Cathy Buckle – Footprints in the dust

04 February 2012 11:01

Dear Family and Friends,
A disturbance before dawn one morning this week led to the search for
who or what had made the noise on the roof. Running footsteps, a thump
and a thud and then the eerie quiet. Following an invisible scent, the
dogs showed the route taken by the intruder. Running with increasing
frenzy, noses millimetres off the ground, they stormed under hedges
and thick bushes, ran backwards and forwards across the lawn before
coming to a stop with tails wagging stiffly and tongues dripping,
under a big Musasa tree. There, high up in a fork of the tree, sitting
completely still was the pre dawn intruder. A Small-spotted Genet
stared unblinking into the beam of the torch, momentarily mesmerised,
paralysed at having been discovered. A beautiful creature with creamy
brown fur covered with dark spots on its body and black rings all the
way down its very long tail. For the briefest of moments we stared at
each other by torch light. As soon as the beam of light moved away,
the cat disappeared silently into the tree, perfectly camouflaged
amongst the dark, lichen covered branches.

Just this brief encounter with the Genet explained all those soggy
little fruit pips lying in the sand a few days ago. It explained the
shredded remains of a birds nest lying on the ground and answered the
question about who owned those little footprints left in the dust on a
windowsill.

The Genet is one of the growing number of wild creatures looking for
somewhere new to live this year as their habitat is destroyed in the
frenzied cultivation of every open space around and in urban areas.
Cobras, mambas and other snakes are becoming far more frequent in
urban gardens, while Storks, Egrets, Ibises Plovers and Nightjars are
retreating and disappearing, along with their natural habitat. After
eleven years of farm seizures which were claimed to be making land
available to ‘the masses,’ there is no sign that the revolution
eased the pressure for ordinary people, quite the contrary in fact.
This season the uncontrolled cultivation of urban and peri-urban
areas, by anyone and everyone, wherever they want, is worse than it
has ever been. As trees are cut down , undergrowth cleared and
woodland turned into self apportioned maize and sweet potato plots,
ground nesting birds, small carnivores and reptiles have been forced
to run for cover. The very sights and sounds of Zimbabwe, so sought
after and attractive to tourists, is melting away like the cat in the
night, while our leaders continue their never ending fight over power
and politics.

The latest horror, if ever we needed something new to scare away
tourists, is typhoid. Fifteen hundred people now affected in some
parts of Harare. White quarantine tents, polyclinics they call them,
have been erected in the grounds of health facilities to isolate and
treat infected people. The Minister of Health described it as a
“stone age” disease while a Zanu PF Harare spokesman said it was
yet another imperialist western plot. “We suspect biological warfare
by imperialists,” Claudius Mutero said, describing this disease as
“sanctions-induced typhoid.”

Oh dear, oh dear, there’s more sanity in looking up trees for cats
in the night. Until next time, thanks for reading, love cathy.