Mouse cat...in memory

This morning as Ambuya was feeding us animals in the kitchen I snapped at Mouse cat...broke her neck and she slowly died in Mum's arms. She is Mum's last animal link to the farm. She was born in a 20 litre tin at the workshop on Erewhon during November 1995. Mum felt sorry for her workshop cat and kittens and brought them all to the house to live. She kept Le Shat and two of her kittens. Mouse cat spent the next 16 years with Mum wondering from one house to another as they moved. When Mum went down to the barns late at night to check on the barn boys and make sure the barn temperatures and vents were all correct, Mouse used to follow her diligently to help check. When they moved from the farm to town, Mouse learned to live in the limited space she now had to live in. She also became accustomed to avoiding the huge cane rats at the bottom of the garden. When we moved again to Shenstone, she adjusted to more space but kept close to home. As the years passed she became more and more of a house cat. But of course I love chasing anything that moves. I like intimidating the cats and other dogs and so Mum often has to reprimand me and remind me that SHE is top dog...
So today, when I snapped, Mouse was in the way...and not fleet enough to escape to the top of the freezer...and so I sat and watched Mum hold her precious cat in stunned silence as she slowly died....
Mouse has been buried in the bottom of the garden with all the other pets who have passed on to better places over the past 8 years....
...and Mum is still just stunned...not really realising that her precious friend has actually gone...

with head hanging low, and shadowing my Mum diligently...

till next time,
Musole

Good Day all.... jees so sorry I have not been keeping up with you all. Its been busy! Mum has inherited another canine who really needs discipining! Rocket and I have this game we play...we chase the cattle and the horses around the lawn... try really hard to swing on their tails....boy! Do we get into trouble for that!!
We have had a very moderate summer... not too much rain so its green but not full of moss like our normal summers.
Mum is concerned about politics as always. People are really stressed by the possibility of ANOTHER election and violence to go with it... so many elections since 2000.... seems like we just get over one and go straight into the next! Life is still tough here in ZW...people battle to find work and businesses are still closing down. Where is it all leading??
Thoughts with you all. Will try and get onto your blogs to catch up with you all again!!
Barks
Musole!

Hello out there...its been a very long time since Mum and I have been on line and blogging. The last 6 months in our beloved Zimbabwe have been fraught with difficulties. The Indigenisation Act has had huge ramifications which have impacted on all levels of society. The Government of National Unity has had difficulty in coming to agreement on anything...economic or political. We now seem to be heading for another election and the possibility of political instability again.
In the mean time us animals have quietly gone about our business catching rats and bats and eating all sorts of things that Mum has a heart attack about. The cattle get fat. The ewes lamb down. The community stays together.

This spring has been beautiful with all the trees in full flower... the jacarandas, flamboyants and so many many plants blooming.

The countryside however continues to look bleak and uncultivated as the battle of the giants keeps going and the earth gets scorched in the process.

One day sanity will prevail and we will look back on this period of our lives with amazement!

Till next time
lots of licks
Musole.

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

Ginger and Spot settled into the house with Mouse and the dogs quite easily in Vainona where we managed to find a home. They found the walls around the property restricting and they were not used to the noise..but they adapted to being urban animals. Mum and the children had more trouble adapting though. Mum prowled around the perimeter fence of the property like a lioness looking for something to pounce on. Slowly she realised she had to come to terms with the changes that had happened. She started taking her dogs out for walks on leads. Leads?? They had never known what a lead was before but they adapted.

Mum has been a bit busy the last few weeks and so was really sorry that you were all concerned about her not blogging. Unfortunately her staff had put "two step" a chemical down to kill the rats that were eating the maize stored in her sheds and when a rat became sluggish, Ginger managed to catch it and eat it. Mum had not realised this poison had been used until it was too late and so she nursed Ginger until he eventually died a couple of weeks ago. She had helped to deliver him when he was born and he was really a special part of her life for so many years. A happy reminder of the years on the farm when he wondered all over with her and a happy reminder of the years of readjustment to living in town and then semi urban living again.

He is buried next to his brother Spot, who was ridden over by a car when he was wondering around on the plot when we first moved from town to a plot where we could finally rescue our horses (only 4 out of 15 had survived living wild on the farm for 18 months).

Cody in the meantime is getting very old and scraggly. I keep looking at him in wonder and thinking...will I live till I am 14?? Ridgebacks like Cody and Boerbulls like me don't normally live for that many years. Oh well, I still keep trying to remind him that I am the new boss of the house but he and Mum gang up against me and tell me to get back in my box!

Sigh!

Think Mum will ever let me rule the roost???

Keep blogging...and thank you for caring too!!
Musole.

In 1996, when Mum was still a tobacco farmer in Raffingora, two little kittens were born in the linen cupboard in her house on the farm. Spot and Ginger soon took over the house and made it their playground. As the years went by and they watched Mum walk to the barns to check the Tobacco curing at night, they slowly became brave enough to wonder down to the barns with her on her daily rounds. They loved each other dearly and were inseparable. In 2002 when Mum was forcibly removed from her farm and had to leave with only the clothes she was wearing and the truck she was driving, the cats as well as all the other animals had to stay behind. For months Mum tried to get back to her farm but eventually realised that it was not going to be possible and so she settled into a little house in Harare where she went about trying to build a life again. She started from scratch again...pots, pans, plates, linen, furniture...all these things had to be found and put into her new home. On many occasions Mum would think...ok, I have got....and then remember...

