OK I have been promising to post something light-hearted and humorous, so here it is:

Enslaved by animals: the true story of a wildlife rehab dog.

by Chris Mercer.
(formerly of the Kalahari Raptor and Predator Sanctuary, South Africa. Co-author with Beverley Pervan of the book "For the Love of Wildlife.")

Bev and I used to run a wildlife sanctuary and rehabilitation center in a remote part of the Kalahari semi-desert area of South Africa. Actually we did not run the sanctuary, although we owned it and paid for everything out of our declining savings. The animals did.

Our friends and children might worry about us, but actually we don’t have any friends and our grown-up kids have long since fled the solitude to mount their assault upon the global economy.

Alright, we were a friendless, childless couple who found ourselves being held in thrall by a repressive system of rules inherent in living with animals.

As with any management structure, there was a hierarchy at the Kalahari Raptor Centre. Perhaps like corporate hierarchies, our hierarchy shifted and varied according to new arrivals and departures. The arrival of a lion, for example, would seriously affect the existing order of things.

For the full short story, and images too, click on the Stories page of our website www.fortheloveofwildlife.com

Thanks for posting the link Chris. Again it shows that most wildlife can, and does, co-exist
well together.

Why don't you write another book of your own experiences with the wildlife you rescued in
your wildlife sanctuary and rehabilitation center, the problems you had doing so with the animals themselves and with the authorities for their lack of caring and support? It would make a good read and at the same time add some funds for you to use for your canned lion fight.

wonderful story, thanks for sharing!!

Funny you should mention that! We thought that we would publish a few of these little short stories relating interesting aspects and comical events of our rehab work and see what response we get. If we get enough comments like yours, we may well have to put all the stories together and shape them in to an e-book for Kindle. We have about 30 hours of video footage, some of it really unusual, and relevant clips could accompany the book.

That would be a wonderful project for you and it would be great for us wildlife lovers learning about the wildlife, their diets, their behavior, any veterinary problems you had to deal with, what type foods you needed to obtain for them and, if they were released, did any of them return or have you seen them in the wild again. Just learning about your successes and failures, if any, and how you dealt with it would be so interesting.

I've found it fascinating that Daphne Sheldrick's orphans, now living wild in Tsavo, will occasionally return to the stockades when they need medical attention knowing they will get it from the keepers, some return to show them a new baby. And several of the older bulls some how know when they have worms and wlll return for deworming! Animals are so fascinating!

Please make another book a priority after May 13th.

Grazie - asante sana for sharing this with us. Maybe Simba can shed some light to get the odd video footage on this site as well as on youtube or linked to have more people watching?