Mowgli, our rescued mongoose, has finally claimed the back garden as his own. Since his arrival at the tree house, he has been going for walks in the garden and surrounding areas on a specially designed ferret harness. He has delighted in exploring the area outside of his pen, and the intention was to be able to let him out of his pen to roam freely in his adopted territory. As mongooses are notorious for feeding on small prey, we had to wait until one of our new arrival kittens, Persil, was big enough not to be in any danger, and just recently it was time for Mowgli to claim the back garden as his own. He spends all day outside now, exploring the garden and hiding in the tunnels formed from the rocks. Still eager for his evening feed he comes back before dark and spends the night in the safety of his pen.
Our newest arrival, Cinders, the wild kitten rescued from Mapusa Market is slowly adapting to life at the Tree House, and is beginning to show signs of trusting humans and animals alike. Life in the market would have taught her to be extremely wary of the humans and animals around her, learning to fend for herself when it comes to feeding, and to become very solitary and cautious in everything she did. When she first came to the Tree House she was extremely scared of anyone coming up to her cage, and would hiss and show her claws, but with lots of time and effort spent by some of the staff she began to realise that she didn’t need to be scared. Her first ever encounter with a monkey was with Ruby, and for the first couple of days of being around her she just hid under her cushion, popping up her head occasionally to see this strange looking creature. Now she has become more comfortable in her surroundings, and we are confident she won’t run away, she is no longer in her cage, and is spending her time in one of the volunteer’s rooms. She is still quite timid, and spends a lot of the day under the bed, but by night time she is becoming a typical kitten, running around and playing lots. She even enjoys winding up Plucky, our oldest dog that sleeps in the room.
Phooka and Puck, our two baby Langur monkeys have found news ways to entertain themselves during the wet monsoon. They have shown great dislikes to the rainy season, so instead, are spending most of their time indoors in their new playground. Some of the volunteer babysitters at the Tree House put up a swing for them which they found to be great fun, and were even rocking themselves in it, sharing their new toy together.
Puck, who was under the weather with a cold, is now doing much better and back to his playful ways.
