Week 304 ( 19th to 25th Jun 2009 )
327 reaches the end of his usefulness
All good things come to end as 327 soon found out. After mating for four days Cathay and 327 lost all interest in one another and to prove their point were most often a camp’s length apart, excepting at feeding time and when he had something she wanted.
On one occasion, 327 was lying between his pantry and a bush with a bush behind him, and just looked down his nose at me and continued sleeping. Cathay had an attack of the nibbles and after walking in a huge semi-circle sneaked quietly; foot-by-foot into the bush behind him and stretching her neck as far as she could, just managed to grab hold of some food and whipped around to make a speedy getaway but got entangled in the branches. The racket woke 327 up from his slumber and he leapt up and Cathay froze in mid-step. His nibs stretched lazily and yawned lengthily and by that time Cathay had managed to extricate herself from her predicament and beat a speedy retreat with her prize. 327 then vanished into his pantry to attend to his sudden hunger pangs
327 was loudly protesting the lack of food - grumbling with each step. Cathay sought to soften the effects of his grumbling by chuffing at me. Cathay then plonked her butt down in front of the 3ha gate and 327 lay down at the fence. Neither of them showed any interest in the other; looks like mating is officially over. Some time later Cathay walked off along the 3ha fence. In the afternoon as I was cleaning the 3ha camp; Cathay and 327 were milling around. 327 was convinced that they were going to be fed at any second and was constantly growling at Cathay, protecting the food he hadn’t yet received; she took it all in her stride and chuffed at him.