Melting Hearts.

Life is precious and it may not always seem easy, but it is full of people and circumstances which will teach you lessons.I was once told that wherever you are in life, you are in the right place, it was meant to be, even though it might not seem it at the time. I have to say being holed up with flu and an infection doesn't exactly feel like my right place right now, but maybe I just needed a few days out.

The people you meet, they all come with love or a lesson and then there are some who are a little more confusing than that, friends, family and foes. There are some souls who will steal more love then they could ever reciprocate and then some souls steal your heart.

I bond with people fairly quickly, I start to care very quickly. I bond with animals even quicker, so when I was given the care of two baby antelope Chitatu-duiker and Chennai-impala after the vet left through unfortunate circumstances, I guess that went into overdrive a little. They were part of my three rounds a day and I was there for feeding and other duties including to satiate their social grooming habits. My arms have never been so clean ;) My experiences with them has left an imprint with me. Chitatu was a little coy and Chennai was very playful, both were exceptionally loveable.

Chitatu seemed strong from the word go and even a few weeks later Chennai seemed to fair well despite his unfortunate circumstances. His mother died just after he was born, he was found and brought into the sanctuary, but there are problems with husbandry of this sort. Baby antelope require a very specific formulae with nutrients not always provided by cows milk or other human baby formulae, so putting that together with the stress he must have suffered is likely to have lessoned his chances of survival.

Around a week and a half later, Chennai started to suffer seizures. He developed diarrhoea and severe dehydration, although he was still making an attempt to eat and drink. The day before we took him to the vets, it was agreed that I could take him back to the house, (stranger things had happened on this project), so we could keep a closer eye on him and give him regular hydration.

By morning he was fitting severely and couldn't stand, three of us and a wrapped up Chennai were bundled into the land cruiser and rushing to the university vets. I was left there alone with Chennai and several student vets and a tutor who were working hard to stabilize and re-hydrate him. I'm not a vet, so in this instance all I could do was be there to try and settle him and let the students get on with their work.

Eventually after an hour the fits subsided and I began to think there was hope. The vets went off to take lunch and I stayed with Chennai. They had kindly bought me a lunch of nsheema and liver, I couldn't really say much, so I picked at the nsheema looking eager and bundled it away into my bag when they left.What's a vegetarian to do?

During lunch unfortunately Chennai started to develop breathing difficulties, it was almost like he was choking. It was terrible to watch and although there are a few things I'm confident with when dealing with people, under these circumstances I was not. Two minutes before the vet came back into the room a tear left Chennai's eye, trickling down his left cheek. I think the vet knew that there was only a few precious breaths left in him as he came into the room. He apologised and knowingly said there's only so much we can do.
He said I could spend some time with him if I wished. It was a rather bleak day.

Chitatu is still doing well twelve months on and Chennai will always be a special little dude here or not.

A sketch I did several months ago.
Chennai - Pastel and pencil on black paper.