Kenyan Cat and Mouse

Greetings from Uganda,

We're spending the afternoon catching up on email and trying to coordinate some volunteer work here in Jinja, Uganda. Tomorrow we're going white-water rafting down the Nile, followed by what promises to be a rowdy Canada Day BBQ (though we may be the only ones actually celebrating Canada Day. We've got some lint-covered maple leaf stickers that will finally get a breather from our dusty backpacks).

Here's a quick add-on to Laura's earlier "Bruces on Safari" post. Laura mentioned being at a restaurant and seeing a leopard walk out of the bush to eat a goat leg that had been tied to a tree. It should have also been mentioned that it was dark and I had set up a tripod for a steady shot in case the leopard showed up. The leopard arrived and I'm quickly adjusting the camera settings while making sure I keep at least one eye on the wild, hungry and uncaged leopard 15 meters away. The leopard settled into position up the tree and I begin quietly snapping pictures. About a minute into the photo-shoot, I hear a high-octave "Waaaaaaaa" and something hits me in the shoulder, blurring a photo and displacing the precisely-placed tripod. I glance to my right and see the lady that just whacked me. She's pointing into the garden in front of us. "There's a mouse down there. A mouse!." I'm trying to keep one eye on the feeding leopard while giving her a one-eyed look that makes it clear that I think she's crazy. A few seconds of silence and she jumps back in with "There's a mouse right down -" and that's when I give her the angry whisper-yell "Yeah! Have you seen the leopard?". She nods and then she's gone. I'm still trying to understand this encounter when the sound of the leopard crunching bones like hard candies brings my attention back to him. In the dim orange light his head was moving in and out of shadow as he chewed. Bright pink ribbons of meat hung from his lips, contrasted against the whites and yellows of his face. And all the time his eyes were on his spectators. Unblinking and independent of the slow, chewing motion of his jaw. At times he would adjust his position, turning sideways to let the hanging meat drape more naturally into his mouth. The eyes would turn too, but you'd be foolish to believe he had stopped watching. And then I feel a nudge. Not as jarring as the earlier jab, but another photo just came out blurry. This time there's a European man of middle age beside me. Just a finger pointing downwards, then "It's a porcupine". He was correct, but this was not new news. "Yes, I know. It's been here all night. There's a leopard in front of us too." And then he's gone and I'm left watching the leopard finish his goat leg. I'm hoping it approaches us and right before reaching the restaurant tables he drops his head and eats a mouse while looking directly at that lady. And she'd be standing there with that middle-aged European man and I'd tap them both on the shoulders and whisper "Look, there's a mouse inside that leopard".

Happy Canada Day!

P.S. Be sure to check out the fresh photos posted on Flickr - including highlights of our encounter with a lioness and her cubs. See you in 6 weeks.