Update from the middle of nowhere

School is finally over for the Bean after a month of exams. It’s been a long hard year for her and I am so glad that I was able to stop working at the fruit packhouse to give us more time at home to get the school year done. Now it’s the nerve-wracking wait for her final results at the end of December.  Hopefully she will be off to university in Pretoria next year.

We are now holed up on the farm – only venturing in to town when we run out of supplies or for a few social occasions – this is how I want it to be. Things are really starting to come together for me now.  Bookings are rolling in for Jackal’s Den, I am busy on the farm from sunrise to sunset, loving every moment, and I have orders for paintings lined up well into next year.

With regards to the patio, the retaining wall is built

and the floor now filled in with rocks and soil

All I need now are the creepers which I hope to buy next week and then I will be making paving blocks to cover the floor area soon. I am also going to plant some lawn around this area to green it up a bit.  It’s been so much fun doing this project.

The Bean’s roof is still not done.  A job that was supposed to take 5 days is now on 21 days. Hopefully it will be finished by Friday when we leave for Johannesburg to visit our family and attend my sons wedding.

This is my current painting project which I am painting for a commissioned order. Still a long way to go on this too.

and finally here is a picture of our baby Savannah.

She has settled in very well. Cleo and Savannah have a strange relationship – sneaking up on each other when they think no one is watching to get a good sniff. So far there have been no fights or dramatic chase scenes – rather they respect each others boundaries mostly and give each other a wide berth (although this seems to be narrowing as they get used to each other).  Savannah, although very loving, is wild in the sense that she is very nocturnal. Much more so than Fred was. She sleeps solidly all day waking as the sun sets and then she is off out into the bush for the night. She eats at home but still catches mice and squirrels most evenings. We even got a bat as a present last week. She does not like being inside and only ventures in if there is a rain storm. Otherwise her favorite daytime haunt is our veranda where she has set up a type of nest in some hessian on a little wall where she sleeps.

While we are away for the next two weeks some friends of ours will be living at Jackal’s Den, having a well deserved break and feeding Savannah.  I hope Cleo will be able to travel with us as she won’t really cope well away from me, although I still need to clear this with my family where we are staying.  I hope she will be able to come but if she can’t my friends are the best folk to look after her.

I will be back in two weeks. Happy blogging

Related articles

• I’m dreaming of a cool Tuscan patio…. (slowvelder.wordpress.com)
• Patio – part 2 (slowvelder.wordpress.com)
• African cats and our new friend Savannah. (slowvelder.wordpress.com)

African cats and our new friend Savannah.

All of you will know about the big cats found in our area as they are popular animals to search for when on safari.  Lion, cheetah and leopard are wonderful finds when looking for animals in our surrounding game reserves.

Of the three, lion and cheetah are found in game reserves only and do not wander about freely in South Africa. Leopard are still found outside of reserves and are often treated as the enemy by farmers when their cattle, sheep and chicken are eaten by wandering leopard. There have been sightings of leopard on our farm although I have only seen their spoor.

Lesser known cats are fantastic to sight on safari. There are 7 species of wild cats found in South Africa. Four of these are the smaller cats. These cats are found widely across the country outside of game reserves. Most are nocturnal and are difficult to spot so when one does, it is like an extra special treat. They are the caracal, serval, African wildcat and the black-footed cat.  We have spotted the caracal and serval on our game farm.

A big problem in our area is of domesticated cats interbreeding with the wild cats especially the African wildcat. For this reason, housing estates in the bush usually have rules not allowing residents to keep pet domestic cats.  Hoedspruit however does have a problem with stray domestic cats as do most other cities and towns in the world.  We have an active group in town who catch stray cats and spay and neuter them before releasing them again.  This helps stop the interbreeding.  I have found a few spots in town when stray cats seem to hang out. One spot is at one of our local shopping centers.

This week when I came out of the shop I saw a beautiful kitten lying next to a pillar asking for tickles from all the passers-by.  As a cat lover I could not resist so I spent a few minutes with her tickling and talking to her.  When I got to my car I looked down and she had followed me across the parking lot.  I picked her up and showed her to Cleo (our dog) who was waiting with the Bean at the car.  The cat and Cleo just ignored each other. I looked at the Bean and she looked at me and we both knew that this kitten now had a new home.  I went back into the shopping center to check if anyone knew who the cat belonged to or if it was one of the strays.  They said it was a stray and that we were welcome to take her home.

Our new member of the family has settled in well. She is a small cat – I am not sure if she is still young or is naturally small boned. The more I watched her wander about, the more I thought that she had a slightly strange build and manner of walking, and then I remembered about the interbreeding with wild cats.  After looking up more information I am convinced that we have a tame African wildcat on our hands. Whether she has domestic cat blood in her veins is still unclear although probable. She has been spayed and I assume it was done by our local cat charity. We have named her Savannah Lybica.

