Just realized that it’s been a good while since I last updated my blog so here goes..
Well, it has been busy, busy. An equine dentist comes out from the UK each year to tend to the horses (yes, horses need dentists too!). With 37 horses to do (the babies don’t get done), that is quite some feat but it was done in three days so that Becca can now enjoy a well deserved holiday here in return for her work. My job is to be on hand with the sedative for those horses that need power tools for their teeth or just don’t like going to the dentist. On the whole, the horses were pretty good but there were a few tricky customers who weren’t going to oblige until they had a dose of the sleepy drug to calm them down. In the UK, a vet would have to be on hand to adminster the sedative (and charge you a small fortune for the privilege). Here in Africa, you can buy any drug you like and do it yourself. It is actually very straight forward to do and the horses recover from it within an hour.
The locals find it pretty bizarre that the horses get their teeth done – I guess most of them don’t visit a dentist themselves so it must seem odd. However, when we said we were also going to do the donkeys teeth, I think they thought we were completely mad! The donkeys were very good considering they are treated as herd / pack animals here and are not accustomed to headcollars or bridles. Just as well as I’m not sure it would be very easy to find a vein to inject sedative into on a thick skinned donkey. Our two donkeys live a great life here. Once or twice a week they are required to do a little work and carry a picnic lunch down to the waterfall, but mostly they spend their days eating in the garden. They are forever being chased out by the gardeners but that doesn’t deter them – it is all a big game to the donkeys who have gained considerable weight since arriving here in December.
Well, the exciting news on Lewa is that the African wild dogs have returned. They haven’t been seen on Lewa for about a year but the other day a group were spotted on the morning game drive. I have never seen wild dogs so it is an animal that I would love to see. I went out in the afternoon to try and find them but sadly wasn’t fortunate enough to see them. May be one day…
Some of our guests had quite a shock the other day. They were out on a game drive when a cheetah strolled up and jumped into their vehicle. She sat in the passenger seat for a while before hopping over into the back. It turned out that it was a hand reared cheetah from another lodge. However, she had disappeared for a few days before showing up that morning and deciding that she would like to hang out with humans again! They have the most fabulous video footage of the event and we are all very jealous.
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