Bella and Padme

The small cute cheetah you see below and on the left of the pic above is Bella, probably our cutest cheetah. The grumpy looking cat to the right of Bella is Padme, one of our feistiest females, second only to the infamous Xena. When Bella first came to CCF in October 2008 she was only 5 months old and was found without a mother which meant that she would not be able to learn to hunt and therefore have to stay with us for the rest of her life (cheetahs learn to hunt from their mother who they stay with for ~18 months).

Upon arrival Bella was very shy and was easily scared when approached. However, she slowly became used to her new home and started to greet myself and Kate in the way most of our cheetahs do, with hisses, spits and paw slapping. However, no matter how hard she tried Bella was just not very intimidating and only provoked myself and Kate into saying: 'ahhhh, you're so cute!' Not long before Bella arrived we had two 7 month old orphaned cheetahs come in, a brother and sister who are now known as Padme (see pic below) and Obi-Wan (yes there are lots of Star Wars fans here at CCF!). Right from the start we knew these two cats were going to be trouble as they were both very confident about coming right up to myself and Kate at feeding time and giving us a very impressive synchronised display of tough posturing. Sadly, it was soon time to seperate brother and sister and Padme was then introduced to little Bella - it has to be said we were a little apprehensive and thought Padme would eat Bella for lunch, but thankfully they hit it of immediatly.

Padme is definitely the dominant figure in this pairing and often unnecessarily picks on Bella at feeding time, smacking her out of the way and ensuring she gets her peice of meat first. However, Bella is learning from her mentor and is getting some bad ass attitude of her own and on occasion getting her own back on Padme. One day Padme got so worked up at feeding time that when she was chucked her meat she was unable to get a good grip on it and started to cause quite a commotion, Bella meanwhile was just sitting patiently beside her looking bemused. As Padme continued to make a right mess of taking her meal Bella did a sneaky double take before smacking Padme right in the face with a good right hook - this seemed to have knocked some sense into Padme who then finaly grabbed her meat and ran away with it. Seeing little Bella grow up from small shy bundle of fluff into a kick ass cheetah (as the pic below clearly demonstrates) made both myself and Kate very proud!

ahhhhh, but she is still sooooooo cute!!! :)

Goat Devil Update: Revenge!

In my previous blog you may recall me stating my intent to get revenge on the goat devil, well true to my word revenge was well and truly mine!!!! The goat devil's stay in the pen with Amos resulted in him missing his appointment with a bath full of dip. However, the dipping was re-scheduled and I was there in person to get some justice!

At first I thought the devil had used his demonic powers to escape the pen as I was unable to find him. However, the devil was found hiding like a coward under an old bakkie canopy they use for shelter - he obviusly knew what was in store for him.

I grabbed him from underneath the shelter and pulled him over to the bath of dip and turned him over onto his back where he was quickly hoisted into the air and plunged into the dip. I then thouroughly soaked him and enjoyed his screams of discomfort!

After his dipping he looked very sorry for himself and walked away sulking, knowing that he had at last met his match! Lets hope the dipping acted like a baptism and makes him turn his back on the dark side. If he doesn't then rest assured, I will be waiting to resume battle!

4507: The Goat Devil

The creature you see above is one of our milking goats and his ear tag identifies him as number 4507. Do not be fooled, this is no ordinary goat for when you look into 4507’s eyes you are staring into the eyes of a devil……..an evil goat devil!!!!

4507 and his cohorts have been housed in a small pen designed for holding leopards near one of our cheetah pens along with Amos, one of livestock guarding dogs, who had to be removed from the goat kraal whilst some of our females were in heat (we didn’t want him mating with them just yet). So seeing as the pen was close to a cheetah pen I was tasked with feeding Amos and the goats during my daily feeding routine. I was forewarned about 4507 by our safari guide James who had a disturbing encounter with the goat devil whilst placing the goats in the pen the previous day. During the drive to the pen 4507 attacked James and tried to bit him in a man’s most vulnerable place!

