Last time I was talking about our veterinary clinics in the North of Tunisia, and the bleak arid zone around Kasserine in the centre. But of course, Tunisia stretches way down to the south - in fact it's shaped like a dagger pointing right at the heart of the Sahara.

But I love it there. It is another world, and worlds away from the forests and mountains of the north.
Our centre is in Kebili, where we were given a bit of sand by the Ministry to play with, and over the last six or seven years have not only built a clinic, but created a little garden 'oasis' there. We've planted palm- trees, roses and flowers - gorgeous aromatic jasmines, lavenders,thyme and other Mediterranean herbs that are not too greedy with our well-water.

I even made a pond - and wonder of wonders, within a few months it was teaming with tadpoles, water beetles and damsel and draogonflies. Where on earth do they come from? But the local schools send their children, and I spent an enjoyable morning trying to convince them that the little tadpoles would eventually grow legs, lose their tails, and finally become frogs. The children nodded wisely, but I'm not sure anyone actually believed anything quite as dubious as that.

And of course, as always, we try never to turn a sick or needy animal away. So, as well as the normal donkeys, mules and horses, and of course camels here in the south, we also get other strange and exotic creatures. We've had gazelles, birds of prey, even hedgehogs - but I don't think we were prepared for the two young ostriches that arrived.

They became extinct in the wild here, but someone has been thinking about reintroductions and somehow or other we inheritted a pair of youngsters. But does anyone know anything about ostriches? The female gamely lays eggs and then the male gets all worked up, and sometimes sits on them, sometimes leaves them in the baking sun, and has even broken a couple. Is he just a delinquent, useless father. Or is it society that has made him that way ? Any suggestions welcome.

So it was quite a relief to return to working with the horses and donkeys used by the farmers who work the date palms. Though as they actually feed their livestock dates, we get a lot of cases of dental problems, broken teeth, tooth decay, and the donkeys in particular get so fat! Who would have thought obesity would be a massive problem in the Sahara !