At
Twala, there are literally creatures everywhere. Any attempt at ‘me’ time
is swiftly abandoned as an influx of animals swarms onto your lap or your bed,
pulling your eyelids open to see if you are really asleep, biting your feet,
interrupting a yoga session by breathing hotly and noisily into your face,
helping themselves to your food and hovering round the bath hunting the soap or
putting fur and damp foot prints all over the towels. A swim in our
beautiful pool results in mayhem – the duikers race round and round the edge
squeaking in alarm and crashing into each other, the cats gaze over the edge
with wide-eyed, hackles-raised horror, the peacocks wail is dismay from the
roof and the dogs sit at the gate and bark hysterically as the words get out
that you are, apparently, drowning.
The
noise levels are raised by the ever-increasing and utterly foolish families of
guinea fowl that scurry in speckled flocks through the undergrowth, shepherding
their chicks past dogs and cats and other bright-eyed predators with increasing
feathery hysteria, and the whoops and screeches from Twitter the parrot.
The
farmyard is heaving with a variety of creatures. Huge white geese open
mean orange beaks to hiss and honk, beating the air with their immensely
powerful wings. Forty two fat-bottomed mallard ducks quack and waddle
round the pond, the exquisite iridescent blue and green feathers of the males
shining in the sun as they hector their demure brown and white wives.
There is a surfeit of duck eggs and the animals are growing sleek and shiny on
this rich addition to their diets.
Our
tiny spotted bantams dart back and forth in search of insects and the remains
of Patrick the pig’s breakfast. Patrick is oblivious to these little
creatures scattering and squawking before him. He is like a sultan moving
through his subjects, pink piggy nose up in the air and clever little eyes
fixed on his mud bath ahead. His consorts, Tracy the sheep and Tyrone the
goat, trot along behind him. They will spend the day attending to him,
standing or lying on either side of him, two hairy mad-eyed sentries who never
let him out of their sight.
Pygmalion,
a tiny orphaned bush pig, is desperate to be accepted into Patrick’s inner
circle. He hovers uncertainly with his tiny bald tail quivering with
expectation, the bristly stripes of hair on his minute body standing to
attention as he tiptoes forward on his pink trotters towards the vast object of
his porcine affection. Fast as lightning, Tracy and Tyrone charge into
action, jealously fending him off and bleating furious insults at this cheeky
usurper. Pyg’s fur is like the very best sort of tweed – a herringbone
pattern of yellow, brown and white that covers his solid body in a wiry
mat. Each evening he is put to bed in a dog basket with a stuffed tiger
for company, snuggled on a hot water bottle, deep in the soft billows of a
duvet that is the closest we can come to where he should be sleeping – in a
warm burrow with his mum. Pyg will be released into the wild once he is
mature but in the meantime is absolutely determined to be Patrick’s best
friend. Having recently experienced his very sharp teeth, I think Tracy
and Tyrone may be facing demotion fairly soon.
Henrietta
the heron lives away from the mayhem and bad behaviour of the farmyard in an
enormous aviary. She will be released on the Twala dam once her feather
have grown back but in the meantime has 3 members of staff frantically scouring
the river for fish for her. She can eat up to forty small fish a day and
we know her currently supply has been consumed when we hear her outraged nasal
honking floating down from the hill. Thinking it would be a good photo
opportunity I following the staff down to the river one morning to witness the
fishing expedition. Everyone seemed a little tense and uncomfortable as I
stood about with my camera and I was puzzled and irritable at the lack of action
until Richard said to me, quite coldly,
“Excuse me, but we take off some of our clothes when we do this....”. I
beat a hasty and red-faced retreat.
We
have successfully released an exquisite white-faced owl, the third white-faced
released at Twala so far, and her place was swiftly taken by two eagle
owls. One has the tip of a wing missing so he will be a ‘garden owl’ –
free to roam the Twala grounds but monitored and fed each evening. The
other owl was hit by a car and has a head injury – he is currently in the
hospital being hand-red and nurtured back to health. Thank you to Lara
Clements for rescuing him. Many birds come in to
Twala in need of rehabilitation and we have also released two lizard buzzards,
several eagle owls and many smaller birds. We are presently rehabilitating a
beautiful Abdim’s stork who is sharing Henrietta’s spacious quarters but is a
lot less trouble than she is!
Two
fat, silky puppies from the village next door are frequent visitors to
Twala. Having lost their mum to a snake bite, we are providing food and
care for the puppies and each morning they come in for a check and go home with
a day’s supply of food. They will be vaccinated and castrated and we hope
will have a decent quality of life through our community clinic that provides
free vet care to rural dogs and other animals. Suzie, one of those
fantastic bat-eared brown dogs that we love so much, also benefited from the
clinic after a huge, infected wound was treated free of charge at the Twenty
Four Hour Vet. Our puppy feeding programme improves
the lives of several puppies in the area. Each puppy has a lunch box that is
brought to Twala by the owners each day and filled with a mixture of dog food,
baby food and milk, thanks to Moldon Marketing, Sky Pharmaceuticals and Caboodle
Baby Shop, and the puppies are inspected regularly. Needless to say, they are
all looking fantastic.
