The Giza Foundation : Personal Stories

 The Puppy Surprise on the Plateau

It was shaping up to another extraordinary day. We had been feted by the mystery Bedouin and the Temple guide.

(See detail in Echoes from the Chamber) ...and now we were heading out of the Western Mastaba field.

Earlier in the day we had encountered something else which seemed quite extraordinary at the time.

Well away from the pyramids in the open plateau beyond Menkaure we were just pausing to get our bearings. I spotted movement and as we walked forward to investigate, we discovered a fluffy desert puppy completely alone and in no state of strength to look after itself.

There was no one anywhere close by and Judith gathered up the puppy. It was clearly thirsty and lapped greedily at water we offered it. From a distance, two of the young, ever vigilant plateau child/Touts had spotted us and headed our way... presumably to see what they could make of the situation for themselves. We remembered them from earlier and still as a couple of pests.

They tried to grab the puppy from us and I shouted at them to get away from us. They persisted, but the commotion had drawn the attention of a lone Tourist Policeman. He also made his way to us from some distance, but remonstrated with the boys very severely until they disappeared with their tails between their legs!!

The Policeman turned to us and asked us to give up the puppy, gestulating that it was all ok. He seemed to be signalling to some rocks nearer to Khafre, a distance away. We reluctantly yielded the puppy and hoped it would be taken care of safely.

At the tale end of this story I can say we visited the area agan over the following days and discovered there was a desert dog den under one of the giant stones near the pyramid. The policeman had returned the stray. We have no idea how it came to be so far away when we found it. For the time we were there, we brought food and water to the den - and we like to think we helped to preserve the health of at least a few of these beautiful creatures..... But.. There was yet another twist to this story.

(from previously) ...We were eventually satisfied with the information and photographs we had gleaned (from the field of the Western Mastabas) and made our way back towards the road.

We realised what a privilege we had been given as we saw other camel Police preventing anyone else stepping even a few yards off the road towards the Mastabas. We were somewhat dazed by what had happened. We wandered off the road again to the west of Khafre, still expecting the Police to pounce on us at any time. We sat to rest and meditate for a few minutes.

Judith and I agreed we seemed to under some kind of extraordinary influence that day, but we still debated if it was just our imagination. I sent out a thought to my Minder on a higher level for a sign to show it was true.

'Were' we under some kind of special guidance that day as so many times before ?

I turned to Judith and over her shoulder I saw a rock close by that was the exact profile of a jackal !!

It could only be seen from one particular direction. I had to ask Judith to sit in my exact position before she saw it too.  The sight reminded us of the little sandy feral puppy we had found earlier lost on the sands; which with the help of the Policeman we were able to locate it back to the den.

Back behind Khafre we saw a busy camel Policeman clearing tourists back to the road. He went past us with a nod and left us alone!

We wandered again along the path and made a detour behind Menkaure. It was late afternoon and there seemed to be no one else about. It was then we were approached by our next mystery helper of the day ! (The story behind the story to be detailed in the forthcoming book:  Echoes from the Chamber)

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