We are a bit lazy with writing at the moment and therefore hand the job over to James. James got a Cheetah cub from USAid people in Addis to take care of. James is the community manager in Omo national park in Ethiopia and he had to bring the cub down there from Addis in his car.
To make you laugh, here's my account of the drive with the cheetah...
I had a hysterical journey down to the Park smuggling him into hotel rooms, then letting him out for exercise. The cub was amazing. Hardly a whimper during two solid days driving –perhaps just a sign of my considerate driving over incredibly bad roads.

On the first night in a rather smart hotel (there’s nothing between smartish and grotty here), I smuggled in the cub (that had never been in a house before, let alone a hotel) and fed and watered him then spread out a blanket. The cub immediately lay down and started to go to sleep. ‘That was easy, I thought’. At around 3am I was woken by some very loud purring in my ear, some scratchy licking on my neck and the nine month-old cub stretched out on the top sheet alongside me. Memories of nights in Boskop with
Hedgehog the giant Anatolian guard dog asleep alongside me on a single bed…Obviously slipping under a mosquito net is no problem for a cat with a mission… We both fell asleep, but at 5.30am I woke up to find myself lying in soaking wet sheets…. I was rather surprised that cheetahs obviously have no problem in peeing where they sleep. I washed the sheets, scrubbed the mattress, showered and smuggled the cat back out. Since the hotel had no
idea there was a cat in the room, they now will know me as not just the bald, middle-aged Englishman, but the incontinent one as well…
Cub and I spent two days relaxing in Jinka where African Parks has rented a house with a private grassy garden as an office. During the few nights smuggling the cat into the local hotel, the cub duly slipped under the mosquito net each morning, and I only had to wash the sheets once… With some trepidation, it was then time to tackle the last day over even worse roads.
This final leg of the journey is the hardest. After four uncomfortable hours mostly in four wheel (and up one hill literally letting the low ratio grind the car up a steep rocky gully), I unload the car at the Omo River at a Mursi village. The whole village of course were more excited than usual when the ‘forenji’ arrived with a cheetah, but despite the noise, a mass of naked Mursi of all different ages displaying numerous penises, breasts, and lip
plates the cub purred throughout. Even being carried down a slippery slope and perched in the bottom of our tiny motorboat, the cub seemed more interested in licking my hands through the travel cage mesh and watching for hippos.

The final two hour journey I let one of the Park drivers chauffeur us and sat top of the pile of luggage and provisions enjoying the cool of the evening. The cheetah seemed particularly fascinated by the dik dik that dashed across the track in front of us. I rather missed my early morning exfoliation this morning, as the cheetah had its first night in it’s 20metre by 20 metre temporary home in the old wire mesh store shed. (USAID-funded 1hectare enclosure to be built next month). As I sat having breakfast, one of the scouts ran up calling that the cheetah was out. I grabbed some meat and
hurried up to the enclosure. I should have taken my camera. Standing in the middle of a grass savannah was the Park Ethiopian biologist who had gamely come to help, but dared not touch the cheetah that was happily circling him leaping out of the grass trying to catch butterflies. Every evening I take the cheetah ' for a walk', by just letting him out of the enclosure. he just walks along behind me with no rope or lead. Right now, he's asleep outside the office. I can hear him purring as he dreams of chasing dik dik...

Thank you James