A Tale of 2 Dogs, An Otter and a Goat

 

Oudju, the fierce Jack Russel

Our 3^rd night in Namibia took us to a campsite called Shamvura, which means “the place which rain can be seen” and is located off the Okavango River, just west of the Namibian panhandle right on the southern border of Angola. It’s a very sleepy, quiet area, with no big wildlife to speak of except for birds, hippos and crocodiles.  But this was a good way to break up our drive of roughly 600 miles between Kwando and Etosha National Park.  And so, we arrived to a very old-fashioned cabin area called Shamvura and was immediately greeted by a Jack Russell named Oudju, who didn’t take too kindly to us parking on her territory.  Her owner, Charlie, greeted us shortly thereafter and assured us Oudju was harmless.  She showed us around, surprising us with the news that since their campsite area was double booked, we were being upgraded to a cabin with a kitchenette and 2 bedrooms!  Yay!!

Tunsie, the Weimaraner

We could tell this place was going to be verrrry different from the last areas we'd stayed, especially as we were signing in she apologized for her registration form not being available as it had recently been eaten by a goat.   We walked around a little bit to orientate ourselves, and soon met their Weimaraner, Tunsie.  Charlie showed us their dining room/sitting room area, where we were promptly greeted through the window by Bokkie Spit Braai, an 8 year old goat that evidently was given to Charlie and her husband Mark some time ago as a “Christmas dinner” but they didn’t have the heart to make him their meal. And Bokkie was only too happy to have us pet him...like a dog.   

And strange as this might sound, it seemed perfectly normal: surrounding the gorgeous lake was this property and its inhabitants that happened to include some chickens, dogs, a cat and a goat.  Oh, and a month-old Clawless Water Otter.  

The sweet Clawless Water Otter

Yep, Charlie and her husband find themselves fostering from time to time Clawless Water Otters who've been abandoned or orphaned by their mother.  They tend to take care of them for up to 7 or 8 years until the otter decides to venture back out into the wild.  The current one they have (whom none of us can remember her name, I'm sad to say!!) is such a sweet, young, baby-like little creature.  When she wakes up and is trying to go back to sleep, she makes the sweetest grunting noise in the back of her throat, all the while rubbing her butt from side to side as if to get comfortable.  And her fingers!  Her fingers are like human fingers: she has opposable thumbs and 4 human-looking fingers that grab around your fingers as she gently and playfully gnaws on your hand.  And when she's ready for sleepy time, she curls up into a little ball, puts her hands around her face and sighs peacefully.

Amazingly awesome.

 

Hippo sighting on our sunset cruise

Just another gorgeous sunset

This was by far the most entertaining evening we’ve had yet.  After a leisurely afternoon laying in our comfortable cabin, we went for a sunset cruise on the Okavango River to look for hippos and crocodiles.  It was so beautiful and once again, tranquil and peaceful.  Once the sun had set we made our way back to the cabin for a quick cleanup and cocktail, and headed into the main room/dining room for dinner.  We had signed on for a sit-down dinner, which was cooked and served by Charlie and Mark.  We found ourselves sitting outside in front of the campfire, sipping wine and chatting with another camp guest, while the goat, Bokkie Spit Braai, quietly sat next to you, waiting to be petted.

This goat was so funny.  He acted like a dog, needing attention from anyone who would give it to him.  He actually wanted to be petted like a dog.  And once you started, you were committed to petting him forever.  But if you bothered him, he would go into serious aggressive goat attitude-he even tried to horn me earlier in the day!  Luckily for me, he didn't do it quickly or violently, but rather clumsily and not seemingly very interested in physically hurting me, so I was able to unhook myself away from him.  The rest of the time he was the perfect gentleman.  A goat.  Being the perfect gentleman.  In a house.  

Strange as it sounds, it was so...fitting.

Matt with his new best friend...

The main sitting room (Bokkie's Chair is the one on the left)

Dinner was even more entertaining.  We had what we’ve been told (and so far, in our experience, is the truth), traditional South African food: meat (game, in this case: some sort of bok or “buck” in English) and Boerwoerse (Bratwurst), cooked over the campfire, potatoes or rice and nshimi, which is like grits, but waaay firmer and more flavorful (remember the ads on tv about feeding the Ethiopian kids and you saw them eating something white?  That’s nshimi) and salad greens.  The food was absolutely delicious.  None of us had a problem with devouring our plates.  But the animals, 2 dogs, a clawless water otter and a goat, who obviously learned a thing or two about the deliciousness of human food, would not leave us alone.  The goat was told to “go sit in his chair” (which he did, haphazardly), the dogs were told to get out of the room (which they did, sheepishly), and the otter, well, the otter just got to sit under our feet and make her sweet whimpering noise.  You can tell who runs the pants in THAT family. :)

The kitchen/dining room

After we finished our dinner, the animals were allowed to help “cleanup”: the dogs got the bones, the goat got the scraps, and the otter got cuddles from us.  I’m the biggest animal lover I know, and even this awed me to silence that so many different animals could coexist together in such a small area without issue.  And watching Charlie and Mark handle these animals like you would children made it even more entertaining.  Because the animals listened to them.

Of course, we couldn’t be finished for the night with just these 2 dogs, otter and goat.  Sure enough, at one point Mark either heard or spotted an owl in the trees, to which we all eagerly went out to stare at while he shined a huge bright light in his eyes (the owl remained unphased by this), and at the end of dinner, we met the cat, Weatherby, named so after the gun.  Again an animal not meant to stick around Shamvura as Mark clearly informed us he is not a cat person, Weatherby found his way into Mark's heart as Mark was about to, er, um, well, let's just say make Weatherby disappear when he first entered the area as a wee kitten (Mark and Charlie can't have strays running around as there are so many that are rabid or otherwise diseased, so Mark has to shoot them if they come to their property).  But this little kitten looked into Mark's eyes and started to purr and love on him, and well, Mark just couldn't go through with it.  Instead, he sat the cat on the table and had a very stern talk with him that if Weatherby ever, ever, killed a bird, he would be fish food (Mark's first passion is bird watching).  If he behaved himself, he would always be welcome at Shamvura.  And so, he was named Weatherby to remind him of his responsibility in the house (as every person or animal has a job to do, Mark tells me).  The cat has lived there for 3 years.  And so far, he's kept up his half of the bargain.

By this point I’ve about gone into animal overload and I just can’t help myself in giving love and cuddles to each animal I come across.  Tunsie was for sure all about the affection, as was Bokkie, and even the otter liked getting petted and let me hold her.  But we finally managed to pull ourselves away for the night as we had a verrry early start the next morning to Etosha National Park-some 400 miles away from us.  So we said goodnight to Tunsie, Oudju, Bokkie, the otter and Weatherby.  Oh, and then we said goodnight to Mark and Charlie.  :)

As far as memorable nights go in our travels across Africa, I am positive this evening will stay fresh in our minds for a long time.  I mean, seriously, when was the last time YOU had dinner with a water otter and a goat?

Bokkie doing the post dinner cleanup!