Monthly Archive for March, 2009

I was happy to see the dogs again this morning being anxious that they might have crossed out the fence last night.
I had just picked them up, followed them on a quick chase and as they got back to the track, down went 2 of my tyres! Thankfully the one was going down slowly and I managed to limp to the workshop before it finally died on me.

45mins later I was back with the dogs. They’d already killed, fed and moved on. How did I know this? Several members had bloodstained faces.
The weather was cool with a very fine drizzle coming and going which probably kept the dogs active a little longer than usual before chilling at a dried out wallow.

I’d hoped for some big rain to film the dogs in but the useless drizzle continued and definitely wasn’t visible.
Later in the afternoon some seriously threatening weather came tumbling in. The cloud was dark and low. Surely this was the big one I wanted. But as fast as it tumbled in, it tumbled out.

Being nice and cool still, the dogs tumbled out of bed early too. Puzzles took them west on the hunt. But impala seemed scarce until they got to Khayeni and dogs scattered in all directions after their prey.
I eventually caught up with Jiggy and Puzzles having killed a young impala. They fed well and then called the pups. But no one came. Eventually Chevvy came running in screaming with excitement and begging for food. Puzzles regurgitated when a couple more pups arrived.

With that little snack to get them going, the frantic search was on to find the remains of the carcass. In the long grass going was tough and the dogs have to jump their way around. I battled too just trying to find them in my viewfinder. I didn’t have any problem finding the grass!
Nearly an hour later the other pups turned up, one with the head of a young impala. So they too had been successful.
And finally my only success was catching the sunset.

I did have some fun on the way home. It was almost dark and I came across 6 hyaenas strolling down the road towards me. It was too tempting and I got out the car, sat on the road and waited for them to approach. Of course it was the 2 youngsters who were the most curious. They just had to check out this thing. With bodies tense, ready to jump back at any moment they came to within a meter, but just wouldn’t push it that bit further. An adult joined them coming slightly closer, but it too wasn’t about to push it.
I left them all in the road sniffing my scent, wondering what this thing was that had interrupted their patrol.