News - March 2008CONTACT US:
Dear All As Zimbabwe waits to discover what the future holds, the Bally Vaughan Sanctuary continues to love and nurture our family of birds and animals who remain utterly dependent on us no matter what the political climate. Our unruly horde of donkeys show no regard for an anxious night spent waiting for election results - they assemble at my garden gate at 4am in a hooting, jostling mob regardless. The lions roar lazily at the dawn and the marmosets poke crumpled faces out of their den and hand the tiny babies out one by one, scurrying to bask in the first feeble rays of the sun. Sheila the baboon emerges with her friend King Kong, to watch their world waking up around them. The dogs splash and shiver in the dam, dodging the horses and zebra who stand in sleepy contemplation at the water's edge. The parrots begin to whistle and sing as the geese and ducks bustle past with cacophonous quacking. The clanging of buckets, the dull thump of stockfeed bags on concrete, the wavering squeak of our wheelbarrow as it wobbles past on its worn wheel, whistles and shouts and the rubbery tread of gumboots mingle with the smell of woodsmoke from the kitchen fire and the sudden sharp slices of cold air on the low ground heralding winter come a month early. As we start another day, our thoughts and hopes are simple - that the Sanctuary stays safe, that the birds and animals who rely on us, and who we love so much, can continue to find all they need for a happy life and the future they deserve with us. The Bally Vaughan Sanctuary relies on donors and sponsors to remain functional. During these turbulent times we are able to offer our animals and birds an exceptional quality of life because of the constant and generous support of our friends. We constantly welcome new arrivals - sick, injured, orphaned or abused animals and those under threat. We rehabilitate and release species such as owls, bushbabies and some of the smaller cats where possible and offer a safe haven to those who will require life-long care. Sponsoring an animal or a project enables us to continue with our work. We do not ask for any specific amount in sponsorship as any amount makes a difference and is truly gratefully received on behalf of the animals and birds who benefit so much from your concern and interest in their welfare. WE CAN BE CONTACTED ON: 263 4 303518 or 9 263 11601131 263 912 592 942 or at sarah@ballyvaughan.co.zw or ramlaulv@gmail.com. You can also find out more about the Bally Vaughan Sanctuary by checking out our facebook group. NO BOOKING REQUIRED TO VISIT THE SANCTUARY . WE ARE OPEN 9 - 5 EVERY DAY EXCEPT MONDAYS. PREDATOR FEEDING IS AT 4PM EVERY DAY. UNIQUE CHILDREN'S BIRTHDAY PARTIES AND FUN, HANDS-ON EDUCATIONAL SCHOOL VISITS ARE OUR SPECIALITY. My friend Carol Hobbs recently attended a Ladies Luncheon where she won a bouquet of flowers for having the most items on a list in her handbag; the usual feminine essentials - lipstick, tissues, hair clips etc. Just for interest's sake we inspected my handbag too....a de-worming tablet, an elbow-length surgical glove, a To Do list which includes the worrying notations: 'sharpen axe' and 'move python', an invoice for five hundred kilograms of offal and two caracal whiskers on a piece of sticky tape. Having recently been asked by a South African border guard who found my work boots while searching our car whether I was a mine worker, I have no delusions left about the lack of glamour in my life! I have spent the last 3 days smeared in molasses and popcorn. I have not branched out into a deviant alternative career (the caracals would never allow it) - we are making our own donkey food at the Sanctuary and it's a dirty job! Having been absolutely flabbergasted at the cost of stockfeed from suppliers, we decided to make a plan the Zimbabwean way. With invaluable help from Anne Lowe, we have created our own brand of food and the animals love it. Garnering the scarce ingredients in the vast quantities we need was an epic mission but with Anne's invaluable knowledge and the assistance of Rob Follet-Smith and family who are hugely generous supporters of the Sanctuary, Rose and Rogan Mclean, and Alan Derry of NDC this project came to fruition. The birth of Trevor, Tracey and Timothy, the offspring of Dasher and the Dreaded No 4 - our mongooses, was the highlight of our month. Their arrival went some way to easing the shock and sadness of losing Dasher, the dominant mongoose male, after he was run over and left in a ditch with horrific injuries. I hand-raised Dasher from a new-born baby and loved him very much. The last time I saw him before his accident he gave me a fierce little hug before setting off with his intrepid and devoted little family for yet another adventure; this time his last. We will always remember Dasher for his swash-buckling approach to life and happy times in the tea room graciously accepting treats from visitors and investigating their handbags. The remaining mongooses have now moved into the donkey feed shed with their babies...and we have been unable to use this area since. Any attempts to go into the shed are met with an instant and violent rebuff so we have laboriously moved the entire feeding centre to another shed at the top