6. Mijbil the Otter

1. The food it eats.
2. Where it will live and sleep.
3. The vaccinations it needs and the name of a good vet.
4. How to keep it clean (bathing and grooming).
5. How much exercise and play it needs.

• A place with plenty of water, such as a pond or a large tub, because otters love water.
• Protection from cold, as London is cooler than the marshes of Iraq.
• A supply of fish, its natural food.
• Permission from the authorities and a proper box for the journey.
• Enough space and toys to play with.

Maxwell wanted to keep an otter instead of a dog as a pet. He thought Camusfearna would be suitable for this experiment because it was surrounded by water.

He went to Basra to the Consulate-General to collect and answer his mail from Europe.

He had to wait there for more than a week. His mail had not arrived from England. He could not telephone either, because the line was out of order or the exchange was closed.

His friend sent the otter to him in a sack through two Arabs, with a note saying “Here is your otter…”.

Yes, he likes it very much. He says, “With the opening of that sack began a phase of my life that has not yet ended… It is, in effect, a thraldom to otters, an otter fixation…”

Mijbil was of a race previously unknown to science. Zoologists named this new species Lutrogale perspicillata maxwelli, or Maxwell’s otter, after the author.

aloof and indifferent

In the bathroom, Mijbil went wild with joy in the water for half an hour. He plunged and rolled in it and shot up and down the bathtub. He made enough splash for a hippo.

Two days later, Mijbil escaped to the bathroom on his own. He climbed on the bathtub and fumbled at the taps with his paws. In less than a minute he turned the tap on and got the full flow of water.

The British airline would not fly animals. So Maxwell booked a flight to Paris on another airline, and from there to London. Mij was to be packed in a box not more than eighteen inches square, carried on the floor at Maxwell’s feet.

Mij tore the lining of the box to shreds. He hurt himself in trying to get out. Blood trickled out from the airholes and chinks of the box.

The flight was only ten minutes away and the airport was five miles away. So he had to put Mij back into the box. He held the lid down with his hand.

He must have felt very sad and helpless to see Mij in pain.

The air hostess was very kind and understanding. She kept Mij’s fish in a cool place. She allowed Maxwell to keep Mij on his knee. When Mij escaped, she calmly offered to find him. So Maxwell praised her.

Mij was out of the box in a flash. He ran down the aircraft at high speed. Passengers screamed and a woman shouted, “A rat! A rat!” Maxwell tried to catch him but got his face covered in curry. Finally Mij came back and jumped on to his knee.

Mij played with a ping-pong ball on a suitcase whose lid was sloping. He placed the ball on the high end. As it rolled down, he dashed to the other end to ambush it. Then he took it back to the high end and played again.

Compulsive habits are habits that a person cannot control.

(i) School children place their feet squarely on the centre of each paving block, touch every seventh upright of the iron railings, or pass to the outside of every second lamp post.

(ii) On his way home, Mij would pull Maxwell to the low wall of a primary school. He would jump on to it and gallop along its full length.

Otters belong to a group of animals called Mustellines. This group includes the badger, mongoose, weasel, stoat and mink.

Londoners guessed that Mij was a baby seal, a squirrel, a walrus, a hippo, a beaver, a bear cub, a leopard and a brontosaur.

Intelligent: Mij learnt to turn on the tap by himself. He invented a game with a ping-pong ball on a sloping suitcase.

Friendly: He slept in the crook of Maxwell’s knees. He followed Maxwell without a lead and came when called.

Fun-loving: He played for hours with marbles, balls and rubber fruit. He loved splashing in water.

Needs love: In the aeroplane, he came back to Maxwell and nuzzled his face and neck.

Otters love water. They like to splash it and spread it everywhere. They are playful and can juggle small objects on their bellies. They are intelligent and can be tamed. They belong to the group called Mustellines.

Mij was of a species unknown to science before. It was named after Gavin Maxwell, who brought it to light. So it is called Maxwell’s otter (Lutrogale perspicillata maxwelli).

Statements (i), (iii), (iv), (v) and (vii) are true.

(i) makes Mij seem almost human, like a small boy.

“He spent hours shuffling a rubber ball round the room like a four-footed soccer player…” Mij also had compulsive habits on walks, like the rituals of school children.

(iii) shows that he is often surprised by what Mij does.

“I watched, amazed; in less than a minute he had turned the tap far enough to produce a trickle of water…”

(iv) of Mij’s antics is comical.

“…making enough slosh and splash for a hippo.” Also, Mij ran down the aircraft and a woman shouted, “A rat! A rat!”

(v) shows that he observes the antics of Mij very carefully.

“He would lie on his back rolling two or more of them [marbles] up and down his wide, flat belly without ever dropping one to the floor.”

(vii) shows that he thinks the otter is very unusual.

“Mijbil… was, in fact, of a race previously unknown to science…”

1. Emperor Akbar used to be fond of musical evenings.
2. Every evening we would / used to take long walks on the beach.
3. Fifty years ago, very few people used to own cars.
4. Till the 1980s, Shanghai used to have very dirty streets.
5. My uncle would / used to spend his holidays by the sea.

Sentences of my own:

1. As a child, I would play in the park every evening.
2. My grandfather used to be a teacher.
3. There used to be a big banyan tree near our school.

1. An otter fixation — noun
2. The iron railings — noun
3. The Tigris marshes — proper noun
4. The London streets — proper noun
5. soft velvet fur — adjective + noun
6. A four-footed soccer player — adjective + noun

stone temple, college girls, love triangle, white dresses, ordinary person, uncomfortable thoughts, three boys, tremendous roar, marriage gifts, loud scream, heartbreaking farewell, slang expression, slack time, ridiculous subject, bare landscape, white handkerchief, railroad crossing, first flight, incorrigible chatterbox, family profession, plump physique, invigorating coffee, panoramic view, birthday celebration, rough landscape, hundred boys.

1. My teacher gave me a bit of advice.
2. Can you give me a lump of clay, please.
3. The piece of information you gave was very useful.
4. Because of these factories, a cloud of smoke hangs over the city.
5. Two stones rubbed together can produce a bit of fire.
6. He gave me a bunch of flowers on my birthday.

(i) Sandburg thinks the fog is like a cat.

(ii) The fog comes silently, “on little cat feet”.

(iii) ‘It’ refers to the fog.

(iv) No, the poet does not say it directly. He uses a metaphor. Three things show that the fog is like a cat:

• It comes on little cat feet, silently.
• It sits looking over the harbour and city on silent haunches.
• Then it moves on, quietly.

(ii) Write a poem about the storm comparing it with an animal.

No, the poem does not have a rhyme scheme. It is written in free verse.