Saluki Walk!

Nothing much exciting to report, Bella's been doing really well in her obedience lessons, though every time someone shouts 'come' she tries to run to them excitedly. Silly little girl!

Today we met up with some other Salukis and their people and went for a nice walk on the beach at Glenelg. Bella very much enjoyed the company of fellow 'lukis Saffie, Layla, Arella and Moss. Bella's greyhound friend Elvis came along too, as well as Ollie the Small White Fluffy. It was great fun to hang out with a pack of Salukis. Bella certainly thought so, she spent a good deal of time trying to play with Layla (as best as she could considering she was on a lead!).




Bella's pretty pooped now!


More photos on Facebook for anyone who may want to gawp at some seriously pretty doggies: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.554361121247503.147457.100000208590474&type=1&notif_t=like

Hounds on the Beach

A few photos of our afternoon on Brighton beach with Dimity and her current foster greyhound, Katie. I oohed and aahed over some lovely dogs while we were there, including a beautiful border collie and a very handsome GSD. :)

Bella? Obedience? Yes, I'm being serious...

After several weeks of having far too busy weekends, last Sunday Bella attended her first beginner obedience class as a member of Noarlunga City Obedience Dog Club- well actually, I'm the member, but Bella likes to think of herself as one.
Like at our last show, Bella was surprisingly confident, and happy to take food from me (she doesn't do this when she's very nervous). I had a lot of fun and I think she did as well, and she was actually quite responsive and interested during the majority of the lesson. The trouble came near the end when she started to get super confident and just wanted to play with all the other dogs! It is quite difficult to get a Saluki to heel sensibly when every fibre of her being is focused on flinging herself at the nearest GSD, who also seemed to think playing would be a better idea of something to do on a Sunday morning. It was nice to see Bella excited and enjoying her lesson, now just to get her to FOCUS... I'm sure we'll get there eventually!

Later in the day we had a family barbeque- fun! Bella was such a good girl around my young nephew and niece who are still not quite sure about that tall, bouncy puppy, she was very calm and didn't jump around them at all. I am very proud indeed, and Bella was pleased also when I rewarded her with some barbeque leftovers! She thought licking up ice cream mess was pretty good as well. :)

Ma Belle...

Miss Grizabella is an expert when it comes to 'the dog face', just look into those eyes and TRY and refuse her!!!


Nutty Saluki wants to play RIGHT NOW! :D



"Beautiful? Oh yes, I suppose I am rather..."

Kruger National Park, July 2012

I figured I'd better share some photos from my incredible visit to Kruger National Park in South Africa. I spent only two days there during my South Africa trip, but it was certainly a memorable experience and I was amazingly lucky with the wildlife I saw during that time.

Southern White Rhinoceros, tragically hundreds of these beautiful animals have been slaughtered in South Africa in this year alone. Their horns actually have NO medicinal value, they consist of the same material as our fingernails. So sad to think of the dangers faced by this amazing animal, just for human greed. Excuse the crummy photo quality, the sun wasn't even up yet when I took this so the ISO needed to be cranked up.



Zebra crossing! They looked so pretty with the sun in their manes. :)


African Elephant-  I saw many of eles, including some tiny (by elephant standards anyway!) calves, I felt very privileged to get so close to a wild elephant


Impala keeping a wary eye on a male cheetah as he walks off in the distance. Just before I took this the cheetah had sprayed a sign and walked straight past our vehicle. It was a very lucky sighting as he was visible very briefly, and cheetah are by far the least common big cat in Kruger.


And last up, a bombardment of leopard photos. Apparently many people visit Kruger many, many times and never see a single leopard as they are largely nocturnal and very secretive. What a privilege to see not only one leopard, but four- a stunning adult male, and a shy female with two tiny cubs. My guide had never seen cubs that young before, they are usually kept hidden. We assumed that the mother was moving the cubs between hiding places.
Here's the male...


and the female...


...and one of the tiny cubs


I've got a few more photos on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chimp_amy/sets/72157630677795428/with/7614246504/

Zombi and her infant

Finally, here are some of the photos I've taken so far of Zombi and her baby girl at Monarto Zoo. Unfortunately she didn't go outside much with the baby on my most recent visits so you'll have to excuse the poor quality indoorsy shots (the chimpanzee house is good for the chimps but rather dark for photography!).

Approximately 1 week old...





And at one month old...





I just had to share one of the gorgeous cheetah cub as well!