The dogs have gone

Boohoo. I'm very concerned about them! They left at 10:30 this morning to catch a 4pm flight to Johannesburg. So its only a 4 hour flight but still.... if you add in all the transporting to and from the airport and the waiting around they do before and after the flights, it's like 12 hour journey. 12 hours in a kennel with no food and only a little water (So that they don't have waste)! And no familiar faces. And LOTS of scary noise. At least the sky kennels we got them are spacious and comfy and they are quite happy in them. We've made them sleep in them the last few weeks so that they are familiar with being in there.
They are going to doggie prison in Johannesburg for hopefully just 5 days. Its a maximum of 2 weeks quarantine when taking dogs to SA (from dodgy countries like kenya), just long enough for them to be tested for various things. So if the timing works as planned, they'll have their tests done on Wednesday and the results will come on friday. Then they can be released. Yay! Lets hope. Because quarantine doenst sound very nice at all.
I took them for their last run in the forest this morning. They will REALLY miss that. They run wild there and do at least double the distance I do with their darts here and there and monkey sprints and bird chases. Its the rainy season right now so the forest has been seriously muddy lately. Mahindi's favourite. Within 2 minutes of entering the forest she is brown. She rolls in all the puddles its so funny.
Horse is just the most athletic dog ever. She is beautiful to watch in the forest, I love it. She is elegant and effortless. And can run REALLY REALLY fast. Mahindi is like this low flying barrel chasing her hardest from behind after the same monkey. Thankfully they have never even gotten close to the monkeys. Or caught any of the little duikers or birds!
They have a serious bunch of canine friends there too which has really made them into lovely social dogs. I've never seen an ounce of aggression from either of them. Even when a new dog challenges them. Which is very reassuring for us, having a child and all. Nico loves to pull their ears, smack them and hang on their tails. And they just sit there as if nothing is happening. Horse licks Nico to death of course, but Nico is learning to shout 'ORSE' when she does.
We have been very lucky with the 2 dogs, apart from Horse's chewing of cars, and her early morning barking, they are both great. And they get on really well. We love them to death and would never consider leaving them behind.
We can't wait to see them in the snow in Switzerland! Horse is such a big baby when it comes to the cold, she is really going to hate it. Will have to get her a pink fleecy jacket, the big softy! Mahindi will probably go mad.
We first have to get through the few months in SA... I doubt I will find anything like the forests here. And if I do, it probably wont be safe to go there on my own. So I may have to run on the road with them which is going to be tricky. I have found this cool place though so we'll try and take them there now and then, its an hour away.
So its like an end of a chapter now that the dogs are off... our house is just not the same without them. Nico is really going to miss them these last 3 weeks as well. He LOVES LOVES LOVES them. He giggles whenever they do things and he can watch them for hours.