P.A.W.S

            
Some volunteers have already been lucky enough to witness this beautiful cub born to MJ last year.  MJ is keeping her cub close to her side as you can imagine and sightings are rare.  We are yet to establish the cub’s sex, although it seems likely that it’s a female leopard.  We estimate she’s about 7 months old now and this photo was taken at about 4 months old.  The cub will be left to mature without any interference and won’t be radio collared until she is old enough to leave her mother, from 18 months old onwards.  She is still yet to be named.  We’ll keep you posted on her progress.

Due to the VERY GENEROUS donations received from the following volunteers, Clive and I felt it only appropriate that they should have one of our new Bundu Bashers named in their honour!  

Mel Davies’ mean machine will be christened :                                                    MAD MEL
Kristy Ingebo & Jim Biancome’s mean machine will be christened :                      THE TERMINATOR
Juliet Quinn’s mean machine will be christened :                                                 THE MIGHTY QUINN

Since P.A.W.S’s reopening on 30th January this year, we have purchased an additional 6 Bundu Bashers to accommpany ‘The Bitch’ and ‘The Beast’ in anticipation of a busy and very productive year!!  The above donations have helped us enormously in achieving the purchase of these machines.  Thank you very much indeed and also to everyone of you  who’ve offered your time, efforts and of course your bodies to P.A.W.S. !!

Rebecca, a 2nd time volunteer to P.A.W.S. last October very kindly donated the funds received from the sale of cakes she baked and sold.  This was a most welcome and very unexpected surprise, so too were the very colourful scarfs and hats she knitted for Clive and I !!!  The money Rebecca donated has been used to purchase lots of well needed tools and equipment used daily in the bush by the volunteers including pangas, saws, axes etc.  Rebecca is joining us for a 3rd time in October this year, dedication to the end!  Thanks Rebecca for all your hard work and efforts for P.A.W.S. !!

She did it….!!!  Mel finished the Birmingham half marathon in just under 2 hours!  “The last couple of miles were pretty tough and my legs are rather sore today but other than that it was good fun”, says Mel.
Mel has raised a very generous donation for P.A.W.S. via sponsorship, so THANK YOU VERY MUCH to those of you who kindly sponsored Mel for her marvelous achievements! 
In recongnition of her wonderful efforts, Clive and I will be naming one of our newly ordered Bundu Bashers after her to accompany our current machines ‘The Bitch’ and ‘The Beast’ !!  Mel’s bundu basher will be named ‘Mad Mel’ and signed accordingly.

Position                Race No.                  Name                  Gender        Cat         Chip-Time                  Gun Time
5320                     10459                      Melanie                Female        F            01:57:08                    02:13:54

Mel, we can’t thank you enough and also to Matt who we know supported you all the way…..You make a great team.  Well done both of you!!

Can you believe P.A.W.S. launched just over 1 year ago on 16th August 2008.  From very humble beginnings P.A.W.S. is steadily gaining speed and slowly but surely starting to make progress within the vast 22,000 acre reserve that surrounds us!  A daunting task we know but Rome wasn’t built in a day as they say!  We are on track to make a difference to this beautiful land and restore it back to its original state, the plains of old and once more return the cheetahs back to their natural environment!

Clive and I would like to say a MASSIVE THANKYOU to each and every one of our P.A.W.S volunteers for whom without you none of this would be possible!  Your commitment, willingness, energy and enthusiasm has been amazing and we are truly grateful.  We have just reached our 100th Volunteer, an impossible dream at our start last August.  So far with your help we have cleared :-

• 65 km’s of old cattle fencline
• 50 acres of sickle bush including an area for the forthcoming primary school for the children of Okonjima’s staff
• An unspeakable amout of Cheetah poo and bones from within the AfriCat Cheetah camps
• A variety of reserve maintenance jobs including errecting fences for the AfiCat Foundation, assisting with the annual Africat Health Checks and so much more….!

