The Roberts bunch – Tia (left), Themba (centre) and Tara
Dear Zak,
I have to admit that it took a fair bit of doing to get them all together. Eventually Marianne had to go the bribery route as is appropriate for Zimbabwe. It took a biscuit and you can see Themba’s response. He’s our very own King of Drool!
Tara has settled down nicely, she no longer scratches compulsively. When we go walking at Komani she and Zak go running off together hoping to put up a francolin or guinea fowl. She’s fast, almost as fast as Themba though neither are as fast as you were. Yes, she lives up to her Goromonzi Greyhound “breed” description!
Tia has become and old dog. She still enjoys a gentle run but often just watches Themba and Tara race around. We lift her in and out of the truck now as she’s hurt her back a few times jumping in and out. Marianne says she’s becoming a bit fat. I think she’s exaggerating but anyway, she’s earned the right to a bit of comfort.
Now that the rains have started we are going out to Komani airstrip more often as the ART road can be very slippery even for a 4×4. It is a bit further but makes for more free running as there are no barbed wire fences for Themba to get gashed on.
We haven’t seen any reedbuck on ART for quite some time. I did hear from the manager that they’d caught a gang of poachers with dogs trying to do a bit of hunting on the farm. Do you remember the herds of reedbuck that you used to chase? Those were the days!
We met someone you’d have liked this afternoon – he loves his Ridgebacks!
Yuri is a Russian geologist who specialises in lithium and his contract has expired so he has to go back home. He has two lovely Ridgeback males that he has fallen in love with and would really like to take them home but didn’t know if it’s possible. We have got in touch with a company that specialises in moving pets around the world and they say that it certainly is but it won’t be cheap. There is also a challenge of finding an airline that will fly from Dubai to Russia because of the war with Ukraine.
The dogs are locally bred (he got them from someone else – not the breeder), brothers and inseparable. Before we came up with the plan to move them back to Russia Yuri said he wanted them adopted as a pair. Yuri comes from the south of Russia near the Caucasus mountains. He said they hunt wolves in the area. When I suggested he crossed one of his dogs with a wolf he replied “None of the locals would like me if I did that”.
When we asked Yuri when he was leaving he replied “I should have already left but I am looking for a solution for my dogs first”. We liked him. A lot.
We have lost our little Greeta, the SPCA special office dog. We still don’t know what went wrong (the results of the post-mortem are still out). Last weekend she started coughing badly so we took her to the 24hr vet who diagnosed kennel cough and treated accordingly and she appeared to improve a bit but was still coughing badly so we took her back on Monday and she was given an antibiotic injection which seemed to help. Tuesday we took her to another vet as she was down again and they changed the treatment and asked us to bring her back on Wednesday for an antibiotic drip. She was definitely perkier when we picked her up that afternoon and gave us a gentle wag of her tail – we really thought we were on the road to recovery.
Thursday morning Marianne let her out and then suddenly called me; “Come quickly, Greeta’s collapsed!” Poor girl, she dropped on the back verandah and her breathing was intermittent and she was unconscious. We tried to keep her going with CPR but her gums were purple and her pupils unresponsive. We rushed her off to the 24hr vet again but she’d gone by the time we got there.
We got Greeta from the SPCA last October. She’d been the office dog and was showing the result of all the treats – a little bit rotund she was! She got her name as she loved greeting all the visitors and we were assured she loved playing with other dogs. We were looking for a younger playmate for Themba (Tia is about 9 now and not so keen on playing), she seemed ideal and it didn’t take her long to fit in.
A happy family portrait, Themba, Tia and Greeta getting cosy with Marianne
We soon discovered she was clueless on directions and we had an anxious time when one morning she got lost on ART Farm. Fortunately she was wearing a GPS collar and we soon found her but thereafter she was walked on a lead!
Such a gentle girl she soon became known as Sweetie Greetie and responded well to training despite having had none that we could tell. She loved her training, running between Marianne and I, her long tail madly waving in big circles. Breakfast was also a favorite time for her getting first lick of my finger dipped in yogurt. Teatime, she would patiently wait for her piece of rusk and ever so gently take it from me. Teatime over she and Themba would start to play, chasing each other madly around the garden. She certainly wasn’t any longer the chubby girl that we’d adopted.
