In my 'hood

Larteh - Ayikuma Road:

Twin brothers:

Adolescent aboriginal dog:

Please remember: appreciating is welcome, copying and using without prior authorisation or without attribution is not. Thanks!

Of dogs and baobab fruit

Who would have thought...

Please ask for my permission BEFORE you decide to use my pictures. It's the polite thing to do, and it'll prevent legal unpleasantness. Thank you.

Today's visitors...

A praying mantis...

A pied crow (Corvus albus)...

What I assumed to be a cattle egret (Bubulcus ibis) but is the wrong colour... Maybe a juvenile?

And a little almost friendly (that is, not overly shy) dog:

Walking past

Living in the bush without fence means that all sorts of two- and four-legged beings cross our land. I consider it only my right to snap their picture when they do so, even if the law may differ.

This morning my 3 dogs (two chained, one crated) started making an awful racket all of a sudden. I went outside to investigate and saw 3 young boys with their dogs, apparently taking a shortcut to their farm or the next village. The opportunity was too good to pass.

Wildlife we could do without...

All is not rosy in the bush. There are ticks. A lot. And they carry sickness. Even when you treat your dogs regularly, they can still be prey to these nasty things, and get infected.

Here are Taki and Smartie, twin brothers, 11+ year old; one got infected, the other didn't. It's quite visible who did...

Poor Smartie lost about 15% of his weight in a week. The vet made 4 injections one day (I couldn't even follow which was what...) and put him on a drip the next day. I tried to bribe him with interesting food for a couple more days, and he seems now to be eating normally again.

Long time, no post!

I can't believe it's been almost two years since I last posted! Lots of things happened, as usual. I don't have so much time to sit down and blog, and there are so many things I'm (more) interested in that blogging had to take a back burner position.

A short update: I bought a small piece of land in the bush, close to Shai Hills Resource Reserve. Because of the numerous baboons one can see on the road, I dubbed it "Baboonland". I'll start building a little retreat this year and hope it will be completed by mid-September. I'll welcome the change of scenery, the isolation, the newness of it all. Actually, I can't wait to be there! More space for the (now 3) dogs, the opportunity to have an orchard (mango trees abound in the area, but I also plan on having lime and orange trees, avocado pear trees, guava trees, pawpaw of course... and probably many more!), a kitchen garden (I even found online a nice trick for my lazy back AND to protect my herbs from 3 male dogs marking, see here!).

Back to the dogs... It has been a long time since I last wrote or published pictures of my dogs or of any indigenous dogs. I was asked last month to write a piece for a U.S. dog paper and online magazine. I was happy to be contacted, and wary too, for the same reasons that led me to stop "advertising" the indigenous dogs. I decided to write the article anyway, complete with an explanation of my reluctance. I will see whether it is published and if so, how much it will be edited. Another aboriginal dog fancier, of the less normative type, also asked me to send an article for the Primitive and Aboriginal Dog Society's journal, whose interests are closer to mine. I intend to gather more information, especially about hunting with dogs, before I finalise my contribution.

Again, a lot of very different things to do, a lot of interests to weave into my already quite full life... But I've never been comfortable with idleness, so I won't complain!

To be continued!