I chuckle!  It’s been a busy four weeks.

Lukenya died, the hyenas broke in and Kronk tried to break out.  What, you ask?  I shall tell.

About four weeks ago, Lukenya died.  He was one of my dogs, named after the Lukenya hill which is clearly visible from my homestead.  Lukenya is more of a large rock than a hill that seems to have stood on the Athi Kapiti plains in Eastern Kenya for millennia.  It just stands there – a witness to human activity, never commenting, never correcting, just witnessing.  I bet you it saw the caravans that walked the first “white man” into the heartland of Kenya.  I bet it witnessed my ancestors, the porters of old as they carried ivory and other goods to the coast and trekked back carrying goods from the “new world”.  Spices, iron, mirrors – Lukenya stood and watched.  I don’t know why my groundskeepers named my dog Lukenya all those fifteen years ago.  Yes, he was fifteen.  He had the eyes of a husky, but he was not a husky.  However, just like Lukenya hill (rock), he stood and observed us.  Me mostly.  Rarely barked unless he picked a fight with Mooshoo.  Always just watched us and the other dogs.  Until his last day on earth, he just watched.  A silent witness to our activities.

He died at night, so the next morning, we paid our respects, said a few kind words about him, buried him deep (or so we thought) and went on with our business. Now, hold that thought!

A couple of weeks ago, on a Saturday night, I was woken up by the incessant and aggressive barking of the dogs.  If you have dogs, you know when the bark is playful and when it’s serious. This was serious. Usually, I would go out and check what the racket is all about, but I realized I did not have a good flashlight.  Note to self, I need a powerful no nonsense flashlight!  I radioed one of my grounds keepers and asked him to check what the racket was about.  He has a good self-respecting flashlight. I finally fell asleep with the barking dogs acting as white noise.

First thing the following morning, I was out patrolling the fence to check what the noise had been about.  Now, half of my homestead where the house is situated is double fenced, with all manner of live fence plants in between the two chain-link fences. I have a mix of kei apple, euphorbia (euphorbia tirucalli) and bougainvillea.  A while back, a spring hare had burrowed into the compound and was promptly killed by the dogs.  My late cousin had aptly named it a Kanga-rabbit (google it, you will know why) before we knew its name.  She was funny like that.  I achingly miss her.  Anyway, Kronk had found his way to Kanga-rabbits hole and had somehow managed to wiggle his huge size through the hole and gotten stuck between the two fences.  Kronk is a hefty Rottweiler.  Big dog with half a brain cell.  Not very smart but I love him anyway.  I called the groundskeeper from the previous night to check if he had seen anything when he had gone out to check on the racket.  He’d seen nothing.  We both stood there observing Kronk and concluded this must have been what the other dogs were upset about.  We rescued Kronk, sealed Kanga-rabbit’s hole and went on with our day.

A couple of days later, one of the grounds keepers came to call me and boy does he have a story for me!  Well, it turns out, the racket on Saturday night had not only been about Kronk trying to be Houdini.  It had been about some hyena’s (juveniles by the looks of it) that broke into the compound.  A little backstory.  I double fenced half my compound, but the other half only has a single line of chain-link fencing.  That half was where the break in had happened and it’s where we had buried Lukenya.  Apparently, the hyena’s and their exceptional sense of smell had figured out there was something dead and rotting nearby. They had burrowed under the fence and tried to dig up Lukenya’s remains. We always forget hyenas are excellent at digging.  Afterall, they live in underground burrows.  We had buried Lukenya deep, because they did not succeed in unearthing him.  They did however succeed in rubbishing my fence!  Repairs coming up.

I could not help but wonder if Kronk had been trying to go and join the hyenas.  Did he think they’d make good buddies?  Or was he just bored and wanted to leave home and join the circus?  With Kronk, you can never tell.  I have watched him run five laps round the compound at top speed because the vet tried to give him a deworming tablet!

In other news, the dry season is here.  It’s the season to make use of the scorching sun and dry heat.  To harvest and dry the produce, clear the bush, pour manure and compost onto the farm and generally get ready for the rains.  It’s been dry, but cold – very odd weather, never mind that it’s now raining which is highly unseasonal.  The cold weather must be the reason we found a snake at the fireplace hearth in the house – guess he was cold too. As usual, I called my groundskeepers and they “took” it away.  I need to enroll my groundskeepers into snake handling class.  I have a neighbor who teaches the class at her place.  We must do better with snakes.

We have done a bit of controlled bush burning during the past week. Sometimes I find that when a piece of land is clear of all underbrush and you only have the trees, you can have a clear mental picture of what to do with the land. I’m thinking!

I met a family of jackals the other day.  I had taken my daughters car for “a walk”! They reminded me of that movie – Mr. Fox, is it?

Well, I sip tea and enjoy the unseasonal rain.  Perfect opportunity to grow salads as we wait for the “real” rains which are due at the end of October!