This was a hard month. Bruno's health faded as his congestive heart failure intensified. His lungs filled with fluids and his kidneys began to fail. By the end of the month we had to put him down. This was a devastating loss for all of us but most of all for Gio. He was very brave and took very good care of Bruno right up until the day he died. As a distraction we went to Masai Mara- our first time leaving Nairobi in 4 months....
Waffles after riding. Perfect Day.
Pride Day Parade with best friend.
A very fancy birthday party!
Gio and I have begun running together. He is up to 37 minutes!
Waiting for her lesson.
A Saturday morning at Nairobi National Park (only 20 min from our house!)...
Hippo Life
An old lion strolling along the road next to us.
An early birthday gift from Nonna Zurn!
Poor Gioia in her cone thanks to a hot spot on her left hip.
A post-ride nap.
Holly Sweet Potato!
Discovered a hidden tennis court in our estate. The children began lessons with a new coach and are excited to be back to tennis.
Difficult last days with our beloved Bruno.
We lost dear Bruno on July 24th.
We booked last minute to go on safari in Masai Mara to get Gio out of the house for a few days.
The mornings were cold...
...but beautiful!
This was my favorite scene of the entire safari-
lions defending their zebra kill from hyenas.
Terrifying but I still love them. Check out that tusk on the big one!
It was lion mating season.
We have never seen so many lions than on this trip!
And so many elephants including many small babies....
Telling our tent guard about all she saw today. We had guards to walk us between our two tents as the bog to the right was filled with hippos!
We came back to camp one day and had to wait a bit to sit down for lunch!
She even went to visit the kitchen!
We saw 1000s of wildebeest. It was migration season for them and the zebras. The big draw was to see river crossings but we decided the massacre by the crocodiles would have been too traumatic Maria who adores zebras. I was relieved to miss it also.
This fellow had clearly gotten into a fight. We found him alone one evening. The next morning he had reunited with his brother which comforted me.
Yawn captured by Gio.
Hanging out with the crowd.
At the Tanzanian border....
And then we were back in Nairobi and Maria immediately back in the saddle- now riding Cherry.
Fly free, dear Bruno.
Thank you for all of the joy you brought to our family.
