Rhodesian Ridgeback

Posted in Dog Breeds on 02/17/2007 02:39 am by admin

Rhodesian Ridgeback

In November 1965, Ian Smith, the first prime minister of Southern Rhodesia, declared its independence from Britain.

From 1971 to 1979, he and his party, the Rhodesian Front, participating in Bush's wars, where Africans were determined to force the whites out of the country by force, resulting in the leadership of disastrous government of Robert Mugabe in 1980. Ian Smith disappeared from the scene and lived in comfortable retirement in South Africa. But the flames of discontent and revolution started long before that.

In 1960, Patrice Lumumba became Prime Minister of Congo. In short, despite everything else that could have been written, Lumumba's plan was to establish the two most powerful tribes against each other so that as many as possible would be eliminated. The Belgians left the Congo, leaving untold horrors.

The whole of Africa, now, was on fire. We, in Southern Rhodesia, were warned of infiltrators who comes area, where we had a small ranch. I say "we." My aunt, cousin and me. I lived in what was called rondavel, or house all year. No was larger than a reasonable size single bedroom, brick built thatched.

The authorities had warned that all Europeans to arm themselves at all times.

One night I heard a sound outside. My light was out and went looking. There was a crescent, but gave enough light to see a couple of men with spears and knobkerries floating over a hundred yards from the house. The next thing that happened was that my door was flung open, and Keith, my cousin, rushed inside. He slept in the main house, a few hundred meters from me. Somehow, he had made to the rondavel without being seen.

The two looked out the window again and there are now three of them moving cautiously toward the house. Keith had a shotgun with him, and I was wearing a World War II 303. Just then, to our horror, Tshaka, our Rhodesian Ridgeback, catapulted out of the house where he slept with my aunt. He was in full swing. Bark was his war, and we knew nothing would stop him. The men hesitated and then took to their heels.

We opened the door, and there was the aunt, bathed in moonlight, hands on hips, all ready to take on the entire African nation. It was two o'clock in the morning. Keith told me the first clock until four, when push came to her mother in the house.

Meanwhile, Tshaka had shot down one of the men and the other two were in sight. At the moment I arrived the big dog and was able to call in him, the man's throat was gone. I brought with me a flashlight shone on her face. It was a complete stranger, no one had seen before. Morning Next, the DC was informed of what had happened and just told us to bury the body. The man had appeared on our property at night, uninvited and armed and therefore got what he deserved.

Now, I am well aware that the above has nothing to do with Post-traumatic Stress, except this. In the same way as the dreams of the fire disturbed my sleep, so did the dreams of men crawling around the house with spears. Although I did not I remember being affected by these views during the day, nightmares lasted much longer.

All this happened in 1961, but even after I moved here to America and my wife and I lived in Florida, still having these nightmares. Indeed, it was so vivid, and sometimes he would get out of bed in middle of the night, drenched in sweat and looking out the window, convinced I could see shadowy figures flitting them with their spears, ready to invade the house.

It was then that I saw there was nobody there to remind me when was I and gradually relax. That's about 25 years after the event. The strange thing is, however, that from the dream that one who was very much alive and it took me some time to recover, even with my wife's comfort, I had more.

They just stopped. And believe me, do not miss out!

Mike Bond, chatting about one of his experiences in Rhodesia, or Zimbabwe as it is now. He'd be the first to admit that he's not a brave man, and he found the sight of those shadowy figures decidedly disquieting. Strange how those nightmares just suddenly stopped, though, after that one last bad one. Hope you've had a look at his website and read the terrible story of that poor little girl. There's so much more to read there as well

http://www.panattack.com

Breed All About It - Rhodesian Ridgeback