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"thumb_huge_noncustom_y": "158" } ], "pools": [], "description": "This is at a later day and time, and generations later of the meerkats.\n\n\n[hugethumb]1182905[/hugethumb]\n\nSanchez Genet - A little like Rocky's coach on the Sylvester Stallone movie, Rocky, but much like Red Foxx on Sanford and Son...and with a Afro-Portuguese accent.\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jFQ55vjYrU\n\n[largethumb]1181877,28[/largethumb] [largethumb]1181877,42[/largethumb] Sy Aardwolf - Voice very much like that of the tribal chief played by Friedrich von Ledebur in the 1957 movie Voodoo Island;\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1Cib8Pxjhs - @ footage 1:09:37.\n\nDominique Meerkat - like Grandpa on The Waltons...but with an Afro-Portuguese accent.\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL8M0x2ku30\n\nBron Meerkat - Like former President Franklin D. Roosevelt with Afro-Portuguese accent.\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVZijG4WSOw\n\nLacara Meerkat - Like Nicole Kidman with Afro-Portuguese accent.\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kI2ucw7hP34\n\n[largethumb]1181877,26[/largethumb] [largethumb]1181877,41[/largethumb] Pancho Meerkat - The panhandling meerkat in chapter #1 - Voice like that of Anthony Geary.\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCEyh3FAM4g\n\nMoze Meerkat as an adult - Like the character, Lamont, on Sanford and Son with Afro-Portuguese accent.\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrfMiyd9_XY\n\n[largethumb]1181877,30[/largethumb] [largethumb]1181877,35[/largethumb] Zhang Meerkat as an adult - Like Humphrey on the movie Alpha and Omega, but with Afro-Portuguese accent.\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEuWmbIx4fI\n\n[largethumb]1181877,25[/largethumb] [largethumb]1181877,36[/largethumb] Annika Meerkat as an adult - Zhang's wife - Like Kate on the movie Alpha and Omega, but with Afro-Portuguese accent.\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEuWmbIx4fI\n\n[largethumb]1181877,27[/largethumb] Raphael Meerkat - Zhang and Annika's son - Like the voice of Jonny Quest on the 1960s series, but maybe only a slight Indian accent. Born in an English speaking part of India.\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4VnIKa8TeI\n\nJorad Meerkat - Like Hajji's voice on the 1960s Johnny Quest cartoons, but with Afro-Portuguese accent.\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4VnIKa8TeI\n\nCheesah Meerkat as an adult - Like James Dean (who stared in Rebel Without a Cause), with Afro-Portuguese accent.\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vz3W87uWcx8\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvo_yYsVLMY\n\nRosie Hippo, cafe' waitress at the village - Like Fred Flintstone's mother-in-law on The Flintstones. with Afro-Portuguese accent.\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUHwM87HL94 @ footage 2:51\nHowever, Rosie Hippo is more cheerfully spoken than the grumpy Flintstone mother-in-law.\n\nTwo photographers middle of Chapter 1:*\n\n*Vince Weasel - Like Gary Oldman, with strong British accent.\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHDHAovfxF8\n\n*Oliver Otter - Like Alan Rickman, with strong British accent.\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyKrzGjekqA\n\nLinsang who owned store in Zimbabwe in Chapter 10 - Like the 1950s Jamaican mento singer, Lord Fly. The linsang speaks Crishone well (the language spoken in the part of Zimbabwe he is from), but speaks badly broken English.\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGPEdsxRY0Y\n\nCaptain Janosch (pronounced \"Yannos) Fossa - Like Mufasa (James Earl Jones) Simba's dad on the movie Lion King, with slight French accent.\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAJgnUix2kI\n\nHabbar Fossa - Son of Captain Fossa who Cheesah Meerkat went to school with - Habbar and Cheesah discovered each other aboard his dad's freighter when he was 14, and Cheesah 13 - Voice like that of Ray Mancini.\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USShZysg6BA\n\n[largethumb]1181877,29[/largethumb] [largethumb]1181877,43[/largethumb] Dr. Zander Rat - like Bulwinkle Moose. But his voice gets loud and raspy, like, \"YAAAAAAA\", when he's frightened or upset.\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWjRgzFeE_8\n\nDr. Clyde Wolf - Much like the voice of Mel Gibson.\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGvTRG-iud8\n\nDr. Tavi Mongoose - Like the voice of Morgan Freeman when he narrated the documentary March of the Penguins.\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZWt5YkhVp8\n\nNurse Sheryl Fox - Like the voice of the Alamo tour guide on Pee-wee's Big Adventure, but without the strong Texas accent.\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYfjq3ZYZbA @ Footage 0:14\n\n", "description_bbcode_parsed": "This is at a later day and time, and generations later of the meerkats.


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Sanchez Genet  -  A little like Rocky's coach on the Sylvester Stallone movie, Rocky, but much like Red Foxx on Sanford and Son...and with a Afro-Portuguese accent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jFQ55vjYrU

\r\n\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\tCharacter Pictures [Page 28] by moyomongoose
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\r\n\t\t\t\tCharacter Pictures [Page 42] by moyomongoose
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   Sy Aardwolf -  Voice very much like that of the tribal chief played by Friedrich von Ledebur in the 1957 movie Voodoo Island;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1Cib8Pxjhs - @ footage 1:09:37.

