Although Sheba is only 11 weeks old, she’s a bundle of energy. The best way to make use of that energy is to feed her with new impressions, which is easiest done with a walk in the Zinder bush!

The bush is only a 10-15 min walk away, and getting there means passing lots of little temptations, such as other people’s hens and chickens.

Getting there

The bush!

Posing with Dennis Mugu and Sheba Alkawali, whose official name is Ridgebow’s Radiant Reya of Navy. Nice yawn there by the way - someone obviously finds photo posing unnecessary!

Sheba - Queen of the Nigerien bush! Now where are those lions, hey?

“Oops, better keep track with the rest of the flock!”

“Hmm, now that’s a potential danger. Should I back off or attack?”

“Oh well, it seems my human has got things under control.”

Well, the fact is that people in Niger are very impressed by Sheba, having never seen a dog of her kind before.  This very nice man, whose name is Hamadu, stopped after having passed us and called me back to his donkey. It was one of those super sweet Niger moments, because he wanted to give me a little pancake “for the red dog”.

In doing so, he shared his evening meal with us, just because he found Sheba precious. Few things leave me speechless, but his generosity did and I could only repay by making friends.

I think Zinder may very well end up being as proud of Sheba as they were of Aslan’s Swedish mother Bamse, who was nicknamed ‘Kura’ (The Hyena) because they had never seen anything like her before. The children of Eden Street sang songs about her and thought she possessed magical powers because she knew how to play football with them. She was known as the most ferocious guard dog in the entire world (people would tell our visitors that if those who walked into that house without permission never walked out again), as she put her entire being into barking with as much power as possible. She was a true darling, though, perfect for Africa. Now I’m eager to see what kind of reputation Sheba will end up with!

From the archives: Bamse and her Azawakh friend Seo with an eighteen-year-old Ishtar in Zinder (Niger)