More adventures to whet your appetite for the extraordinary

Guys! I am having so much fun! And thanks so much for all of your comments. I'm smiling like crazy now sitting in front of this computer.

So, on to what I've been up to. I helped to save a cheetah's life. Her name was Savannah, and she was being kept in the boma (an enclosure) in quaruntine before she could be released into the rest of the reserve. She needed to be darted so we could attach a radio collar and then take measurements of her teeth, paws, etc. so we could identify her prints and then if she killed anything or anybody we could use her teeth marks to tell if it was her or not. And also we could tell in subsequent captures if she was growing properly. Anyways, she ended up having a very severe allergic reaction to the drugs, and she went into shock. We (the ten volunteers standing around gaping at all of this) and all of our waterbottles were recruited to run like crazy back and forth between the fenceline of the boma, where her body was, and the watering hole in the interior. We shuttled water back and forth for an hour at least and we were able to keep her temperature down enough that she survived the ordeal after eventaully being carted off to the clinic in the back of an SUV.

On a separate occassion, we managed to get our truck relatively stuck with half of the hyena clan. The jueviniles were coming up and sniffing the bumper of our car--they were very very cute. And thier mother (Giggles) was digging around in the dam we were next to. She eventually retrieved a wildebeast leg she had cached there and feed the juveniles and then they all wandered off and we were able to get ourselves safely unstuck and back on the road. We got stuck again the next day, in the middle of the hottest day on earth, in the middle of a drainage that intersected with the road. I laid down in the only patch of shade I could find in the middle of the water for a half an hour before the calvary came to rescue us. It turns out we didn't need rescuing and we weren't even really stuck. Our staff member had not locked the wheels.

We have had a number of interesting and slightly freaky bug visitors in our house. We caputred one of them and are keeping him as a pet now--a solifuge named Loppy. Look up solifuges on google. They are freaky--and apparently they run to your shadow, so they will actually chase you around the house as long as you have your light on and are running away from them.

I am getting used to things here, really starting to settle in. And I am learning all sorts of things--pseudopenises included. And all the time I'm thinking of different things to research but I don't even have a library I can use anymore, do I? Everyone at the house is pretty much fantastic. The food could be improved for sure, but our fridge doesn't really keep things cold and our freezer doesn't freeze anything so there's not much we can do.

Ok, I'm off to help do the chores in town. Please be good without me. You'll get the picture of Luther next week, I hope.

Happy trails!