Friday, February 25, 2011

Wildlife Ahoy

Who says you have to go to a nature reserve for an encounter with interesting wildlife? Sitting right here, in a city of about 4 million people, we have encountered the following:

1) Some months back, a family of mongoose, who would trot across the top edge of the gate, in decreasing order of size. As though aware of what a show they put on, they didn’t look sideways at their audience, or down at the ground. “Just passing through”, they seemed to say.

2) A cat gave birth to her kittens on our living room chair (I wrote about that experience earlier). They have moved out, but every once in awhile, the cat returns, almost as though to check that we are behaving as we should be

3) Three to four different kinds of birds hop onto the window sill of our dining room every day and complain vociferously if an over-ripe banana has not been placed for their royal consumption

And today, reporting live, I bring you two eye witness reports:

4) A one-inch frog (it is the monsoon after all) that hopped its way across the bathroom floor. Reaching the bathroom door, it had nowhere to go. Pausing to consider his next move, he spotted a thin crack between the door and the wall. Not worrying about size and fit, he turned around, pushed his butt in, and slowly eased himself into the crack. Since then, there have been no sightings. Stay posted though, we might have breaking news, any moment now…

5) A small cute looking mouse: She leapt off the shoe-rack this morning and vanished by diving into some old newspapers under the staircase. ‘Ah well’ we thought. It turns out, however, that this mouse has a good sense of theatrics. Having received shrieks (of what she probably took as appreciation), she has taken to repeating her feat – - crouching unseen on the shoe-rack and leaping off when an innocent human is trying to reach for their chappals.

So the next time you want to spend big bucks on a safari, save your cash… just come and stay with us instead.

By,
Suchitra Shenoy
(read more by Suchitra at http://dosomethingbeautifulthebook.wordpress.com

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