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FROM “BUSH BUNNY BRENDA“
DATE: JULY 25, 2020
 
DOG SAVES BUNNY FROM NASTY COBRA!

Sun­day, July 19, I was about to step out­side my house at noon (warmest day of last week), when Misha (Mee­sha), a vis­it­ing dog from next door, set up an urgent bark­ing. She is nor­mal­ly very qui­et, and loves to lay in the sun on my car port just out­side my back door.

I imme­di­ate­ly stuck my head out the door, look­ing for trou­ble, but saw noth­ing (includ­ing the dog). The silenced was very con­cern­ing, for I had no idea WHAT OR WHO had caused Misha’s urgent bark­ing, and WHY had she run away?

I cau­tious­ly walked out into the car­port, and imme­di­ate­ly saw a LARGE zig-zag snake trail in the sand beside the cement slab. Now I knew why Misha had left! Smart dog!

I called the guard with 1 word, COBRA!  He grabbed our snake killer, a 13-foot (4‑meter) sol­id bam­boo rod and came run­ning. You don’t want to get too close to big snakes in Africa since they can stand up to half their length, and strike up to 10 feet from their posi­tion.

Our 7‑ton truck was sit­ting in my car­port, loaded with food for Meluco’s orphans. When we couldn’t find the snake because it’s sand trail end­ed at our cement side­walk, I was  con­cerned it had crawled up into the truck’s frame when the dog barked at it. (Misha had been sleep­ing in the warm sand just in front of the truck before she barked.)
 

Zide show­ing unwant­ed vis­i­tor at Bush Bun­ny’s house

An extend­ed search found the snake ON THE BACK SIDE OF MY HOUSE, sit­ting on the cement ledge that forms the foun­da­tion.
Obvi­ous­ly look­ing for food and warmth on the cement, this 5‑FOOT (1.5‑meter) SPITTING COBRA was a bit slug­gish in its move­ments when we first spot­ted it.

Zide, my guard, told me to step back, as he took aim with the bam­boo rod. The snake lay in a very dif­fi­cult posi­tion for the guard to hit it as it was against the brick wall of the house.

KAWAK! The bam­boo struck the cement, break­ing the end of the bam­boo rod. The snake was only stunned (not good), but at least the blow had knocked it off the wall. Zide is an expe­ri­enced snake killer, so imme­di­ate­ly struck a 2nd time, but missed as the snake turned in the blink of an eye, lung­ing its full length in his direc­tion!

Jump­ing side­ways with speed and agili­ty, the snake bare­ly missed bit­ing Zide. He then hit it 3 more times in quick suc­ces­sion with the bro­ken bam­boo, end­ing that quick but fero­cious bat­tle. I ran into the house and grabbed a machete (pan­ga), as no snake is a dead snake until it’s head is removed!

I regret that I didn’t get a video of this fight, but it all hap­pened in a mat­ter of 10 sec­onds. It would have showed you the skill and agili­ty need­ed to fight a large, fast mov­ing, African snake. I’ll try to remem­ber this when we next encounter a snake, for there is always a “next time” around here.
 

One-eyed Misha, my won­der­ful four-legged friend​

My thanks to JESUS FOR SENDING MISHA, the dog, who warned me, and Zide, the guard, for his brave attack skills in keep­ing me safe from this snake.

That was the warmest day we had all week (70ºF/23ºC), as the next day the tem­per­a­tures turned very cold again (48ºF/13ºC).
Since the snake was very thin, it was obvi­ous it was look­ing for warmth, and food dur­ing its mid­day excur­sion. It won’t need to look any­more, for Zide gave him a nice bur­ial in our back pas­ture.

2 LESSONS TO LEARN HERE: 
 
In the prac­ti­cal: ALWAYS LISTEN to the ani­mals around you, and imme­di­ate­ly inves­ti­gate with cau­tion. I have had God use birds, dogs, and just the tracks on the ground to give me warn­ing of an impend­ing dan­ger that saved me from harm.

SPIRITUALLY: BE WISE, AND KEEP ALERT, LISTENING TO GOD’S VOICE IN THESE END TIMES. Some “snakes” wan­der­ing city streets come with 2 legs.
 

OUR CHILDREN ARE ALL HEALTHY!

They are just a bit bored with the lack of school. We have increased our games and class­room activ­i­ties to help curb their bore­dom. The big boys love to play “bas­ket­ball-court soc­cer”, so below is a short video show­ing their com­pet­i­tive spir­it as they burn off some of their nev­er end­ing ener­gy. (Click the link or the pho­to to see the YouTube video.) 
 
https://youtu.be/WeG2UFsEXXc
 

Teens play­ing bas­ket­ball court soc­cer.​
 
The ball they are using is a spe­cial ONE WORLD BALL that is super tough. It won’t burst as it made of a spe­cial mate­r­i­al, and has a spe­cial valve that keeps it inflat­ed no mat­ter how rough it is treat­ed. Designed by USA engi­neers specif­i­cal­ly for African ter­rains.

YOUR LOVE GIFTS PROVIDED THESE BALLS, FOR WHICH ALL THE CHILDREN ARE GRATEFUL.

Bless­ings to you all in these chal­leng­ing times.
BUSH BUNNY BRENDA LANGE
AND THE BALAMA STAFF