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As Hop and Skip got tamer and tamer, I started taking the whole family with me to visit them. Ruth was first and loved being with Hop and Skip so much that she started coming with me to visit them at least once a week. Mom was understandably scared of my buffalo but still came […]
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Pumba –Part Three As Pumba got bigger she started to explore more. And on one of our walks she took this to the next level. We were walking on the open plains on the farm when we came across a massive burrow, probably of an aardvark or warthog. I expected Pumba to just stick […]
Pumba lying in the sand near the river.
The older Pumba got the longer walks I took with her. The one morning I took her and Tofi down to the river, which was about a 5km walk from our house. As this was Pumba’s first major walk she couldn’t stop investigating all the smells along the way. We saw a few warthog as well, but Tofi chased them before Pumba could get a look at them. When we finally arrived at the river Pumba was exhausted and flopped down onto the sand. She looked dead tired but was still lively enough to gobble up the peach that I had brought along for her. She struggled on the walk back and slept for the rest of the day when we got home.
Pumba loves peaches
Pumba spent most of the day walking around the garden and lying on the grass. She tried to get into the house whenever she could and when she succeeded the first place she went to was Tofi’s food bowl. She loved food and would eat the whole day if we let her. She was a greedy girl, but surprisingly had pretty good manners for a warthog. She didn’t just grab the food but would sit there and wait until you gave it to her. Her favorite thing was grapes. She loved it when their juice squirted out in her mouth when she bit into them. But she ate anything that she could get her hands on.
Pumba eating once again.
On one of our walks, Ruth and I took Tofi and Pumba to the seasonal river near our house. We walked through the ankle-deep water with them, swam in the deeper parts and rolled in the hot sand. The pets loved it and investigated all the different sights and smells.
But as we turned the one corner we stumbled upon this massive male warthog. Tofi immediately chased off after it and I ran after her to make sure that the warthog didn’t turn on her. Ruth was not far back and helped me to catch Tofi. But in all the commotion we somehow lost Pumba.
Me and my piggy.
We ran up and down the river calling her name but still couldn’t find her. Ruth and I both started to cry as we didn’t have a clue where she might be. We were determined to find her though and I continued searching while Ruth ran home to tell mom and dad. I searched for about two hours, shouting and crying as I walked.
When it started to get dark I dejectedly made my way home. I burst out into tears when I arrived and the situation didn’t get better when everyone told me to stop. I felt so sad until I heard a soft little oink, oink, oink next to me. I looked down and found Pumba alive and well, nudging my leg. It turned out that she had charged home as soon as she saw the warthog. We had been about a kilometer from the house, so for her to find her way home from an area where she had never been before was quite remarkable. And all the while I was searching for her in the bushes.
Monkey see, monkey do.
Pumba always ate the food that my mom put out for the birds and in the winter this food attracted other animals as well. One day a monkey strolled into the garden while Pumba was busy eating the food. She looked up at the monkey when it arrived before going back to eating the seeds. The monkey was fascinated that this warthog was eating so comfortably and went and ate with Pumba for a while. But when the monkey got too cheeky Pumba chased it off. This was her patch and she even chased impala out of the garden once.
What a life.
Pumba’s life is a dream. Eat, sleep, attention, and a little exercise each day. She is without a doubt the cleanest warthog in the world and the most loved. We even allowed her to lie on our chairs!
Hi everyone, Luke here again. Here’s another little series for you. It’s about Pumba, the pet warthog I had. We shared many great experiences together and she really was great to have around. If you want to make it like Pumba and Timone in the Lion King, then Tofi would have to be Timone! Enjoy.
Pumba – Part One
Some areas of the farm are so full with thorn trees, in particular sicklebush, that you can’t see any animals. So to restore some grazing areas for animals, we had to do a little bush-clearing. Now this can be done it two ways: either manually, or with a tractor and slasher, which we called a bossiekapper. The latter option works much quicker, so that’s what we decided to use.
One day my dad, sister and I went to check up on how the work was going. We arrived in the now open field and had a look at how things were going. While we were walking around, we stumbled upon a baby warthog that had a big gash on its head. My dad quickly caught the poor thing and had a look at its injury. The gash was fortunately not as big as we first expected, but the poor warthog didn’t look good. She still had it umbilical cord and looked very weak.
Dad suggested that we just let nature take its course as mom wouldn’t be very happy having to look after her. But Ruth and I are very good at begging and we managed to persuade dad to at least let us show her to mom. Tofi also wanted her to go home, as she was sniffing the thing the whole trip home.
Mom wasn’t at all impressed when she saw the ‘present’ that we had brought for her. She said that we were just delaying the inevitable, that she would soon die. But when we started crying, she just had to give in. The warthog was getting a second chance in life that it deserved. We immediately got a box and lined it with a warm blanket. We wouldn’t keep her in the box forever, but just so that she could rest in peace and settle in. The little girl was so cold and still so small, but we made it comfortable for her and put her in the box. She immediately went to sleep, but we checked up on her every few minutes to see that she was alive. She was part of the family now, and she had to be treated like one.
We decided at supper that night to name her Pumba, after Pumba from the movie the Lion King. And we were all hoping that she would be just as charismatic as her name sake.
The next day we managed to get some powdered milk (for puppies), and a small bottle for her at the vet. He told us that we were silly to try and raise a warthog as there are so many of them in the wild. Little Pumba was here to stay though, and we were going to make sure of it.
Pumba didn’t want to drink at first but when she got a taste of the milk she didn’t want to stop. She was a pushy and greedy little thing, even though she probably was the runt of her litter. Ruth and I fed her every two hours in the day, while mom woke up every two hours at night to check up on her and feed her. She wasn’t very happy that she had to do this, but we could all see that she loved the little thing.
Pumba grew stronger and stronger, and after a week we moved her into one of Tofi’s old baskets. This allowed her to walk around the house whenever she liked, but preferred to spend her time in our arms, much to Tofi’s dislike. And at night when we had gone to bed, Pumba would lie on Dad’s tummy while he was watching television. This was perfectly fine with Dad, until Pumba weed on him the one time. She couldn’t go outside to do it so she just did it on him. Understandably, Dad was very happy with this and immediately sent Pumba to her basket. She didn’t mind the basket though, but treated it just like she did dad and did her business there as well.
Pumba’s first experiences of the wild were short forays into the garden with Tofi. They sniffed around together but Tofi was still a puppy and wanted to play. Pumba was the perfect size for her to test her skills on and they ran around chasing each other. Tofi always had the upper hand though and nipped Pumba’s nose to keep her in check. It was great to see them playing and Tofi enjoyed Pumba’s company even though she didn’t get as much attention as she used to. Pumba had settled in nicely with us, and her life was off to a good start!
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