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