Graham, you first met these leopard cubs back in the early 1990s. Why did you decide to tell this story now?
G: For years, various people nagged me, urging me to get the story out. It took me a long time to do because this is an extremely emotional subject for me to talk about.
How did the two of you meet and why did you decide to work together?
G: I had spent 10 years with a troop of baboons so friends of mine bought me the book Fransje had written about Darwin (a baboon Karin Saks reintroduced to a troop). I got in touch with Fransje regarding baboons and the leopards came up in conversation.
F: Graham emailed me after reading my first book about baboons and sent his CV with an image of himself and Poepface. Naturally, I was keen to find out why and how he had been involved with a leopard. Once I heard a snippet of his story I knew this was a book I wanted to write.
Fransje wrote the book in the first person, from Graham’s perspective. Fransje, was it difficult to write the story as Graham would have told it?
F: It was hard for me to get the full picture in my own head but once I had all the details I was able to ‘become’ Graham and write about his extraordinary experiences with the cubs. I guess it was like an acting role, where you almost become the part and feel it in such a way that it becomes clear enough to write about. To this day I find it strange to think that I never knew the cubs as I feel I have come to know and love them.
How did the two of you work together to get the story down?
G: I sent Fransje the diaries I kept when I was with my babies, but I ended up going to Cape Town to meet her. There, I told her the whole story face to face.
F: We had one week together for interviews, scattered diary entries from which to lift scenes and a trillion emails ...
Fransje, your passion for animals has often influenced the work you do, as an author and a wildlife writer. Could you tell us about the projects you are currently involved in?
F: I am the ambassador for the South African Mass Animal Sterilisation Trust (SA.MAST), which is dedicated to consistent spaying and primary care to dogs and cats in disadvantaged areas for free. This is a project very close to my heart. I also support and attempt to raise funds for a conservation study in Namibia – the Caprivi Carnivore Project, which is run by Lise Hanssen and studies the demography of spotted hyena and other large carnivores. Still on the wildlife front, but more animal-welfare related, I am also involved in the SanWild Trust, which rescues wild animals (from rhinos to elephants to lions, wild dogs to leopards and vervets to tree squirrels) and gives them a permanent home in a private reserve. I find these different projects incredibly inspiring and always try for ways and means to write about them or help raise awareness.
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