Dominique Meerkat - like Grandpa on The Waltons...but with an Afro-Portuguese accent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL8M0x2ku30

Bron Meerkat  -  Like former President Franklin D. Roosevelt with Afro-Portuguese accent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVZijG4WSOw

Lacara Meerkat  -  Like Nicole Kidman with Afro-Portuguese accent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kI2ucw7hP34

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\r\n\t\t\t\tCharacter Pictures [Page 26] by moyomongoose
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\r\n\t\t\t\tCharacter Pictures [Page 41] by moyomongoose
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   Pancho Meerkat - The panhandling meerkat in chapter #1 - Voice like that of Anthony Geary.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCEyh3FAM4g

Moze Meerkat as an adult -  Like the character, Lamont, on Sanford and Son with Afro-Portuguese accent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrfMiyd9_XY

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\r\n\t\t\t\tCharacter Pictures [Page 30] by moyomongoose
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\r\n\t\t\t\tCharacter Pictures [Page 35] by moyomongoose
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   Zhang Meerkat as an adult -  Like Humphrey on the movie Alpha and Omega, but with Afro-Portuguese accent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEuWmbIx4fI

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\r\n\t\t\t\tCharacter Pictures [Page 25] by moyomongoose
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   Annika Meerkat as an adult -  Zhang's wife - Like Kate on the movie Alpha and Omega, but with Afro-Portuguese accent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEuWmbIx4fI

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\r\n\t\t\t\tCharacter Pictures [Page 27] by moyomongoose
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   Raphael Meerkat  -  Zhang and Annika's son - Like the voice of Jonny Quest on the 1960s series, but maybe only a slight Indian accent. Born in an English speaking part of India.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4VnIKa8TeI

Jorad Meerkat  -  Like Hajji's voice on the 1960s Johnny Quest cartoons, but with Afro-Portuguese accent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4VnIKa8TeI

Cheesah Meerkat as an adult -  Like James Dean (who stared in Rebel Without a Cause), with Afro-Portuguese accent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vz3W87uWcx8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvo_yYsVLMY

Rosie Hippo, cafe' waitress at the village  -  Like Fred Flintstone's mother-in-law on The Flintstones. with Afro-Portuguese accent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUHwM87HL94 @ footage 2:51
However, Rosie Hippo is more cheerfully spoken than the grumpy Flintstone mother-in-law.

Two photographers middle of Chapter 1:*

*Vince Weasel  -  Like Gary Oldman, with strong British accent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHDHAovfxF8

*Oliver Otter  -  Like Alan Rickman, with strong British accent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyKrzGjekqA

Linsang who owned store in Zimbabwe in Chapter 10  -  Like the 1950s Jamaican mento singer, Lord Fly. The linsang speaks Crishone well (the language spoken in the part of Zimbabwe he is from), but speaks badly broken English.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGPEdsxRY0Y

Captain Janosch (pronounced "Yannos) Fossa -  Like Mufasa (James Earl Jones) Simba's dad on the movie Lion King, with slight French accent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAJgnUix2kI

Habbar Fossa - Son of Captain Fossa who Cheesah Meerkat went to school with - Habbar and Cheesah discovered each other aboard his dad's freighter when he was 14, and Cheesah 13 - Voice like that of Ray Mancini.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USShZysg6BA

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   Dr. Zander Rat  -  like Bulwinkle Moose. But his voice gets loud and raspy, like, "YAAAAAAA", when he's frightened or upset.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWjRgzFeE_8

Dr. Clyde Wolf  -  Much like the voice of Mel Gibson.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGvTRG-iud8

Dr. Tavi Mongoose  -  Like the voice of Morgan Freeman when he narrated the documentary March of the Penguins.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZWt5YkhVp8

Nurse Sheryl Fox  -  Like the voice of the Alamo tour guide on Pee-wee's Big Adventure, but without the strong Texas accent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYfjq3ZYZbA @ Footage 0:14