Waiting to go somewhere in the truck, Themba, Greeta and Tia
She was heavily into her comfort zone. We always knew where to find her – either on the couch or her cushion in the dining room. Persuading her to move off our bed in the evening and onto hers and Tia’s could take some patience. Who could blame her? We had little idea of her background before the SPCA but she did have old scars on her back and nose from what could have been caused by being hit by a vehicle. It was probably not an easy life but cut short far too soon.
We have buried her close to you – there really are too many dogs buried in this garden. Too many broken hearts. Yes, many precious memories too.
Precious girl, left far too soon. We loved her and she knew it.
Dear Zak, these memories are so hard to write. We take on you dogs knowing that we’ll outlive you but you make us so happy and we have such fun enjoying your company. Saying goodbye is so desperately sad.
Yes, it’s a traditional Sunday – a longer sleep in for us and bones for the dogs. Themba is not quite as obsessed with his bone as the others and will ask to get let back into the house before we are even fully dressed. Standards have definitely changed since your day – Marianne most certainly does NOT allow bones on the bed – so all bones must be left outside. Greeta will chew hers for a long time, Tia too but Themba is not that obsessed with his.
Everyone definitely knows that it’s Sunday and there’s often a bit of a false start when Greeta jumps up on the bed and Themba gets up to stretch. Marianne will ignore the hint and the culprits are told in no uncertain terms to go back to sleep. It only works once.
We are going away in September to the UK to see Duncan and friends and off to Italy for six days to see an old army buddy who made contact through my other blog. I have never been to Italy so am looking forward to seeing a new place – the house is in Cortona. We are hiring a dog-sitter to look after Themba, Tia and Greeta; yes he’s looked after them before and we are much happier with him than sending them out to a kennel.
It’s been a funny old winter – not very cold at all. We are still going out to ART farm early in the morning and it can be quite cold down in the vlei on the way there. On Monday it was 20C but by midday it was 28! The lands where we walk have had maize growing on them last season so the cattle have been put in to clean up the old stover. I’m not sure why they’d be interested in old, dry maize trash but they are and there’s a lot of dung around as a result. Themba and Tia love eating it! Why I cannot imagine, they get a VERY good diet at home and both Marianne and I find it infuriating. I don’t recall you ever being interested in dung but then my memory is not what it used to be which is one reason to keep going with this blog. One day I might need to rely on it and of course I’ll think of you and smile.
It’s been just over two weeks since we said goodbye to Miss Molly, as I liked to call her. I miss her. She was so enthusiastic about everything, including chewing just about anything within reach. Toilet rolls were a favorite and of course shoes. This was despite being supplied with plentiful chew toys. We added some favorite plastic boxes to her grave just in case she needed them. Daft of course but sometime in the future someone might find her and see that she was loved.
Burying dogs with trinkets goes back some 5,000 years, so far as we know, so I like to think we were just following tradition. I buried Kim, Cassie, Tina and Jenni on the farm together with their bowls and wrapped in a blanket. I could see the gardener thought I was daft but was too polite to say so. Cassie and Kim were old dogs and had lived a full life and it was time to say goodbye, but it was much more painful to say goodbye to Tina and Jenni who were both too young.
I’d nearly lost Cassie when she was just about a year old to a snake bite, probably a puff-adder. The bush around Chinhoyi was thick with snakes and I came home one day to my girl with a massively swollen face and copious watery blood leaking from the bite sites on her muzzle. Of course all the vets in the area were at a function out of town so in desperation I phoned a local pig and cattle farmer. He said in a strong Afrikaans accent, “Ag man, bring her over, it won’t be a problem – my dogs get bitten all the time”. It was only 10 minutes away and he gave her a shot of penicillin and told me to take here to a vet in the morning. The vet injected her still massively swollen muzzle with cortisone. Three days later the swelling started to subside and by the fifth day I had my happy girl back. To the end of her nearly 14 year-long life she had a very special panicky bark for snakes.
Poor Molly, I let her down in the worst way imaginable and she was so young and starting to get affectionate with me. We buried her in the doggy graveyard that now holds five special friends, too many by far.
Themba is becoming a runner! I don’t think he will ever have the passion for it that you did and I certainly hope he doesn’t develop your habit of running at the front of the truck when I was being too slow.