As soon as she was able to do so, Mum arranged for a friend to go onto her farm and rescue her dogs and cats.....Le Chat had gone bush and was not to be found, but Spot, Ginger, and Mouse were still roaming around the house, where some staff were trying to keep them fed. The four dogs too, were foraging and were found and loaded onto the truck for trans-location to their new home in the suburbs of Harare.

Mum says she will be back... its a long story.
Lots of love
Musole.

My very precious old friend...who has been around since I was born 2 years ago on 1 October, is getting very frail. Mum seems to have got wrapped up in caring for him, taking us for walks, getting the accounts done, making strawberry jam with the fruit that just doesn't seem to stop appearing at the back door. We have had sheep to slaughter, goats to slaughter, animals to take care of... phew the list seems to grow.

And then we have had a really exciting week!! 12 Baby ducklings and 2 baby goslings...oh soooooo tempting! Mum has to keep reminding me that they are "out of bounds, Musole" sigh!

The gardener, Peter, broke his leg last week ofloading maize from a big truck onto a trailer. So lucky we had Michael here! He splinted his leg and rushed Peter off to the Parirenyatwa Hospital where the doctor was able to see him and put the leg in plaster. With Doctor's strikes, no medicines available, shortages of electricity and food... Mum was really worried that he would not get the treatment he should.

Its weekend again and Mum has promised to take photos of us pets and the flowers. So here's hoping we will get more on line again.

And then she says she is wanting to add some pictures of Ginger, her cat and my not so friend, who sadly dies at the beginning of the month. Mum misses him madly but I will leave her to tell you all about him this weekend...

Till then, have a lovely weekend!
Musole!

Side tracked!! That's what happened!!

Hey guys...I was looking through my pictures this morning and found one of the Old Man and Alex stalking a duck on the lawn!! They kept missing the ducks though and so I had to teach them that the easiest way to find food was to find the ducks sitting on eggs. Mum was NOT impressed!

Stella, my love, that was Cody relaxing on Mum's couch...he is old so she lets him sleep there!! Sometimes Cody jumps over the varandah wall just to prove he is not old. He strolls up the hill to the office with Mum every day just to "keep fit" but also to body guard her.

Cody tells me its not easy getting old! I think he is doing pretty well for "old"!!!!

Take care and have a lovely day!!
Musole

Hello all... Wonder who has looked outside at the evening sky and noticed that we are two days off full moon? Its a beautiful big almost round ball in the sky as evening rolls on and of course, I like to stand on the back varandah (stoep in Southern Africa) and talk to the moon, loudly with my deep bark.

I'm in really deep trouble with my mum at the moment cause I got angry with her for reprimanding me for chasing a man on a bicycle and watching him wobble off it as I gently rearranged his trousers....Mum's hand is sore and my bottom is also sore.

So....enough of that and lets talk about the grumpy old man instead. No, Not our esteemed President. I mean Cody! He really is getting very old. His ribs have begun to show and the big cancer growth on his throat is getting really bad. Its not easy in Africa to just fix these things and Mum has decided to just let him be. He is, after all, over 14 years of age.

Misty moo really thinks she is a human being...she tries to get into Mum's car to travel where ever Mum goes. She is nosey...well...she wants to know everything she can wherever they go. Mum has to keep calling her to come back instead of exploring too far.

But here she is sleeping...

I'll have some pictures of Cody next. He is a real old man. He does think though, that he is a 3 year old still sometimes when he jumps over a wall or runs up the hill after Mum.

Its so good to have time over the weekend to think and be and do... and of course have long walks with Mum!!!!

See you all this weekend guys!

Have fun.
Musole

From the very beginning when Alex and Bengie joined us, they were bigger than Misty. That didn't seem to worry her as she frolicked and played with them.

It's time to introduce other members of our family to you all.

Misty moo joined Mum's family about 5 years ago when her Mum had just died from a brain tumour and her dad was soo overwrought that he took a job in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He asked if she could stay with Mum for 3 months and was still here 18 months later. She was only two when she joined our family so Mum and Johnny (her dad) agreed that she would just stay with us for ever.

This little madam never leaves Mum's side ...and any chance to get in the car to see the world is jumped at! She is a funny soul.. look how she rests!!! She also hugs Mum by tucking her head between her feet and pushing against mum to tell her she is around.

Us big dogs just don't get so soppy...well...ok, only when nobody is looking. Then I climb carefully onto Mum's lap and behave like a tiny little puppy again...curl up and go fast a sleep!

Hope you are all having a lovely day. Mondays are fun days you know??
Musole

As time passed and we began to realise our three months with Alex and Benjie were nearly done, Mum took as many pictures of them as she could. We went on long walks so that the boys would understand the work they were going to do and the life they were going to lead. Eventually they were ready, despite the time they had spent with us in civilisation.

aaargh...I tried soo hard to get Alex to stalk the horses... and then at the last moment he was so curious that lifted his head to chat to Rhondelle instead of trying to scare her. Rhondelle of course is a retired polo cross horse and has been around stranger animals than a 3 month old lion cub trying to stalk her!

But the cubs, Benjie and Alex were old enough now to join the other young lions at the Park. Its time for them to start their training as "walking Lions" Their job will be to take humans on nature walks through the Park. They do such good work making humans realise that lions are rough, tough, and dangerous animals BUT if they are treated with respect, they can be the most amazing companions.

Granny who lives with us was also beginning to find that Benjie and Alex were too big for her to cope with. Mum would like to show you just a couple more pics of the lions before she had to send them back to their real world to become LIONS!

Alex and I planning strategy... got to get that horse off guard you know!!

Hey, Alex. Come back here!

getting closer and braver...think Bowden can see Alex, I wonder???