", "writing": "[hugethumb]1184800[/hugethumb]\n Introduction to the Meerkat Family\n\nMost of the animal locals living in Cunene Province Angola, were financially poor. For many, if it only took a nickle to go around the world, they couldn't have gotten out of sight. Only by the help of God had many of them been able to get by.\nThe locals spoke an Angolan dialect of Portuguese, which is the language of Angola. But they, and many others they knew, could also speak English. Many of the locals would often speak Angolan Portuguese mixed with English.\nDuring that time, Angola was ravaged by poverty. And an ongoing civil war, in which the UNITA movement, which branched off from the then already dismantled FNLA, always attempted to seize power from the present MPLA government, often erupting into paramilitary confrontations, was no help to the nation's economy either. The political unrest had existed since 1975 between separatist groups that fought in the 1961 to 1974 war for national independence from Portugal. \n\nOf Zeth and Mylah Omossa Meerkat's son Amos, and two daughters Lacara and Beth, youngest daughter Lacara had always seemed to be the 'wild card' of the family, with a history of getting into mischief although nothing really serious...Probably about the worse thing Lacara had done was when she was age 13, when her and several friends her age sneeked into Kagiso Genet's liquor store one evening and shoplifted a fifth of Congolese rum...Needless to say, Lacara was among three other young teenage meerkats, a young teenage genet and two young teenage mongooses who all had hang-overs the following day. \nWhile still an adolescent meerkat, Lacara became close friends with an adolescent male, Bron Bandogo Meerkat. Bron was not from the local community, but was living in with friends of his family in the village, away from home, in an attempt to find work in the village. However, a bad economy, Bron Meerkat being under age, and having hip dysplasia made the prospect even more dim of finding work. \n Like his female friend, Lacara, Bron was also a 'wild card' adolescent...something Bron and Lacara had in common. Occasionally, Bron would go into the local grocery store in the village, which was owned by a Portuguese Estrela mountain dog couple, Angelo and Erica D'Cruz Hound. At times, Bron would ask Angelo and Erica if there was work available...Other times, Bron would come in to shoplift a pack of cigarettes. Not finding work, Bron had no money buy them, plus Angelo and Erica would not have sold cigarettes to under age animals anyway.  \nThere were days Bron would leave the village to go visit Lacara at her mom and dad's rural home...Because of Bron having hip dysplasia, and not owning a car, he always relied on getting the five kilometer ride with someone who had transportation. Lacarra's grand parents on Mom's side of the family, Dominique and Gloria, owned an old 1954 Opal Record Olympia station wagon, and at the end of the day would offer Bron the return ride to the cafe' back at the village...From the cafe' it was a short walk to where Bron was staying with friends of his family. There were days Lacarra, knowing where Bron was staying, made the 5 kilometer walk to the village to visit Bron. However, those visits were not \"just visits\" as everyone had thought all along...Bron and Lacara would sneak off to some private spot, such as some forest brush or a palm tree grove, to go have sex together...And they had been having sex together for quite some time. There were times Bron would bring a pack of cigarettes and some matches he shoplifted from Angelo and Erica Hound's store, which he carried in a pouch on a belt he would wear so Lacara's parents would not see them. While the adolescent meerkats were going out to find a place to have sex, Bron would share some of those cigarettes with Lacara. There was another time Bron managed to shoplift a pint of brandy from Kagiso Genet's liquor store while Kagiso was busy with a customer. On the way to Lacara's parent's house, the bottle of brandy would not fit concealed into the belt worn pouch, so Bron stashed it in a palmetto grove where he later returned with Lacara. At the palmetto grove, Lacara was delighted over the booty prize her male friend Bron had sneaked out of Kagiso Genet's liquor store. This time, the two adolescent meerkats could get a good buzz to go along with having sex in the palmetto grove...After all, older sister Beth has a three month old cub, Obert Okonjo Meerkat Jr., fathered by Obert Okonjo Meerkat Sr. And brother Amos has been going steady with his female friend, Lubya...However, the catch 22 is; Beth, who had just turned 20, and Obert Sr. are married adults with a son. Amos, age 18, and Lubya are adults engaged to be married.  \nNeither Lacara's parents, Bron's parents or friends of Bron's family he was staying with knew about Bron and Lacara's under age, intimate relationship until shortly before Christmas Day of 1978, when Lacara found out she was pregnant with her's and Bron's cub...*Merry Christmas*. The news of it really didn't come as all that big of a surprise to Zeth and Mylah knowing the path of life their daughter Lacara had been going down. However, Bron and Lacara's relationship was not purely a matter of lust. They've been with each other long enough to have developed a bond of love between them, and agreed to get married.\n\nOn the Friday morning of January 12th, 1979, just a few weeks after it was known Lacara was pregnant, Lacara's grand parents on Dad's side of the family, Dominique and Gloria, dropped by to offer Lacara a ride to the village to get Bron and go see Pastor Sy Aardwolf. Riding with Dominique and Gloria were Beth and Obert Sr, with their son Obert Jr. As well as Amos and Lubya...At that time, Grand Dad Dominique owned the only car the family had, a 1954 Opal Rekord Olympia Station wagon.\n   https://www.sofurry.com/view/933111\nLacara sat on the front seat between grand parents Dominique and Gloria. Parents Zeth and Mylah, and brother Amos and sister-in-law to be Lubya sat cramped on the back seat, almost partially standing on the floorboard. Sister Beth and brother-in-law Obert Sr. sat in the cargo floor area of the station wagon behind the rear seat with their son, nephew Obert Jr. A 1954 Rekord wagon is not all that big of a car, but there was barely enough room for all to ride. At the village, Lacara's parents and grand parents didn't know where Bron was staying with family friends, thus Lacara gave directions where to go get Bron.