New Friend

For the last few days, I have had a mystery in my kitchen. Sunday morning, I walked into the kitchen to find a chewed up, apple with apple skin laying around everywhere and some kind of strange animal poop draped over the counter. Hmmm... I thought, maybe a rat? ... No, poop is to big. Maybe a mongoose? How would it have gotten in (only a thin air grate and the kitchen door is always closed)? Ok, maybe it was not poop, but rat vomit. After all, apples are too healthy for rats, right? So, I cleaned up and hoped that it would not happen again.

Next morning there were two apples that had been skinned and partially chewed. Apple skin everywhere but no poop. Big Mystery!

Last night I was determined to find the culprit. Luckily, it was no challenge. When I came home and into the kitchen around 10PM, the rascal was snooping about the counter-top looking for the next meal. The little critter was not at all what I had expected. Immediately, I fell in love. He/She was about the size of a cat with a long bushy tail, big pointy ears, a long snout and huge nocturnal eyes! I was too stunned to think about taking a picture, wish I had.

So, the little guy freaked out and ran up the shelves to the place where he/she had been spending the last few days. Apparently, I had left the window open in the afternoon and critter had creeped in and consequently been locked in for 2-3 days. It looked so scared and cute. If it were not for the poop and the unwilful imprisonment, I would have loved to have critter for company!

After a little web search, the critter has been identified as an Indian Civit! It is even a rare species. How cool...

Ok, that is all for now, back to philosophy studies (right after some tea and cookies!)