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Private Notes
Business at Leopard’s Den isn’t flourishing. Sarah decides that new luxury accommodation which will attract wealthy guests is the answer to their financial problems.
Danny is finding it tough to juggle mending the fences, his veterinary practice and the health of his animals. A zebra dies unexpectedly, and he needs to stop whatever killed it spreading to other animals.
Sarah is on a shopping trip with her mother Caroline (Hayley), purchasing soft furnishings for the new accommodation, when there is a problem with Sarah’s card. The bank has frozen her credit as they are constantly overdrawn.
Zebras slip through the damaged fencing into the neighbouring reserve, Mara, angering the manager, Fatani. As Danny tries to smooth things over, he finds two tiger cubs in Fatani’s “zoo for endangered species” and is outraged.
Later, the cubs go missing and Fatani immediately accuses Danny of taking them. Danny knows nothing about it but in retaliation, Fatani lures away workers from Leopard’s Den with the promise of instant cash. Things go from bad to worse when Danny learns that his lab bills are still outstanding.
Will the Trevanions be able to turn their luck around? And will they unmask the true tiger cub thief?
On completing his annual animal census, Danny makes the alarming discovery that there are no male cheetah on the reserve. Meanwhile tension between Sarah and Caroline is at an all time high and in a fit of pique, Sarah fires her own mother.
Vet students Glenn and Caitlin are at Leopard’s Den for a work placement, after which Danny will choose which one will be his vet assistant for a year. This annoys Rosie who has started to enjoy assisting her dad. And she doesn’t appreciate Caitlin flirting with her boyfriend, Max. When Danny bawls her out for being late for a game drive, Rosie quits.
Sarah is astonished to discover Caroline is the new deputy manager of Mara. But Du Plessis is fed up with all the upheaval at Leopard’s Den and hatches a plan to get everything to go back to normal. Enlisting Caroline’s help, he “borrows” a cheetah from Mara and hints to Rosie that there still may be one male cheetah at Leopard’s Den. Rosie is delighted when she finds the animal.
Episode one
This week Danny has an elephant problem: there’s not enough space for their growing numbers at Leopard’s Den. The elephants have eaten all the available foliage and are beginning to fight over food, and injure each other. If Danny can’t solve this problem, Du Plessis tells him, the only humane thing to do will be to cull some of the elephants.
Sarah has her work cut out with the first guests in the new luxury lodge - a hen party of excitable young women - while Du Plessis’s son, Kirk, arrives with his girlfriend, Neema, and Du Plessis is thrilled to discover he is going to be a granddad.
Fatani is nervous because Mara’s new owner is arriving. But Elliot Kriel turns out to be a really good guy. One of the first things he does is invite the Trevanions over for a meal so he can get to know his neighbours. It turns out he may have a solution for Danny’s elephant problem too.
But it’s not just elephants on the agenda. Rosie calls Danny away to investigate a giraffe problem near the fence with Mara. It seems the new electric fence Fatani has installed is hurting the giraffes…
Danny is shocked when Elaine, his old flame from veterinary college, turns up with a tranquilised lioness which she claims to have found in the bush. Sarah is unhappy when she sees the way Danny reacts to seeing Elaine again.
It soon becomes clear that Elaine has not told the whole truth when a man from Catabele, a nearby game park, reveals that one of his lionesses, destined to be shot in a hunt, has been stolen. Danny confronts Elaine who denies taking the lioness, but Sarah’s suspicions are raised.
After some internet lessons from Evan, Du Plessis secretly goes on a dating website but Caroline knows he’s up to something.
Danny is oblivious to the fact that Elaine still has feelings for him, but Sarah is starting to worry. Sarah is furious with Danny when Mr Castle returns to demand his lioness back. Danny promises to sort it out, but Elaine has already released the lioness. How will Danny sort this one out?
Danny berates a tourist for carelessly hitting a cow while driving through the township. He’s stunned to learn that the woman is Kriel’s wife, Amy (Jessie Wallace).
Sarah is dismayed when she discovers that her mother has invited a journalist to review Leopard’s Den, but Caroline reassures her that the woman and her husband will have an unforgettable time.
As Evan and Olivia are staying away for longer, Sarah wants to make the most of their temporary freedom, but Danny is called away by Kriel, who has found a rooikat trapped in a snare.
While treating the wild cat, Danny despairs of his lack of equipment and wishes he had the facilities of an animal hospital. He’s taken aback when Kriel suggests they build one.
Danny is busier than ever due to a drought affecting the region. But he has to turn away some locals with sick animals to attend to an abandoned baby hippo. Frustrated by his relentless workload, Sarah decides to restart the animal hospital initiative. Without Kriel’s knowledge, Amy helps Sarah organise a fundraiser. They hope to persuade Jordan, a rich businessman staying at Mara, to invest in the hospital.
Caroline’s sister, Judith, comes to visit the family. She immediately perceives the stalemate between Caroline and Du Plessis and resolves to make Caroline realise how much she cares for him.
Meanwhile Max surprises Rosie with a huge diamond engagement ring. To him, it symbolises their future together, but when he outlines his idea of the future to Rosie, she begins to have doubts.
At the fundraiser Du Plessis is being auctioned off. The two sisters engage in a bidding war but Judith is triumphant. And Max realises that Rosie hasn’t told Danny and Sarah about their engagement and leaves, upset.
Max's parents are from old South Africa and don't approve of the wedding and the omens are bad when Max sees the bride before the wedding. The drought continues and a fire threatens the marriage, the hospital and the house. Max is the hero and Kriel the coward while Max's father proves that a leopard can change it's spots.
The hospital is lost in the fire, but the animals are now in danger of being trapped in the flames, so the Trevanions rush to help them. Disaster strikes and the family has to decide what it can do in the face of such tragedy. Africa has been their saviour and now could be their undoing.
