JULIE WARD CENTRE DIARY - MAY 2011
Written by Glen Vena
It has been cold and we had less guests visiting, but the cats are looking great.
I have been trying to keep up with the little projects that I want to do, now hat it’s winter.
So my first one is the shade cloth we put on top of Aslan and Stella’s new hospital camp. Because there are no trees there, in summer some days do get warm or hot, and if the vets need to shut Aslan or Stella in the hospital camp to do some checks, and if these cats want to be outside rather than in the ‘house’ they need a nice cool area.
We put the roof rack on the Land Rover to good use, well I had to keep off it
as I’m too heavy! Hahaha.
See pictures below:
- Sid reversing the Land Rover, so that he could go on the roof rack to put the shade cloth on the hospital camp. We keep the ground free of ‘furniture’ so there are no obstacles if the vets need to dart Aslan or Stella
- This was great fun doing as we were watching Aslan and Stella most of the time while we were busy.
I had some students who came to assist us at both centres, they were great
fun and worked very hard, they came through the World Wide Experience.
See picture below of them on the back of the BFF landie, they were helping
with giving some food to Marina at the Jean Byrd centre.
- WWE students were Phillipa, Amanda and Stewart.
I have to get one more piece of non-cat news in: Piere Versfeld from Land
Rover came to give us some training with our donated landie. He was great
and he really taught us a lot. See below – Pierre was doing some action
moves and we were watching, looking pretty terrified. I just start to laugh
when looking this picture.
- From left to right: Christine, Abs, Sidney, Martin, me (Glen) and Headman right at the back. It reminds me of being at school.
- This is a better one, here Sidney was making a joke that all automatic vehicles do not have a brake master cylinder, and this was a big ice breaker!
- On a fence patrol at the back of Julie Ward Centre - who would not want to
I know some like to hear what is going on behind the scenes but I know most of you just want to hear about the cats, so on to the cats now!
Leopard Triplets – rescued from the Sudan in 2001
They generally very good and sometimes very mischievous, especially that Sami!
Our guests are usually lucky enough to see the triplets when they visit the centre and on warm days they will be on the jungle gyms playing or looking at the other animals walking the plains of Shamwari.
Well Alam gave us a big fright the other day as we did not see him in the morning and when Sidney went to check in the afternoon, he found himunder a bush sitting and looking very sorry for himself. What was wrong,that is very difficult to explain. He did vomit and it was very smelly that came out so we immediately called the vet.
Murray came as soon as he could and we darted Alam and took him to the hospital at the wildlife offices where he was going to keep him for observation. He stayed there for a day and he came back, but he is good andI think he had just an upset tummy. When we could see he was okay again,we brought him back from the veterinary hospital, and shut him in the hospital camp at the Julie Ward Centre, to check he didn’t have a relapse.The best part was when we opened up for Alam to join his brother and sister in the main camp. Both Sami and Nimira were sniffing and grooming Alam,they really missed him.
- Sami getting up on one of the jungle gyms, looking pretty sure of himself hey!
- Here is Alam, in hospital camp enjoying a nice fresh steak!
- Here is Nimira sleeping and now and then she would try to use her front big paws to get the flies off her.
- Is she not beautiful?!
Sinbad, rescued from a Romanian Zoo in 2007
He is good. Now and then we would not see him during fence patrols and sometimes he would not even come out when we go around with the landie, which usually brings the cats out, to check if we have brought food, but generally he shows himself. He looks great! See pictures below of him.
- Sinbad was asleep and he came rushing out of the bushes to come for his food.
- Grabbed his food and ran into the bushes, he is a good boy.
- We had some rain and as you can all see it is pretty green around him, which means the camp is also pretty overgrown, so soon we will need to remove some bushes.
Ma Juah, rescued from a private zoo in Liberia in 2004,
and Achee rescued from a private home in Romania in 2004.
They are doing very well, now and then you will see them looking for Sinbad, but they will do this without being noticed by him. They can be very sneaky sometimes. Our guests do not see them that much but during fence patrols we are very lucky to see them, most of the time they will be asleep in the hospital camp, they love to spend most of their time up there.
- This is an old picture, when they had been with us for three years. Time goes by very fast hey! See Achee’s big belly, they had just been fed. I will get some new pictures for the next blog.
Sirius the leopard, rehomed from Monaco Zoo in January 2008
He looks very good when we see him but usually we only see him when we are feeding, then he would just grab his food and run into the bushes. Perhaps he is enjoying the privacy he never had.
Aslan rescued from a Greek Zoo in 1995, and transferred to Shamwari in 1999, and Stella rescued from a Greek Zoo in 2000
They look very gooooood, a bit slow, but hey that comes with age, is that not so?
They are THE OLDEST cats we have by the way, but they can still give you a very nasty charge that will make your knees wobble big time!! Very vocal sometimes. They are starting to love their new hospital camps and now that it is a bit cold they go into their houses a lot, so I have to change the bedding regularly.
- Here is Aslan walking towards the hosp camp, as you can imagine this picture was taken very fast! See his big belly, he has just been fed.
- Here is Stella not very pleased to have a camera pointed at her. She just wanted to enjoy her food peacefully. I took the pic quickly and went straight off.
- Last one, happy faces!
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