of the hill and foregone one of our most valuable pieces of real estate in the interests of the mongooses' endless empire building. Arthur the caracal has returned home. After two years as the rather reluctant consort of the Diva Caracal, Cruella, we had to do an emergency medical evacuation of Arthur from the caracal enclosure after a domestic dispute resulted in him almost losing two toes and suffering lacerations on both back legs. It was both astonishing and touching to see Harry and Twala, my 'house caracals' , recognise their unconscious friend and tend to him gently after emergency surgery on my veranda table! When he came round, he lifted his head, gazed at me for a long moment and then laid his head in my lap and purred, so quietly and tentatively it was no more than a faint vibration through his battered and exhausted body. Arthur and I have come through many challenges together. Paralysed from the waist down as a kitten, he spent several months being carried about by me on a large cushion, totally dependent on me for his every need. Despite his disabilities, we had great adventures together - a flight in a private jet, an eventful journey in a speed boat across Lake Kariba, a hair-raising encounter with a bull elephant and an appearance on ESPN during the cricket world cup! Arthur eventually regained the use of his legs thanks to the dedicated care of staff at the Twenty Four Hour Veterinary Surgery. Our grateful thanks to Drs Keith Dutlow and Lisa Marabini of the AWARE Trust for their kind assistance in re-locating Arthur. I now have four caracals on the bed every night - they enjoy deep, rejuvenating sleep; snoring and twitching, huge furry limbs sprawled luxuriously, while I lie rigidly on my side, arms folded to prevent random attacks on my fingers, toes curled for the same reason, on the extreme edge of the mattress, either over-heating from Harry's insistence on sleeping draped across my body (to prevent me from going anywhere without him) or freezing because George is hogging the duvet and I am too afraid of his irascible temper to try to get it back. Having once mistaken him in the dark for Harry and given him a cuddle, I ended up at the Trauma Centre with a three-cornered laceration in my scalp, trying to explain to the dubious nursing staff that wild animals had attacked me in my bed. Now my dealings with the enormously powerful and unpredictable George are rather more circumspect. Twala, the only female caracal, has recently reached impressive proportions with her enthusiastic adherence to the Miss Piggy school of thought on diet: "Never eat more than you can lift". This means her corner of the bed is implacably claimed by her vast and unshifting bulk. Recently one of our volunteers, Lesley Ives, took her life into her hands and spent a night in my house. The caracals monitored her every move with narrowed eyes from various vantage points - the top of the fridge, behind the curtain, round the side of her chair (only lacking dark glasses and shoulder holsters to complete the picture) ... and whilst they restrained themselves from physically evicting her as they did to my last guest.... disapproval radiated from every quivering whisker. The next morning I left her unattended in the house for about three minutes. When she emerged, cautiously, from the guest room, she was stunned to see that the lounge had been laid to waste. The couch cushions were missing and the couch itself torn to pieces - shreds of foam rubber and upholstery dangling sadly from the frame and scattered the floor. Eventually we found the cushions under my bed, gouged and lacerated by several sets of large teeth and claws.(Yes; the very same couch that has just been entirely re-built after I foolishly left the caracals home alone for a few days). The throw from the back of the sofa was located on top of Kevin the Greyhound's kennel, in a malicious attempt to frame him for the vandalism. The message to Lesley was clear - "Leave or you're next...". She left. This appalling behaviour is, unfortunately, not new. You are all familiar with the caracals' successful campaign to ban my mother from the house. Another friend and, surprisingly, still a staunch supporter of our work, Vicky Campion, spent Christmas with the caracals when they were still kittens. Having unwrapped various costly items sent to her by her parents in England, she left them in the bedroom. That evening, when she went to bedeck herself in her new festive finery for Christmas dinner, she discovered the caracals had painstakingly removed each article of clothing from her bag, laid them out on the floor and peed copiously on each one, before eviscerating a pair of pink knitted bed socks as a finale. Six months later, she foolishly returned. "Remember Christmas," I said darkly. "Keep your door closed." Well, she didn't, did she. That evening I was catapulted from the bathroom by screams of rage and fear from the guest bedroom. "They're doing it! They're doing it!" she screeched. I rushed into the bedroom to see Harry and George squatting blissfully over her open suitcase while Twala held her at bay with one eloquently raised needle-clawed paw. Perhaps their greatest moment of triumph in their unique campaign to ruin my relationships was the