Tag: death

Tribute to Sasha

~ Des ~ Leave a comment

Oh, Poppy, I miss you!
Sasha died in my arms last night. We had been out and about doing our usual adventuring, when at a water trough, she ate meat tainted with poison – set down by farmers meant for jackals. She suffered terribly for over an hour – manic movements, falling, screaming, gagging, convulsing, hyperventilating, shivering, shaking, and gasping. All I could do was to hold her and talk to her and then it was finally over – one last seizure and her heart stopped beating under my hand. She was free from a terrible tragic death. And my pain and heartache began.

I am broken.

After a sleepless night, I buried her and her favourite toy, Barney, at sunrise today 12.3.2023. She lies under some trees, in her favourite place in the garden. A quiet, shady spot that will become my favourite too.

I loved her and she knew it. She loved me and I knew it. I connected with her more than any other animal before and more than most people. Since her adoption, she became an integral part of my life, my yin to her yang. We completed each other. I rescued her and she saved me.
I will miss all your expressions, all your ear movements, your smiley face, your inquisitive face, your sorry face. I will miss your warm body cuddled up to me on the sofa in the evenings, the silly games we played, your excitedness when I said the word “shoes” twice daily when I put on my walking shoes and off we went on our adventures. I will miss your persistence at trying to catch a lizard hiding deep in the coarse bushes of the Karoo, your warning bark each time we came across a tortoise or rock monitor. I will miss driving with you and your head resting gently on my shoulder, I will miss your protection of me, constantly alert and aware of what was going on around us. I will miss looking up and seeing your sleeping face in the chair across the room from me, your breaths and gentle night movements in your bed, adjacent to mine, the little nudge you give me on my leg to remind me its nearly time for “something”. Your obedience and how we played. Your antics in the water, your enthusiasm and your endless energy and boundless affection for everyone. I will miss my endless one-sided conversations with you, I will miss how you played with Barney and an empty water bottle and the game with the lappie/ cloth after I dried you from a swim. Your crazy happy zoomie moments around the garden. I will miss your trust in me. I will just miss you being here with me.
You taught me patience, you helped me heal, you helped me get strong, you were the meaning in my new life.

We were not supposed to be separated. It was meant to last more than 2 years; we had a pact! What will I do without you? I love you, Sasha.

I went for our walk this evening and cried all the way, but you were with me, and I talked to you, just as usual. I ‘saw’ you running in the lei water and ‘grazing’ on the grass you like, looking for the sheep behind the thorny acacia branches. Smelling each furrow and tuft of fur left by some nocturnal visitor on the bottom strand of the barbed wire. You lingered with some scents at the Spekboom hedge and then raced to catch me up, ears back, just like a bullet. Once we crossed the main road, we started our tug of war game with your lead, and you teased your Jack Russell friend next door as we approached the house. I sat on the rock next to you when I got back and told you all about it. I could not control the tears. I need you, Sasha.

The Hare, the Bat-eared Fox and the Tortoise

~ Des

I planned my adventure day out, a route that I had done before and was ready to return to. A drive from home on a circular route that would allow me to walk and discover and explore. Little did I know what sadness the first part of the day would reveal… I was driving along a dirt road isolated on each side by a game fence when I came upon death. Death of beautiful and precious animals. The necessary diversification of land use because of the prolonged drought in the region with farmers turning to game farming. The effect of this is that all the local wild animals of the area can no longer migrate in their normal patterns and are either trapped in a fenced off area or in no man’s land – the road.

Animal instinct is strong, and burrowers manage somehow to dig under the fences and make a path to where they need to go. The gap in the fencing, over time becomes known and a well-worn path is created. As the game farms are in some cases are hundreds of hectares square, small escape routes can go unnoticed and unattended to for some time. It was at one of these gaps that I came upon death. I slowed when i saw a dead creature lying just inside the game fence and I stopped to take a look. There were two animals’ side by side. A fully grown Bat- eared Fox and possibly, a fully grown mongoose, not as large as the bat-eared fox with reddish fur. It was facing away from me so I could not identify it. Both were clearly dead, but recently so, their fur and bodies were from what I could see fully intact. While I was looking at the wondering how they died, I heard a metallic sound and turned toward it. A beautiful adult scrub hare was pulling a gin trap, attached to the fence about 2 m from me. I could not believe I had not seen it as I first arrived and clearly it has stayed dead still albeit with the gin trap affixed to its obviously broken dangling leg. My horror turned to action and without having ever seen a gin trap I bent down and released the hare from the brutal metal grip. The Hare ran off dragging a useless leg behind it. I wonder if it survived. I looked at the area and it was clearly one of those gaps under the fence. But how could anyone be so cruel as to release the obviously previously trapped Bat-eared fox and mongoose leave their bodies there and reset the trap for the next harmless creature!!

Gin Trap

Any weight placed on the flat piece of metal between the toothed jaws would trigger the trap and the jaws would snap shut. It is believed that gin comes from the word engine, meaning a device that did not require human intervention to make it work.

Gin traps are banned in more than 90 countries the world, but not in South Africa, they are legal here for predator control, a part of me gets that and the economics of preserving sheep from jackals – BUT these traps are indiscriminate. These beautiful creatures were murdered, maimed, and left to die a slow painful death in the heat of the Karoo from thirst and starvation. This suffering is incomprehensible, and this practice should not be allowed, especially in these circumstances. On a game farm fence whose mandate is to preserve and protect wild animals……. I am beyond anger at this malicious barbaric practice!

I drove away feeling saddened but pleased that perhaps I saved a life.

A very hot dry place

I am an avid amateur photographer and always looking for the shot…especially windmills. I saw one and went forth on this extremely hot day in a very dry place. The reservoir was full and leaking slightly, around the base were 4 tortoises lying in the small shallow muddy pools in the shade of the cracked cement, something for them to drink, but there was not a blade of anything to eat, nothing! I remembered that I had seen a tortoise eating prickly pear leaves a little earlier on my drive and the huge prickly pear (nopal opuntia) cactus plant, where I had just parked my car …I went back. Armed with a broken piece of fence post I slashed and sweated and slashed some more and eventually broke off some spiny cactus which I carried back to the tortoises. Usually timid, once they had the scent, they started devouring the plants…. I went back for more and spread them around a bit. I felt sad that I could not do more, but again, perhaps I saved a life or two. I took no windmill photos, just these

Nopal Opuntia – Prickly Pear Cactus

Drought…..

~ Des

I escaped the cleaning, the boxes, and the furniture arranging and ventured out for a few hours:) The 4-year drought continues, and it is obvious all around me. The village itself has a lei water system, using water channeled from the mountains along a series of canals to private homes and public spaces. So, some of the village has lush green manicured lawns and gardens and the others, like mine, have none! I will in due course become a water harvester. Today I have water tank being installed and later I will learn how to harvest water from the road above my property so that when it does rain, I will conserve and preserve as much of the runoff as possible. (more about this idea later🫣)

I traveled along a dusty farm road and came upon two completely empty dams – pans – that have clearly in times past, been full and sustained their own microenvironment. Things used to flourish and or survive, but now all there is is death and decay! So incredibly sad. Hopefully, this year the drought will break!