Diamonds And Dust: 15 - The Cheetah
…We didn’t think that there were any leopards in the desert, but you never know. So I go grab my rifle and we all head up the old riverbed. Sure enough about a kilometer later we come across what at first looks like a leopard, but is actually a cheetah that is cornered by Ben’s dog, which is barking like hell and going berserk…
Malcolm Bertoni tells of a sad duty which had to be performed.
To read earlier chapters of Malcolm’s book about diamond mining in Namibia please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/diamonds_and_dust/
One Sunday morning an Ovambo came running to the single quarters and said that there was a luiperd up in the riverbed gully. Now a luiperd is leopard in Afrikaans.
We didn’t think that there were any leopards in the desert, but you never know. So I go grab my rifle and we all head up the old riverbed. Sure enough about a kilometer later we come across what at first looks like a leopard, but is actually a cheetah that is cornered by Ben’s dog, which is barking like hell and going berserk.
We manage to get the dog under control and look at the cheetah and wonder why he doesn’t just run away. Then we realise that he is only standing on three legs. It appears that he had injured his one leg rather badly and can’t move too well. Out here in this harsh environment the poor bastard doesn’t stand a chance. It he doesn’t die of hunger or thirst then the strandwolfs will get him.
We quickly consider our options and then finally decide that the only thing to do is to put it out of its misery. So I shoot the cheetah, and I can tell you it was probably the hardest thing I’d ever had to do. To kill such a beautiful animal was heart breaking.
After I’d shot it we checked the cheetah. It was very thin and generally in poor condition. The front leg was broken and pretty useless.
It was the reality of life out here in the desert that we didn’t really consider. Most of us were rather pensive when we walked back to the single quarters. We were the intruders here, not the life that had to survive in this harsh domain.
The Ovambos skinned the carcass and offered it to me, but I really didn’t want it and gave it to another guy.
We didn’t tell security about the incident. It would have been too difficult for them to understand. So we kept it quiet. But there was a big kafuffle when the guy who had the skin took it with him when going on holiday and security found it in his bag. I was called in and had to explain the story to them. But as usual they didn’t believe a word I said, so I told them to f--- off and believe what they wanted. I was given a final written warning and as usual I just laughed at these w-----s. They were so far up themselves I was surprised that they ever saw daylight.
