The warthog and the cactus...

Ok, not played this for a while, so here goes.....whats in the box today?

"President you are really spoiling us" - the Ferrero Rocher guy

"Can you tell what it is yet?" - Rolf Harris

No, not a snake - it's a scorpion in a Ferrero Rocher box - they seem to be all over the place at the moment.

Here is another one caught by the meerkats for dinner...

"I won't eat anything green." - Kurt Cobain 

"Simples" - Aleksandr Orlov

Ok, so this is a bit of a sore subject, literally, but its too funny not to share...

We have a new warthog - she was kept as a family pet and we suspect (by the way she hops onto the staff beds, roots her bum in the corner and squeals if you try to move her) that she got a little spoiled and out of hand.

Wait til you see her on her little throne - until she moved to an outdoor pen she ruled the bathroom at night!!

She had managed to bust her way through the gate again, and muggins was leading her over to her pen to put her in, I was about 10 meters from the pen with an apple in her teeth pulling her along, thinking ' mind that cactus you are really allergic to.....owwwwwwah' 

By really allergic I mean one tiny pin prick, my hand bruises, swells and I can't move the joints. I am now stood there, as the arrogant warthog trots off, with 25 cactus spines stuck in my arm!

"Naw, I'm not goin' out there and comin' back, lookin' like you, cactus butt!" - Shenzi The Lion King

Luckily for me, our clinic doctor was here and I rushed to the car before she left for town, explaining how allergic I was and how many spines I had just ripped out of my arm. 

Worrying I was going to end up looking like this... 

...I grabbed her from the car and we went to the clinic.

After washing it down and pulling the last spine out of my arm before the swelling skin swallowed it permanently I was the lucky recipient of two injections in the backside (definitely have a closer relationship with our doctor now than either of us needed!)- antihistamine and steroids! Once I was sure I wasn't going to go into anaphylactic shock we all had a good laugh.

"Everything is going in the wrong direction, the doctor wants to give me more injections" -  The Rolling Stones

We seem to have had a raft full of new animals recently - several new cheetah cubs, several caracals, a barn owl (released the day it came), a baby ostrich, a baby jackal and a mongoose!

We were very glad to pick up this little cub and are not sure how they got it in the box, it was a little bijou in our opinion! we were quick to get the cub out and settled with more space.

Here is one of our newer additions to the family - Mia the baby jackal, just like a puppy!

This could  be all the rage on the kings road - a replacement for the chihuahua 

There is always some animal dwelling somewhere or in some form of rehab, from sick baboons in the office to an owl in a box on the back seat of the car between the pizzas and the shopping, this little sparrow found his way onto a plate of seed one afternoon in the office - never a normal office day. 

Mum was here with me for a month, 2 weeks volunteering, an 11 day trip through Southern Africa with me and 3 days travelling on her own to the South of Namibia, it was strange not to have her here when she left :0( 

"Being a full-time mother is one of the highest salaried jobs... since the payment is pure love."- Mildred B. Vermont

OK that one is a bit pukey, how about this?

"I hope they're still making women like my momma. She always told me to do the right thing. She always told me to have pride in myself; she said a good name is better than money."  -  Joe Louis

[see mum, you made the cut, you're in the blog - as promised xxx]

In the same week we lost one of our team- who will be sorely missed! You know who you are!

After a hard week it was time to let my hair down a little, a new game from that week could be, what's in the mug? (rather than the box)

I am sure a certain someone who used to pass wine off as tea in an evening would have a good guess at this one....nope on this occasion not wine...

Oh, you don't drink this in mugs? Oh dear, oh dear!

I had my first trip into the Wild Dog camp in the same week also, nervous, but awesome to see those puppies up close!

Nothing to fear with these three posers to look after me though!

“When the Man waked up he said, 'What is Wild Dog doing here?' And the Woman said 'His name is not Wild Dog any more, but the First Friend, because he will be our friend for always and always and always.'” - Robert Brooke

Mid October we had our directors 40th birthday party,  an airline themed, open air sit down dinner with a DJ and bouncy castle on our airstrip in the middle of the African veldt. I was delighted to be able to finally wear a dress after 8 months, so funny the longer I am here the more girly I become?! Smirnoff or Bompass and Parr (with their amazing events) couldn't have pulled a better one. Everyone was so relaxed and perhaps a little merry! The dancing went on late and from what we can remember we had a great time, some very tired eyes and sore heads the next day. Everyone was up dancing and laughing one of my favorite funny moments was the fire hose being turned on the dance floor, which was quickly followed by the plane engine being turned on which covered the wet people on the dance floor in sand which instantly stuck all over them. 

"Never a dull moment, we wouldn't know what to do with one if we found one! " - me