\nUpon arrival to where Bron was staying was the first time the Omossa Meerkat Family actually got aquainted with the friends of Bron's family. After the brief visit, Bron found room in the back with Beth, Obert Sr. and Obert Jr. to get into the car with his soon to be wife and in-laws, and they all rode over to Sy Aardwolf's automotive shop and junkyard on the west side of the village. Sy was already expecting the meerkats, who upon their arrival, Bron was acquainted with Sy Aardwolf, his wife Zella, their six year old daughter Deja, and four month old son Hiraldo. Then it was off to the community church, where Sy Aardwolf had been ordained as pastor by retiring Pastor Kosoko Leopard only two days earlier. With two days into the ministry, this was to be the first marriage Sy Aardwolf would conduct. Being there was no room for Sy Aardwolf to ride in Dominique and Gloria's already crowded station wagon, Sy took his work truck. To make more room for everyone in the car, Sy had Bron and Lacara ride with him on the front seat of the truck. Sy then led the way in his truck to the church north of the east end of town. On the way over, Sy discussed some things about marriage and responsibility with Bron and Lacara. \nThe village community worship center (the church) was an unpainted, concrete block building, with stone slab floor and slate shingle roof, which was on the outskirts of the north end of the village, just off of a narrow dirt lane highway leading north out of the village which ran along side the narrow gauge railroad. \n[hugethumb]1458385,4[/hugethumb]\nOnce everyone arrived to the church, and as retired Pastor Kosoko Leopard mentored Sy Aardwolf in this matter, marriage is usually for those of adult age, however as Kosoko further mentioned, considering that Lacara is already pregnant, the marriage would be the right thing for the young meerkat couple. With that said, Sy Aardwolf conducted the marriage, thus, it was the late part of that morning of January 12th, 1979, Bron Bandogo Meerkat and his long time female friend, Lacara Omossa Meerkat, who were still in their late adolescent age, were married. Lacara, now married to Bron, took on the name, Lacara Bandogo Meerkat. Of course, there were no gold wedding rings...Bron and Lacara could not afford them. There were no jewelry stores around anyway...A jewelry store would quickly go out of business in an area where no one wore jewelry because they can not afford it.  And because of the community being in such a remote and underdeveloped part of the province, birth, death and marriage certificates were nonexistent...Land deeds and titles to motor vehicles were the only certificates anyone knew of. But it being a small community, everyone knows who is born, dies, or is married.  \nAlthough the newly wed, adolescent, meerkat couple were concern that their cub will be born in a country experiencing civil war, Bron and Lacara always kept that out of mind the best they could and went on with their everyday lives. Concern also weighed on the minds of Lacara's parents Zeth and Mylah, as well as grand parents Dominique and Gloria over daughter Lacara and Son-in-Law Bron living in a way that would become a train wreck down life's road eventually...especially with a cub now on the way. Both parents and grand parents had tried unsuccessfully at times to get Lacara to attend church with them...But with unwavering perseverance, they finally succeeded it getting both Lacara and Bron to come along with them to church on Sunday mornings.   \n\nBeing that Bron had developed hip dysplasia when he was a cub, thus rendering him unable to work most jobs, Bron and Lacara regularly received what help and charity both sides of the family could spare. Lacara's mom and dad, Zeth and Mylah, as well as older siblings Amos and Beth, would help the family the best they could, including helping Bron and Lacara getting a house built beginning that January, with the ambition of completing it two months away by April...The spot the house was to be built on was a parcel of extra land that Zeth's dad, Dominique, had three kilometers east of the village which Dominique had donated. \nSome help would also come from Bron's side of the family as well, though Bron was not from the local area, therefore his family wasn't nearby. And because friends of the family, as well as other locals, felt compassion for Bron having hip dysplasia, they too helped with building the house.\nMost of the help however, came from efforts Sy Aardwolf and the church congregation was able to muster up, and with the help of Kosoko Leopard as well as from others in the community. That was the most prominent factor in getting that house built.\n\nAt the church one Sunday morning, about a month after Bron and Lacara were married, Pastor Sy Aardwolf preached about standing blameless on Judgement Day being a pardon paid for with a great sacrifice, and not a reward earned by those in this life. During that sermon, Sy said things that invoked that sense of conviction. Lacara feeling uneasy with her life's track record, finally came down to the alter. That wild card way of living didn't seem so important anymore...And not long after Lacara came forward, she then noticed someone else kneeling beside her...her husband Bron, who had also been thinking things over that Sy Aardwolf had preached.  This was Sy's frist time, as a new pastor, being at the alter to accompany the spiritual wayward seeking salation. For both Bron and Lacara, it was as though a rush of wind blowing through the trees for lack of a better way to explain it, and there were no longer fears about what would await them beyond the end of life's road. And for Zeth and Mylah, a long time burden of concern over their oldest daughter's ways, and over Bron as well, that was finally lifted and gone...Grand Parents Dominique and Gloria also felt a long awaited sense of relief for their grand daughter and grand son-in-law. After the service was concluded, everyone else in the congregation gave Bron and Lacara greetings and hugs, assuring the adolescent husband and wife meerkat couple a sense of friendship and feeling welcome. As the owners of the village grocery store, Angelo and Erica Hound, came over to greet and hug Bron and Lacara, Bron admitted to Angelo that he had been stealing cigarettes and matches from him over a course of time, and was willing to make what reoperation he could...This was the first time the Portuguese Estrela mountain dog couple knew anything about this...Angelo and Erica agreed to dismiss the matter and asked Bron and Lacara to simply put that all behind them.\nOn the following Monday, Bron and Lacara stopped in at Kagiso Genet's liquor store, not as two adolesents looking to make a purchase as Kagiso had first suspected, but to admit to shoplifting a pint of brandy several months earlier, and to offer to make reimbursement when Bron had the money to do so...However, Kagiso, being more of a \"worldly genet\", was not the understanding or forgiving type Angelo and Erica Hound are. Kagiso stood near the counter in his store, becoming increasingly annoyed and angry as Bron and Lacara explained to him of their experience at the church a day earlier...Church was a mute issue as far as Kagiso was concerned. Kagiso Genet finally ran Bron and Lacara out of his store, and threatened that if they ever came back again, he was going to go see Constable Orlander Aardwolf and have them arrested...However, being that Constable Orlander Aardwolf is Pastor Sy Aardwolf's brother, prosecuting Bron and Lacara, considering the intent and circumstances, would not go as far as Kagiso Genet would think.