Unlikely Friendships - Jennifer S. Holland [30]
Finally came the hyena, Tsotsi, another orphan Travers rescued about ten months later. “He was the devil initially, with his beady little eyes and nocturnal ways, hiding out in his cave (a blanket-covered basket),” Jude says. “It took some months for the friendship to develop; it’s a slow-going process for a hyena to learn trust.”
Under Jude’s affectionate care, the trio thrived and soon took to one another like siblings. On any given Saturday morning, the whole mess of them could be found in the Traverses’ bedroom—the hog under the sheets, the rhino with his chin on Jude’s lap for a scratch, and the hyena tucked away beneath the bed. Together with their human caretakers, the bizarre trio would laze about before breakfast. At (human) mealtime, they’d often saunter to the table and demand milk, treats, or another round of affection. Out in the garden, the unconventional herd would chase and play-fight (Tsotsi was often the instigator, with nips to Poggle’s backside), munch flowers, and nap together under the mulberry trees. And the three would go on walkabouts in the bush, sometimes with Jude or another Travers leading the pack and an orange house cat bringing up the rear.
Eventually, the Travers family made preparations to release Tatenda and Poggle together in a wilder part of Imire about eight miles away. Both needed to get on with more natural lives among their own kind. (Tsotsi, still a bit young to mate, would remain with the Travers family for the time being.) For Jude it was like turning away loved ones—the rhino, especially, held a big place in her heart—but she knew it was right for the animals. “It’s a tragedy when human actions result in orphans that need this kind of care,” Jude says. “Being able to hand-rear them and then put them back into their natural environment, where they can rely on their true instincts, that’s the ultimate goal.”
The transition of rhino and warthog to the reserve land was a success. They rambled in tandem at first, but eventually the hog “went wild,” mated, and produced three little pigs of her own. Tatenda eventually turned his attention to other rhinos on the 11,000-acre property, where he is “adored by all the girls” (girl rhinos, that is), Jude says. Tsotsi, who had been left alone after his friends had been transitioned to the wild, wandered off into the bush one day and never returned.
{MAINE, U.S.A., 2009}
The Rottweiler and the Wolf Pup
WOLF
KINGDOM: Animalia
PHYLUM: Chordata
CLASS: Mammalia
ORDER: Carnivora
FAMILY: Canidae
GENUS: Canis
SPECIES: C. lupus
ROTTWEILER
The rottweiler, which originated in Germany, is one of the oldest herding breeds, dating back to the Roman Empire when they helped herd cattle for the Roman legion.
The birth of the wolf pup was totally unexpected. Staff at the Kisma Preserve in Mt. Desert, Maine, thought the young adult pair too young to breed, so they weren’t watching for a pregnancy. But then, out came a pup—born to a mother not yet mature enough to understand her role as parent. “There was no aggression,” says the preserve’s director, Heather Grierson, “but she had no maternal instinct whatsoever. She just didn’t know what to do with it.” Staff members at the preserve were used to bringing work home with them. In this case, Heather decided to offer her house to rear the baby animal, a helpless bundle with eyes still tightly shut.
Ulrok the rottweiller was there to greet them when Heather arrived with her tiny charge. “Right from the beginning, he took excessive interest,” Heather says. “I misinterpreted it at first, thinking he might get overly rough. Plus, he’s huge and young and clumsy and might have hurt her by mistake. But he didn’t. Instead, he was