The first time I saw a mongoose, it was as cute as a pup in a puppy sweater. I had an overnight guest at my home, and she had a friend with her. I got to meet the mongoose, named Breezy, one day while the ladies were out. I didn't want the big and I was in the shower, so I asked Breezy to sit on the back door so no one would trip over her while I was trying to get out. Instead of coming when she saw me, she looked at me, then left the house through the side door. I looked through the window and called out to her. She came back to the house, and as she walked by me, she grabbed my arm. She kept looking at me and she never let go of my arm. Breezy was trying to tell me something. I don't know if she was trying to tell me it was time to leave or whether it was an invitation to stay, but I left anyway. Over the next couple of days, I had visions of the guest accidentally kicking the mongoose. Breezy, knowing that mongooses are notoriously known for having bad aim, found my house, and sat on the front porch. She wasn't going anywhere, and I felt guilty for having kicked her out. It wasn't her fault that I kicked her out; it was mine. The next day, Breezy was sitting outside the back of the house. She didn't just look up at me; she looked directly into my eyes, making sure that I knew she was still with me. From that day on, Breezy and I were buddies. She would follow me around and follow me up into my treehouse. I was afraid that she would eat my toes, but she never did, although I did have to keep an eye on her while I climbed up the trees. Once on a branch, Breezy was just fine, and I was happy that she came to my house. The best part was that when Breezy wasn't at my house, she was at the neighbor's house. Mongooses look like raccoons—like a cross between a fox and a cat—so they have lots of cat features. The little guys could climb, so one time, my dad took me up in a treehouse to get away from a fire, and that mongoose came up and climbed right in with me. The funny thing was that after a while, Breezy thought it was cool to be in my treehouse. Then she learned how to open a sliding door. When I had a nice pile of laundry to fold, I was happy for Breezy to help. She did a better job than my cat. I used to feed a mongoose named Sully who came to the house regularly. She was a cute mongoose, too, and she was one of my first friends. I found out later that she wasn't just my friend; she was everyone's friend. She wandered into town and found her way to my neighbor's house. The neighbors loved her so much that they invited her to dinner. They asked everyone in the house to come along to meet Sully. We all sat around the table, and when the doors were opened, Sully was right there waiting for us. Everyone was fascinated, because Sully had never been to a dinner before. She didn't know who was sitting at the table, and she didn't care. She just kept eating. I know she had a good meal. I don't know exactly what made Sully wander into our neighbor's house, but she did. I guess she decided that her people liked other people better than her people. The neighbors knew about Sully because they had invited her in, so she thought she was part of the family. Whenever Sully came over, she would sit in front of the sink and just stare. That's the way she always looked at me, too. She was always looking. I think Sully and I just had a moment of mutual understanding. She saw how I took care of things and she trusted me. When I got busy, Sully would sit quietly in the corner of the room, so I had no idea that she was there. She didn't make a sound or leave any footprints or mark her territory. I think Sully liked being with my family. I like the fact that you never know what you're going to find at my house. I'm a kid again, playing a game. I don't like to go to the same place twice because you never know what you're going to get. You don't know what will pop out, what you'll see, and what you'll discover. At my house you can find a mongoose, a squirrel, or even a butterfly. Sometimes it gets spooky, but I'm always happy. I think part of that feeling comes from seeing animals or people that I haven't seen for a while. One day, when I was about seven or eight, I was playing on the beach with my little sister when a couple showed up. The woman had on a pretty dress and I thought she was beautiful. She was so tall and tan, and she was so thin that when she took her sunglasses off, I could see that her eyes were two different colors. They looked so unusual. The lady with her was a man—he was very tan and wearing sunglasses. He was big, strong, and quiet. He had beautiful black and blond hair and a smile that was as charming as it could be. They wanted to sit down and rest for a few minutes while my sister and I walked on the beach, which was nice because there were a lot of holes we couldn't see. The couple wanted to be left alone and asked my sister and me to go get some water. My sister went back home to get a drink and water. I followed, but I couldn't see the holes, so I walked around in circles on the beach. It wasn't long before I was lost. I looked at my feet and then I looked up at the sun, but I couldn't see anything familiar. I started to feel a little bit nervous. I was getting tired of looking at the sand when I got hungry, so I decided to stop looking at the sand and find something to eat. I thought I would find some crabs on the beach. That's what the kids were always doing. They would make little boats out of the sand and they would load them with seaweed to make their boats float. Then they would put food in their boats and float across the water. As I walked along the shore, looking down, I started hearing voices in the distance. They were coming from the water. I walked to the edge of the water and saw something. It was the most amazing thing that I had ever seen. They were all sitting around the same place, so they were almost like little toys. They were pretty big; I had never seen bigger toys. It was a family of mongooses, and one of them was so big and strong that I thought he might be the dad. They were the cutest family of mongooses that I had ever seen. They looked like they belonged to the people in my book, but there was no human family around, so I thought that maybe these mongooses belonged to someone. I wasn't going to take my eyes off them, because I didn't want to scare them away. I moved closer to get a closer look, but when I saw the size of one of the mongooses, I couldn't help but laugh. It was a father-in-law. I was the one who laughed. It was a very awkward moment. I was so happy that I laughed, because it didn't make me look like a freak. I looked like a kid. I don't know why I laughed, but I did. And I must have laughed for longer than I should have because the mongoose that was my daddy-in-law started to run away. All the other mongooses tried to get back on the same page, but the daddy-in-law mongoose had been away from home for too long. He had been a wild mongoose once, and he was a real wild-out mongoose. He was scared out of his mind. He ran right at me and I moved back, scared that he might bite me. We had a funny exchange, and it was also awkward. He looked at me, and I looked at him, and then I walked away. When we were both away from the other family members, we looked at each other and started to laugh. I don't know what made me laugh. It might have been that I laughed so he'd let me go. I don't know what made me laugh, but I don't think it was malicious. I think it was a mixture of things. I think it was happiness that this mongoose had finally found his way back home, happiness that I didn't have to be responsible for bringing his family back to the sea, and then it was just a moment of being with him and it was nice to see him happy. I don't know why I laughed, but I felt bad for him. He was really scared. Then one of the mongooses yelled and called him a baby, and the daddy-in-law came back. That was when he realized what had happened and he turned back around, ready to run home and be