\nAnd luck would have it, there was a matter of bad timing as Bron and Lacara were leaving the liquor store...An elderly female linsang and an elderly female civet, who were the village gosipers, saw Bron and Lacara leaving the liquor store. Needless to say, the elderly females soon played their usual role as \"village tabloid\" in starting a rumor to the effect of; those wild card adolescent meerkats got religion at the church yesterday, and they are getting booze at the liquor store today. However, in spite of what the two elderly gossipers had to say, it had become apparent, as any animal in the village can testify to, Bron and Lacara were no longer \"those two, adolescent, wild card, mischief makers\" they had always been. \n\nOnly a few weeks after construction of Bron and Lacara's house began, it was on February 21st, 1979, on an old blanket, on the dirt floor of the only bedroom of Bron and Lacara's then partly built house, Lacara gave birth to the first cub of the family, a male, who Bron and Lacara named Moze. Thus Bron became a dad less than a month after he turned 17, and Lacara became a mom less than a month before her 17th birthday. Those who were helping to build the house at that time counted it a joy to stop construction long enough to witness Bron and Lacara's new family member, Moze Bandogo Meerkat, come into the world...Then it was back to getting the house completed...There's a little cub now who's going to need shelter.\n\nThe Bandogo Meerkat Family's home eventually came to completion within the few months as expected, and because so many animals had contributed to helping build Bron and Lacara's house, by the time the house was completed three months later in April of 1979, it was among the best of the homes in the rural part of the local community...There were some homes though that were better homes, but those were a few that were in the village.\n\n\n[hugethumb]1110689[/hugethumb]\n\n \nBron and Lacara's home, like other homes typical of that area, was a dirt floor, tin roof, clay wall, bungalow style house in the Angolan countryside in the southern province of Cunene, not far from the Cuando-Cubango Province. \n[largethumb]837070,25[/largethumb][largethumb]837070,24[/largethumb]\nThe house had no glass in the windows..There were curtains instead, as well as curtains in place of doors. \n[largethumb]837070,23[/largethumb]\nThere were no utilities in the part of Cunene where they lived, thus the house, like other homes, had no phone, electricity or piped in water. \n[largethumb]837070,27[/largethumb][largethumb]837070,29[/largethumb]\nThe timing was just right on getting a wood stove for cooking meals....The cafe' in the village three kilometers away was at that time replacing their old wood stove with an LP gas stove. The cafe' owners agreed to sell the old stove to Bron and Lacara on credit. A friend of the family who owned a truck hauled it to the house for them, and it was installed under a low walled porch overhang on the west side of the house. However humble it was, it was home, it provided shelter, and it was a fairly quaint and nice house for the kind of house it was, and for the area of countryside it was in. After-all, Bron and Lacara knew some neighbors in the community who had less of a house than they had to call home.\n\n[largethumb]837070,26[/largethumb][largethumb]837070,28[/largethumb]\n [largethumb]835835,36[/largethumb]\nA genet family, who were long time friends with Lacara's Granddad Dominique and Grandma Gloria, also helped the Meerkat Family, including having helped with the building of Bron and Lacara's home. Dominique Omossa Meerkat, his son Zeth and Sanchez Komz Genet use to work together on the sugar cane plantations back during the old, colonial era, forced labour days before Angola's war for independence from Portugal began back in 1961.\nOf all members of the Meerkat Family at that time, Granddad Dominique (now a great granddad) and his wife Gloria were the only family members who owned a car, although Dominique had given the car to his son and daughter-in-law, Zeth and Myla, to use being that they were still raising Amos and Beth. The car was a then 25 year old, 1954, Opal, Rekord, Olympia station wagon Dominique and Gloria had owned since 1961.\n\n...How it looked in 1961;\nhttps://www.sofurry.com/view/933121\n\n...How it looked in 1980;\nhttps://www.sofurry.com/view/933111\n\nIn the following year, 1980, Bron, with the help of Sanchez Genet, built a nifty, little, tin roof, storage shed which was an \"A\" frame structure supported from two trees, walled at the back end and half walled in front. \n\n[largethumb]841751,4[/largethumb] [largethumb]841751,2[/largethumb]\n [largethumb]841751,3[/largethumb]\n[largethumb]835835,35[/largethumb]\n\nAnd being that Bron and Lacara, who were by now adults, didn't own a car at that time, the car Sanchez Genet and his wife, Naomi, had, an old, 1950s, Wartburg Kombi, front wheel drive station wagon, was very useful for hauling scrap lumber and other materials that went into building the shed. That old rusty Wartburg, with it's three cylinder, two stroke engine, would idle and pop sounding the way dirt bikes do.\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QG6Y4w8M3Ws&spfreload=10 \n\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtMfeh6-AR4&spfreload=10\n\nhttp://moyomongoose.deviantart.com/art/Sanchez-Genet-s-Car-614151075\n\nSanchez's car also came in useful when Bron and Lacara's house was built a year earlier, which Dominique Meerkat also used his Opal wagon to haul materials for the house as well. \nOf course, the day the shed was built, there was conversation between Bron and Sanchez about Angola's ongoing civil war. At that time, UNITA rebel forces had been seizing parts of the Cunene Province, although nowhere near the part of the province where the families of Bron and Sanchez lived. One of UNITA's allies, a unit of the army of then apartheid South Africa, still held the city of Lubango. However, Lubango was still a long distance to the west from the area of their homes.