Chloe
on
Arrival
Chloe Now
Our
newest rescue dog is making wonderful
progress. Chloe suffered terrible abuse
before she came in to the SPCA and her spirit seemed utterly broken. She
is now my shadow, trotting beside me everywhere I go with her plumy tail up
proudly and her smart red collar offsetting her thick black fur. She is
utterly endearing with her huge brown eyes and clever little face, guarding me with fierce loyalty, and so quick to learn.
She is overcoming her heart-breaking food issues (she would not eat if anyone
was watching her and cowered and trembled if you offered her food or if she saw
me eating anything). Now she will take a biscuit from my hand and her
beautiful face lights up with joy and pleasure when she realises it is a
reward. Life at Twala is so much richer thanks to the Waggly Tail Club, and our
motley gang of rescued cats. We love them all and they are a constant source
of companionship, entertainment and love, and sometimes drama such as
discovering Gomez the kitten had been trapped in the filing cabinet and Simon
the ginger ninja had eaten the bank statements.
With the arrival of Harriet
the serval kitten, our predator family is growing. Harriet was found on the
roadside, dehydrated, dirty and terrified. She is now a confident, healthy and
adored member of the Twala family – harassing the cats, making an unlikely
friend in the form of Pippin the wide-eyed and rather naive duiker and spending
happy, sunny days practising predator leaps with wide spread, velvety paws
chasing an endless parade of imaginary prey.
We are very privileged to
have two African hedgehogs in our care. These fascinating, spiky new additions
are nocturnal so we have to wait til dusk to see their exquisite pixie faces
peeking out of the snug nest of hay they spend all day rolled up in. They trot
about in the waning shadowy light nibbling on cat biscuits, chicken mince and
grubs with their spines smoothed back over their tiny bodies like someone who
has used too much hair gel. When threatened, however, these ferocious spikes
stand to attention and bristle with aggression. We have a mother and a baby,
although the baby is now bigger than mum – weighing an impressive fifty five
grams!
Shani
and Shungu, the Twala lions, are thriving. Shungu is now so confident
that he does little mock charges at dinner time (but will let cheeky Shani
steal his dinner). Shani is hugely powerful and extremely clever, always
up to something. Every day a white helicopter flies over Twala.
Shani waits for it, ears pricked forward intently as she hears the approaching
clatter. Then as it flies overhead, she leaps and gambols along beneath
it, loving the pursuit of this enormous, noisy bird. She is definitely a
challenge to Shungu’s attempts at machismo. She absolutely refuses to
roar, much to his disgruntlement. He lets out a series of enormous,
impressive bellows and then really gets into it with a long series of guttural
coughs and grunts, glaring furiously at his stubborn companion as she
nonchalantly nibbles on her claws or, worse still, rolls over and yawns.
They are still greatly enamoured of the interactive lion toy brought by Chris
Wade. It has proved to be indestructible and an endless source of
entertainment.
Twala feels like home now –
helped by the addition of a donkey! I think you all know how much we love
donkeys, and baby Alex is a delightful, if boisterous addition. He lives
in the farmyard and has learnt that if he stands at the gate and hoots in his
beguilingly breathless baby donkey voice, someone will immediately come running
bearing treats. Chopped carrots and popcorn are his favourites. Our magnificent
white horse Griffin and his tubby chestnut companion Uno, are now sharing their
idyllic life roaming free on Twala(with dinner and breakfast served every day)
with a new rescue horse called Chance. Chance has had a terrible time and
suffered years of neglect. He is thin and scruffy and blind in one eye, but
hopefully Twala will work its magic on this sad soul and restore his health and
happiness to him.
Twala
is constantly growing, and it is thanks to all of you – to our sponsors and
friends, to all those people who take the time to contact us with details of
animals in need and who give those animals a second change by doing so, to all
our neighbours who are so kind and supportive and make it such a pleasure to
live at Twala, to all the people who do so many thoughtful, generous and
helpful things for the animals and make it all possible – THANK YOU FROM US ALL.
The Twala Trust is open to
visitors by prior booking only. Tours of the orphanage and rescue centre are at
10am and 2:30pm. Morning or afternoon tea are included, and you are welcome to
bring a picnic. Picnic sites are in our beautiful gardens overlooking the dam,
and no doubt you will be joined by our sociable duikers, the occasional
tortoise or bird and our inquisitive cats! The day ends with lion feeding at
4pm. Bookings can be made on 0733436239 or 0772592944 or 0774312887.
You can follow the stories of
the animals on our facebook site The Twala Trust Animal Sanctuary which is
updated several times a week.
FaceBook:
The Twala Trust Animal Sanctuary
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