This is a picture of an African wildcat.

DISTRIBUTION

The African Wildcat is widespread in Africa,  found also in the Middle East, but excluding the Sahara and rainforests.

HISTORY

African Wildcats diverged from the other Wildcat subspecies about 131,000 years ago. Some individuals were first domesticated about 10,000 years ago in the Middle East, which are the ancestors of the domestic cat. Remains of domesticated wildcats have been included in human burials as far back as 9,500 years ago in Cyprus.

SUBSPECIES of WILDCAT

• Felis silvestris lybica - African Wildcat
• Felis silvestris silvestris - European Wildcat
• Felis silvestris ornata - Asiatic Wildcat

SIZE

The African Wildcat is a subspecies of the Wildcat (Felis silvestris) and is similar in size to domestic cats. In fact the African Wildcat is the ancestor of domestic cats.

NAME

The African Wildcat is also known as the Desert Cat, African Desert Cat or simply Wildcat. In Afrikaans (South Africa) vaalboskat means grey bush cat.

IDENTIFICATION

The African Wildcat looks similar to a short-haired domestic tabby cat, but has reddish colouring on the back of the ears, over its abdomen and on the back of its hind legs.

In investigating the features of the wild cat I see that Savannah has most of them.

• Due to the diversity of habitats where this cat occurs, there is a wide variation in colour. In the drier habitats and in the grasslands the colouring is shades of light brown, whereas in the wetter, forested areas, the colouring is grayer and darker.
• The coat has faint vertical stripes on the body, with dark rings on the legs as well as on the black-tipped tail.
• The chin and throat are white and the chest is usually paler than rest of body.
• There is a distinctive reddish colouring on the belly, backs of the ears and hind legs.
• The feet are jet black underneath.

The following pictures are of Savannah.

If anyone has more knowledge of these cats I would love to hear their opinion.

A blogger friend, Lisa, from ‘Notes from Africa’ was lucky enough to spot these cats in the wild and photograph them on one of her trips to the Kalagadi Transfrontier Park. She wrote about her experience which you can read here.  Her photos are really beautiful and the cats are so much like Savannah, especially the kitten. Please take a look at her post and tell me if you think Savannah Lybica is an African wildcat.

Related articles

• Evolution of Domestic Cats (lonestarcats.wordpress.com)
• 8 Obscure but Adorable Wildcat Species (mentalfloss.com)

A winter walk – my wonderland

Ever since Cleo arrived with us I have been trying to photograph her. Somehow my camera does not like her and she does not like the camera. She refuses to look at me when I want to take a picture and gets all coy, meanwhile my camera sees a fuzzy black thing and can not focus on her properly. Today I decided to take my camera along on our daily walk to see if the late afternoon light will help with the photography.

It’s really dry here right now so the colours contrast well.

See the bird just above her head that she is watching. She really wanted to chase it but listens to me when I tell her not to.

Meet Cleo

Cleo used to be a companion dog to an old lady who passed away.  She was taken over by her builder who developed a particularly strong bond with her. They lived happily together until the builder packed his bags and left the farm he was working on. He left Cleo alone at the farm. For months Cleo would sit on the road from where she saw her master leave, crying for him to come home. He never did.  The farm owner has been feeding Cleo for six months now but can’t take her home because he already has three dogs who would fight with her. He says he has never seen such a well behaved dog but she is pining for company.

The Bean and I have decided that we would  like to take Cleo in and give her a happy loving home.  We fetch her tomorrow morning.  I can’t wait!

My sweet angel

Today my Fred passed away suddenly.  He had slept with me for the night, and left the cottage at around 7am to go exploring.  At 9am we heard him meowing strangely outside the window and we rushed out to find him in distress. The Bean carried him inside and lay him on my bed while we rushed to dress and take him to the vet.  The vet diagnosed epilepsy, gave him Valium and Atropine and sent us home with pills for epilepsy. She said he would be groggy and we must let him sleep it off.  He would not settle when we got home and he started vomiting and gasping for breath.  He died in my arms not 30 minutes after we got home.

I am thankful that he had a happy life, that he did not suffer a long illness. However I am still in shock – it was so sudden and unexpected.

He was a very special boy,  knowing instinctively when we were sad or ill. He would distract us with his antics or sit and purr on me for hours when I had a migraine.  He purred by my side every night to put me to sleep, slipping under the covers himself if it was chilly. He was my companion through some very tough times and we had a special language, I understood him and he understood me.

He is buried under a big marula tree just outside my cottage.  The Bean and I dug his grave and buried him scooping the sand with our hands while tears ran down our faces.

Fred, tonight we lit a candle for you in the window so that you would not feel alone, you can see it from your resting place.

