13th May
Check on the swifts and release them from their box and they manage to fly back to their nest ? hopefully what ever was in there last night that disturbed them has gone away.
I’m trying to start each day with some exercise, especially as the Lewa half marathon is coming up in June (it is a virtual event for everyone this year, but we are getting staff together to run it inside the conservancy). I of course also need to exercise the dogs so I and trying to kill two birds with one stone. Today I though I would be brave and try and run with 2 dogs at the same time! Another bright idea was to put them in a harness so I might have more control over them… Worked fine with the *kubwa dog, although I am beginning to think a harness also gives the dogs more pulling power but stop him from slipping out of his collar so its a pay off. The *kidogo dog however (think greyhound build, with a funny ridgeback) managed to slip out of her harness within 5 mins of the run, this is unsurprising given that the harnesses are a hand me down from my friends dog, a very large standard poodle, who when on his hind legs reaches over 6ft. The running story was very similar to yesterdays except off course with added tangling of leads and legs and being pulled in two different directions at the same time, one from the waist and one from my arm. Maybe I need to invest in a waist belt that can secure two dogs at once??
On the way back from the run, I glance in a bucket to find a (very venomous) puff adder all curled up, apparently rescued from a drain this morning. The bucket was placed in the sun so she could warm up and then she will be taken out to the bush to be released later. Despite her being in a bucket, which I was assured she couldn’t get out of, and her being very still due to being cold, I was still a little nervous about getting close. She is a formidable creature, apparently, according to Perry’s Bridge Reptile Park, she can strike within 0.25 of a second of being threatened (information found on This webiste). Thanks to that website I have also just discovered some other interesting facts about Puff Adders:
- They can replace their teeth up to 6 times (like sharks)
- The name puff adder comes from the sound it makes as a warning to try and keep people/animals away
- The puff adder will only strike when trying to kill its prey or when absolutely necessary, other than that she will try and move away.
- For those of you wondering how I know she is a she, apparently it is to do with the tail (which you can’t really see in this picture). Males have longer tails and females shorter, males are also usually bigger (although I have always thought that a difficult way to tell when you only have one in front of you, much like when you are told one identical twin is taller than the other.
- Their fangs can grow up to an inch in size
- The fangs are hinged so they only come out when the snake opens her mouth, other than they are protected in a sheath
Anyway after that excitement I headed home for my healthy smoothies breakfast and cuppa tea.
Later in the day we went to release the adder back into the wild, she was a little disorientated but she went off fine.
In other news Roo is able to jump the fence around the garden so we are working on making that taller and the garden a little bigger so the dogs have more space to run around in. I am also trying to find ways to entertain the dogs after the morning walk. Once they have had a sleep they then spend a lot of time following me around, wanting another walk. I am going to try and find somewhere I can drive to that means they can be off the lead and run free but that will take a bit of time so I will update when I have found somewhere. In the mean as I said I’m trying to entertain them more at home, they do play together but not all the time and Roo in particular gets bored so I have started using a kong type toy to feed Roo. She was a little frustrated with it at first but then figured it out..sort of. My only question is how do the dogs actually get all of it out, surely their tongue can’t reach that far??
In the afternoon Charl and I attempted to clear the walking trail a bit more to make it a bit easier to walk/run with the dogs, but we didn’t get very far so will have to continue tomorrow. Charl is at work hosting this evening so this is my first evening alone in the house… that means I get to watch crap TV without anyone complaining ?
*Kubwa – big
*kidogo – small
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