Furry Friends

Rokko

For those of you who know me well, you know that I’m an animal person. More specifically, I’m a horse-person. As I mentioned in my Christmas blog, I went out to one of the local equestrian centers and found a horse to lease. At first, I was doing a full lease of Rokko, a white Spanish warmblood. That meant that I was fully responsible for how much he was exercised. I thought I’d be able to go out at least 4 times a week, but it ended up being too much. My schedule at the university was constantly changing, so I wasn’t able to go out as consistently as I wanted. Another problem was the fact that it would take me between 30 and 90 minutes to even get out there on the bus. Often the traffic was so bad that I could walk faster, and sometimes did even though it’s quite far.

Because of that and my changing schedule, I went down to a half-lease, which meant sharing him with someone else and only riding 3x a week, which was perfect. I rode him Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, while a 15-year-old French girl rode him the other days of the week. I loved going out on Mondays because the center is technically closed that day, so there aren’t so many people around and I could just enjoy myself without having to worry about people. I was also using Mondays to give my friend Faith beginner riding lessons because I didn’t have to compete with other lessons.

Wednesdays I’d usually go out before I’d go to the US Embassy for the conversation and film clubs, so earlier in the day. That was my day to go out into the park and talk to all the kids. It seems that Wednesdays are popular days for school outings, so sometimes there’d be hundreds of kids in the park.

Rokko loves, loves, loves kids! We drew quite a bit of attention to ourselves because of three factors: most horses aren’t ridden, but pull carts; even as what we in the West would consider a mid-sized horse, Rokko is quite a bit bigger than Senegalese horses; and both Rokko and I are white! He doesn’t mind the attention, and I found it fun to answer the kids’ questions about him while letting them come up one or two at a time and pet him. It was a lot of fun! I ended my lease with him at the beginning of July because of my impending departure, so that was a bit of a bummer. It was great to be able to ride so much while I was in Senegal!

Tera

Day 1: Fuzzball @ 2 weeks old

The other furry friend that I had was Tera, a kitten I rescued off the street in mid-January. I was walking down the street in my neighborhood and almost stepped on this little fuzzball in someone’s driveway. She was so little, but looked to be in good health, with a clean, fluffy coat, and clear, but barely open eyes. I asked the guard that was across from the driveway and he said he’d seen the momma kitty that morning, but not since about 7am. At that point it was about 4pm, so I knew she was hungry, but hadn’t been that way for more than 8 hours or so. I decided she needed to be saved, so I picked her up and brought her to my new apartment.

Then I spent some time looking up how to make kitten formula from scratch, since that’s not something that can be found in Senegal! There weren’t any baby kitten bottles available either, so I had to get her to drink on her own. From what I could tell by looking up what kittens look like at certain stages, she seemed to be about 2 weeks old. I was able to get her to drink out of a jar lid, and continued to feed her every 2-3 hours, gradually increasing the time between feedings over the next couple of weeks. At the beginning it was hard to get her to eat and I was sincerely worried that she wouldn’t make it. Then I had a stroke of luck and found some wet kitten food at one of the large grocery stores, so I started mixing that with her formula, and then some dry kitten food until I finally got her weaned.

It was a bit stressful, but she was such a nice companion to have when I was all alone in my apartment. For the first couple of weeks, she was too little to be up on my bed, which was pretty tall. I didn’t want her to fall off and hurt herself. At about 4 weeks, she was big enough not to hurt herself on too much, so she had free run off the place. At night, she would come curl up on me, snuggle real close to my neck and fall asleep.

Once I was sure she would survive, I decided to stop just calling her Fuzzball and give her a real name. My original plan was to take her back to the US with me as my ultimate Senegalese souvenir, so I wanted her to have a name connected to Senegal. I decided on Teranga, after the Senegalese culture of hospitality: Tera for short. What a fun little thing she was to have around, as kittens usually are. She was always happy to see me when I got home and would come running to greet me as I walked in. Tera would sometimes earn herself the title of “Tera the Terrible” with her kitten antics, but she was cute and a lot of fun. Her playfulness often had her standing on her back legs swiping at something with both front paws, coupled with her ferociousness she earned the nickname “Pterodactyl” as well.

She loved to sit on my friend Brenna’s shoulder when she came over for dinner, always wanting to be in the thick of things. When I would work at my table, she would run around, bouncing off the leather couches and causing general mayhem in my living room until I realized that she just wanted to be able to hang out with me at the table, but there was nowhere for her to go. I realized that if I just put her PillowPet up on the table, she’d snuggle right down and watch whatever was going on. This worked like a charm even when I had 3 people over for a French lesson… I’d forgotten about her PillowPet , and she was being a bit crazy until my friends asked me why she was so hyper. Then I remembered that she just wanted to be next to us, so I put her PillowPet on the table and she snuggled down for the rest of the 2-hour lesson, not leaving her spot until everyone left! They were amazed!

I started questioning my plan to take her home with me when I realized just how much travel that would entail, especially without knowing exactly where I would actually end up. No matter where I was going to be, I would have to drive my car long-distance to get there, not to mention a 5-hour flight, followed by a 4-hour layover and then an 11.5-hour flight. For a 6-month old kitten, that would be asking a lot! So I decided to try finding her a family that would keep her in Dakar and if I didn’t I would make the best of it and take her back with me. I’d remembered that a friend of a friend had mentioned wanting to get a cat for her two little boys, maybe 5 and 7 years old. They’re an embassy family that still has 3 years left at post in Dakar. I ran into her (Koki) one Sunday in May and asked if she was still looking for a cat. I thought she’d be a perfect kitten for boys because she’s super playful, but also fairly snuggly. Koki said they were very interested and could they come that Wednesday to meet her.

Tera with her new family

When they met her, they fell in love with her (of course!) and asked if they could take her that weekend. I was very happy to have found such a good family for her, but I was slightly devastated to have to let her go so soon. I’m sure they would have let me keep her a little longer, but I didn’t want something to happen that would change their mind, so I let them take her that weekend. They really are the perfect family for her, making being without her, alone in my apartment for the last two months, worth it. I was able to visit her at her new home a couple of weeks after she moved out and she seems to be very happy.

Such a good friend and blessing for a little while!