We let him and Tia out on the road where we used to let you out but Themba is more interested in sorting her out than running. Tia, poor girl, was never a runner anyway but now she’s getting old, as you can see by the colour of her muzzle. It’s not really running weather either at it’s getting quite warm even at six in the morning. Having a long coat of hair doesn’t make it any easier. We are going to let Themba run the first section by himself on Monday and see how it goes. Who knows, we might have a runner in the making.
Love you as always.
Themba and Tia after a cooling dip in the night storage dam
Themba has adapted well to the role of office dog when he gets the chance. Like you he does enjoy the ride and chasing the chickens who have very quickly summed him up as a threat. Indeed, feathers have flown but there were no casualties to my knowledge.
The Rhodesian Ridgeback Centennial went off better than we were hoping with at least 35 dogs at the Wag Zone on the day. Themba was still recovering from his kennel cough, which fortunately turned out to be mild, so didn’t go. There were few problems, just some “bad language” between males vying for dominance. Someone was filming and put together a video here which I thought was done rather well even if I hardly recognized myself! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYnzm1S-u24&t=8s
Training is going rather well too. I put together a video for the kennels where he and Tia are staying whilst we are in England so hopefully they will do a bit with him whilst we are away. It’s a bit slapdash but I think they’ll get the idea what to do.
We are leaving on Sunday but will drop Themba and Tia off tomorrow midday. Marianne is already in a tizz about leaving him there but he will be fine. Did we leave you there once? It’s Rose van der Ruit’s place outside Ruwa and is some 30ha so there’s plenty of space to run. Who knows, he may even enjoy the break!
This morning Themba ate my hearing aids. I’d forgotten to put them in and after breakfast when I’d said to Marianne “What did you say?” once too many times I went to look for them. I’d placed them under the bedside light on the erroneous assumption that I’d remember to put them in first thing and forgot to do so. They weren’t there and a frantic search under the bed to no avail indicated the culprit.
We found the remains of the right one on the spare bed with no battery to be found. The left was minus the earpiece but otherwise OK. Themba was not flavour of the day. A phone call was made to his vet who reassured us that he’d come across dogs who’d swallowed small batteries several times before and it had never been a problem. I guess we’ll be examining dog poop this afternoon for confirmation though it could have easily fallen into the grass outside and we would never been able to find it.
We went into the office today so that Marianne could get a handle on changing prices on the computer whilst I’m in hospital for a back operation. Themba came along for a bit of stair climb training which he failed dismally on the last attempt. Getting up was a bit problematic at first involving a number of treats though I think by the time we left he was getting the idea. I remember that Kharma showed you the way when you were a puppy and you were so pleased with yourself that you went up and down several times before we left.
We went out on Saturday to cousin Wayne’s birthday party. It was the first time we’d left all the dogs completely alone. All potential chew toys were removed and power supplies switched off. All appeared well when we got home some four hours later though the kitchen dustbin had been knocked over. It was only later that evening that Marianne noticed that Themba had a small puncture wound on his left cheek. Roxy was of course blamed and threatened with dire consequences even though it really was a minor wound with no blood evident and no punctures above it indicating that she’d actually bitten down on his head. We had not heard anything coming in so presume that Themba had got over-excited when the gate opened and a scuffle had ensued.
On Thursday I am having a lower back operation. I think it qualifies as “routine” but for the first time in 43 years and 11 operations I have to admit I’m feeling a bit anxious. Not about the actual operation – I have total trust in the surgeon – but in the aftercare and potential of an infection. Still, it has to be done as the issue has been a long time developing and now something needs to be done. Marianne is going to have to handle the dog exercising by herself. There is a dog park some 15 minutes away where we go once a week. It’s not big but has enough space for everyone to get a good run around and there are three dams to splash around in. There are other dogs to meet too. Tia of course gets on with everybody, Roxy is a bit nervous and Themba has an annoying habit of barking incessantly at larger dogs. He’ll have to adapt because Marianne won’t go to ART farm by herself. I did love watching you run there even if your habit of running at the truck was disconcerting.
Themba has gained his half birthday! No more midday meals, he gets what the others get now. That doesn’t mean that he’s slowed down growing. I used to think he wasn’t going to be a big dog and I still don’t think he will be as tall as you but I do think he’ll get to Roxy’s size. We have no idea how heavy he is but he has long ago surpassed Tia – mind you, she is not a heavy dog.
