, but fortunately, they didn't get much closer than this:

Creepers.

The sable was reversed, and she hurried quickly back to her compadres.

Next up was the giraffe, and I will preface this part with saying that giraffes are very sensitive to anesthesia. I have heard of cases where they just would not wake up after surgery, even though everything went well. One of the many good things about wildlife vets is that they can discover ways to combat this sensitivity through experience.

The plan with this giraffe was to dart her, restrain her once she was down by sitting on her neck, and then immediately reverse the sedation. Unfortunately, nature sometimes has its own plans.

The ranch, first of all, was huge, and most of it was covered in grass at least as tall as me, if not taller. There were also heavily forested places that were very scrubby. The giraffe, once darted, took off running and ran through a foresty area, where we lost sight of her. Since time was a factor, we all jumped off the truck and took off on foot to find her.

Like I said, the grass we were walking through was TALL. Rebecca and I paired up and begin the awful process of wading through it. Ticks were definitely at the front of our minds, since the sable had been just covered in them (and we knew they were out there). I saw a couple running up the back of Rebecca's leg at one point and knocked them off, causing the both of us to have a freakout session. We tried to jump from less grassy place to less grassy place, but it was a lost cause. At one point, a branch hooked onto Rebecca's boot in a snake-like manner, and she screamed and started jumping up and down while I screamed "IT'S NOT A SNAKE! IT'S NOT A SNAKE!" Once that was established, we heard something crashing through the grass and looked up to see a red blur about 15 feet from us. Fortunately it was just a dik-dik, but, since there was literally no one else in sight, it caused quite a fright. We wondered what we were going to do if we stumbled upon the giraffe since we had no phones and had no idea where everyone else is.

Shortly after the dik dik, I looked up and realized we were really close to one of the houses on the property, and lo and behold it had a good portion of manicured, mowed lawn around it without a fence separating it from the wilderness. I pointed it out to Rebecca and suggested we make a break for it. We had to cross through some nasty looking shrubbery to get to it, but we ran and jumped and landed in the yard, furiously brushing ourselves off while going "Eww eww ewww are they all over me?!?!" In the process I looked up and noticed four women sitting on the back porch of the house having tea, all watching us. I'm sure we were a sight- two girls appearing out of the middle of the African bush that very obviously weren't meant to be out in it. I murmured to Rebecca something like "Great, we have an audience", and she, being less anti-social than I, looked up and said "Hi!" The women all laughed and returned the greeting. Rebecca apologized and one of them said something like "No worries, go on about your business". With a sigh, we turned and waded back into the sea of grass.

We did end up finding some blood that looked fresh, and we tried tracking it, but to no avail. About 20 - 30 minutes after setting out on foot, Louis and Dr. Logan appeared in a truck to pick up the searchers. After picking us up, they headed for Heath, who took this totally legit picture:

Just conversing about giraffe blood

I love how every vehicle in Africa is an off-roader, whether made for it or not.

The giraffe had been found, but it was too late. She had gone over by the lake on the property and gone down in the tall grass, rendering her virtually invisible, except to maybe a bird. It was awful and incredibly sad to have lost her. I think Derik took it the hardest. The owners were very understanding; they knew that wild animals are very difficult to work with medically and this kind of thing happens, unfortunately. We took a small break where no one said much of anything, but then we had to finish up our job on the farm.

Our final patient was the baby eland. About a week before, Derik had gone out to the farm to check out the eland because it had a huge wound on its hindquarters, caused by ticks. I won't include any pictures because they are quite graphic, but to give you an idea- Derik had already treated it the week before, and it still looked like something out of a zombie movie. Even so, he said it looked 100% better than when he had first seen it. Poor eland.

Getting to the baby was something of a feat, as the adult elands were quite suspicious of us after watching us drive around with the sables earlier. The baby was darted, but it did not want to go down. We drove back and forth, trying to keep it contained to one part of the property, but ultimately we had to get out and circle it (once it was separated from the adults) and then Stephen tackled it as it ran at him, effectively catching it.

It was loaded up on the back of a truck so that its wound could be cleaned and redressed while it was monitored. I got to listen to its heart while it was back there- I felt like such a vet.

Dr. Kristin Burlingame, BS

After it was treated, it was carried off to a grassy spot, and I was tasked with spraying down all of the ticks on it- it was completely covered, like the sable.

Tick pictures not included because ain't nobody want to see that

I then stepped back and off to the side, mildly watching as Derik asked who was going to give it the reversal injection intro-veinously. Suddenly, he looked up at me and said, 'You are!" I made a face like o.O and he was like, you can do it! So then he, Rebecca, and Pat proceeded to show me how to give an IV injection, and I successfully performed my first IV injection and my second injection ever on an eland.

So a baby eland and an adult rhino = my first IV and IM injections, respectively. Now you know.

Fun (embarrassing) story: while I was crouched over the eland preparing for the injection, I looked down and saw a tick running up my hand. I bit out a bad word and swung my hand violently, hitting Derik in the process, who was crouched next to me. Rebecca said "Well, if they thought you were a nice girl before, now they know better." If you know me, you know this is the story of my life. Being in a foreign country mattered not. Sigh.

Getting prepared to peace out

Somehow the entire day passed while we were at the game farm. I think we finished up out there around 4:00. Surprisingly, no one seemed to mind or realize that we had forgotten about lunch; there was just too much going on. We loaded up and headed back home.

Since we had an earlier night, we got to enjoy the grounds a little more. I went up the hill to the "Africa House", a building housing computers and most of our male participants dormitory style, and got on the internet for the first time while sitting on the veranda in front of it, sipping wine and listening to crickets as night fell. After it got dark, I made my way back to the dining area. It was pitch black out to my right, and as I was walking, I heard an animal snort at me out in the dark, which increased my walking speed quite a bit. I made it back safely and hung out with the group during dinner, including Michelle's two little girls, who thought it would be great fun to play matchmaker with me since I am single (lol). Later that evening, Derik, Rebecca and I rode into Nelspruit to enjoy the night life, but everything was closed... apparently they don't appreciate Thursday nights there like we do here.

Our next day promised adventures with one of the animals I was most excited to work with- read on if you'd like to find out which!



Photo credit: the first 3 pictures belong to me; 1st sable pic, 3rd sable pic, truck pic and last picture belong to Heath Culp of Poodledog productions, and 2nd sable pic and 1st two eland pics belong to Dr. Jim Derr.

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