The Cape golden mole. An extremely cute little fellow as far as I’m concerned, soft, streamlined, and oh so cuddly from a distance. However, it is entirely possible that I am one of the few people to actually like the little guy, considering the fact that a) they are quite common in Cape Town and b) their nasty little ‘runner’ trails are usually quite devastating to otherwise normally perfectly manicured lawns.

Chantelle is one of the people who are DEFINITELY not so fond of this little creature. We’ve encountered these mammals before at Nagua Bay, but that was before we owned our own patch of lawn and looked after our own little garden, meaning that this cuddly critter ranks rather high on Chantelle’s “to kill” list – probably more so considering the fact that one of these fellows has in fact been terrorizing our lawn since we moved in.

But I’m afraid our little digger is now without a doubt DEAD. Having survived our German neighbour’s attempts to kill him with a potent mix of liquid human compost, the gutsy guy finally ran out of luck when it came to our two own home-grown furry killers, Achilles and Olympus, who unceremoniously hauled the small thing in via the en-suite bathroom window and proceeded to ‘play’ with it until it simply couldn’t play any more, all done in the wee early hours of Tuesday morning.

Of course, seeing as I am the only one up at that time, I was tasked with the capture of the half dead little creature as well as the disposal of it (with the help of my trusty skoppie and brush).

Because Chantelle wasn’t looking (in other words, she wasn’t there to cut off its head), I collected and simply tossed it over the back wall in the hopes that it may somehow recover its strength and mend its broken little body over time, though the later observed ominous signs of guinea fowl standing over the exact area where I earlier flung the little fellow certainly seems to indicate that my hopes might be in vain.

Nevertheless, Chantelle is pleased as punch, though the cats appear to be a little annoyed with me.

Related Link: http://www.biodiversityexplorer.org/mammals/afrosoricida/chrysochloris_asiatica.htm