Around 6pm 3 villagers rang the door bell of the orphanage, I thought, at this time of night who could this be? Then when I opened the door I saw a bucket next to the 3 natives and knew it was some sort of animal. And sure enough it was a 2 foot crocodile. This is the second crock I have rescued here in Zambia.
I asked the usual questions of where was it found, did you beat it, how did you handle the animal, etc. They said they were fishing with their nets and this crock got all tangled up in their nets, the only way to get it out was to cut a section of the net away. This was a problem as now they would need to re-sew the damaged net when they returned to the land. So to get money to mend their net, they decided to sell the animal in the village. Of course, they went to me first because they know I am an animal lover..HA..So I sided with them and gave them enough money to mend their nets. And off they went.
The first thing I do when I get an animal from the wild is to do a thorough health check of the animal. No I am not a vet, but I try my best with the common sense I have, plus I use the internet for further information. The eyes, tail, feet and body all looked in good condition. No cuts or broken bones.
The crock was alert and looked hungry!
One experiment I tried was to see if what I heard when I was a boy, that if you turn over any reptile and stroke its stomach on a downward stroke, then the reptile would relax so much that it would fall asleep. As a boy I would do this to lizards whenever I would find them, So I finally had a chance to try it out, and guess what..IT WORKED! Ha! I dont think I would try this on a large crock, but you never know.............................................
