A lot, or at least some, of Claire’s friends are fond of cats. I have stated (correctly) that I’m not a big fan of cats. When I tell people that, they usually assume, or say, that I must be a dog person. That’s not necessarily true… I do like dogs, but I wouldn’t say I’m a dog person. When I’m asked what my favorite animal is, my answer is always a mongoose. Then I invariably get the question, “why a mongoose?”
Well, not that I have to have a reason, but I have a couple… the plural of mongoose is mongooses and I like to say that word. Mongooses aren’t afraid of snakes and battle them to the death, with the mongoose usually winning… even against the king cobra. Who wouldn’t like somebody that could do that? And… even before the immigration ban, mongooses were banned from the United states — you can’t even see one in a zoo. that makes me a little sad and enhances my sympathy vote for my favorite animal.
I’ve only seen a real mongoose in a couple of zoos in foreign countries, but probably the real reason I’ve always liked them started in about the second or third grade, when I read a story about a mongoose, named Rikki-tikki-tavi (The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling.) That was always one of my favorite stories… I don’t remember either one of our kids being especially interested in it, but it always was (and is) one of my favorites.
Anyhow, mongooses don’t get the respect and credit they deserve… Egyptian tombs contained mummified mongooses along with mummified human bodies. If you’re an artist, a really good artist, you probably have some paint brushes made from the fur of mongooses. They are very expensive and can’t (legally) be sold in the US. Add to all this the fact that mongooses have horizontal pupils and it’s easy to see why I chose them as my favorite animal….
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