News - May 2007

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The Owls and the Pussycats

A typical day at the Bally Vaughan Sanctuary ends with me sitting in the dark, torch clenched between my teeth, an irate owl chick in one hand and bowl of chopped rat in the other. Dinner-time in the Owl Hospital with Atilla, Solo and Pirate, our current patients, challenges my vegetarian ideals and my patience every day as ZESA plunges us into darkness yet again and the owls deliberate endlessly over whether or not the morsel of rodent dangling from my finger is really what they want for dinner....

My final task on my way back to my house is to check the Owl Buffet, laid out on the roof of the Ladies Toilet every evening. This is for the rehabilitated owls released at the Sanctuary - it gives them the best of both worlds; they are free to fly where they please but if the self-catering option fails, they can then help themselves to the selection available at the Buffet. Woody and Trigger, the spotted eagle owls, dine there every evening and Columbus the barn owl is also a regular.

I then return home to the exhausting attentions and endless machinations of my caracal family, with whom I share my house. The wicked genius Harry, the amiable and cuddly Twala and Mad George await me on the garden path, faces bright with expectation as I serve them their chicken dinner and then spend the evening breaking up fights, removing them from the dining room table, cowering in the bath tub as Harry tries to forcibly save me from drowning and reading the little bits of my book I can see when Twala twitches a fat roll to reveal a line or two of print. Harry and Twala sleep on my bed. Twala does so because it is warm and comfortable, Harry because it means he can monitor my every move, literally. Any attempt to roll over or stretch out a leg results in an instant and painful reprimand. Sleeping in the sharply-clawed clutches of twenty five kilograms of caracal every night does not make for a restful night.

This month we will welcome Smeegal the Serval Cat, a refugee from Chirundu whose owners are leaving the country. We have constructed a large enclosure for Smeegal adjacent to my house as he has always been a house pet, used to sleeping on the bed and still bottle-fed once a day. Smeegal is a very social cat and afternoon tea with him will be a highlight of our Winter Daytrip. I am hoping that the xenophobic caracals occupying my house will eventually accept him as part of our family but as they dedicate most of their day to plotting to kill everything from Dr Ramlaul to the dogs and donkeys, this is a little optimistic....we are still reeling from the public relations debacle caused when they murdered a turkey on the veranda during Sunday luncheon.

A new and challenging addition to our group of vervet monkeys is Geti, who came to us after eleven years of living as a house pet and therefore had no concept of what living in a troupe of monkeys was all about. Geti has no fingers on one paw and a crippled finger on the other so initially struggled to climb and jump like the other monkeys, and the natural diet we feed our monkeys on, with fruit and vegetables served whole, also presented a challenge as she had lived on bread and milk and bananas previously which has resulted in her sporting massive fangs that have never been worn down. She was initially completely unresponsive to the other monkeys but has now developed a tentative friendship with the neurotic teenage monkey Big Ears whose brother Noddy is the dominant male in the enclosure. Our thanks to Wendy Boshi for sponsoring Geti and giving her the opportunity to lead a fulfilled life with her new monkey family.

We were recently donated a large amount of very stale pastries and cakes as a treat for the donkeys, pigs and other animals who would far rather have a custard danish than eat hay! The donkeys were on a sugar high for days. Darling old Spike our senior donkey had jam all over his winter jersey and our delinquent lamb, Melinda Phillips (named after our dear friend and dedicated supporter Mel Phillips, whose behaviour bears no resemblance whatsoever to her namesake I hasten to add) had to be put to bed after a surfeit of Swiss Roll turned her into a sucrose-powered ninja whose determined attempts to somersault across the Gazebo bar counter to reach the muffin display resulted in mayhem.

Last month we were able to offer a home to twelve tortoises whose owner had died - the tortoises were initially very aggressive (hissing, growling and snapping like dogs which was rather disconcerting) but they are all now peacefully hibernating under a large pile of hay and will hopefully awaken in a better frame of mind in the summer. We also took in 9 geese, 4 ducks and 6 guinea pigs.

As always, the Sanctuary continues to function and take in animals and birds in need of shelter and care thanks to the continued support of our friends and sponsors.

Kadiki the lioness continues to enjoy wonderful quality of life due to the generosity of the Gent family who also brighten our lives with their kindness and friendship.

Rudolph and Elize de Wet, Motor Torque, Trixie Rhodes and John Webster have provided vital assistance in keeping our Sanctuary vehicle on the road. The vehicle is used for everything from collecting food for the animals to transporting our rescue animals back to the Sanctuary and is an essential part of our operations. Having had endless trouble with the vehicle, having to push start it (usually when it is loaded with donkey food, frozen chickens, entire dead cows, or in one particularly challenging case a very large, very much alive wart hog who was not in the least grateful for having been rescued....) and having had one mechanic after the other "repair" the problem, I finally found myself sitting on the pavement outside a bottle store in Greencroft one night while a man with one leg removed parts of my truck with the assistance of anyone passing by who fancied a bit of a diversion. From two men with mirror shades, rapper bling and a white Mercedes with black windows, to a red-headed man with a full set of spanners in his pocket who took about two minutes to hot-wire the car, it was a community effort. Two hours later the vehicle was back on the road, problem solved, and best of all, there was no charge!

