More of the less conspicuous

      There are several huge fenced-in enclosure at the edge of the Moholoholo Rehab Center compound.  I think each of them approaches a full acre in size.  The large animals that live there obviously have considerable space to themselves.
       Last post I showed you the calm, thoughtful male lion.  He shares his compound with another male and three females.  While it is impossible to look at the sleepy males without forming the impression that they are completely benign, the same cannot be said for the females.  THEIR eyes follow one as one passes by, and they don't appear to be having warm cuddly thoughts about how nice it would be if you would pet them.  They appear to be interested in one as LUNCH.  

My imagination, do you think?  I think she has that "lean, hungry look."











Walking a little further down the row of compounds, I found the cat I found I liked the best of all the adult cats.  This is Delilah, a stunning (in my opinion) leopard.  Delilah also was hand-raised, and she too purrs up a storm when some one comes by her enclosure and rubs against the fence and walks along with one.  She gives the appearance of loneliness--that she wishes people would come her way more often and keep her company.  I sat with her and drew her a couple of times--she's GREAT to draw!!

Look at the way she MOVES!!!

I was enthralled.  Here's my best effort at drawing Delilah.  So far, anyway.

 

        Here's a couple of babies I don't believe I've introduced yet.  These are SABLES!  When I think of sables, I think of Russian mink-like creatures with really valuable pelts.  These are not those sables.  These are the rarest kind of antelope in South Africa.  They were abandoned by their mothers on private game reserves, and they were brought to be raised by experts.    I frequently was told that they were each "worth a million Rand."  One Rand = 8 plus dollars, but that's still a lot of money.  It was hard to think of them in purely financial terms, though--they reminded of little Jersey calves, and my, how they loved their bottles.

 
       This is Charlie, from Liverpool, the student volunteer who was given the EXTREMELY important task of mothering these two little sables.  They are very delicate and particularly susceptible to dysentery.  They were on a very strict regimen and Charlie had to get up twice every night, make his way to the clinic, and prepare their bottles and feed them.
        For some time, Charlie and I were the only non-South Africans at the Center.   Even so, we barely understood each other.  I thought I'd be able to understand a Liverpool accent given my lifelong experience with the Beatles, but, no.
Charlie said that the Liverpool accent has the reputation of being one of the most unintelligible in the world.
        Or, at least that's what I think he said.