The Chaircat’s Blog

Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present:

OBAMA

That is what we unanimously named our latest arrival bongo baby boomer No. 9.

Born at the Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy, OBAMA comes with an American background (his dam was raised at the San Diego Zoo) and Kenyan roots of course, his sire is a native Kenyan born bongo named Noah.

OBAMA will join the group of Kenya born bongo earmarked for release to re-establish bongo on Mount Kenya where they once thrived. The project is undertaken by the Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy and supported by the American Association of Zoological Parks (Bongo SSP).

We do hope the Senator from Illinois will be pleased and lend his support to this globally important wildlife and nature conservation project.

Another exciting “birth” day!! One more addition to our baby boomers! A healthy male baby bongo was born to our herd. His mother was originally donated by the kind folk of the San Diego Zoo, his father, a true Kenyan! Mother and baby are safely guarded, just in case.

The news about the recent incidents of poaching has put us Cheetahs “on the spot” so to speak.

Do I fear for my life. Maybe not mine, but I fear for the lives of my brothers and sisters out there in the wild. It is my job to keep everyone on the alert.

If caught, what do you think we should do with these cowardly thieves that steal our lives in search of riches?

The Kenya Wildlife Service Intelligence has advised our Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy to be on the outlook for poachers. They have credible evidence that “dealers” are in the area. They may be recruiting poachers and target specific animals, such as Rhino for their horns or spotted cats for their skins

Last month, only 30 miles away a Rhino and five Elephants fell pray to poachers. Only the slaughtered carcasses minus horn and tusks were the grisly evidence found in the bush.

Duma Duke, our “Chaircat” is scared! He and Bill and Diana are on high alert and ready to fight off any possible intruders should it come to that. But meanwhile Bunge, our Wildlife Manager has laid on extra armed security. Every evening, the Conservancy’s Rhino willingly walk to the safety of their night quarters, led by their own designated game scouts.

We are proud to have such dedicated and able staff safeguarding the animals’ lives!

Last night I had a dream.

I dreamt that a new party wanted me as their symbol.

Because I never change my spots, they said. I had to consider this very carfully because I already serve as Chaircat on the board of the Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy. So I asked them what this new party was all about.

I had heard about such things. Here in Kenya they used to have a cockerel for one party and a donkey for another.

 The donkey is popular because they use it in America too. Then an African, the mighty elephant was given the job of symbol for another party. It didn’t mean too much because the only african american presidential hopeful  there did not join the party with the african elephant. He went for the donkey. The incumbent there stands with the elephant. Maybe because his name suggests that without him even the mighty elephant cannot survive. It’s all very complicated.

Obviously the position of a party symbol is an honor that could be a disaster in the making, so I asked many questions.

The party, they said, was not political. It was not religeous either. It didn’t even belong to any one country. The members could be of any race or species from worms to elephants and apes to humans. All had a right to live on earth but only in the order allocated by voting. Each species’ voting power had to do with how  much food they represented to other species and how much they consumed. An interesting concept but it left me way down the food chain as a major consumer. Humans also did not do too well but promised to compete more honestly. I remember the honey bee was so outstanding they almost offered her the position of symbol.

Then I woke up and realized it was only a dream. Maybe you can finish the dream for me.

Today there’s news that TV is bad for babies!!

I fully agree, we critters never had TV.

Except for the spoilt bat-eared Fox “Brit”

She was already addicted to watching a young age, but she only watched animal shows.

Her favorite was a video of ME the Cheetah running!!

The Lions frightened her.

Do your animals watch TV??

What do they watch?

Talk to me, I will send a free animal video to the best response!!

Chris Goodall, a leading environmentalist in the U.K. has us all rethinking global warming.

He thinks that all the known culprits for carbon emission are not as much to blame as man’s irresponsible solutions to change them.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article2195538.ece

If you ask me:

All this talk about the effects of global warming clearly demonstrates that there are too many of you. Yes, you humans, (and the cows that feed you according to Goodall.)

For those that want to turn us all green I say: the fault is certainly not ours… Cheetahs and the few Gazelles we are lucky enough to catch.

Now, if there were more Cheetahs, say hundreds of millions of us, there would not be so many of you, right?

But I am only a Cheetah, what do I know….

Bushdrums tell me that in the U.S. the 3 top Democratic  presidential hopefuls

addressed hundreds of bloggers today.

Yours truly was not invited.

Maybe because you cannot trust a Cheetah with politics, but let me tell you:

We never change spots!

We LOVE to hear from our visitors and supporters!

To us your words are the encouragement and incentive to strive harder towards our goal of beating extinction at the finish line.

Here’s another short excerpt of a recent letter received that we’d like to share:

If a picture tells a thousand words then those taken by your many visitors must fill entire storybooks already.

It’s so incredibly peaceful that it is dangerously easy to forget why “Iris’ Ark” was brought to life in the first place, but it is such a great encouragement to see that the majority of your visitors understand that these amazing creatures live there for so much more a reason than mere entertainment.

Thank you for allowing me to visit the Conservancy and Orphanage. I will treasure those days with Jane and “the guys” forever.

(signed) LILLY

And here is another letter:

I wanted to express my gratitude for Iris Hunt’s story about Mary the Elephant. I recently found this article as I was researching pictures of elephants on the internet for a painting.

When I first moved to Los Angeles a little over a year ago there was a photography show called Ashes and Snow. The photos are large sepia prints depicting the sacred relationship between animals and people. Beautiful pictures of elephants were among the first images I saw. The gallery was dark and full of people and suddenly I found myself crying looking at these elephants. This had never happened to me before and it was overwhelming. The photos of the other animals were also beautiful but every time I saw the elephants my eyes filled with tears. The feeling was of awe, sadness, and joy looking at them. Your story about Mary brought all of those emotions back for me to experience again.

Storytelling has always been important for human beings and good stories are of critical importance as our world is changing. Stories fertilize the imaginations of humanity and give us the freedom and strength to believe that we can accomplish anything. Thank you for sharing your true story, it inspires me.