careful placing of a large scat on the brim of Dr Ramlaul's baseball cap, which he then donned in the early morning darkness before setting off to give a rousing pep talk to his workers. When he returned, and removed his hat, he became hideously aware of why he did not seem to have the full attention of his work force. Sadly, this incident tends to come up fairly regularly between us despite years having passed, which is a sure sign that the true spirit of reconciliation is not really there when it comes to Dr Ramlaul and my caracals. Our rescued zebras, Zsa Zsa and Evo, are thriving and it is a wonderful and unique sight to see them happily grazing on the lawn with the horses, zorse, donkeys and zonkey! We are extremely grateful to the SAVE Foundation of Australia for generously funding the care of our zebras. We are participating in an on-going project with the National Parks Authority to safeguard wildlife in the Enterprise area and together with Tim Paulet, a wildlife management veteran, have removed another zebra stallion to a secure area. We also continue to work closely with the Zimbabwe National SPCA, who are responsible for monitoring the ethical care of farm animals and wildlife and we are an approved wildlife sanctuary. As always our thanks go to the Josh, Matthew and Cassia Middleton for their generous support, Sue Ward,Beverly Bridger and Norman Conlon, Edward Allott, Steve Watt, Andy Vaughn, Mr Stephens, Reckit Benckiser, Sue Roberts, the le Breton family, Steve Curle who not only provides our predators with enormous dinners, but adds variety to their lives too with his regular donations to the Sanctuary, Norman Smith and the Houghtons, Miles Peech of Green Park and Thomas Wicke who takes such good care of our marmoset family. Avani Mooljee, Laura-Bethia Campbell and Daire Cullen continue to sponsor projects at the Sanctuary. Emma Robinson and Phil Barclay sponsor the evil Cruella the caracal, and sponsor animals for Annabel and Oscar Gritz too. Catherine Carter provides for the neurotic and endless demands of Kevin the Greyhound and Wendy Boshi and Jonothan, Nubia and Ibone Verhey provide sponsorship for the little Mozambican monkey Helmut and the matriarch vervet, Getti. The Bristow family sponsor King Kong, vervet monkey companion to our baby baboon Sheila who lives a life of plenty thanks to Steve Curle and his family. Sophie and Alexandra Bean sponsor our magnificent leopard Khan who, thanks to massage treatment from Penny Crockard has gained a new lease on life and a new, svelte figure too! Penny approached her treatment of Khan with great trepidation but survived, unscathed, to tell the tale. NB: there is a lesson in this story for us all - promising things such as massaging a leopard are best done in the cold, sober light of day rather than at midnight after a long dinner! The Follet- Smiths keep everyone in pronutro, a commodity we go through in huge quantities, especially now Arthur the caracal has cottoned on to having an invalid's breakfast in bed and our elderly civet Satchmo is now on a soft diet to accomodate his ageing teeth. Brett, John and Rose Cameron of Hamish Cameron continue to feed our birds every month and Hannes Cruger of Crugs Chooks and the Bean family of Douglyn Farm give invaluable assistance in feeding our enormous predators. A donor who wishes to remain anonymous repaired our geyser and through the sale of a computer donated to us by Keith Phillips, we raised funds to buy a deep freezer for our predator meat, and to repair two others. Over the last two months we have taken in two white-faced owls, both of whom have been successfully rehabilitated and returned to the wild (well, one sleeps in the eaves of our Gazebo all day) and two barn owls who were treated for minor injuries and released immediately. Alice the cat, who arrived at the Twenty Four Hour Veterinary Surgery under threat of death for refusing to be house-trained, joined our Inscrutable rat cat Strauss, and has proved not only to have immaculate habits but is a lovely companion for Strauss. He spent the first few days making sure she didn't touch his bowl of Whiskas or his toys, but they are now living happily together in the Volunteer House. Our thanks go to Robyn Joughin who is taking such good care of Grumpy the bushbaby, rescued by Rob Follet-Smith as a tiny scrap being sold on the roadside and who will be due for release in a few months time. We received an urgent summons from our neighbours at Mermaid's Pools a few weeks ago. A donkey had fallen into the river and was in desperate need of help. The shock and rage I felt when we arrived and found the helpless donkey being beaten and taunted by a tiny child was overwhelming. He had fallen into the water while being forced to cross the river which was in full flood. Donkeys are terrified of water. He had then been dragged out, across the rocks, by his front legs and left, groaning and trembling on the bank. We wrapped him in a horse blanket and carried him a kilometre to our vehicle, took him home and laid him in my garden under the trees. He was literally covered in bleeding grazes and cuts from his ordeal, and old wounds - infected and oozing, crusted with old blood and flies. His poor ears were stiff with ticks and fly bites and he