Hello!
Today I'm writing about pets in Africa! Though since I can't ignore Pippin, Tessa or Karys' rodents (all after Africa), I will also mention them.
The first pet we had in Africa was Sparky the cat. We got her in Africa, though she ran away not long after that, sadly.
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Snoozing in the shade. |
We also kept chickens in Bilolo -- we used them for meat and eggs, but we kept them as pets. Pets that weren't
technically allowed inside, but occasionally went in the house anyway. A chicken once stole a piece of bread I was eating (I was sitting on the porch), and I immediately shouted "I'm going to eat you and your babies!" I was four at the time, so for my fifth birthday, the birthday cake was a chocolate cake with a chicken drawn in icing and the number five surrounding it. The main course? Chicken.
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A Chicken. |
We also had Charlie, though she was apparently named for the "Nkyali" section of the village's name. "Nkyali" is Mpyemo for "pangolin", so we technically had a dog called Pangolin. Mpyemo is a language local to the region -- our parents went to Africa to translate the Bible into Mpyemo. Charlie was a mother; she had roughly 18 children, though not all at the same time.
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Charlie, with me and Karys |
Charlie's first litter was -- as far as we know -- one puppy, born with no limbs, poor thing. Though there is some confusion -- I remember Karys telling me that Charlie had had two litters of three while we were in England (2007-8), but our parents don't remember hearing that. The second litter was born in January 2009 -- it was very exciting for all of us, because it was Charlie's first litter with us. Six healthy puppies were born: in no specific order, Katie, Alex, Whiteheart, Mandy, Maddy and India. Katie, Alex and Mandy were so named because we liked the names; Whiteheart, Maddy and India were named for the patches of fur on their tummies in the shape of a heart, Madagascar and India, respectively. We kept Alex, Katie went to the Festens (and later ran away), Whiteheart went to an American family that later took her to the States, Maddy, India and Mandy were given to local families. Tragically, Mandy died not long later, because she stole some food and her owners punished her by hitting her with a stick...on the neck.
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Charlie with her litter |
Charlie's third litter, born April-May 2010, had five puppies in it -- Spud, Sparrow, Bella, Joseph and Sooty. Sadly, Bella was born with a severe defect preventing her from feeding or walking properly, and she died about a week after she was born. Spud became a hunting dog, then disappeared for months. Eventually he turned up at our back door with a stump for a tail -- someone else had found him and cut off his tail so he could be a gorilla-hunter. Gorilla-hunting dogs have their tails amputated, because otherwise the gorilla can grab them by the tail and hurl them through the air.
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Here are the puppies |
Her next (and final) litter was, I think, a litter of three -- Joshua, George and Sesame. No pictures, though.
Charlie died when she was about three or four -- given that she was born in 2006 and died in 2010, probably four. Shortly before her death, a dog had been going round the village stealing food; to sort out the problem, some people had poisoned a piece of meat as bait. However, there was a case of mistaken identity; the people reporting the theft described 'a red dog' -- most likely the Festens' dog, Katie. The people poisoning the meat then made the connection that 'the missionaries' owned the red dog -- but got the identity of said missionaries wrong. Namely, they thought we owned Katie, so left the meat on our back porch, before telling us about the meat. And so Charlie ate the meat; her last hours were unpleasant -- she was barking, foaming at the mouth and throwing up. She wasn't the most maternal dog towards her children, but I've always liked to think she ate that meat knowing that it was poisoned, to save Katie (her daughter) from a grisly fate. Though I am aware that it's more likely that she simply didn't know it was poisoned, and just thought it was spare food.
Our next dog was Alex -- Charlie's son. When giving his litter-mates to friends, we kept him, so there was a period where they were both around at the same time. Alex was like the canine version of Indiana Jones -- liked exploring and sex. In fairness, he was a bigger fan of consistency than Indy; his principal mate was a tan dog called Jaloux. She once gave birth to his children in the bread-house used for baking baguettes -- not while it was in use. Alex frequently went off exploring in the forest; we repeatedly had to tie him up to stop him! He also once got in a fight with another dog -- over Jaloux, I think. The resulting injury was pretty bad -- I took it as a symbol of bravery.
I remember the name of just one of Alex's children -- Dragon.
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Alex as a strapping young lad |
Alex eventually ran away in 2011 -- we were in Bangui, and he slipped through the gate of the compound we were living in as we were going out. We never got him back, and the possibilities of what happened to him have preoccupied me ever since. Though we
do know that he probably lived long enough to have more children; the last time my dad was in Bangui, he saw a dog with black and white markings, similar to Charlie. That particular pattern is apparently rare in Africa, meaning that the dog could be a descendant of Alex.
Our next pet was Tessa! Some time after Alex ran away, we returned to England on furlough, and we decided to get a dog while we were in England. Tessa is a lurcher -- though she's second-generation. Her parents were both lurchers as well. I remember when we got her, she was wearing a cast on her leg, as she had injured it. Tessa is more serious and no-nonsense than Pippin, who can sometimes be incredibly daft; however, she is still impressively goofy. She's also more neurotic than Pippin; he will tolerate hugs, but she won't.
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Tessa on the beach! |
When we went back to Africa, Tessa went to Granny, whose previous dog (Sparky the greyhound) had died a while back. Tessa's a bit more thick-set than Pippin now; it's partially genetics and partially that Granny can't resist feeding her tidbits during dinner. Tessa's getting old now, though; a year or so ago, she broke her leg, and it didn't heal properly, leaving her with a limp. She's also got a sore leg. Makes sense, as she's ten -- she was born in 2010!
