Africa NOW

African Wild Dog
A few years ago, on a tour to Namibia, we were camped in one of the game parks.
It was a beautiful campsite, next to a small lake. Animals were coming
and going to drink as the sun was setting. We were a mixed group, mainly
young people. After supper most of us went to sleep in our tents,
but two young women were nervous about the wild animals and decided to sleep
in the car.
Later, well after midnight, I was woken up by a pack of wild dogs howling in the night.
They were all around us and seemed to be singing to the moon about all their
sorrow and unhappiness, each one outdoing the other in the depth of feeling they
put into their song.
I quietly opened my tent and lay a while listening to them and looking at the full
moon. Everyone else was staying in their tents or car.
I had an idea!
Quietly I crept out of the tent towards the car, moving along on my stomach
like they do in the army. Arriving at the car with the two girls in it
and lying alongside it on the ground, I made
a scraping noise along the door. There was an immediate response in the
car: Whispering and moving around! Then the windows were closed!
I gave the car a nudge with my shoulder and was rewarded with more
urgent whispering. The wild dogs were moving away now and could
still be heard in the distance. I reached up to the door and opened it.
Immediately the door was ripped out of my hand and slammed shut.
All of the doors were rapidly locked.

Next morning I was woken up by the girls:
"There were animals by the car! We had to lock all the doors and windows.
It was so hot all night. And, I know you won't believe this: one of them
opened the door! How is that possible?"

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