This story is seven years old, but it definitely deserves retelling.
Before Mkombozi had her given name, she was barely known in a small village just outside Nairobi, Kenya. She lived inside a shed, having just given birth to puppies. Apparently, she was seen foraging for food in the poor village, trying to keep her puppies alive. One afternoon, the young mother was seen leaving the Ngong Forest after searching for food and carrying a package, across busy traffic, under a barbed wire fence and then to her shed. The package was laid gently with her puppies with Mkombozi cuddling up beside it, then it began to cry. The children discovered what it was that Mkombozi had rescued from the forest, carefully carried across an active street, protected from barbed wires and then lay safely among her pups in her stark dwelling.
The baby girl had been abandoned and left to the elements. Mkombozi saved her. The infant was taken to the hospital and recovered after several weeks in intensive care. Mkombozi lost her fight to save her puppies, none survived. After the last one died, the small Kenyan village was so overwhelmed by the dog’s feat, they provided her with a home at the Kenya SPCA and a name that in Swahili means Savior.
Years after Mkombozi’s act of love, her story continues to be told to the children in Kenya, and to the world. Definitely worth retelling.
“Animals are such agreeable friends – they ask no questions; they pass no criticisms.” – George Eliot (1819-1880), English writer Mary Anne Evans. She wrote under the pen name George Eliot.
