CCF's Daily Update from Laurie!

I went to Windhoek yesterday afternoon after all of Chewbaaka’s medical treatments and knowing that he was stable for the night. Anne and Bruce gave him fluids in the afternoon/evening and this morning he was pretty well– more mobile that he has been in the past several days and drinking water.

In Windhoek I went to our CANAM book launch – we presented our Conservancy book to the Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET) and all the other conservation organisations in the country. It was a very nice launch; I have spearheaded this project, which took about three years, so it is very exciting to see it finished. All of our CCF staff put lots of time into maps and game densities, with Matti as the lead and Rob's assistance. As editors, Danica Shaw and myself were very proud – there were about 40 people at the launch.

After the launch, I attended the Windhoek Breweries annual awards dinner. You might remember that in July 2010 I was recognised as one of the country's Ambassadours of Good Will. This was a dinner recognising the monthly Good Will Ambassadours. It was such a great gathering! I had the honour to be with the Prime Minister of Namibia's at this dinner in my ambassadour role in cheetah conservation internationally. In addition, I was seated with the Minister of Environment and Tourism, the Hon. Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, and the retired Deputy Prime Minister, Libertina Amatilia, who since retiring is a farmer now and has one of our livestock guarding dogs. These two ladies are heroes of mine, as they fought for the country's freedom and have been great leaders since independence. I was able to tell the story of naming two of our female orphan cheetahs after these two amazing ladies. Actually, the Min of MET worked them up with us last year on her visit to CCF. And just a few weeks ago, both these two wild female cheetahs --I called them 'the Freedom Fighters,' were released into the wild along with a wild female and her two sons plus another male which bonded to the two brothers. We were able to put this group together over the past few months --which should be great to help them survive on their own.

I came back to CCF in the early afternoon and was able to give Chewbaaka his medications and feed him. He is doing better and I think that tomorrow will be an even better day for him and us as his care takers.

On a different note, two of our CCF USA board and trustee members, Angela Weisskopf and Beth Wallace, arrived to spend the next two days with us. In their honour and for Bruce’s birthday, we had a wonderful dinner out in the big field with all our international course participants. Motende, from Zambia, sang two very special songs, one for Bruce and the other for the cheetah!

All the best,
Laurie