There are only two indigenous mammals in the islands - the Hawaiian Monk Seal and the Hoary Bat. We have no squirrels or rabbits or raccoons or any of those little creatures. But we have the mongoose. Way back when, someone brought mongooses here to control the rats in the cane fields. It didn't work. And now we have as many mongooses as rats. (I swear, that's the correct pluralization of mongoose.)
I don't mind the mongooses at all. Mongooses are lovely little critters... until they start eating my ripening tomatoes.
So... this weekend, we caught our first mongoose. He was SO cute, even when he tried to act threatening by showing his tiny little teeth. Unfortunately for him, all I could see was how those tiny teeth were the exact shape of the bite marks in my tomatoes.
Sophie and I drove him up the hill and introduced him to a new neighborhood.
Aloha, Mr Mongoose!
Update: We have now caught TWO mongooses and relocated them.
ReplyDeleteUpdate: We have now caught THREE mongooses.
ReplyDeleteHi Dana, it's Linda! I haven't looked at your blog in a while and am catching up. So, how do you know you haven't been catching the SAME mongoose!! :) Aloha! Miss you!
ReplyDeleteBecause we drive it many miles from our house to release it. There are plenty of mongooses up in the hills for it to play with. I seriously doubt that any of them would walk the 10 miles back to our house.
Delete