The Cheetah Diaries Series 2 - Episode 7 – The Last Lap
TIMECODE VISUAL
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AUDIO
Cheetah Outreach This time on the Cheetah Diaries.
entrance
Cape Animal
Fears for an ambassador cat as 8 year old Savannah is rushed to
Medical Centre
hospital.
Dawn in hospital Dawn: She is a member of the family for us and it’s not good to see her
here.
Cubs
Felix, Heathcliff and Chobe get a new perspective on life (through the car
window.)
Beryl stroking cub Beryl: We gone go for a ride in the vineyard, trying to get the guys to get
and scene of
used to riding in a vehicle
bakkie driving in
vineyard.
Malaika and
And Annie checks in on Malaika and the Jackals in their new homes
Annie stroking the
Jackal
Liesl: She marking you, you’re property now.
Title Sequence
Title: The Last
Lap
Dawn: Stroking
Savannah the 8 year old ambassador cat is gravely ill.
Savannah in
hospital
Dawn is at her side.
Savannah is very weak and the doctors are unsure if she'll make it
through the night.
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Savannah came to Cheetah Outreach with her sister Nkosazana known
as Zaza.
They were always the liveliest of characters and from the first
moment they arrived the two sisters have always been inseparabl
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And know Zaza has been left behind wondering where Savannah has
gone and when she will be coming home.
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00:02:18:20 Dawn in hospital Dawn: This is Savannah she is one of our females, she eight years old
with Savannah
now. She was raised from about three months hand raised as an
lying next to her ambassador with her sister Nkosazana. She’s not been too well over the
last two months; she’s been up and down in her weight not willing to eat.
The Cheetah Diaries Series 2 - Episode 7 – The Last Lap
Dawn: She was very dehydrated, so they wanted to put on her a drip. So
she’s been on a drip just over 24 hours now the important thing is to
getting liquids into her Rehydrating her. We blood testing her every 24
hours to see the changing levels in her blood if its making any difference
or not, to see whether the kidney enzymes is the result of the
dehydration or whether to see if she actually has a kidney problem
Dawn: And Tomorrow morning there will be will be more blood test done
because it would have been 48 hours of drip into her to see, we would
have a fairly good idea now whether is a kidney problem
Dawn will keep a vigil at her side as Savannah faces the long night
ahead.
00:03:20:10 Savannah lying
on the ground in
hospital.
00:03:40:10 Scenic: Vineyards Today is the big day for cubs Felix, Heathcliff and Chobe, Its time for
them to take the next step in their training.
00:03:51:20 Beryl stroking cup Beryl: So we’re doing another day of harnessing and collar training on
leash and we going to go for a ride in the vineyards, trying to get this
guys to riding in the vehicle because next week they will be riding back
and forth to Spier to actually start doing encounters to the public to start
that phase of their training.
Beryl: These guys have been very very good, very social, very
interactive they like people’s attention and hope that this is going to
continue even as they keep going to Spier. They’re very relaxed very
confident even in new situations. The harness training on this group
have gone very smoothly. They walk very nicely on leash so far and to
be a very easy transition for them to start going to Spier.
Beryl: So what we’re going to do is bring them in to the little patio area
and we’ll put their harnesses and collars on and then we’ll walk them one
at a time over to the vehicle and take them for another little ride in the
vineyards today.
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Beryl: Com one boys! Come, come! Come on babies. Come, come.
Good boys!
MS Malaika,
Remember this terrible threesome? Recently the pesky jackals Moyo
Ntombi and Moyo and Ntombi moved out, following the incident of the wound.
MS Malaika
Dawn: Malaika has wound on her haunch. The jackal are though very
licking haunch
aware what is happening there and that there is a problem. And they
spend a lot of time trying to investigate it. It looks like the tried to bite her
there. It has further little puncture wound at the bottom. No, no. Hey! No!
Behave!
WS Volunteer
Dawn: They really do need more space, as jackals this has been
playing with
adequate, with them being so young. They’re now ten months old
jackals
heading for year old. It’s going to become important as they get older to
give them space so that they can properly run and enjoy it.
WS Malaika in her Annie and Debbie are paying Malaika a visit to see how she’s getting
enclosure
on without the jackals.
WS Annie and
Annie: Hi my girl, what a good girl.
Debbie enter
Malaika’s
Debbie: It’s coming Malaika.
enclosure
Annie: Its coming, its coming. This is awesome this id Debbie your
favourite person.
Debbie: Look at your food, Look at your food.
The Cheetah Diaries Series 2 - Episode 7 – The Last Lap
Annie: Look at it!
Debbie: I’ve started to feed her on the branch. She has to climb or jump
up. She at first was very conditioned to eating out of bowl so she kept
looking for the bowl. But now she is really getting the hang of it and
constantly trying to climb back up and check if there was anymore meat.
Annie: Probably the only exercise she really does in a day.