\n\nEver since Moze was a year and a half old, he always looked forward to having Granddad Zeth and grandma Mylah drop by for a visit...that is when ever they had money to put gas in the car. The grand parents were fond of their little grandson Moze. And for Moze, being that Lacara's parents had the family's only car, that usually meant a trip into the village (about 3 km away), which was a real treat. There were times Zeth would take pictures of Moze and the family with an old, 1930, Leitz, 35 mm lens camera that his dad Dominique had given him. Back in the 1950s, the camera was given to Dominique by his dad and mom, Mojil and Galia. Originally, Mojil and Galia Meerkat acquired the camera from Sanchez's dad and mom, Ajamu and Kubria when the camera was brand new back in 1930. But how Ajamu and Kubria Genet acquired the camera is another story, in where Ajamu and Kubria were not well pleased by the actions of two of their cubs, Sanchez and Obi, at that time. You could say the camera was free, except for the spankings it cost two genet cubs 50 years earlier. \nThe nearest place to get the film developed was in Ondjiva, 70 miles to the south. Pictures taken at about this time, during 1980 and the following year, would be the last though. In the following year, the shutter on the camera wore out, and no parts were ever available to get it fixed. The family had never had another camera since.\nThere were times Moze's Great Granddad Dominique and Great Grandma Gloria would use the car and drop by to visit Bron, Lacara and Moze. There was also a narrow gauge branch of the CFB railway that ran through the village, which still at that time used steam locomotives. Many times when the grand parents or great grand parents would take the family into the village, they would wait at the train depot a while so Moze can watch a train go by. \n\nWhen Moze was a year and a half old, his little penis poked out of sheath for the first time during a visit from the great grandparents.\nMose came running out of the bedroom and past the old ragged bureau in the living room, pointing to his erect penis that was poking all the way out with it's little head and point flexed upward, proudly proclaiming, \"Mamae Mamae! Olha o que eu tenho!...Papai Papai! Olha o que eu tenho!\"(Mamma Mamma! Look what I got!...Daddy Daddy! Look what I got!).\nBron and Lacara, upon noticing their son's little discovery, looked at each other and giggled.\nAs Dominique and Gloria came from the kitchen into the living room, Moze climbed up onto the old blue striped sofa, sat with his legs spread out with his little penis pointing upward.\n\"Grande Papai Grand! Grande Mamae Grand! Olha o que eu tenho! Olha o que eu tenho!\"(Great Granddad! Great Grandma! Look what I got! Look what I got!), Moze called out as he pointed to his penis, still erect and poking out.\n\"Amigo ao longo da vida do nosso grande filho grand. Ele descobriu isso\" (Lifelong friend of our great grand son. He has discovered that), Dominique laughed to Gloria.\n\"Ah, isso ser tao bonitinha\" (Awww, that be so cute), Gloria giggled.\nThat was Moze Meerkat's first introduction to his little pee-pee.\n[largethumb]881908,6[/largethumb] [largethumb]881908,7[/largethumb]\nThere were also those times Bron's side of the family would come and visit, although not as often due to the travel distance and transportation not always being available. \n\nWhen Moze was three, that was in the year 1982, when UNITA was pushing major guerrilla offenses into parts of the Cunene Province. Although the initial homeland hadn't seen any of that action, the local animals felt safer carrying guns with them where ever they went, in case of the unforeseeable event they would encounter UNITA rebels, or if the worse nightmare scenario ever happened of coming under fire from South African Army forces.\nWhenever Bron, Lacara and Moze went to the village with the grand parents or great grandparents, there would always be loaded guns in the car...just in case. \nMoze was always told, \"Filho. As armas, voce deixeo seu patas off-las. (Son. The guns, you leave your paws off them)\".\nOn a trip to the village, little Moze Meerkat asked, \"Por que temos as armas? (Why the guns?)\"\nHow do you explain to a three year old meerkat cub why you carry guns everywhere you travel?\nBut it was agreed by everyone to explain the truth to Moze as to why. They figured with a civil war going on, Moze would mostly likely sooner than later see enough to figure out what is going on.\n[hugethumb]1184700[/hugethumb]\nIn September of that year of 1982...unbeknown to family, friends and locals...in a far away land...this was also going on;\nhttps://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=868676\nhttps://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=868676&page=2#pictop\nEarned a front page spot on an Egyptian newspaper too;\nhttps://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=1090064\nBut that's another story involving animals who they didn't yet know. \n[hugethumb]1184706[/hugethumb]\nAnyway...getting back to Angola...by 1983, much of the UNITA offensive had been driven out of Cunene by MPLA government troops, thus making life in the homeland once again a little safer. And that was a Godsend for Bron and Lacara. Because not only was there a concern for the safety of their son Moze, then age four, this was also the time a younger brother came into the family. On March 3rd, 1983, Jorad was born on an old blanket, in the very same dirt floor bedroom where older brother Moze was born four years earlier. \nWatching his younger brother being born was certainly an amazing experience for Moze, which during Jorad's birth, Moze asked, \"TODOS os filhotes vem fora de uma buceta?!\" (Do ALL cubs come out of a pussy?!)\". \nAmong the animals in the homeland, someone being born wasn't really anything that was hidden from the cubs. And with the house having only one bedroom, Moze had many times seen his mom and dad having sex together.\nAs time went on, Moze and Jorad always enjoyed each other's companionship as they would play and do a lot of things together. And there were many times Jorad would tag along with his brother Moze when he went out collecting wild greens and grass hoppers for Lacara to cook up with some rice for dinner.\n\nShortly before sundown on the evening of June 23rd, 1984, Great Grand Dad Dominique and Great Grand Ma Gloria stopped by at Bron and Lacara's house for a trip into the village. The evening June 23rd each year was a special evening... It was Véspera de Santo John (Eve of Saint John - or - St. John's Eve), and it was always celebrated each year with festivities at the village beginning around sundown. \nAlthough much of the family had taken part in the Véspera de Santo John celebration at the village each year, this would be the first time in a few years Brom and Lacara would attend. \n\"Desde que estamos para uma vespera de Santo John, foi ha alguns anos\" (Since we been to an Eve of Saint John, it was a few years), Lacara mentioned to her grand parents. \n \"Parentalidade o filhotes. De encontrar bumbar. Nós raramente tem tempo para a apreciação\" (Parenting the cubs. To find work. We rarely have time for enjoyment), Bron added, implying that much of their attention over the past five years had been occupied with getting started out on their own, making a living and raising the cubs. \nAnd although Moze, then age 5, and Jorad, then age 1, didn't understand what Véspera de Santo John was all about, the two cub brothers were thrilled about going to the village celebration when their parents and great grand parents told them about it. Lacara's grand parents did remind her and Bron to bring some lanterns with them...Those who attend the Véspera de Santo John celebration, and can bring lanterns, always bring their lanterns. \n\"Uau! Existem biscoitos!