Monday, August 28, 2006

Musings over a mongoose family...


There's this mongoose family (a couple & a tiny pup that's newly emerged :)) I've been tracking these-days.
It dwells in a rabbit-hole, in the field just across our apartment. (Easily visible thru' our hall window). It's a neat little happy family. They all look very healthy. The father is bigger in size & has darker fur as compared to the glistening grey of the mother & pup.
Every morning I see them emerge from the hole & bask in the warm morning sun. The mother is the caring & the careful of the lot. So often she guides the pup upto the river & back. A slightest rustle in the surrounding grass puts her on full alert especially when the pup's around.
A couple of days back, I saw the dad return to the hole in a dizzy manner. Much like the irresponsible, troubled & inebriated dads of human families living in slums. It was sick. May be bitten by a poisonous snake or taken an electric shock.
The family looked terrorised and anxious that evening. The mom scampered in & out of the hole aimlessly while the pup & the dad disappeared in the dark mysterious rabbit hole.
Thereafter the mom disappeared too.
After a gap of 3 days I saw the family out again today, happy & healthy. Wonder what love, nursing, praying & healing went inside the rabbit-hole for 3 days, but peace & health seems to have restored in that family, much to my relief :).
Some day would love to shrink like Alice & venture into that mysterious dark rabbit-hole...

Acknowledgments -
Painting Illustration by Nic Baker (http://www.nicbaker.com/)