This morning I got up, stammered to the kitchen to make that first cup of coffee. It's the one that just gets everything moving. So while waiting for the kettle to boil I decided to sit on the small balcony and watch one of my cats run around the rocks, doing what they always do, hunt, stalk, pounce and bring daddy the remains of whatever creature was unlucky enough to be in the way.
So there I am, watching Cas, the major hunter out of all of them, blend into the rocks and make herself as flat as possible. Interested, I decide to lean out to see exactly what she has her sights on... bird... lizard.... mouse? No! It's a dassie... rock rabbit.... rock hyrax! A rodent looking creature, about 3 times the size of Cas, and with a really pleasant and soft nature.
There's a family living in the rear of the property among the large rocks and boulders that make up most of the back garden. They are vegetarians and do not do any harm to anyone, other than leave a massive amount of poo in an overhang at the back. I often wonder if their poo is valuable like guano and if so, I am so in the money.
Well, the rock hyrax/dassie/rock rabbit is the closest living relative to the elephant and thus we like to call them Africa's smallest elephants. They are active in the early morning and late evening and their main predators being Black Eagles and Leopards. Luckily for them there are neither in my yard, only a small black and white cat with grand delusions of being a vicious, blood thirsty feline of the Panthera Pardus (Leopard) persuasion.
There are a lot of reasons why not to live here, but there are plenty more as to why you have to live here. As long as that outweighs the reasons not to, I'll stay right where I am.... Or until something better comes along.
