Dikhololo

Contrary to popular belief, we have not spent our ENTIRE month staring at our puppies - just most of it! For the rest, we have had my sister Heidi and her kids out from the UAE, and have actually been doing quite a few activities (Science Museum, Lion and Rhino Park, the Vaal, a day at Mount Grace spa (Heidi and I only!!) etc).

But, a highlight of her time here was our week at Dikhololo, which is a Nature Reserve outside Brits. Another highlight was that Heidi's husband, Darrell, flew out for the week as a complete surprise to everyone!

As it is a Nature Reserve, we were able to go for long bike rides through the reserve, and come within metres of giraffe. kudu, impala, eland etc while on our bikes. Quite an awesome experience! There were 14 of us who went out on bikes each morning - all from the same family (my brother Bruce, and his 3 kids, Heidi and Darrell and their three, Carl and I and our two, and my Dad!). Many passers-by thought we were a church group! Last year, we had no Darrell or Carl, and we were very cross with ourselves for not telling interested parties that we were actually a Mormon family and Charmaine, Heidi and I were Bruce's three wives! Darn! This year, there were too many husbands to get away with that story!

Other than the bike rides, we enjoyed the heated super-tube, and heated indoor pool, putt-putt, tennis, walks, birding, reading etc etc.

I highly recommend Dikhololo as a fabulous family getaway! Thanks to mom and dad who made the whole thing possible! Needless to say, we took up a lot of chalets!

TOO MUCH POOP!!!

Yes, Trixie is officially no longer our very handy poop scoop! I am! However, after an innocent conversation with my friend Katy about her mom's puppies being in a pen in the garden, a light bulb went on in my head, and yesterday, it was action stations at our house! Megan and I went to fetch a spare kennel from my folks, and some mesh from the Hardware store, while Carl and Ali went to buy some ready-to-lay grass. We then converted one of my future vegetable garden patches into an outdoor playpen for puppies! Hurray! They seem to be getting the hang of this pooping on the grass thing! We do bring them in over night, but it has halved the mess!

Puppies are now 4 weeks!

After our very sad week last week, I have to report to you that our 5 remaining puppies are just getting CUTER and CUTER!! It is incredible that in just one week, each pup is now mobile, starting to eat solids (hurrah, I can hear Trixie cry!), and getting a personality (or is it doganality???) of their own! Poor Trixie is no longer just a feeding/poop cleaning machine anymore, she is now officially a TOY! With many nice bits to chew on - ears, teats, legs etc. Not to mention all the chewing/play fighting amongst the puppies themselves. There is no respect for the sleeping - if one wants to play, they all play! However, there is a great flurry for about 5 minutes, and then they all crash!

Of course, there are down sides to this stage... Trixie is simply not keeping up with all the mess created by these growing 5, and so much cleaning/replacing of newspaper is required by us!

Our biggest baby, Thatu, now weighs 1.24kg! Well done Trixie!

I am also happy to report that we are over-subscribed for homes for them (us being one of them - Megan has chosen Gemma for her own)!

A very sad day

As you should know by now, if you've been following our blog recently, Trixie had 6 of the most beautiful puppies ever born.

Tragically, one little girl, Wesidudla, died yesterday, after falling off my niece's lap. It was very traumatic for everyone - I was by myself with the kids so had to load all 4 kids into car, plus puppy and race to the vet. Unfortunately, she was already dead by the time we got there. As to the exact details, it's hard to say, but it is just one of those awful, unexplainable accidents. I am torturing myself with 'if only I had' or 'if only I hadn't', which is no real help to anyone, as it doesn't change anything.
As you can see from this photo, she was really deserving of her name 'hey fatty'!!

Anyway, we are still blessed to still have our 5, who are growing and thriving!

Mitzvah Matric Dance

Carl and I attended the Matric Dance for the school at which I teach, The Mitzvah School, on Saturday night. For those of you who don't know, it is a school for underprivileged students (sorry, lenners), from Alexandra Township, started up, and mainly sponsored by the Jewish Community (hence the name, Mitzvah, which actually means 'good deed'). This Matric Dance is a highlight of their year, and even the poorest students manage to find the money to come along. The school has a cupboard groaning with donated evening dresses, suits, shoes and bags, so the pupils can get a stunning outfit for free, and return it once the dance is over. All the pupils transform from Cinderella's and Frogs into handsome Princesses and Princes! Honestly, the transformation is remarkable (esp since half of them wear wigs or have their hair braided for the night and it is so difficult to recognise them!!).
The amazing thing about the dance, and which is why I am bothering to write about it on my blog, is the wonderful attitude of the students. When I had my school matric dance, the teachers were to be greeted, and then avoided at all costs! These kids are quite the opposite. I don't think I've ever smiled for so many photos with my pupils (I mean, with the MATHS teacher, who would ever have thought??), and even on the dance floor, the kids just accepted, and included these weird, poorly co-ordinated white teachers of theirs with such warmth and enthusiasm!
I know everyone is prone to gloom and doom about SA, and to be sure, there is plenty to be gloomy about, but these kids raise my hopes for the future of this country! If only everyone could be exposed to this positive side of SA!

An update....

The arrival of our babies has taken over our lives! Not that they are any work for us yet (Trixie does everything, for now!), but we find ourselves sitting and staring for ages on end, just not able to tear ourselves away and actually do anything useful! The timing couldn't be better, because the children are on holiday, so whiling away the time watching puppies is a great holiday activity!
You may not think that anything else exciting has happened in our lives, but actually, we are enjoying a visit from my sister and her kids from Abu Dhabi, but you know, that does pale somewhat in comparison to our babies (sorry Heidi!!!).