A day in the life - First mating

Dear Diary,

Today was amazing. I finally chose a male to mate with. I've had an exciting few weeks with multiple males vying for the opportunity to father my first litter. Pollock Pines has been the most tenacious with courting me, and he’s just so handsome I knew he would be the one.

I was with my best friends when Pollock first approached. After plenty of approach avoids, head bobs, and bowing (my favorite courtship behavior), I led Pollock away for some privacy. We chased each other to a buffalo wallow and splashed around in the puddle. I covered myself with mud from head to toe and then dried off by rolling around in the dirt while he looked on lovingly. It was so romantic.

I then led him off to a clearing and let him mate. He tried his very best, but he was still quite awkward. I had heard it was a difficult process for the males, but I never imagined how silly he would look, I almost had to call the whole thing off. After two mountings he was successful, and we wandered off to snack together on an old wildebeest carcass we found.

Later, I went back and told my friends all about it. They say I’ll have my first litter after 110 days, I cannot wait. A lot of them are already pregnant after the migration, and we're going to raise all our cubs up together. I can't believe that I'm finally going to go from groaning over my clan-mate's cubs to groaning over my own!

Well after all that excitement it’s time for a nap!

-        Rummy