At our house in Dar, we have a relatively big yard. In front, there's the playhouse, a dozen palm trees, and the driveway leading to the gate. In the back is where we grow our vegetables and certain spices. When the season is right, I have enough eggplants and tomatoes to feed the whole neighborhood.
Obviously, there is the main building, the house, in the middle of the property. There is a guard shack plus a shower/toilet, plus the water tank. A little hut houses the generator, next to that is a water barrel that I use to catch water with during the rainy season. It is positioned beneath the roof and fills up quickly. I could have a 2 or 3,000 liter barrel filled up with one good rain here. During March and April alone, you can expect up to 20 (!) inches of rain here.
It's a sizable yard by anybody's standard. Before the dogs, we received all sorts if visitors. Stray cats, ferrets, snakes, you name it. The only safe animals here are the crows, known for being invasive, as long as they remain in the trees. The presence of the dogs put an end to the registry log around here. The dogs don't take well to visiting animals. Although in their hearts they are playful puppy dogs, it only takes a stray animal to bring out the African wild dogs in them. Then they hunt to kill. Too many strays here have learned that lesson the hard way.
A few months ago, I remember a three foot snake, probably a mamba, scurrying to safety over the wall once it realized it had picked the wrong yard to go hunting. It just barely made it over. I don't think I have ever seen a snake move that quickly. Other times, it's cats. The kitties will scamper up a tree and try to wait out the dogs. That's a dangerous undertaking, to put it mildly. Once the cat becomes tired or hungry, it will either run for the wall or wait until the dogs are tied down for whatever reason.
I remember our yard in Kathmandu, which seemed to attract the most interesting visitors. We didn't have any dogs back then, so the mongooses, reptiles, strays, and monkeys helped themselves. Even the Ginger Cat could only fend off so many intruders. We clearly recall the time she was nearly killed by a mongoose during their mating season. And there were the monkeys, of course. They terrorized everything that moved. I remember the domestic staff barricading themselves inside the house to escape from them.
When the dogs find anything in the yard (which they will; how could you not with that nose?), they bark aggressively. It is one thing to be barking at guests or stray dogs on the other side of the gate. It's actually kind of funny, hearing their duet at times. Ginger will snap out a short series of barks while Fred will accompany her by emitting this long howl. That's the Ginger and Fred duet. This is not the same song-and-dance they greet intruders with.
So the dogs are tied down as we are expecting Liebi's return from work. The next thing I remember is all hell breaking loose. This doesn't sound like the dogs barking at the odd stray cat or a crow swooping in to partake in their meals. Here it sounds like they are barking at an entire zoo. Their voices are tripping over each other and comes in three levels: loud, louder, and manic. There is something in the tree.
Looking more closely, I see a good sized monkey shaking the branches above the playhouse. Being tied down, the dogs can't get to it, which the monkey seems to notice. The monkey remains in the tree and goes on a leisurely stroll across the property. Eventually, the monkey vanishes, but not before performing a tightrope act along the electric wire that separates our house from the neighbors'.
In cases like these, you have to feel for the monkey. The guy was probably expelled from the troop, so he now has to fend for himself. Hard to calculate just how long he might last on his own. Having that type of brain capacity helps. That said, even if the monkey does survive, his will be a lonely existence, unless he can find another troop to take him in.
Two years in, our first monkey in the yard. Very unusual here in Dar. A fluke, perhaps, and a good opportunity for the dogs to hone their vocal skills.
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