Honey The Baby Water Mongoose

first day

I have a sneaky suspicion that animals have spread the word that if you are in need of shelter, food or just some unconditional love, then Dino and Rae's farm is the one to go to.

a temporary enclosure and a week older

Three weeks ago, our pack of nine dogs alerted us to yet another little furry being in need of some desperate help. When Rae heard the dogs barking at the steps of our front "stoep" she thought she better go and investigate as the barking was not their usual tone. There, peering up at her from under the Honeysuckle bush, was this little fluffy creature. At this stage, she wasn't sure what it was, so she shoo'd all the dogs inside and as any caring woman with an intense mothering instinct would do, she rushed inside to fetch some cat pellets to see if it was hungry.

enjoying a good little scratch

I arrived home at this point and was instructed by a very excited Rae, to climb over the fence immediately in order to take the shortest and quickest possible route to her, never mind the fact that I could very well have got some important bits hooked up in the barbed wire which, not only would have delayed  me getting to her but could also have caused some serious damage to "me parts".

realizing that this girl loves water

Once I had made it across the fence, with all sorts of possible scenarios going through my head as to what  sort of drama to expect, snakes, snakes and more snakes, as I could not think what could be so important as to risk me climbing over the barbed wire fence and possibly doing irreparable damage to something that is most valued by me and I thought Rae too!  I rounded the corner to where she was waiting for me and in my wildest dreams I never expected to see what I saw... a little baby mongoose!!
She was a small fluffy fur ball with the tell tale milky eyes of a youngster that should not be away from its Mom and it could hardly walk without falling over. She was trying to crunch through the cat pellets with tiny needle-like teeth and if you put your hand near her, she would growl and attempt to bite you. This she succeeded in doing about two minutes later because I got all brave and thought I would just try and touch her, thinking that with such little teeth, what damage could she do? At first, it seemed like nothing and then tiny little droplets of blood appeared on my finger, that's how tiny and sharp her teeth were, like little needles. Rae also brought her a little saucer of milk which she literally fell into and it was soon obvious that she desperately wanted to drink it but was too young to know how to lick it up!

Rae begged me to go fetch a box to put her in and when I protested and asked where we were going to keep her, she said, "In our bedroom of course!" . Wondering how on earth I was going to get her into the box with all my fingers intact, as you an imagine, I was not keen at all after I had just experienced this little critters bite. So off I went to find a box, thinking that I would leave Rae and the little evil critter for a good long while and instead of going to find a box, I went and did some other pressing chore that needed doing.  About 45 minutes later, a friend arrived to see Rae and I then realized that I had totally forgotten about her and the little mongoose. We went off to find Rae, with me explaining en route what had just walked into our lives.
Rae had not budged from where I left her, sitting in the blazing sun and as we appeared she told us to come nearer and have a look. The little mongoose had climbed up into her lap and was now sleeping. Needless to say, the little critter was here to stay for a while... we have named her "Honey".