was so thin that his face was nothing more than a skull covered in tufts of tattered grey fur. Twala the caracal sat with him all day, washing his wounds and gently grooming his fur - an astonishing sight, especially when he turned and laid his bony head on her substantial rump and went to sleep. We were all devastated when Trotsky, as we had named him, passed away in the early hours of the morning one week later. The day before he had spent happy hours with my mom, Sylvia, who is the best carer I know, being petted and fed Marie biscuits by hand. At least he knew love for a little while. Edith Wharton said, "The only thing sadder than life is death." There are times when I feel it is the other way around for some of the helpless and abused creatures who come in to the Sanctuary for a fleeting time; the animals for whom love and care are unknown quantities in their lives and who slip away from us, unable to find the will to fight back one last time. On a happier note, Nina the donkey was also rescued and has become a charming and charismatic addition to the eclectic family of creatures sharing my home. After an epic journey on virtually non-existent roads, washed away into gigantic gullys and yawning pot holes by the torrential rain, we finally found Nina and brought her home. She spends happy hours on my veranda, gazing coquettishly through her movie star eyelashes at us and annoying Princess Fiona, our rescued guard dog, whose always-brimming bowl of biscuits Nina has developed a passion for. Finding her standing by the fridge in my kitchen was a little alarming however and I now try to discourage her from actually spending time in the house itself. When she strolls in, I get that same bad feeling I had when I found the sheep seemingly just hanging out in the pantry and realized later that they had consumed six kilograms of irreplaceable flour.... Surprisingly the caracals tolerate Nina and Twala grooms her vigorously; a scenario she is not entirely comfortable with, perhaps feeling that she is being tasted before the kill! We were delighted to welcome back one of our overseas volunteers, Anna Jones from the UK. In most cases we are thrilled to welcome back volunteers and within an hour of her arrival we had to embark on a python hunt in the river after the snake attacked and killed one of our ducks. Realising that pythons can stay under water for 20 minutes was a new and fascinating fact learnt during this adventure.We then headed off into the bush to release the python, loaded up the vehicle with lion meat on our way back home, and then went straight into another drama with a goat giving birth to tiny, fragile twins as we arrived back at the Sanctuary. A sincere thank you to Anna and her family and to Leegold for their donation to the Sanctuary. Thanks as always to volunteers Sylvia Carter, Leslie Ives, Mike Trask and Waylon Lewis. Donald and Carol Hobbs are constant friends to our beloved donkeys and to me. Dave and Jenny Adams continue to be loyal and generous supporters of the Sanctuary and Mel Phillips and Anne-Marie Witkowski, former volunteers who are now so far away but still with us in spirit , remain true friends indeed. Mel will provide new staff uniforms for everyone (completely out of our financial reach otherwise), and Anne Marie sends care packages full of essentials and treats for the animals. It has been a privilege to work with the talented Conan Stockill on promotional material for the Sanctuary and I am extremely grateful to him for all the time and creativity that went into capturing life at the Sanctuary on film. Random assaults by Sheila the baboon during the process do not seem to have had an adverse affect on his artistic ability! Dr Vinay Ramlaul takes care of us all, even the caracals, and is a constant source of wisdom, encouragement and a thousand things to brighten my life. Rudolph de Wet continues to go above and beyond any expectations in his support for the Bally Vaughan Sanctuary. He did mention in passing that our vehicle is a particular challenge to his excellent workshop staff at Seldex Fleet Management - working with nothing more than my rather vague pronouncements of "scary noises coming from somewhere underneath" that only occur on dirt farm roads when carrying a dead cow is a scenario that is quite hard to recreate in a Harare workshop but the problems are always solved. His donation of an invertor also lifted our spirits tremendously. We seldom have electricity at the Sanctuary at night and this makes tending to injured and orphaned animals who require 24 hour care very difficult. Not to mention the potentially deadly hazard of caracals strewn about the house in unexpected places. They do not believe that I cannot see in the dark and from leaping off the dressing table at 3am and expecting me to catch them to delivering a brisk mauling should I happen to stumble over them during a power-cut, they refuse to make allowances for my inferior senses. With plans in place for an imminent hyena rescue and the pending arrival of a young lion, our work at the Bally Vaughan Sanctuary continues. Thank you for making this possible. With love and thanks to you all Sarah and The Bally Vaughan Sanctuary Family
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