Smart Animals
14 | March• 2018
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on how to contribute.the afternoon sunlight, and if she
were mine, I would have named
her Goldie.
Our first meeting was unexpected.
She rubbed each cheek on Dad’s
hand, just like a little cat, as he
patted her from head to tail, and she
loved playing with his hand. Every
afternoon Dad, Joy and I would
spend hours playing with her. The
mongoose was intrigued by Dad’s
watch – focusing on it so intently it
seemed she was conscious of the
passing time. Dad often took off his
watch and let her play with it.
One day, we forgot to take the watch
back from her and as we were leaving,
I noticed that she was unusually
agitated. Then we realised she wasPassing the Time
SUMAIYA NAWSHIN
In the summer holidays of May 2016,
Dad and I visited his home town of
Mirpur, Bangladesh. Beautiful star
moss, honeysuckle and other
wildflowers lined both sides of the
dirt road leading to my grandparents’
home, where we spent just over three
weeks. In this part of the country,
there are hundreds of farms, mostly
lentil farms, and we spent our
afternoons lounging on the thatched
rooftop of a small wooden house
belonging to a neighbouring farmer
named Jamal. His 11-year-old son,
Joy, would often tell us of his pet
mongoose, which lived under a nearby
banyan tree. We dismissed this as a
little boy’s fantasy – after all, how can
anyone have a mongoose for a pet?
Well, that was until I caught a
glimpse of Joy’s mongoose, chasing
after a crab. She looked golden in
Animals endear themselves to us with their charming behaviour