Wow, thank you all for your amazing support. Its been a long hard 6 months but with your support Mum says she will keep me writing...sigh, my writing...but I promise, I will try!!

Mum arranged for me to become the dad of a litter of Boerbul pups so yesterday I was practicing with the lady who came to visit. Now we wait patiently for the next few months to see if and when our babies will be born. I did so love bringing up the lion cubs that were sent to me by the park in 2008 so it will be great if I can have another little pup around for company soon.

Mum has been really busy recently. Over 30 years ago Zimbabwe became independent from their colonial parent and we began a new journey of freedom for all races. For years our leader told us all that we were welcome and we were all Zimbabweans. Then in 1998 our leadership decided they needed to change the land ownership patterns in Zim. Over the next 10 years we have had a huge social upheaval here with over 4 million people leaving their home country in search of a safe place to live. Families have been split up with people moving into the Diaspora...children left behind with grand parents and family while parents have left to find work to be able to support their families. Many thousands of farm labourers have been displaced from their homes and have lost their jobs. Fod security has been lost.

In February 2009 after nearly a year of negotiation, a Government of National Unity (GNU) was formed and we thought we were moving into a new era of development. Over the past year the members of the GNU have continued to negotiate to find a power balance with some success. A month ago the Ministry of Indiginisation promulgated regulations which effectively deprive all non "indigenous" Zimbabweans from owning their whole business .... they have to hand over 51% of their businesses to an Indigenous Zimbabwean.

Sadly this means that people like mum, whose families have been in Africa for over 200 years, as well as those of her friends who have families that came to the Cape in 1652, and who are classified as Non Indigenous Zimbabweans (NIZ) by virtue of the fact that they were part of a privileged class prior to 1980, will NEVER be classified as an Indigenous Zimbabwean and so they will never again be allowed to own their own businesses. There is a list of businesses NIZ cannot own, including agriculture, and agricultural land. Mum's family have been farmers in Africa for over 200 years! If they fail to hand over 51% of their businesses to an Indigenous Zimbabwean (as per a list of recommended recipients available from the Ministry) then they will be jailed for 5 years.

Mum's family have NO links to Europe or Asia or the Americas. They have been Africans for so long that the links that may have been there are long gone.

licks and growls till next time

Musole

2010

Dear all, thank you so much Carol and Jo for jogging Mum and I to write on our blog again!

Its been a while since we wrote in October and since then Cody, Mum's trusty shadow ridgeback, has passed away. While Mum was away over Christmas he wondered off into the garden and died quietly. He was 14 and so he had been getting weaker and weaker.

Mum got back early in January and Jackie, her trusty weimaraner who had been her other shadow for 15 years became very ill, stopped eating and slowly faded away as mum slept next to her for two days while she moved on to her next assignment. She had been a wonderful companion to Mum from the moment she was collected from her litter family and brought to the farm to start her new life. She was missing a piece of her ear from a fight with a wild pig, had a scar on her nose from a bite from a cane rat. All those happy and sad monents of their joint lives passed through Mum's thoughts as she sat with Jackie through the last days of her life.

Since then we have been coping with all the economic and political trials that being in Zimbabwe have brought to us.

I did have a growl at mum when I snapped at her face when she was checking a hole caused by a cow horn which had gone septic on my leg on 10 January. Accidentally I caught her face with my teeth and made a few holes in her right cheek and lip... she has healed soo fast and so well though. I have not left her side for a minute since it happened. I was mortified that my grumpy growl had actually caught her cheek. Her daughter Helen came over and quickly put butterfly stitches on her cheek and lip after disinfecting the bites. Now she just looks like she has a few more smile lines!

Its strange only having three canines in the house now! Misty, Lily and I bounce all over the place, sniffing and chasing things as we go for our daily walks with Mum. I still chase the horses away when they come to steal my food at the back door near the kitchen. I still growl at the ducks who also seem to think they can come and eat my lunch! I love teasing the young calves but Mum gets really angry with me....so I look longingly at the beautiful little lambs as they frolic next to their mothers in the pastures.

licks and barks
Musole