Rest in peace my angel

I don’t know how I am going to sleep without you tonight.

 

Insomnia in the bush

What does one do when you are all alone in your cottage in the middle of the bush and you can’t sleep?

I read. If I don’t have a book I check my email, facebook and blog comments on my cellphone.  I normally fall asleep quickly so I don’t have a back-up plan after that.

Last night I ran out of options.

So I had an impromptu photo shoot on my bed   Isn’t he sweet?

PS:  The mosquitoes have stopped now so his poor nose should heal up in a week or two.

Related Articles

• Insomnia (inclineyourmind.wordpress.com)

Missing the obvious….

When I planned to grow my own food in the middle of a game reserve I knew I was going up against the odds.  Careful planning of the beds was necessary to avoid my food being eaten by other creatures. Firstly, I had to think of every animal on the reserve and plan how to stop them eating the vegetables.  My final plan is to have a caged in area with shade cloth to protect the plants.  While it will take me some time to get this ready I decided to plant out one raised bed to at least get some growing done.  I planned to use netting around the bed to keep porcupines and small buck out and hoped that the baboons would be preoccupied with the citrus orchards a few kilometers away.

This last weekend I planted all my seeds directly into the bed. I did not erect the netting as there were no visible plants to eat yet.  I was confident that all would be well with my seeds.

But I missed something very, very obvious and when I went to check if the bed was still damp this morning I saw to my horror – two scratched heaps of sand exactly where I planted my seeds.  My first thought was – darn it – I didn’t know that porcupines dig in the sand for seeds.  I took a closer look and saw some very familiar spoor.  I am getting quite good at identifying spoor – especially these ones because I see them all over my dining room table!  Grrrrrrrrrrrr!

Darn it Fred!  This is not your giant litter box!

Photo of Fred by the Bean

After a long day of bird watching…

its good to have a snooze…..

Fred asleep on my binoculars and bird book.  He shows great interest in the book. The Bean calls it his menu.

 

Today I’m posting a few links to blog posts that I really enjoyed this week.

• Mpumalanga Journal – this blogger writes from an area just south of us.  It’s a heart warming story about Fos the miracle dog and it shows what we have to deal with living in this environment. Another reason why I have hesitated in getting a dog.

• miss minimalist – 10 ways we can live more like butterflies this year.

• down—to—earth – about slowing down and living in the moment.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

 

My sneaky angel

who likes to wake me up at night and look at me like this….

Its really dark at night here ….

You see his poor nose – I think he has a mosquito bite allergy. I need to get antihistamines and/or cortisone for him. It gets terribly itchy at times and he scratches his nose open like this.

He is good company – my Fred.

A few snippets from the home of Slowvelder and the Bean.

Our summer is really here now, and thankfully, we have had quite a bit of rain, so the bush is green and lush and we have not had to deal with many dry and blisteringly hot days although we do still have them.  It may also be because we have acclimatized and that we do not have to live in a tented home like we did last year.  The heat just seems so much more bearable.

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Fred continues to laze around at home and admire the giraffes.  He has a passionate dislike of anything that may mildly resemble a squirrel and will go all out to kill it.  He turns his nose up, however, at squirrel meat, and deposits the whole cadaver where I will be likely to find it and admire him for his hunting skills.  He loves his hunting and is keeping us free of rats and mice (whose flavour he really enjoys – depositing only the skull, and fully intact stomach in an easy-to-find spot).  Other than that, he lies around hogging my bed and the best spot to catch the cool air from the fan.

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On Tuesday night while The Bean and I were eating our dinner, I spotted a snake slither behind one of our couches in the lounge area.  In the past we would have shrieked and run.  We are, however, becoming really brave and strong.  We casually decided that we would finish our dinner and then hunt down the snake and remove him from the house.  Our last snake catching attempt had given us some bravado although it was a failure because the snake got away from us and lived in our rafters for three days watching us until he took his leave.  After dinner, we moved the couch and removed the garden furniture pillows from behind the couch, carefully checking to see that each pillow did not have a snake clinging to it. Once everything was cleared we spotted the snake (a baby about 35cm long) against the wall.  Using our snake catching hook and bucket we caught it, tried to move it, dropped it, caught it again and took him outside and set him free.  We only shrieked when he tried to escape once and when we dropped him.

Cartoon representation in order not to scare off any potential visitors – we need you!

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The Bean has finished her school year and is now working at a local restaurant to earn some pocket-money.  Because her shifts start really early, she gets to stay in town on her work days.  This means Fred and I are left alone at home – we get up to loads of mischief which includes lazing on the veranda and eating finger food (and mice) instead of good and hearty meals. We don’t do much cleaning and the washing is piling up.  When the Bean’s away, the cat (and slowvelder) get to play

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Giraffe photo by:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/hannes_steyn/2192835915/