Debbie: I’m just going to put it up there. Malaika has lost some weight
since the jackals moved, because we’re pretty sure she was digging up
a lot of the chicken they had buried. They would bury it and she would
go around and find it. And we’re also doing more enrichment with her.
She’s probably the most receptive of all our animals to enrichment. She
is very food motivated as you can see and very toy motivated as well. So
it’s easy to do enrichment with her so she is getting more exercise and
she is looking very good. Okay last bit. It’s all finished.
00:07:46:00 WS Jackals
running up and
down the
fenceline
00:08:14:00 MS Annie and
Liesl walking to
the new jackal
enclosure
Annie: She is looking a lot happier since those jackals moved out they
were beginning to irritate her, but I know initially she relay liked, they all
liked having the company, because they had just been raised together.
Meanwhile back at the jackal enclosure, Moyo and Ntombi have quickly
made new friends. There seems to be new abundance of buried
treasure. And pestering poor Malaika is just a distant memory.
Annie: And I’m sure the boys are really enjoying their new enclosure
Liesl: Oh they absolutely love it, they run around all day.
Annie: They were tormenting the dog the other day.
Liesl: Poor Wardance
Annie: Wardance was giving a really good, good back though. What’s
this? What’s this?
Liels: Hey you guys. Here you go!
Annie: What’s this?
00:08:49:00 WS Annie and
Liesl sitting and
talking
Liesl: Come on! Nah, she’s going to go bury it.
Annie: So not a lot of food got buried today.
Liesl: I think they ate most of it.
Annie: I think they did.
Liesl: I think they are also more active in this enclosure they burn more
The Cheetah Diaries Series 2 - Episode 7 – The Last Lap
kilojoules.
Annie: Yes
00:08:59:00 MS Annie stroking It seems that life without Malaika aint that bad.
the jackal
00:09:02:00 MS jackal rubbing Liesl: She is marking you. You’re her property now.
up against Annie
Annie: I’m all yours. Shall we head back now.
Liesl: Yes I think so. We’re done with these two.
00:09:37:00 Aerial Cubhouse In just one week’s time Felix, Chobe and Heathcliff will visit the adult
facility for the first time. And their ambassador training will be put to the
test when they start to meet the public.
00:10:00:00 MS Beryl putting Ambassador cats have to travel far and wide and if these cubs are to
Heathcliff in to the make it they’ll need to feel at home on the road.
back of the bakkie
Beryl: Good boy Chobe, what a good boy!
00:10:14:00 Beryl walking
These short rides around the vineyards are setting up Felix, Chobe and
Chobe through
Heathcliff to become happy travellers.
the lounge
00:10:19:00 MS Beryl oading Beryl: here we go, here we go. In the house. Good boy!
the cub
00:39:00:00 MS Heathcliff
These cubs have almost never been away from the cubhouse and even
sitting on the
the local vineyard is taste of brave new world.
scales
00:10:47:00 WS Beryl walks Beryl: Good Boy! You’re okay Heathcliff. It okay. Good boy! In the house,
Heathcliff out of in the house. In the house! Back, back. Back, back. Good boys
the cubhouse.
00:11:24:00 Exterior Cape
Animal Medical
Centre
00:11:34:00 MS Dawn
00:11:56:00 MS Dr Imran
Sayed, Vet
00:12:23:18 Ms Dawn
Let’s go for a car ride.
Savannah has survived the night, but her condition has deteriorated.
Dawn remains at her side.
Dawn: She has been very close to the main staff members. Liesl, Debbie
and Mike, Lesta. All the volunteers have been with her since she was a
baby. We all very optimistic she’s a member of the family for us and it’s
not good to see her in here like this.
Dr Sayed: At this stage it doesn’t look good for Savannah. Her renal
parameters are very, very high. We’re trying to reduce the renal
parameters with the intravenous fluids that we’ve diureesing her with in
an attempt to flush her system of these these toxins that have built up
because her kidneys are not functioning properly. But it’s not looking
good at this stage. We’ll be repeating some tests to see if there is any
improvement or not.
Dawn: Obviously she is an ambassador cheetah, you know. It’s not like
having a dog or cat long-term at the vet, so we are making sure there is
always permanently a handler here who she has a very good
relationship with Since was a cub, we’re very close to her, she’ s very
close to them and trust them. And the presence of that person in the
room keeps her calm quiet. We’re here to monitor here. Obviously the
vet can’t monitor her 24 hours. She is lightly sedated Sedation is never a
good thing for cheetah, but obviously she was more stressed if she
wasn't. We have to get this drip into her permanently. All vital signs are
The Cheetah Diaries Series 2 - Episode 7 – The Last Lap
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fine, she's coping and relaxed and happy - comfortable.
Meanwhile back at the vineyard, Felix, Chobe and Heathcliff are on the
road.
