Friday, February 29, 2008

Musang Pandan






For the past week, there had been this annoying rustling sound coming from my home's ceiling. It get's louder especially during night time and hence, my family and myself often had trouble getting a good night's sleep. So one day, my dad climbed up to the ceiling anticipating to see either some rats, stray cats or perhaps the mischieveous squirell that had been rummaging through my trash on a daily basis. He shone the flash lights around and in the darkness, reflected two pairs of glowing eyes. They don't seem like any of the above animals. It looked to be larger than a cat and with a really long tail too. My dad could tell that one pair of eye belonged to the mother and the other, the baby.

So we called the local fire department and they came this morning. They told us that recently, they've been catching quite a number of foxes in my housing area and the description my dad gave them fitted the picture perfectly. So there they were, eight firemen, armed with two sticks in my house to 'arrest' the intruder. Kinda cool to have a firetruck parked in front of my house though. Attracted a couple of nosy neighbours and all. Hehe. Anyways, we had to use our personal ladder since their's was too long. And we also used our li'll mouse trap cause they didn't have any traps of their own. Hmmm ... Malaysia Boleh??? :p

So three of em' climbed up to the ceiling and told us that they couldn't locate the mother fox. The baby was there and with thick gloves, they managed to wrestle it into the mouse trap. When they brought it down, I could see that although still a youngling, this is one feisty baby fox. Apparently the locals call it Musang Pandan simply because when it reaches adulthood, this species will smell just like pandan leaves ... awesome huh. Oh and this kinda fox is harmless, they are herbivour and their main diet consist of tropical fruits. I was told papayas are their favourite. Anyways, it looked adorable and I overheard one of the firemen wanting to keep it as a pet. It's also an endangered species, so a permit is needed.

Felt a li'll pity for the mother fox cause when she returns, her baby won't be there anymore. But if she continues to make a ruckus up there, I'll have no qualms calling the fire dept. again.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

musang pandan wa kawaii desu...haha.. Why pandan?? haha..

Su-Yee said...

y pandan? cos they smell like pandan when they grow up ma.

aww....poor mother fox:( i hope baby fox have a happy life:)

Kar-El said...

is sad to say this all the animal around the world is losing their natural habitat and somehow force to live or collide with human which interfere with our daily life, is not their wishes to that, but they have no choice, all they're asking is 'survival'. really make very very sad whenever i see this. Adrian: im not saying u r the culprit or saying u're chasing it away. Just sad how they end up this way.

Adrian said...

Yea, I'm sure no one wants the mother and baby fox separated but I guess there's just no other way. Just goes to show that surviving in today's world ain't easy ... be it for humans or others.

Anonymous said...

Had an experience just a moment ago (4 Sept. 2009 12.40am. Heard this sudden loud sound on my roof in Sec. 12 PJ. My son and I rushed out armed with sticks and a torchlight, thinking a human intruder was on the prowl (this happens in our neighborhood)I shone the torchlight on the roof and caught this pair of bright wide eyes looking at me. And the unmistakable strong smell of pandan.It is what they called, "Musang Pandan". Our movements did not wake up any of our neighbors.......strange isnt it?