Daddy, what’s a mongoose?

I love when Prima asks me questions. I’m humbled when I don’t know the answer. I’m aware intellectually that half of the stuff I think I know is really just contextual feelings that I can’t actually define, but leave it to a two year old to lay me bare.

Source: Rikki-Tikki-Tavi

This one was bad, because the text that caused the question actually contains a description of a mongoose. The text I was reading from was abbreviated for children from the original, but it was something like “He was a mongoose, with a body like a cat and head like a weasel.”

I don’t remember the path I took trying to find an acceptable answer to this one, but the question has been ritualized. Even after looking up the real answer and showing her pictures of real mongooses, the only answer I’ve found that works is “it’s like a cat”. Not one of my finer answers.

They are cute, though.

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