We had a dog during our final year in Africa -- though we also looked after a family friend's three cats. I mentioned the cats in a previous blog -- Lucy, Tom and Mont-Morency. Lucy and Tom were mother and daughter, Mont-Morecy was unrelated.
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Tom and Mont-Morecy |
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Lucy on top of the wardrobe in Sarah's room |
The dog was a descendant of Charlie -- specifically, a son of her daughter Maddy. We named him Sherlock. We got Sherlock over the Christmas holidays -- we returned to Bilolo for a couple of weeks, having been staying in Bangui for the rest of the time in Africa. We found when we returned to Bangui that Lucy had disappeared. Sherlock reacted well to the cats; the worst he did was flick Tom's tail. And there was the one time where, in response to the cats nicking his food, he scoffed their food so fast he literally inflated.
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This photo was taken when we last saw him the day we were evacuated. |
We couldn't take Sherlock with us when we were evacuated, so he had to stay behind. He was taken in by a family friend, and the last I heard of him, he's doing alright. Tom and Mont-Morency went back to their owner safe and sound, though apparently, Mont-Morency later got pregnant and died in childbirth.
When we got back to England, we didn't have a dog anymore, as Sherlock had had to stay behind, and Tessa by that point belonged to Granny. So I begged and wheedled to get a dog, because I missed Sherlock. Eventually (around late January 2014) we were able to get a dog -- a rescue of indeterminate breed called Drover. Drover came from Romania, and was about three when we got him. He had been abandoned on the streets by his previous owners, and we think they hit him. How do we know this? If you blew on his snout, he flinched. Drover was a sweet dog towards us, but over time he started to get possessive of us, and disliked strangers. Eventually, he bit Nana when she was visiting one day. I think it was because he recognised that we were treating her as a guest, and feared that as she became more welcome, he'd get cast out again. We ended up giving Drover back to the woman we got him from (a nice woman called Pat who took him in from the rescue place he'd been at before), after he then tried to bite Sarah. He's been rehomed again, more successfully I think, and renamed Oscar.
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Drover being well-behaved. |
After Drover was Pippin! Pippin is a rescue dog, like Drover was, He's somewhat more normal, since we got him at three months, so he was abused for a shorter period of time. He was apparently born in a puppy farm in Ireland. Pippin, like Tessa, is a lurcher -- though of different extraction. He's one quarter Bedlington terrier, one quarter whippet, one quarter greyhound and one quarter collie. Pippin's more relaxed than Tessa -- both in terms of being less neurotic and in terms of being dafter. He also has tics left over from the abuse -- he sometimes doesn't want to come back on the lead. It is sometimes just the poor discipline of a naughty dog, but sometimes he won't come back because...I think it's basically a PTSD-style flashback to being abused. On the latter occasions, he will get tired of running and lie down -- then dart off if you approach.
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A sweet boy |
Karys has owned a series of rodents since we returned to England; the first two were mice, called Leia and Naomi. They were very gentle and sweet, and lived for two years (from when Karys was in year 5 to when she was in year 7). She then got a rat called Po (or Mpo, with a silent M, Mpyemo for rat), who lived for about two and a half years -- he died right before we moved house in 2016. After that, she got two rescue rats, who she named Zoe and Smudge. Sadly, Zoe died pretty quickly after we got her; Smudge kept going for another two years. He had problems. Drover's grandmother-biting antics were tame compared to Smudge -- Smudge bit the hand that fed him. Literally. On two separate occasions. There are several choice words I would like to use to describe Smudge; however, they're copyrighted, meaning that only Karys can insult him. When he finally kicked the bucket, it was a Friday sometime in 2019. I came home from Pathfinders to learn the 'sad' news and found Karys in cheerful spirits, rearranging her bedroom. Though she wasn't happy
because the rat was dead; that was just an (amusing) coincidence.
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Mpo -- gone but never forgotten |
The Festens and Turks also had several pets; the Festens at one time had two monkeys, who suffered grisly deaths that I will not go into. They also owned Katie, Charlie's daughter, though she eventually ran away like her brother. They had a cat called Millie-May, who had kittens. One kitten was Mont-Morency! My favourite was a stripy grey and black kitten called Larry; I suspect he was less than enthusiastic about the crushing affections of a nine year old boy.
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Millie-May and Katie sharing a stool |
The Turks had a habit of adopting injured animals and caring for them. I remember they once had an ocelot! They also looked after a baby gorilla, and creatures called
twang or
duikers.
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Sarah and the baby gorilla |
I've had a lot of pets, many of which I now realise were not from England. Obviously none of the pets in Africa were English; Drover was Romanian, and Pippin is technically Irish. Out of my pets (the rodents being discounted, as they were Karys' pets), only Tessa has been English.
Great Rob. Makes good reading. But to set the record straight. Tessa is 9. Born 11.2.2011 according Brendas vet. And she no longer limps though you haven't seen her since Feb half term.
ReplyDeleteGreat Rob. Makes good reading. But to set the record straight. Tessa is 9. Born 11.2.2011 according Brendas vet. And she no longer limps though you haven't seen her since Feb half term.
ReplyDelete