Nature of the Lion
Page 33
But Ndhlovy didn’t follow.
‘Come on, baby. Up you come,’ he said.
The elephant looked around, her ears flapping, the white of her eyes clearly visible.
‘Trust me,’ Joss pleaded.
The men went to move behind the elephant, as if herding cattle.
The elephant turned towards the threat, ears flapping, her little trunk high in the air.
‘Stand back!’ Bongani shouted.
The men retreated from the threat of the elephant charging them.
Joss came back down the ramp and stood in front of Ndhlovy.
Bongani said, ‘Slowly-slowly. Wait for Joss to get her to start up the ramp. Joss, get her to move around again. We are about to lose all the light. As it is we only have one torch to shine the way for the donkeys.’
‘Come on, beautiful, come with me,’ Joss said as he took her trunk in his hand once again and patted it. ‘Come on, turn around, that’s it. Just walk with me, that’s it.’
The baby elephant slowly plodded up the slope, sticking close to Joss, as if all the bluster she had shown in her mock charge had sapped her energy.
Joss walked to the front of the trailer. ‘Okay. You can close up and climb inside. Ndhlovy’s real scared.’
One by one, the men climbed up and into the cart. Holding out their arms, they touched the elephant, and braced themselves against the edge of the trailer to help cushion the ride.
The moon had risen and the bright stars watched from the inky heavens by the time they had driven through the village and down to Yingwe River Lodge. When they arrived, Ndhlovy backed herself off the trailer without incident and walked into the stables behind Joss. She showed no bravado, just stayed close to him, as if he were now her lifeline.
The ridgebacks arrived before Joss’s mum. Ringo, Paul and John came into the stable, their hackles up, but George remained close at his mistress’s side.
‘Enough. Outside,’ Joss instructed and pointed. The dogs immediately went outside. His mum made her entrance within moments of her dogs being banished and although they danced at the gate, they stayed out of the stable.
‘So what have you brought home this time, Joss Brennan?’ she asked.
‘An orphan elephant. Bongani thinks her herd left her behind, or they got separated somehow … she was on the border of Chete. She’s weak—’
Leslie Brennan walked further into the stable and knelt in the straw. ‘Hello, young one,’ she said quietly and reached her hand out to the little elephant, who was now lying in the thick straw that Bongani had had the groom prepare.
The dogs whined.
‘Stay outside,’ she instructed. They lay down quietly near the door. ‘Does she have any injuries?’
‘No, Mum. Not that I could find. She’s just weak and tired,’ Joss said, still holding Ndhlovy’s trunk.
‘She needs some nourishment and something to drink. Mossman, go warm up some calf formula. Let’s see if she will take a bottle. I know nothing about baby ellies but I can call around and find out who does.’ She pulled her hair back with her hands and held it there, before letting it go. When it fell forward again, she tucked her long fringe behind her ear. ‘Bongani, make sure there’s someone guarding this little one all night. Armed, in case the leopards decide she’s an easy dinner. Get a few of the horse blankets in here to keep her warm too.’ She stroked the elephant’s trunk as men ran to do as she’d instructed. ‘Have you given her a name yet?’
Joss nodded. ‘Ndhlovy.’
‘It’s a nice name. So, let’s get her on her feet and better. Then we will find out what ZimParks want us to do.’
‘Thanks, Mum,’ Joss said. He knew that his mum would always allow him to keep the strays he brought in. The Egyptian geese babies she’d helped raise until they flew away with the migrating birds were regulars at the small dam they had for water at the safari lodge, nesting and raising their own goslings, bringing them to the house to introduce them, and then returning to their wild life, a tiny part of their hearts always with their human family.
Or the tortoises that were kept in a large brick pen by the house. Each had been brought in with an injury – one was missing a leg completely. His mother had sprayed the wound with gentian violet and it had healed over. Although the tortoise would never win a race, it was alive and happy. Joss had wild birds mixed in with his racing pigeons too, those that could never be returned to the wild because of some injury or another. But not nearly as many as his mother had treated and nursed back to health before setting them free again. From birds to baby duikers, now to an elephant, his mum would raise any animal and claim that it belonged to her child, even though her son was at boarding school most of the year.
His father, on the other hand, was always reminding them that the safari lodge was established as a gateway to Lake Kariba, that it wasn’t a zoo, and the animals could only stay until they were well enough, then they had to leave. It was survival of the fittest in the real world, and because he’d once been a head ranger in the Chizarira, Joss knew that he understood all about animals, but he just didn’t seem to want to take care of them like Joss and his mum did.
Joss chewed his lip, not sure how his father would react to the elephant baby. He remembered that last year a rogue elephant had come from the park and destroyed the village’s vegetable patch and flattened their moringa tree seedlings. It had uprooted trees on its way to their village and had even torn a roof from one of the ikhayas. When they had attempted to drive it back into the Chete Safari Area by beating feed tins and hitting metal plough disks, the jumbo had become aggressive and mauled one of the villagers.