Our volunteers have also accompanied Dave from AfriCat on countless cheetah and leopard Rescues and Releases and witnessed first hand the conflict between farmer and predator alike.  A truly amazing and unique experience.

Here’s to the next installment of P.A.W.S. and to another successful year!  Once again thank you all so much  for your commitment, from Roma, Clive, Peter and Felix!

Melanie and Matt Davis joined P.A.W.S. as volunteers in July of this year and threw themselves into everything with 100% enthusiasm, positiveness and energy! They were a super couple to have at camp and a delight to host! They have VERY kindly offered to sponsor P.A.W.S. by running the EDF Energy Half Marathon taking place in Birmingham on Sunday 11th October 2009. Any monies raised for P.A.W.S. will contribute towards the cost of 2 new Bundu Bashers that are greatly needed and will work side by side with our current machines that some of you may already be very familiar with, The Bitch and The Beast!  Clive and I want to take this opportunity of wishing you all the very best of success in the Marathon, and can’t thank you both enough for your generous support of P.A.W.S.! We hope you cross the finish line without too many aches and sores!  Good luck from the P.A.W.S. Team!

For anybody  wishing to contribute or sponsor Mel & Matt here are the details : Donations can either be made into my paypal account: melanie.davis6@btinternet.com or cheques can be sent to: Mel & Matt Davis, 10 The Rosegardens, Halesowen, West Midlands, B63 4JE (made payable to Melanie Davis). The EDF Energy Half Marathon website is : http://www.birminghamhalfmarathon.com/

Clive and I would like to extend a hugh THANKYOU to Kristy Ingebo and Jim Biancone who very kindly made a generous donation to P.A.W.S. recently.  Kristy and Jim hail from the USA and joined P.A.W.S. for 2 weeks on 1st August ‘09.  They put us all to shame with their energetic daily walks and long hikes on their day off!  They were most entertaining during their stay!

Their donation will contribute towards the purchase of 2 new bundu bashers to accompany The Bitch and the Beast!

After 2 months of eagar waiting and anticipation, M.J. finally brought her young cub out into the open for everyone to see.  The cub is estimated to be about 4 months old now but not one can know exactly. The cub will stay with mum for approximately 18 months at which time it will make its own way in life and separate from her.  The sex of the cub is still unknown and will remain untouched by AfriCat until at least 18 months old when it will be radio collared for research purposes like M.J. and the other leopards in the reserve.  The cub and mum remain very calm and relaxed around any game vehicles and all vehicles will keep a respectful distance too!  More updates to come on the cub which as yet is still unnamed.

Rob Poot and Inge Suijkerbuijk from The Netherlands spent 4 weeks here at P.A.W.S. in July ‘09.  Rob, also a trained guide, and Inge threw themselves into P.A.W.S. life with great enthusiasm and willingness and were an asset to have at camp.  They even demonstrated a few of their Salsa moves on a few occasions as the evening entertainment!  On their departure they very kindly left Clive and I a box of goodies including “posh” toilet paper, Nutella chocolate spread, and the box itself!  They also very generously gave Clive and I a donation which was used towards the purchase of a much needed GPS for Clive.  Since then Clive has been merrilly playing with his new toy and is currently mapping out the entire 55,000 hectare reserve with all its fencelines, roads, landmarks etc.  An extremely useful and beneficial map to have here at camp!  Thank you both once again, your generosity is greatly appreciated!

AfriCat recently had a reshuffle of their cheetahs and their enclosures.  Each cheetah had to be darted and moved to another home within the AfriCat Welfare side of their operation.  Each time a cheetah gets darted it’s an ideal opportunity for that cheetah to be given a quick health check over and in this case given an injection to ward off many of the common cat diseases.  Our P.A.W.S. volunteers as always were on hand to carry the anaethetised cheetahs to and from their enclosures and also to give the cheetahs a good and well needed groom!  Cheetahs do not instinctively groom themselves all over, they mainy just lick their faces and paws but not their bodies!  Here we see Julie, Leonie & Ellie in action!