Animal stories

We have arrived home, after travelling from one end of the world to the other, to find our electronic world in disarray. Most our instruments, including my computer, said their last good bye, and we are still in the process of getting it all sorted out. It has taken us three days to get our phone reconnected and it will take another week to get our broadband going, if we are lucky. So today’s posting comes to you through my son’s computer. Thank you Gill, for letting me use your facility. *** Tara, our three quarter, short hair Alsatian dog has gone off her rockers, barking her head off; disturbing our sleep. ‘Shut up Tara’ we shout, but Tara doesn’t listen. Her bark fierce and persistent and we are persistent in requiring her to stop; but nothing helps. Come morning, we enter our clinic building which is adjacent to our home via a joint carport, and lo and behold – we had a burglar on the premises! However, nothing was stolen. On the contrary, we gained some goods! You would not believe it; the thief came through the window, left his tools - and ran out through the front door… Tara, made him think again… We call the police and two of them come, dressed like T.V. detectives: long coats, hats and sunglasses. They write a report, take the burglar’s tools with them and say, More than checking for fingerprints, there is little we can do. We’ll return the tools to you once we finish with them; if not claimed. We never see the tools again, neither the police, and are wondering: were the tools ever claimed? … *** We have three elongated tomatoes growing on our one and only lonely tomato plant, and we are looking forward to using them in our salad once fully ripen. However, an uninvited visitor thinks differently, and is having them right now. As I look out the kitchen window I see one of these tomatoes on the lawn, with a third eaten away. The cut is neat and clean. “Gerry,” I say, “who can this one be? And why leave so much behind?” We wait a day, and the second third is eaten with a neat and clean cut. On the third, it‘s all gone. As no waste occurred, we are happy to leave the two other tomatoes on the vine and see what comes next. The following days bring the same pattern, and within six days the other two tomatoes are gone. In the meantime, our visitor feels secure enough to come to our glass door and look inside and, it is a lizard: A lovely young one of about 60cm long of which less than half is body and the rest - tail. It has a diamond shaped head and ordinary lizard colours. After a couple of more visits and no more tomatoes in sight, our lizard left us for redder pastures… *** Our W.A Women – pilots’ club has a visitor who lives on a farm in West South Africa, and I am hosting her for the day. As we talk, she tells me the following story: “Next to my farm,” she says, “a road crew is putting down a military type role-out wire road. Day after day, the crew rolls out the road, and every morning - the road is gone without a trace. After few days and getting sick of it, they decide to ambush the area.” “And what do you think has happened? Can you guess”? She asks me with a knowing smile on her face. I shrug my shoulders and shake my head, “I have no idea,” I reply “Well, Hiding behind the trees they see a group of elephants watching them work. When the day’s work is done, and they are gone, the elephants come out of their hiding, roll up the road and carry it away. Come morning, the elephants return, watching from their hiding place looking to see the people’s reaction… …and, who says animals have no sense of humour?… *** Did you ever see a pink dolphin? This dolphin is an albino. Isn’t it beautiful? If you want to read more about it, here is the link – http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/pinkdolphin.asp *** If you have some similar animal stories, do share them with me. Once I have another bunch of them, I will post them. Renate Artist, poet and the Author of ‘From the Promised Land to the lucky Country”