March 2018: Saying Goodbye to Oscar & The Italians Arrive

It was, to no one's surprise, a busy month for us.

The hardest part of the month was saying goodbye to our dear Oscar.  As most of you know he was withdrawn from the Guide Dog program and we can only keep two "forever" dogs so we could not adopt Oscar.  Luckily GDA found him a perfect family who fell in love with him instantly.  He has moved to Johannesburg, has a big garden, a new Spaniel sister, twin teenage human siblings and a good life ahead.  Still, we miss him terribly.

Everytime I consider putting away Jagger's puppy bed he reminds me that he still loves to squeeze into it.

Maria has developed a full-blown obsession with "cootering." We go out most evenings on the golf cart path to practice.

Meet Alaska.  She needed a new Puppy Raiser as her first one had to return to work full-time.  I have taken over and we all fell instantly in love.  She is my first EVER girl dog. (7 months old here.)

Alaska meeting a cow.

Maria, Alaska & Playdough

A pool in a pool.

Many mornings I see the sunrise at Hedianga Farm with the dogs.

Student-Led Conference Day meant I got to do lots of activities with Maria in her 3 classrooms.

Our final few days with Oscar.  He and Alaska (left) had become very good friends.

The 3 Retrievers (l-r: Alaska, Oscar & Jagger)

Jasper's birthday blowout.  Check out the shark cake!

We were invited to celebrate the Iranian festival Chaharshanbe Suri with the wonderful Taj family.  This rice dish was one of many delicious plates on the table.

Part of the celebration involved fire jumping (a sort of purification ritual).  We all had fun taking part, especially Gio.

Color run at school.  Maria picked pink, of course.

Our dear Bruno had a health scare with a tumor removed from his chest.  

We are so happy to know all turned out to be benign, though he did have to endure 2 weeks of wearing a cone, something really challenging for a dog with such short legs!

Too many parties meant we found Gio like this one Saturday afternoon.   Pepper kept vigil.

Best friends spending a lazy Sunday together.

Our last weekend with Oscar.  I will miss the crowd who always keep me company in the bathroom!

And off Oscar went in his new family's card.  Go well, sweet boy.  How lucky they are to have you now.

Jagger and another therapy dog (Diva) are resting up before entering a rehab hospital.

Jagger working his charms.

Jagger and I qualified as a therapy dog team at this visit!

Pictures Oscar's family sent me of him in his new home.

I gave them his favorite bed so he could feel at home.

Maria's pre-K school photo.

Gio has developed a passion of the recorder.  Every time he masters a new song he gets a new "belt" (color of yarn).  

Gio won a tennis tournament!

I try to take Alaska on at least one outing each day.  On this day we went to quite a few places, beginning with the kids' dentist.

Sisterly support!

Next we headed to Bounce for the children's trampoline classes.  Alaska loved it!

Cone of shame.  After chewing off some of his sutures Bruno ended up in this.  He was NOT thrilled.

Alaska encouraging Jagger to do extra minutes on the treadmill.

Another evening, another "cooter" ride.

And then our 10 Italian guests arrived (all good friends from our town in Italy).  Maria IMMEDIATELY claimed 22-year-old Lele as her own.

We started our trip with our group at a private reserve just outside of Kruger.

Very first animal we spotted.  How I love them.

Most exciting sighting our first day was a large pack of wild dogs (at least 12 of them) feasting on an impala they had just killed.

Ready for another safari....

....well, sort of ready.  Not all of us made it all the way through.

After 2 nights at the reserve we drove into Kruger itself and stayed at Berg en Dal rest camp.  Maria missed quite a few of the animals as we drove for 6 hours in Kruger to reach our camp.

Our area (in the South West of Kruger) is well known for its rhinos.  We saw quite a few.  This fellow actually stood up and appeared to want to charge us but then collapsed back into his refreshing mud hole.  Phew!

Hippo butts.

We got frequent updates from the kennels where Jagger and Bruno were staying. They took such good care of Bruno as he healed from his surgery.

On the way to a bush braai our second evening in Kruger.  We ate under the stars outside of our rest camp which meant Gio had to have a ranger holding a gun walk with him the the toilet at one point! With dangerous animals around (buffalo, big cats, elephants, rhinos...), we had to be cautious!

Once we left Kruger we had a day-long drive to get to Mozambique. Maria took her nap very seriously.

Fancy visas for Moz!

Our home for the next 3 days- Ponta do Ouro in southern Mozambique.  Lots of seafood, beach walks and play in the waves.  Heaven!

Final breakfast before our drive back to South Africa.

Our final stop was St. Lucia.

Gio liked this restaurant since he was allowed to write on the walls.

It seems the second sign is maybe not necessary??

St Lucia is most famous for its huge population of hippos and we certainly saw our share!

Maria was more interested in being with her beloved Lele than seeing silly old hippos.

The St. Lucia dunes and estuary.

Our final day was spent at Cape Vidal.  

Italian men on the beach. Such a fun group this was.  

It was hard to leave!  On our drive out a large leopard walked right in front of our car.  So exciting. Sorry, it was just too sudden for me to capture a photo...

Our final dinner before returning to Pretoria.  Meat on a hanging skewer- a huge hit with everyone!

Maria does love young men.  Should I be concerned??

Another long day in the car, another sleep....

More on the trip in the April post....