Archive for January 19th, 2001
Day 16
Woke up this morning with sunburn, a headache, and a few bruises from my play-fight with Quentin last night, so I wasn’t on top form!
Off we went to the butchery (a bit later than usual, because Tyse’s starter motor had packed-in that morning). The feeding was pretty straight-forward, apart from a near escape by a caracal - I caught the little blighter just in time, at the mouth of the gate!
Today Juliette took me to a compound separated from all the rest by a good mile or so - apparently, all the cheetahs in this quarantined area all ahd some kind of contagious stomach disease. At one point Juliette had to go inside one of the compounds to fix a broken water tap - taking her trusted stick in with her. This cheetah was a lively one, and I was convinced a couple of times it was going to pounce on Juliette - but it never did.
Back at the vet centre, the cheetah with renal failure had been put down today. This was a real shame, and a sad sight. They are just fantastic animals, and the world just seems a little worse with one fewer cheetahs in it. On the plus side, at least the old boy had lived to quite an old age.
I had a good discussion with Tyse about animal control, trapping, the balance of life, wildlife management - and particularly, how pathetically bad we (humans) are at it.