A Charlie Update

For those who are interested in Charlie's progress, herewith an update. He is now almost 10 months old and has grown into a very independent little fellow. For the past three weeks he's been sleeping out somewhere in the bush but we suspect it is fairly close to the house. He still comes to visit us every evening as I'm still putting out nibbles for him and he also visits most mornings between 04h00 and 05h00 when we are up and Pierre leaves for work. He doesn't like to be told what to do anymore and can inflict a mean bite (drawing blood I tell you) if he feels like it so I often have a scar somewhere. He is still a little sweetie most of the time though and sometimes just wants a cuddle and a scratch and in return grooms us very lovingly. He especially likes to groom Pierre's hair or my fluffly dressing gown. It is mating season at the moment and we've noticed that their cries have died down at night. Pierre say's he hopes Charlie is taking precautions but I say NO - I hope he has absolutely no moral standards and is off making babies all over the place. Unfortunately Charlie seems to be getting into fights fairly often as there is a resident male around and Charlie is obviously interfering in his territory. He then chases Charlie all the way back to the house and we can hear Charlie screaming and huffing and puffing all the way. He usually runs to the verandah and waits here for the other male to disappear. I call the other male the "Dikgat Boelie" which is Afrikaans for "fat bully". Dikgat is quite a bit bigger than Charlie and Charlie usually ends up with an injury which results in him hopping along on three legs for a few days. But then, it is like Henk says, if you mess with another man's girls you will get into trouble. Anyway, Charlie is doing well for himself generally and we are very pleased with his progress.

I'm Back

A few months ago I decided to can this blog as I just never seem to get time anymore to do any posting on it. The only reason I haven't yet removed it is because Pierre was not keen on me doing so. I started this blog originally because I had to find something to do when I first moved to Zambia as I was the only wife here on site at the time. Over the past few months I've been so busy doing other things that I've neglected the blog. I somehow figured that nobody reads it anyway so it doesn't matter if I don't post. To my surprise I found out recently that quite a few people are still following it. Many thanks to all of you out there who are still interested in the blog. I'll make an effort now to post again.