With this warning in my mind I went to feed the goats for the first time. The first thing I needed to do was close a guillotine separating the goats from Amos so he could eat his food in peace. It is important to note that at this point I am now in the side with the goats (in order to collect the feeding bowl and change their water). I then handed the bowl over to a volunteer through another guillotine so they could fill it up with goat food, and it was at this moment the goat devil made his move and head butted me in the backside before jumping straight at me and onto my back. I pushed the foul beast away but back he came, grunting and trying to butt me some more. The food was finally ready so I opened the guillotine and attempted to grab the bowl when you know who jumped on me again! This time his minions joined in and I ended up being surrounded by goats as I desperately tried to pull the feeding bowl through. I eventually had hold of the bowl but my next ordeal was trying to free myself and get to a position where I could spread out the food into their feeding trough. This I was eventually able to do with some excellent dodging and weaving – Regular readers of my blog will remember that I possess ninja like skills that enabled me to overcome the ferocity of a psycho baby warthog!

I knew I was in for the same treatment the next day because when I approached the pen the goat devil was already waiting for me, standing right at the gate staring at me with evil intent! I was head butted some more and jumped on numerous times. This was the way it went for the next few days but to my horror things took a much more sinister turn and left me with no doubt that 4507 was indeed a creature from the darkest depths.

As I entered the pen I was greeted by a bloody stringy mass hanging from the guillotine and at first had no idea where it came from, however a closer inspection of the pen uncovered a poor mongoose carcass and most disturbingly it’s intestines had been removed and tied up on the fence! There could only be one conclusion drawn….the goat devil had used his satanic powers and made an animal sacrifice in order to try and get to my soul!! Later on that day a Jackal carcass was found in a tree close by our eating area and a dead hartebeest was also discovered…..coincidence? I think not!!!!!



For the last few days I have been on my guard and stopped the goat devil from carrying out any more heartless attacks. The last day I had to feed him he was especially bad, jumping on my back and trying to bite my ear off, but I had the last say as I successfully wrestled him into the back of the car and took him back to the goat kraal from whence he came. As I walked away he gave me one last evil look, but little does he know that one day soon he needs to be dipped and when that day comes I will be there to personally carry out the procedure and then true revenge will be mine!!

Goodbye General

Last week we said goodbye to one of our long term staff members and fellow Boskopian, Lazarus, aka........The General. Reasons for this nick-name should be evident from the pictures above and below. Lazarus liked to think of himself as a man of great importance here at CCF and his pimp walk has gone down as part of Namibian legend. However, in the past some concerned people have stopped him to ask if their is something wrong with his leg.

Lazarus always had conservation in his heart which is why he came dressed as an African Hunter for our ‘Predator/Prey’ theme party. So as you can see the General likes to portray himself as a bit of a tough guy, but his courage went missing one day when a small harmless bush snake came to visit our kitchen at Boskop. Upon seeing it and letting out a little scream he ran as fast as I think he has ever done in his life and locked himself in his room. He then started shouting from beyond the door begging me to kill it, like I said, conservation is in his heart! :) Don’t worry I didn’t kill it but instead opened a window and let the snake wiggle away to freedom.

Unfortunately for me Lazarus took a bit of a shine to my sister when she came to visit me in April. He is now threatening to move to England and marry her, the fact my sister already has a boyfriend doesn’t seem to bother him and is determined to become a part of my family! Lazarus, if you are reading this THAT IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!

Good luck with the new job General and just to make it absolutely clear....stay away from my sister!!!!!!!

The Four Scientists

Ok, so you may have noticed that I have devoted a lot of my blog space to Xena, the Greatest Cheetah in world. However, we do have many other cheetahs and althouh they are not as great as Xena they still deserve some attention. So I thought I would start introducing you to some of our other resident cats.

The cats you see in the pic above are collectively known as the Four Scientists - the menacing looking charactor to the right is Livingston, next to him is Fossie, the cat at his feet with the big white tip at the end of his tail is Darwin and finally we have Mendel at the back. Ok, so not all of those names belong to Scientists but the name has a good ring to it!

The Scientists live in a 5 hectare pen in Bellebenno which means they have to suffer being right next door to 17 beautifull female cheetahs that they can't get too! Also, much to their annoyance the boys are on a diet at the moment as they had to be housed in a smaller pen whilst Emma, Minja and Jacomina used their pen for their training (see previous blog). This meant we couldn't exercise them as much as they were used to - the result was four very chubby scientists! So for the last couple of weeks their food has been halved and they are being made to really earn their food by running the entire length of their pen. Their new regime is working and they are slowly regaining their figures.

