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On our day-long quest in Chobe for elephants, we nearly turned up empty on the elephants, but we did see a lot of other animals. These silly warthog piglets were a little more afraid of our safari truck than their mama – the high-tailed to the other side of mama when we drove by.
These are, by far, my favorite zebra pictures from our entire trip. We stumbled upon them while driving around looking for the big cats one morning at Kwara. We were closer to them than anywhere else.
The cattle egrets look like friends of the zebras, though they really are just capitalizing on the fact that the zebras kick up a lot of bugs as they walk through the grass.
While we were watching this dignified cat, he decided to roll over, and I was lucky enough to capture a few shots of his belly.
The evening of our full day in Nxai Pan, we found a couple of kori bustards – the national bird of Botswana. Our guide explained that there were a few birds up for that honor, and the kitty bustards was chosen because of it’s association with royalty. It was generally reserved for the chief’s table. It is also the largest flying bird native to Africa.
Zephyr crossed over the rainbow bridge today. We’re not sure how old he was – we’ve had him for almost 6 years, and he may have been 5 years or older when we brought him home. We were certainly expecting him to be part of our family for longer than 6 years, but I’m so glad he picked us for his forever home.
When we first got him, it was clear he’d had some hard times. He had some kind of eye injury that caused his eye to water frequently – we tried to treat it several times, but could only alleviate the problem, not get rid of it. He also had a chipped canine tooth. We finally removed that tooth, but only when it was clear it was giving him problems – our vet didn’t believe in doing unnecessary surgery.
Despite all that, he was a very cuddly guy. He fit right in at our house, finding his place first with Aurora and Artemis, and then as we added Maia, lost Artemis, and brought in Sirius. He was always easy-going, mostly just looking for a comfy pillow or warm beam of sunshine.
Zephyr on his first day in our house
Inauspicious beginning
In early 2012, we were in search of a black cat – our house felt a bit empty because we had lost Duncan and Ares in 2011. We had just Aurora (the dog) and Artemis (the cat) at that point. The search took us to an adoption event at the PetSmart in Tyson’s Corner in search of “Pinwheel.” We found him at the event, and the rescue volunteer let us hold him to get to know him a bit. Before too long, he took a swipe at me! The volunteer was horrified, telling us that he wasn’t usually like that and that his foster family had no issues with him. I didn’t mind – he had been in a cage all day with people gawking, kids poking, and dogs walking by. Of course he was cranky. I was in love and he came home with us.
Zephyr and Aurora in the kitchen
He let me sniff him!
Our first introductions between Aurora and Zephyr were done with her on a leash until we were comfortable that she wasn’t going to go after him. The first time we allowed them together with her unleashed, he walked right past her. She sniffed his butt and then looked up at us as if to say, “Hey, this one is letting me sniff him!” He was the first of our cats who didn’t seem to mind Aurora. They didn’t exactly become friends, but they also didn’t actively avoid each other like our other cats.
Zephyr’s tongue
What a talker
We were warned by the rescue that Zephyr was a bit of a talker, but they really couldn’t prepare us for how much he liked to talk! Until the last few months, he was terrible at sneaking up on anyone because he would announce his presence! I found the best way to deal with it was to just talk back 🙂
And it wasn’t just with us. Whenever someone new would come in the house, he would have to check them out and announce his presence loudly.
Zephyr conquering my leg
Pet me!
He was fairly sure that a human’s purpose was to pet him. If a person wasn’t petting him when they should, he would let them know. We weren’t the best at clipping his claws, which he would use to his advantage. His usual tactic was to put his paws on your leg and ejecting his sharp claws until you pet him. And, of course, it wasn’t just Andrew and me who were object of his demands, but anyone in the house.
Sirius and Zephyr almost getting along
Curly ribbon
He was already older when we got him, so he wasn’t too big on toys and running around. However, we did have one toy that could get him going for a little while – it was one of those toys on a stick, where the toy looked like curled ribbon. I could walk around the house for several minutes, and he would follow trying to get at that pesky ribbon.
Snuggly Zephyr
Prowling in the great outdoors
The one thing Zephyr did love, even this morning after his body had started shutting down, was to prowl in the backyard. We would put a leash and harness on him and walk around. Eating grass was a favorite, but he also just liked walking around, watching, and experiencing all the things. We took him out this morning, and Andrew grabbed a number of pictures – a few memories of my guy doing his favorite thing.
Prowling Zephyr
Zephyr versus the branch
The house is going to feel quiet without him. And I’m not sure where I’ll get my kitty-cuddles from anymore…Sirius has chosen Andrew as his person, and Maia isn’t much for cuddling.
Adoption date: January 14, 2012
Names: Zephyr, Zeph, Mr. Pants, Big Guy
Favorite feature: He had a tiny patch of white on his chest that looked like a little tie.
Known for: Talking all the time, snuggling
One of the big groups of elephants we found at Chobe had a couple of babies – this one stepped under its mama to nurse for a quick minute.
We spied this handsome reedbuck on our of our evening drives at Pom Pom Camp. We were told that reedbuck are designed for hiding in the reeds along the side of the water. They are good at jumping, and can bounce off crocodiles, so they don’t worry about hanging out along the side of the water. I have no idea of this is true, but sounded good to me!
Off to the right, that’s a termite mound, which is exactly what it sounds like. I have no desire to get close enough to figure out if it’s an active mound or not.
On our first full day drive in Chobe, we spied a group of giraffes. I was constantly surprised by how they were both taller than I expected and not as tall as I expected. This beauty was right where I expected – just above the nearby tree!
We just bought the Omens of the Deep expansion for Elder Sign, so I thought I’d try that for my Elder Sign solo play through. Omens of the Deep is another story-driven expansion with new adventure cards, new entrance, and the addition of missions (which are tossed in with the original monsters) and Deep Ones Legion monsters which are spawned separately from the regular monsters.
In this expansion, the investigators are on a ship, trying to prevent the awakening of the ancient one. The expansion has some cool stickers to keep and collect and more importantly new adventure cards. As with other recent expansions the game is played in two phases; in the first phase, the investigators are seeking out the pieces of a broken amulet and advancing an omen token. In the second phase, the investigators concentrate on getting elder signs and preventing the ancient one from awakening.
In the solo game, it’s not clear if I should just play one investigator or more, so I played a couple of different ways – once with two investigators, once with three, and once with four. I played that if I lost an investigator, I added a doom token to the doom track and did not replace the investigator.
This expansion is HARD. I played three times, losing each time with only a handful of elder signs. I think I needed to concentrate on moving to phase 2 faster, but it’s not easy when you are just trying to keep your investigators alive. It feels like there are a lot more “sanity” penalties in this one than “stamina”, making high sanity characters much more desirable.
In the solo play-through, I miss the player interaction, and it feels like an awful lot of set up just for one person to play. However, I enjoyed it enough to play through three times, so I guess I couldn’t have been overly annoyed.
The leopards we saw were…um…in the midst of an extended intimate encounter. However, between each session, they would separate and rest. The rest wouldn’t last long, but it was long enough to snap some pictures of them looking relaxed.
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