When 'Wild' comes to live inside!

My love for warthogs baffles most people, especially people who have no sense of humour! In the wild after a long day of game viewing, what is more entertaining than coming across a little family of lowly warthogs (after lion and cheetah sightings) . They drop to their little bony knees to forage.

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 Papa WARThog is handsome beyond words with those great knobbly growths on his face. He faces any danger defiantly, even a lioness, to protect his family. He leads the escape, tail held high, mama close behind him, tail also held high and behind come the three kids in hot pursuit....just dust in the predator's surprised face. So brave........so amusing!

My friend Ed is a lawyer but what saves him from being a nit picking boring person meshed in the ways of the law, is his sense of humour and his random acts of kindness.

He saved a baby warthog and Ed has topped my chart of great people for ever amen.

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The sad story isn't a pretty one. Briefly, the mother was hunted and eaten and her baby was seen running scared on Ed's farm by a staff member who reported it to Ed. 

Rescue mission sprang into action. The Landrover revved its engine and with some net arrangement in hand to facilitate the capture, the 'boys' tracked him down.

True, the little thing was traumatised but it is amazing what a warm drink of milk in a lamb's bottle and kind arms can do to soothe shattered nerves. Wally the Warthog became an institution on the farm called 'Haven'...........a fitting name for a wonderful place of refuge.

As a baby, Wally had the free run of the house and he became one with the pack of dogs. 

But he grew big, then bigger and finally he sported tusks and was enormous.The kitchen staff, catering for guests put their collective 'foot/feet' down and banned Wally from their area.....understandably so because he was not aware of the mud and flies that sometimes in the heat, trailed in with him.

But, Wally was not a clever warthog for nothing. Skills he would have used in the wild came in handy, adapted for house invasion techniques! 

The kitchen combined with a large friendly open plan dining room which could seat 10 people for a farmhouse breakfast, left Wally cold but what did warm his heart was the large cushioned sofa whose back was towards the working area of the kitchen. Ha! He used all his sneaky bush skills and after edging the back door open with his tough snout, he would wait until everyone was busy cooking up a storm or out picking fruit or herbs or something and crawl in on his belly and edge around the frill of the sofa, half hidden by the folds of fabric. He would wait for the dreaded word "OUT!!!" but sometimes if he lay 'doggo' for long enough he could gradually, inch by inch ease his hairy, warty, tusky bulk into the heavenly comfort of the fat cushions of the couch. 

It was only his snores or the squeal of a very surprised guest that alerted Maggie or Daisy in the kitchen to the unhygienic intruder and much waving of dishcloths, aprons and yells of "OUT OUT!" would ruin his midday snooze.

He did however become a major attraction on the guest farm called 'Haven' and many an overseas guest raved about having had breakfast with Wally a wild animal! .....with photographs to back up their outlandish claims.

I was only one of many locals who did exactly that. Wally still has a warm spot in my heart.

He eventually had a small cross on the hillside giving him his final resting place 'in the wild'.

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Rest in Peace Wally. 

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