The four boys get on famously for most of the time; the exceptions are when it comes down to food and women! Fossie unfortunately ended up with a swollen eye after coming to blows with his coalition mates whilst competing over the attention of Rosy and Misty who had just returned from NamibRand and were being kept in the holding pen directly opposite them. He looked pretty sorry for himself for a while but he soon made a full recovery and was back to scrapping for food at the next feed.

Mendel is definitely the boss closely followed by Livingston who is the one scientist who really likes to give his keepers a hard time by acting like a right punk, coming as close as he can and hissing and spitting in their faces. Darwin is the most relaxed and often just lies down and watches the others getting all worked up trying to prove how macho they are.

So, thats the Scientists......just another 47 cats to go!

Xena: the Greatest Cheetah in the World!

Those of you who are regular visitors to my blog will know that I have a particular soft spot for a very special cheetah named Xena!

Xena used to be housed along with 3 other females Jacomina, Emma and Minja as previously mentioned in a previous blog entitled ‘One hell of a crappy week’. In that blog you may recall me talking about our failed attempt to release these girls in the big Bellbenno pen with 13 other females. However, after several months of intense training Jacomina, Minja and Emma have learnt to come when called and chase after the feeding bakkie for their food (Xena had learnt all of this many months ago!). So myself and Kate thought it was time to make a second attempt at letting the girls into the big pen and we are very pleased to say that it has been a great success! Xena of course came for feeding on the very first day, but it took the other 3 girls a couple of days to settle in, but since then they have all started to come to feed regularly and even chase after the car. So we now have 17 cats in the Bellebenno pen and Xena and co now have 50 hectares of land to play in.

Seeing as we could leave the new girls in the pen this time we could now place their name signs at the entrance to the pen but to my horror I realised that Xena was the only cat without a sign! This just would not do, there was no way I was going to stand having every other cats name at the gate without Xena’s!!! So I took it upon myself to take one of our old signs and glue on laminated letters, with an extra note informing whoever enter the pen, be they tourist or staff that Xena is the greatest cheetah in the world!

Since the move Xena appears to have ditched Emma, Minja and Jacomina who have still remained a very tight coalition and are often found together in the same area. Xena is often found in the same area with Luna, and often joins up with the other regular girls when we are running them. Xena is a beautiful runner and is not intimidated by the other girls one bit and I am sure it wont be long before she establishes herself as the top cheetah in the Bellebenno pen!

Little Matt

So my mum has ordered me to update my blog as every time she checks it the first picture she sees is the upturned car that almost killed me so I thought I’d better obey orders. Little Matt is not a nick name for a certain part of my body but is the name we gave to one of our recent volunteers who has earned this great honour of having a whole blog dedicated to him!

Now you may notice that Lil Matt is actually taller than me but the name indicates a difference in status, I am after all a rather important person around here don’t you know (those of you chuckling at that comment can go suck on a particularly sour lemon covered in paper thorns!).

Not only does he have cool name (which means ‘A gift from God’ by the way) but this young American whipper snapper has been one of those rare volunteers that we really wish we could clone as he never complained and got stuck in with whatever we asked of him and worked like a machine. His enthusiasm for the wildlife we have here was infectious although I resisted copying his desire to run after every living creature and groping it. Lil Matt unfortunately had to be pulled out of several holes where terrified animals had run to seek refuge. Alas some poor creatures failed to escape and were made to pose for a picture.

Lil Matt became the first student at Magic Matt’s Driving School! Matt has a licence but wanted to learn how to drive a manual/stick, you see in America you can pass your test on an automatic and still legally drive a manual (yes I know, but we are talking about a country that elected a man dumber than a poorly trained gibbon as president…..twice). At the beginning Lil Matt was like a nervous toddler learning to ride a bike without stabilisers but under my expert tutorage (suck on that lemon again chucklers!) Lil Matt blossomed to a road competent manual driver…..just!!! :)

Lil Matt was also the co-creator of what will soon become a cultural phenomenon – a game that requires skill, courage and cunning and goes by the name of “You’ve been Billied!” I will not go into too much detail as this requires a blog all to itself! So be sure to keep checking in on the African Adventure!

Good luck with school Matt, we already miss you and hope our paths do cross again! Just please try and stay away from creatures that could kill you and be safe on those roads! :)