Mario Cesare - The Man With the Black Dog: A true modern-day Jock of the Bushveld

Until one has loved an animal,

A part of ones soul remains unawakened.

ANATOLE FRANCE

Dig deep enough and you will invariably find that everyone has a story to tell. Sadly, however, the vast majority of people never get to tell theirs. Their lifelong learning literally dies with them, and what was once born of flesh and blood becomes constituent of the surrounding dust. As dramatic as this may sound, its true.

I also believe that the matrix of our environment governs what we become. No living organism is above this law; none of us can escape its influence on us, and no two of us are identical. As individuals we adapt and respond to the various stimuli out there in varying degrees and in various ways. Essentially it is what makes each of us unique, shapes us and moulds our way of thinking from the earliest age, particularly the way we interact with each other and the myriad other creatures with which we share the planet. In my case this has stemmed from a love of animals and the natural environment, which grew into an all-consuming passion and a career in nature conservation.

Many of my childhood escapades, both imaginary and real, were fuelled by what I gleaned from the pages in books. The common element in the character make-up of most of the story books and plays I grew up with was animals, mainly dogs. In some, they played a minor role, but mostly they were integral to the story, the principal characters. In those days children in suburbia knew less about wild animals and the circle of life than they do today, but dogs we could associate with. From the scruffiest little terrier to the largest canine couch potato, they were part of our everyday lives, and almost everything we did, we did together.

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Since primitive man first brought wolf cubs back to his cave, dogs have been one of lifes greatest gifts to mankind. This book is largely about the privilege of having shared a part of my life with a very special one of these gifts. I dont wish to hint at being an expert on dogs, far from it; however, of my love for our canine friends in general, and more particularly this one, there can be no question, and for this, there is no measurable qualification necessary.

From my earliest memory, dogs stand out as having played the most important role in bringing me closer to nature. Even while I could not have been more than a clumsy cub to them, the dogs I knew as a child always treated me as a kindred member of their pack, even taking me on forays into the surrounding veld when they went exploring, which pricked my interest and stimulated an awareness of the environment. This was the beginning of an insatiable appetite for adventure and the outdoors.

Next to the classic dog tales of yore Old Yeller, White Fang, Lassie and Jock of the Bushveld , to name but a few Shilos tale is a comparatively modern account of the life of a game ranger and his dog in the African bush. In fact, the odyssey of Shilo had already become part of my life years before the movie of Jock of the Bushveld was made. The revival of this iconic tale on the big screen prompted numerous game rangers and wannabe game rangers to go out and acquire Jock look-alikes. While their Staffies may have resembled Jock in looks, alas, for most thats where the romantic notion and similarity ended.

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This book is more than a nostalgic collection of vignettes on the life and adventures of a game rangers dog. It is a tribute to the greatest dog Ive known, an unfolding journey through life, from my and Shilos earliest days together, which has inevitably included many exciting interactions with the rich diversity of wildlife we encountered, from elephants in Botswanas Tuli Reserve, to leopards in the Lowveld, and from teal in the wetlands of the Drakensberg, to trout in the frigid streams of the snow-covered highlands near Lesotho. Naturally, along the way, I have included stories of pluck and peril involving other dogs and the valuable lessons learned, while inescapably, attentive readers will find jostling for their attention many more observations and relevant anecdotes arising from a career that now spans decades in wildlife conservation.

This memoir would be incomplete without the people, the dogs and incidents that helped shape my early thinking before Shilo became an integral part of this multifarious way of life.

In the fourteen years we spent together, Shilo was never away from my side for more than a few days at a stretch, and that only happened on two unavoidable occasions. To the locals who didnt know my name, and even to some of those who did, I was the man with the black dog. Shilo was my constant companion in the bush, a brave colleague and one of the finest wildfowl retrievers I have ever known. Above all, he was the embodiment of unconditional love and devotion.

Many of our wonderful experiences together are liable to emerge from my memory at any time with all the freshness of the day they happened. However, there has been the odd occasion of frustration, when I found myself wanting of more expression with the pen, to capture the emotions and sentiment of the moment. Suffice it to say, I have endeavoured to paint a picture of our life together, to re-live that beautiful relationship as it unfolded, and trust that through the coming pages, you will too.