Beryl: So what we're doing is driving driving the cubs around the
vineyard so they can get used to being in the kennel in the vehicle, the
MS Beryl driving
sound of the vehicle, the motion, So when they do start going to Cheetah
Outreach on Spier it won't be such a big deal for them.
Vehicle driving
It may not seem like big deal, but being a happy traveler means being a
through vineyard happy ambassador.
Beryl: Yesterday was their first car ride and they did very well. They
didn't seem too upset at all. In fact little Felix was purring the entire car
ride. We do have one volunteer riding in back with them, just once again
as reassurance that are not too concerned and she can always holler at
MS Beryl driving me and I can stop the vehicle anytime. That's one of the advantages of
just driving around on the vineyard. If you're out on the main road you
obviously can't stop whenever you need to. This is a good way to get
them used to riding around in the vehicles with it being too much of a big
deal.
Debbie: She is very curious cat and she like to explore and we go on our
walks. She likes playing with toys, the plastic bottle, and the mop. Her
MS Debbie with favorite right now is the guinea fowl wing and she gets a bit wild about
the bowl
that so we aren't able to run her in the enclosure with it, because we
can't get it away from here when she gets a hold of it. But she loves all
the soft toys. Even a gem squash she'll chase.
For toy obsessed Malaika life without the jackals has one major benefit.
CU Malaika
All the toys are now hers.
Debbie: This is her favorite toy. She destroyed another one that
WS Malaika
someone brought from the US. It used to be a palm tree, but just look at
walking
it. She absolutely loves this toy.
Annie: Great to see her playing like this, because it is so important for
them. Enrichment is almost as important as food and very entertaining to
watch.
Debbie: Yes very entertaining. Last week we had school group here and
they were all lined up watching her and we brought a toy out. She plays
a lot like a domestic cat.
Annie: We're not going to be donating a camera.
Debbie: As you can see I am really crazy about this cat. She is really
entertaining and I am really crazy about this cat.
Annie: Can we go?
Debbie: Are you going to let us go?
Annie: Because otherwise…. This a lesson in enclosure construction we
should have made the door open the other way.
00:17:07
Debbie: Yes that would have been easier.
Beryl: Well that ride went very well. Felix and Heathcliff just lay down and
were relaxed for the entire ride. Chobe kept trying to look out the
MS Cubs running
window, so I don't know if he was concerned or if it was just a something
new to look at. He wasn't chirping like he was unhappy, but he was more
The Cheetah Diaries Series 2 - Episode 7 – The Last Lap
00:18:44:00 MS Dawn
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interested in what was happening while the other two were just like oh
we're in the kennel again and they just lay down and were calm and
relaxed. You do have to do steps with cheetahs because you never
know what that one thing is going to be that really frightens them. And
then when something really scares teem then they will sometime
associate the one thing that you are trying to train them to do with the
fear and say if you're putting harness on once and they hear a vehicle
backfire. While the vehicle backfiring what scared them they may
associate that with the collar being placed on. So you have to be every
aware of what's going on around you especially when you're in a
situation where can't really be in control, like driving out on the main
road. If the cubs did get frightened about something you can't just stop
when you're out on a main road sometimes. So the first several times
that we take them out in the vehicle its always on the vineyard so at least
we're in a little in control of what is going on around us.
Dawn: She is a member of the family for us and it’s not good to see her
here like this. Zaza was wandering where her sister was. She's been
away for a long time and I'm sure Zaza is also shopping that she'll pull
through and come home.
But Savannah never did pull through and the team had to say
goodbye to one of their favourite cheetah ambassadors.
MS Zsa Zsa at the
Mike: hey girl!
fenceline
Next time...
Debbie: Zaza. Come Zaza come here. She loves her hugs. Especially
now with Savannah gone.
These girls were very,very close. Its unusual females are usually solitary,
but they were together for their entire ives and were very, very close. So
it’s been hard for her to have lost her sister. So she is very affectionate
with us now. She needs a lot of attention. Savannah's loss was huge
blow for me because she was my cheetah soulmate in many ways.
There was just such closeness between us. We understood each other
and I can't explain it, but I miss her terribly. I'll never get over her loss,
but her sister needs a lot of love and I will continue to be very close to
her as well.
Next time on Cheetah Diaries…
Felix, Chobe and Heathcliff are off to meet the public…
Dawn: So today is very important days for these three boys. Its the first
day they are going to the adult facility so they are going to be seeing
grown up adults for the first time and hopefully we'll be able to start
bringing people in with them. And every important for them on their
growth to being an ambassador.
Mike and Debbie pull out all the stops to persuade Malaika to go their
way
Debbie: Except we need to go this wa
And Beryl is still trying to bond with Isis, Kamikaze and Jasmine
Beryl: You don't want to push yourself on them too much, you don't want
to restrain them and just pert them in that way because they just see that
as being very threatening and very scary to them. You kinda have to wait
The Cheetah Diaries Series 2 - Episode 7 – The Last Lap
toil they are ready to come to you for the attention.