His dad had got permission from ZimParks to shoot it.
Joss had thought that perhaps it was just a hungry animal and if they left it alone, it might have walked back into the safari area, then into the national park itself. He didn’t think it was a pest until they frightened it.
Joss didn’t want his ellie to land up like that – shot and in someone’s cooking pot.
What his father would say when he got home was going to be interesting, but first, they had to make sure the baby lived. He would worry about his dad’s reaction later.
Mossman returned with a bottle of warm milk, and Joss watched while his mum teased the baby into taking the teat into her mouth. But Ndhlovy refused to drink from it.
‘You try, Joss. She seems to already trust you.’ Leslie gave him the bottle.
‘Come on, Ndhlovy, you need the milk, you need to drink it.’ He dribbled a little like his mother had on the elephant’s lips tucked up underneath her trunk, and the little trunk made room for the bottle, arching and resting on Joss’s arm as she attempted to suck on the teat with her lips.
‘That’s it,’ Leslie said, ‘come on, baby.’
Ndhlovy latched on to the teat and began to drink.
‘Perfect. Step one accomplished,’ Leslie said. ‘If she takes milk, we can get her stronger.’
‘How often do you think she will need a bottle?’ Joss asked.
‘Probably every few hours, although she doesn’t seem to be a newborn; she’s already well over a metre tall. Let’s start at two hours, because she’s weak and in need of hydration. Mossman, add extra calf supplement in the next feed, double mix.’
Mossman nodded.
‘Right. Let me get on the phone to Rodger, see what tips he has. Don’t get your hopes up, Joss. She could still die.’
Joss shook his head. ‘We can’t let that happen, Mum.’
Leslie put her arms around his shoulders as he fed the baby elephant. ‘We’ll try everything we can. Perhaps if we can just get her well again, you and Bongani can take her back into the reserve, and find her a herd to live with. I don’t know if she will be adopted back smelling of humans, but it’s worth a try. I don’t know how long an elephant baby stays with its mum, but I know it’s a long time. I remember watching a documentary where a herd adopted a calf when its mother died … we can only try.’
Joss
said, ‘Will you make sure Dad doesn’t shoot it when he gets home from Durban?’
‘I’ll talk to him about it, but you know his view on orphaned animals.’
‘I don’t understand why he hates animals so much.’
She let go of Joss and straightened up, arching her back to stretch it. ‘Oh, Joss, he doesn’t hate animals, he just doesn’t see them as pets. Remember, he was a ranger, and he is a hunter. At the end of the day, he worries that he needs to put food on everyone’s plates. Make a decent living. Lots of people rely on him for their wages too. The boys here at the lodge need to be paid so their families can buy food and attend school. The villagers need their cut from the lodge so that they can eat and survive. It’s not just you who needs your dad’s income to be educated and healthy.’
‘It’s just one elephant, Mum,’ Joss said. ‘One little elephant.’
‘That will grow huge. Now, we don’t need to make any decisions tonight. Let’s just get her better, make sure she survives. Then we’ll deal with the rest. How does that sound?’
‘Can I stay here with my ellie tonight?’
‘Sure. I’ll bring you some dinner and a sleeping bag, and I’ll leave Ringo behind. He can sleep inside the stable with you. That way if a leopard even puts its nose into the area, he’ll wake you and Bongani up.’
‘Thanks, Mum,’ Joss said as Ndhlovy finished the milk in the bottle.
‘I’ll see you just now,’ she said as she kissed his forehead. Once outside she said, ‘Ringo, inside, sit. Stay with Joss.’
The dog leapt to his feet and walked into the stable. Still not sure of the elephant, he approached with caution, but Joss called him to his side.
‘Come on, Ringo. Meet Ndhlovy.’
As the dog sniffed the elephant, his tail began to wag. He settled in next to the pachyderm, licking her every now and again in a reassuring way.
Ndhlovy didn’t seem to mind the ridgeback next to her, and touched him with her trunk.
‘Well, look at that,’ Leslie said. ‘Anyone would think those two were long-time friends.’
Joss smiled. ‘You know what, Mum, when I’m old like you, and I’m a Royal British Marine, I can save as many people and animals as I like, and I won’t need anyone to watch over me at night, not Ringo nor Bongani.’
‘True, but then you’ll be an adult, and you will be looking after everything you save, down to every last detail, like all the phone calls, getting all the right food, having enough money to enable you to do that saving, and dealing with all the authorities and their different points of view – and don’t forget the local community; they want their say too. It’s never a simple rescue, Joss, there are always more things in the background that need to be sorted out that as a kid you don’t need to worry about. Enjoy your time with Ndhlovy while you have her. Hopefully she’ll be able to go back into the Chizarira soon and live her own life too. Don’t rush this time away, my son, it’s not as great as it looks to be on this side of the fence, being that adult responsible for others.’
ISBN: 9781489260895
TITLE: NATURE OF THE LION
First Australian Publication 2018
Copyright © 2018 T. M. Clark
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