\" (Wow! There are cookies!), Moze proclaimed as everyone loaded into that old 1954 Opal Rekord Olympia station wagon.\n\"Doceeeees!\" (Candeeee!), little one year old Jorad exclaimed, still at an age of calling anything sweet, doces...candy.\nIn the cargo area of the station wagon was a big bag of rice flower molasses cookies that Great Grand Ma Gloria had baked.\n \"Esses são para a celebração\" (These are for the celebration), Gloria Meerkat mentioned.\n\"Moze. Jorad. Você mantenha seu patas longe os biscoitos\" (Moze. Jorad. You keep your paws off the cookies), Lacara told her two cubs.\n Once everyone was in the car, they were on their way to the village, with Dominique driving, Gloria riding up front, Bron and Lacara riding on the back seat, and with Moze and Jorad riding in the rear cargo area...and making sure they left the cookies alone as their mom had told them. On the way to the village, Dominique and Gloria had mentioned of earlier dropping off Zeth, Mylah and the other relatives at the village before coming by to pick up Bron, Lacara and the cubs.\nAbout seven minutes later, the meerkats had completed the three kilometer ride along the stretch of dirt road from the house to the village. And upon arrival, they noticed there were many animals who showed up for the Vespera de Santo John. It was just at sundown and all the lanterns that other animals had brought along were being placed around and lit. Dominique, Gloria, Bron and Lacara lit their lanterns as well and placed them around...There is no electrical grid for many kilometers around, so it is the lanterns the animals bring that provide light for the celebration.\nThe cafe' had put out a large spread of food, coffee and iced tea like they do each year, which the cafe' didn't charge a price for. All the linsang couple who owned the cafe' asked was for anyone who was able to give donations to do so, thus the cafe' can provide the same service the following year. The ice for the tea was provided by the metal fabrication shop on the east end of the village...The shop had an industrial generator that was powered by a twin cylinder steam engine to run their equipment, thus they were able to run an ice maker. Some food was also brought in by those who attended, such as the cookies that Gloria Meerkat had baked. Some animals also brought some jars and bottles of homemade muscadine and mango wine, and also homemade pineapple wine sweetened with brown sugar and seasoned with cinnamon. \nBefore long, there was also music and dancing out on the dirt street. Bron and Lacara, while dancing, met up with Lacara's parents, Zeth and Mylah who were also dancing. Some of the music were old African dance songs. \nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoYbpo-6uHY\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kzykxXsBQM\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcYNt0BDDs8\nAnd because Vespera de Santo John was a tradition carried over from the Portuguese colonial era, there was also some Portuguese Fado music there as well.\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYgwCZdxa1g\nThe parents and grand parents also got a good chuckle from seeing Moze and Jorad, as well as seeing some other cubs, bobbing and jumping around on the street to the music. As for motor vehicles passing through the village, they came through very slow. The drivers of the cars would even stop, wave and briefly converse with those attending the celebration before driving on...There was no risk of a car striking anyone...Some drivers would even park their cars and stay around a while. After all, there was more than enough food to go around, and everyone was having a good time...Who driving through could resist? Along with the food offered were the rice flower molasses cookies Gloria had baked, which Moze and Jorad finally had some of...They were kind of like coconut macaroons in a way. In fact, they were a poor animal's version of coconut macaroons.\nAfter a couple of hours of the festivities had past, old dried twigs and tree branches were place on the dirt street into a small pile about two feet high...still leaving plenty of room for passing cars of course. On the center of the pile, a tall stick was stuck upright with a three foot figurine tied at the top which was fashioned out of straw and old rags to look like a devil dragon (representing evil). As was customary with the Vespera de Santo John, this pile of wood was to become a small bonfire at 10:00 o'clock that night...which that hour was by now drawing close. \nAt 10:00 pm sharp, a pile of dry leaves placed at the base of the wood pile was lit, and before long, the two foot high pile was blazing good. After the evil devil dragon was burnt up in effigy, there was another custom, all be it a little crazy, where a special song would play as couples would get a running start and jump over the bonfire together. \nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mteq8blDCyE\nCouples would take that leap of faith over the flames, including Zeth and Mylah. Bron and Lacara could not take part in that though because of Bron having hip dyspepsia...That rendered Bron as not much of a jumper, thus he would have gotten burnt trying it. Dominique and Gloria also could not because of their age. However, Jorad saw some of the uncles and aunts hopping through the bonfire, and, thinking the way a one year old thinks, thought he'd like to try it too.\n\"Jorad! Nao nao!\" (Jorad! No no!) , Lacara exclaimed as she grabbed Jorad just in time to stop him. \nLacara then explained to Jorad that jumping the bonfire was not a thing a one year old cub could do, and that he would have to wait until he was much older.\nAt one point, a mongoose couple hopped through...but not quite fast enough...The male quickly discovered the fur on the tip of his tail had caught on fire.\nFortunately, for the mongoose, as he and his wife were trying to extinguish the flame on the tip of his tail, a linsang sacrificed his large glass of ice tea by dumping it on the tip of the mongoose's tail, thus putting out the flame.\n\"Abrigato\" (Thank you), the male mongoose and his wife told the linsang.\nIt was only the fur hairs on the tip of his tail that burnt...and it would grow back.