We got a trainer in this week as we were having difficulty getting him to jump into the back of the truck, which he can do easily enough when he feels like it, when we are going somewhere. Coming home is another story; he just sits and looks uninterested. I have taken him to work on two occasions and had to get Fabian to lift him into the cab when it was time to come home. He struggled with the stairs too. Did them once and never again. Not like you – you were so pleased with yourself for working it out (actually, it was Kharma who showed you how) that you kept going up and down them until I called you off.
Now we are using the upturned crate to get him into the truck that we used for both Kharma and you when your cancer got too bad. He’s got the idea and even got into the truck at the Wag Zone on Thursday morning. We’ll see if the trend continues as the trainer said that now he’s becoming a teenager he’s likely to get difficult. A Ridgeback difficult? Never!
Actually he’s pretty good. We had two long recalls at the Wag Zone which we were impressed with. Now I just have to get him used to the idea that not everything is his!
Are you sure those are not for me?
He had his first bone this morning. There’s no real reason we waited this long. We made sure Roxy was not around and Marianne said she did her usual drama queen act; carrying her bone around the house and whining until it was taken away. I did watch Themba in the garden in case he thought of going to see what Tia was up to (she’d have given him plenty of warning to push off) but he was engrossed in his and made a good job of sorting it out. Then we did a tour of the garden where I picked some mealies that he thought he’d like too (above).
Giving his first bone the attention it deserves.
We are coming to the end of the rains although there is a bit predicted for later in the day. The fence around the muddy corner of the garden has been taken down and the trees have grown well over your grave so it’s a really shady spot now.
We haven’t weighed Themba this week – he is simply too heavy for Marianne to pick up. That makes him over 20kg, so really he’s not a puppy any more. The behaviour is still there though and he has developed an alarming affinity to steal and destroy toilet rolls which are no longer safe on their holders (or anywhere else for that matter). He’s also starting to chew furniture which reminds me of Kim, my first Ridgeback, who chewed some borrowed furniture when I was working in Chinhoyi way back in 1991. I was mortified but fortunately the owner found it funny. I suppose this is just the start of the teething process. He’s lost a few of his milk teeth but I can’t easily see any adult teeth coming through. It doesn’t help that holding him still must be a lot like holding an eel still, nearly impossible.
Since the last blog there has been a few altercations (one sided) with Roxy. I thought she wasn’t herself so we took her off to the vet and yes, she was in pain from the spondylitis in her spine and that was likely making her grouchy. So she’s been on anti-pain medication and CBD oil which helped Kharma so much in her final months. No more punch-ups. So far so good.
The training is coming on well. He can now jump up on a log on command and will leave a treat for a while at least. Not up to your record as yet but he’ll get there. His obsession with food does exceed yours though and is a bit of a problem when it comes to getting him away from the kitchen door at meal times. We are going to have to work on that one as getting past him without him barging through must be controlled. Kharma was of course the Barge Queen!
We got in a slow-feeder bowl from South Africa which has slowed his feeding down considerably but he has not learned to respect other’s food. Last week it was raining at meal time so Tia was given her bowl by the kitchen sink. Themba left his food, ran over to Tia’s, and stuck his nose into her bowl. Unfortunately she did nothing. Roxy, as you found out, would not tolerate that. We haven’t even risked giving out bones on Sundays so far but I’m going to persuade Marianne that we cannot put it off any longer.
I developed the Covid ‘flu this week. The symptoms are relatively mild but I’ve had to isolate into your bedroom. Themba was delighted as he gets to sleep on the bed with me. In the main room we have discouraged that, not least because there will be no room on the bed once he gets big but also Roxy is not keen on sharing her sleeping space. During the day it’s not a problem but night time – no! The downside for me is that he farts a lot. Marianne has been buying chicken “matumbos” i.e. guts, in an effort to reduce the meat bill which is substantial but we’ve decided to give it a break and see if that makes a difference. They smell bad enough when cooking never mind after being processed by Themba. Right now I’m thinking we should have called him BOC or HandiGas.
I was looking at the background photo on my phone this week. Of course it’s of you my boy, looking regal as ever. I wondered if I could ever change it – I certainly don’t have the courage to let you go just yet.
I am Zak 