Sara Cornish, Donald and Carol Hobbs and Michelle Hein continue to support the Donkey Rescue Project, and may have something to do with the fact that the donkeys' winter jerseys dont go round their middles this season....

Sincere thanks to Gordon Grierson of Milborrow Animal Health for continued sponsorship of the Farm Animal Rescue Programme. This project could not continue without Milborrow's generous support. The Bally Vaughan Sanctuary has been assisted in countless ways by Ian Grierson who has now left for the UK. Ian has been an exceptional friend to me and to the Sanctuary and we miss him and his family very much.

A special thank you to Destinee Day who donated her prize of horse feed, won during the Easter Show, to the rescue horses of Bally Vaughan and to Gordon Wallace who donated a truck-load of sunflower cake.

Norma Keatley, Merle Taylor-Freemen who brought us an orphaned monkey and sponsored his upkeep, likewise the Langridge Family who brought us Attilla the Owl, Vicky Campion - sponsor of Smeegal the Serval, Emma Robinson who sponsors the obnoxious caracals, Casey Bourdreaux, Moira Potgeiter, Catherine Carter, Johnny Rodrigues, Brett Cameron and Hamish Cameron (Pvt) Ltd who so generously feed our ever-increasing flocks of birds.

Hannes Cruger and Crugs Chooks, Douglyn Farm and the Bean Family who assist with feeding our very sleek predators, Green Park, Anesh Ramlaul who supplied calculators and pens, Thomas Wicke and Avani Mooljee who sponsor the marmosets, Daire Cullen - sponsor of Elsie the lioness, the Verhey family who sponsor Helmut the monkey, Jon and Chooks Langerman - thank you to you all for your support.

The wildlife artist Cora Ruck continues to donate a percentage from sales of her stunning paintings of Bally Vaughan animals and we are truly grateful for this. Her paintings feature our magnificent Mac the Lion and our beloved leopard, the charismatic Khan (Please note that he is on a very strict feeding regime - picture the Atkins diet with feathers...and he is slowly but surely losing weight). Privilege Banda, a student at the Emerald Hill School for the Deaf, has joined our team of volunteers and our new Overseas Volunteer, Charles Brakespear, is currently fund-raising for the Sanctuary. His efforts are hugely appreciated. Daire Cullen, Ibone Verhey and Avani Mooljee will also be joining our volunteer programme in August.

I must pay tribute to our exceptional Zimbabwean volunteers, without whom the Bally Vaughan Sanctuary would not function. These people give up their weekends, use their own vehicles and scarce and expensive fuel to make their way to the Sanctuary every week to take care of the animals, assist with running the restaurants, fund-raise and offer much-needed moral support as true friends to both me and the Bally Vaughan family. Vin Ramlaul, Dianne Twiggs, Sylvia Carter, Waylon Lewis, Mike Trask and Lesley Ives made it possible for me to take a week's leave recently and when I returned to an immaculate Sanctuary full of fat and happy animals (and a large owl asleep in the top bunk-bed....another story for later....) and heard the tales of the week's events I felt very privileged to count these people as my friends. Dianne Twiggs and Steve Watt 'baby-sat' the Sanctuary over a typically busy and eventful weekend and the ever-resourceful and unflappable Waylon Lewis somehow managed to collect a dead horse from the race course and deliver it to Bally Vaughan for the lions in his lunch-hour!! Waylon also dedicates a great deal of time to the well-being of our primate families, and works tirelessly to raise awareness of the Sanctuary.

I am surprised that Dianne Twiggs returned to the Sanctuary at all after her last overnight visit. Harry the caracal, who frowns upon me having any sort of social interaction whatsoever, spent all night trying to break into her bedroom; furtively trying the door handle, squashing his face up against the windows and breathing hotly through the crack under the door. Eventually it was decided that for her own peace of mind and safety she should relocate to the guest house and a triumphantly hissing Harry then closely monitored her packing her bags to ensure she didn't take anything he felt was his and escorted her out of the house. As she said, it was like being followed round by a shop assistant hoping to catch a shop-lifter.

As we meet so many people at the Sanctuary it is perhaps understandable that sometimes there are cases are mistaken identity....having recently done the Sanctuary grocery shop in TM Supermarket at Newlands, I joined the queue behind a man who I thought I had met at the Sanctuary several times. Having greeted him brightly and enquired as to the health of him and his family, he obviously felt impelled by social niceties to respond by asking me how I was. "Oh well," I said,"Pretty much the same as ever. Monkeys and owls coming out our ears, the leopard's a bit moody because of the Atkins Diet and we're having a few issues with Harry because he tried to get into bed with one of my friends and then threw her out the house, but otherwise we're all fine!" He gave me a look of complete incomprehension, mixed with fear, flung his groceries into his trolley and left. It was only then that the horror hit me - he had no idea who I was........

We look forward to seeing you all again soon! We rely on your support to keep the Bally Vaughan Sanctuary functioning and every time you visit us, it helps to provide our dearly loved and every-increasing family of birds and animals with the care that they so desperately need. During these difficult times we are determined not to compromise the quality of life we have pledged to provide for these creatures and we rely on the public to help us keep our promise.

Thank you to you all

With love Sarah and the Bally Vaughan Sanctuary Family