Letter from Judy to Tony & Barbara 15 June 1976 –
We’ve had a foul little dog – a kind of caricature of your dog Mac – living in our garden – it is a real toadeater – the children keep saying how much nicer it was when Mac was here ! Anyway the foul newcomer came on heat so we had to send it away by throwing stones and water because our quiet was being ruined by endless dogs wandering around our garden.
Letter from Judy to Nanny & Grandad 2 July 1976 –
Yesterday Graham was summoned next door to help remove a bushbaby from the power lines – it must have jumped from the overhanging tree and got electrocuted immediately of course. The effect of the shock was to tense all the muscles so there it was attached very firmly some 30ft up. Graham did some fascinating acrobatics with a 20ft long bamboo pole balancing on a rickety garden seat and managed finally to dislodge it, only to have the unnerving experience of seeing a dead bushbaby descending rapidly onto his upturned face. He managed a very creditable leap considering he was armed with a 20ft pole. It was a sweet little thing; we don’t often see them wild in this area so I think it must have been someone’s pet. The children kept saying ‘oh poor thing’ all evening in spite of being constantly reminded that it must have died instantaneously and not suffered at all.
We have a horse busy cutting our grass at the moment which is much more aesthetic than a lawn mower – I have to watch that it doesn’t become untied as last week it escaped and was found on the Headmaster’s lawn eating his flowers. He is rather anti-animals so this episode was unfortunate. Why the horse chose that garden out of thirty no-one knows !
Juliet's Kenya Days blog 