Monday 27 April 2009

That will teach you......or not!!!!


If a person falls asleep in the back of your car what would you do? Well, you'd draw on them in permanent marker of course!!! And thats exactly what I did when Cheri, our vet tech, decided to take a nap on the way back from cheetah feeding, the opportunity was just too good for me to ignore and the results were most ammusing. I was going to give her a moustache and beard but Rachael, our other vet tech, stopped me, saying that that would be too cruel.
So you can imagine my disbelief when the very next day Cheri decides to fall asleep in the back of the car AGAIN! Well this time there was no stopping me and I just had to give her a moustache and beard, I mean come on, she was asking for it!! As you can see the results were again, highly amusing, and if she does it a third time will I do it again? Of course I will!!!

Saturday 25 April 2009

Bucket Head

One of our boskop dogs, Spots has had a very tough time lately. For a while now spots has had a runny eye due to his eyelid facing backwards which caused irritation. Spots has also been due to have his manhood taken away. So seeing as we had plenty of vets around due to our annual work ups it was decided to take him to our clinic and have both procedures done at the same time.

But if that was bad enough we also had to take a sperm sample, so poor Spots had to suffer the ordeal of being manually ‘assisted’ by a Mexican vet in front of an audience. He was then put to sleep and the prospect of more little Spots running around was taken away forever. I sat with him while he regained consciousness and he looked a pitiful sight with a bloody eyelid and nether regions.

Too add insult to painful injury we have had to put a big cone around his neck so he doesn’t try and pull his sutures out and despite all he has gone through we just can’t help but laugh and have re-named him, for now, as Bucket Head!!

Sorry Spots, but we do love you......honest!!

Tuesday 21 April 2009

An African Easter


Despite the fact we are all unbelievably busy at this time of year we still found time to celebrate Easter. We had an Easter basket hunt which I would have won if it was not for the childish actions of my fellow keeper Kate who thought it would be funny to hide my basket in a different place, the fact that I had hidden hers first is not important. I was robbed!

So I was determined to make a truly British Bull dog effort to win the easter decorating contest and as you can see my egg was head and shoulders above the competition and clearly the best decorated egg on the day, and maybe in all of history.


My egg was so good that my fellow competitors had an outbreak of insane jealousy and envy, so much so the competition aspect of the decorating was forgotten and I was denied a prize and award ceremony!! However, my egg speaks for itself and no one can deny me my glorious achievement!!

Thursday 16 April 2009

Thad


This is a blog entry I still can’t believe I have to write but sadly I have to pay tribute to a friend who is no longer with us. Thad Owens who was one of the students that came to CCF from the University of Florida died whilst swimming in the Kunene river in northern Namibia last week. This news has come as a big shock to all of us here at CCF and our thoughts are with his family and friends who must be going through an incredibly difficult time. I hope they can take comfort in the fact that Thad was one of a kind who made a huge impression on all of those he met, including me.

I remember meeting the Florida group for the first time at a cheetah run and I was a little bit nervous about talking about cheetahs in front of a big group of cocky young Americans but the first person I spoke to was Thad, a distinctive looking guy who was tall with red hair and a big beard. He introduced himself with a big smile and told me how excited he was to be in Namibia and he put me instantly at ease for the rest of the run. The students then came to Laura’s leaving party and we soon learnt that Thad was a larger than life character and a guy who definitely enjoyed a good party and the occasional drink or two!


When the students came in to CCF to help us out I was always glad to have the chance to hang out with Thad, his personality was infectious and your mood was guarantied to improve in his company. I will always remember being awoken from my sleep after another Boskop party by a rather merry Thad looming over me in the darkness as he just had to say goodnight to me before he left! As a testament to how much I liked him I wasn’t annoyed at all and just laughed :)

Although I didn’t know him for long I am very grateful we met, I have many fond memories and will always smile and laugh when I think of him.

Sunday 12 April 2009

An African Family Reunion


The Cleverley siblings were reunited two weeks ago when my lil sis, Kate, came to visit her beloved older brother. She wasn’t alone however as my cousin Ayesha also came to have some African fun. We started by spending 3 nights in Etosha where we saw Elephant, Rhino, Hyenas, Giraffe, Monitor Lizards and lots of Zebra and Springbok. Alas we were unable to find any lions. For me it was a much welcome break from collecting cheetah poo! However, upon our return to CCF there was sadly no escape from poo and Kate and Ayesha joined me on my daily feeding and poo collecting routine. Kate was also brave enough to do a bit of poo processing which basically involves putting poo in a tube and stirring it about a bit. Ayesha however, is a delicate lil flower and didn’t quite have the stomach for such a task and preferred to do some gardening instead.

Kate also learnt a valuable lesson on her first day at Boskop, do NOT let Spots anywhere near your shoes!!! Because, as she found out to her cost, he WILL destroy them! Both Kate and Ayesha proved a big hit with all 3 of our dogs, especially Timone who enjoyed being sandwiched between them on our sofa lapping up attention.

Unfortunately, they came out during our annual work ups where we examine all 47 cheetahs. Therefore I have been unbelievably busy collecting cats and bringing them to our clinic, which meant I wasn’t able to spend as much time with them as I would have liked. However, I did manage to take them to my favourite 3 restaurants in town and introduced to them the Kameldorn cheese burger, the best burger in the world!!! And most importantly I was able to introduce them to Xena the best cheetah in the world!
Despite the poor timing, Kate and Ayesha had a great time (or that’s what they told me anyway) and got to do lots of cool stuff like feeding cheetahs, habitat surveying, seeing the cheetahs run and being driven around by me in our luxurious bakkies!

I really enjoyed having them here, especially as they brought a lot of goodies from home with them including new music, dvds, polos and curlywurlys!!! Thanks sis!! I wish they could have stayed longer but it means we will have plenty to do when they come back out next year! And it wont be too long before I see them again as I’m heading home for a holiday on the 7th May. I can NOT wait to see family and friends and getting the chance to SLEEP!!!!!