Today was brilliant. We rescued about nine cats from a poor compound in downtown Lusaka, I chased a young lad down the street who was illegally selling a puppy that looked half dead – an undercover policeman pulled a gun on him, all very exciting, but the puppy is fine and if the lad turns up to help me on Friday at the mobile clinic, he’ll get a job at the dog shelter rather than street trade in animals. Fingers crossed. I spayed a cat with the indomitable Sue who runs the shelter, the cat work up a bit early which was a bit hairy, but is fine and the op went well otherwise. There was a rehoming with Claudia, and I love the shelter here. They are the only charity in the whole capital and are doing great work. Sue is tough and funny – although she compared my hair to that of a Tibetan Terrier which Bruce predictably found very amusing.
 

Nick officially owes me a million. Big welcome dinner last night, paid for by us, resulted in me being the only one with money (incredibly rare and something I strive to avoid) and it cost over a million Zambian Kwacha. Whilst I liked having a million, I actually prefer being owed it because it means I can incessantly remind Nick he owes me a mil. It is going down well. As the new producer, and very weird not having Marc here, it is great fun getting Nick into the swing of things. Bruce is constantly buffering my attempts at explaining to Nick what Marc would do in any given situation, but if Bruce isn’t around, I have a clear run and whilst Nick is a thoroughly great guy, there is huge value in helping him out a bit. Adam is deep in the zone and keeping us all on track – great to have him back driving the bus and good feelings about this trip all round.