\nThen the male mongoose commented, \"Minha cauda. Parece que eu tenho uma dica QUENTE\" (My tail. It looks like I got a HOT tip)\n\"Você deve pular mais rápido, meu amigo\" (You should jump more quickly, my friend), the linsang replied as they all laughed.\nIt was getting around midnight, and what few animals who could afford fireworks had earlier brought them to the celebration...After all, what festive celebration would be complete without fireworks? None of it was the real big stuff...just bottle rockets and strings of firecrackers. Those animals who had the fireworks shared them with other animals who wanted some of them. \nAll around you could hear firecrackers >POP BANG POW BANG<. as well as bottle rockets launched out of things ranging from tin cans, to old bottles, to hollow bamboo sticks stuck into the side of the dirt street...>swissshhh - POP---swisshh swisshh - POP POP...< One launcher was even an old automobile wheel rim, with the rockets launched from the lug holes. \nMoze said he wanted to light some firecrackers someone had given him. But first, Bron and Lacara instructed Moze to lite them down on the street, not lite them and throw them. After the brief period of instruction, Moze was having himself a good time lighting a fire cracker one at a time with a burning twig lit from the bonfire...>sizzle - BANG<.\nJorad, seeing older brother Moze lighting firecrackers, also wanted to lite some firecrackers. So Lacara figured out a way to give a one year old cub a go at it. Lacara got a hyena to give her some firecrackers, then asked Bron to light a stick off the bonfire. Lacara then placed a firecracker on the dirt street and picked up Jorad. She then gave Jorad the burning stick, then lowered him to where he can reach the firecracker with the burning stick. When Jorad got the fuse sizzling, Lacara then quickly raised Jorad away from the lit firecracker...>BANG<...Jorad got such a thril out of that...Setting off the bang-bangs like big bro is doing...And there were several more times Lacara let Jorad lite a firecracker in the same way.\nMeanwhile, Moze saw some of the other cubs lighting firecrackers while holding them, then throwing them...>POW<.\nThen Moze started doing as the other cubs were doing, lighting then throwing them...That seemed so cool. \nLacara got onto Moze for it, \"Moze, não segure os fogos de artifício com o pata\" (Moze, do not hold the fireworks with the paw).\n\"Sim, Mamae\" (Yes Mamma), Moze acknowledged.\nMoze then went back to lighting them the way Lacara had instructed him, but it wasn't long befor he went back to lighting then throwing. And neither was it long before Moze lit a firecracker that had a quick fuse...While holding it with his paw, >zit BANG<, the firecracker went off between Moze's thumb and index finger. Moze went crying to Mamma.\n\"Você descobrir o que eu te disse?\" (You find out what I told you?), Lacara asked Moze.\n\"Sim\" (Yes), Moze cried.\nFortunately, being only small firecrackers, they were not powerful enough to blow off fingers. Plus the fact Moze was holding it by one end when it went off...The ends of those kind of firecrackers usually stay intact. It only left slight burn marks where Moze was holding it...nothing serious.\n\"Você está bem?\" (Are you OK?), Lacara asked Moze.\n\"Eu acho\" (I guess), Moze answered as he finished crying.\n As for the rest of the firecrackers Moze lit that night, he lit them as his mom had told him... \"Não segure os fogos de artifício com o pata\" (Do not hold the fireworks with the paw).\nMoze and Jorad also had the opportunity to light off a few bottle rockets >swissshh - POP<, and shortly after midnight, those who had firecrackers left over, all at the same time, tossed them onto the bonfire...some of which were still attached in long strings, >POP BANG POW POP POP POP BANG POW BANG RAP BAP POP-POW-BANG-RAP-POW-BANG...<. Those who still had bottle rockets lit them all off >swisshh-swisshh--swish-swish-swish-swish POP-POP-POW-swish-swish-POP-swish-POP-POW-POP...<\nAfterwards, everyone had a time of relaxation and fellowship as the bonfire on the dirt street was allowed to burn itself out at about two hours after midnight. \nBefore everyone returned home, they helped the owners of the cafe' with the clean up, as they always do each year.\n \nIn December of 1984, there was also that moment of self discovery for Jorad at three months away from turning two years old. Bron was out riding with Sanchez Jenet looking for work that day.\nLacara and Moze heard Jorad in the living room, saying, \"Ele e bonitiiiinnnnha\" (He is cuuuuute).\nMoze and his mom found Jorad sitting on the living room dirt floor, against the table, with his little penis erect and poking way out of sheath, and got a laugh when Jorad looked up while pointing at his penis and said, \"Olha!...Ele e meu peu-peu!\" (Look! He's my pee-pee!)...It didn't take Jorad Meerkat rocket science to figure out what it is.\n[largethumb]881908[/largethumb] [largethumb]881908,3[/largethumb]\n [largethumb]881908,4[/largethumb] [largethumb]881908,2[/largethumb]\n[largethumb]881908,5[/largethumb]\nAnd it did have fun getting played with by it's owner, which was no different than what any other young meerkat would do.\nOther joyous occasions during the year of 1984 was Lacara's brother Amos getting married, and only a few months later, becoming the dad to a son and a daughter who were born at the same time.\nAlso, Bron's relatives had sent a letter announcing that one of his sisters had a daughter. \n \nIn 1985, there was one visit when Dominique purchased a used toy car from an emporium store in the village for Moze, then age 6, and Jorad, then age 2. It was one of those old Japanese made, toy cars made from stamped tin, with a body style like the old, big, fastback cars of the early 1950s. It was about 25 centimeters (10 inches) in length with real hard rubber wheels. Moze and Jorad were really delighted about the toy car their great grand dad bought for them. Dominique had purchased a few toys in the past for Moze and Jorad, but this one would be the last...Later that year Dominique had succumb to pancreatic cancer that he had been unaware of. By the time Dominique saw the doctor at the village hospital, which was not much more than a substandard clinic, which was a one story, adobe wall, tin roof, wood floor building, the cancer was already too far advanced to do anything for him. Dominique requested to be at home to pass away, and within a week, Dominique Meerkat died at home, with his relatives by his side, and leaving Gloria to be a widowed meerkat. Everyone in the family, including the two great grand sons, took it hard over Dominique's death. \nThere is a community worship center in the village that has it's own cemetery, and that is where funeral services were conducted by Pastor Sy Aardwolf before Dominique Meerkat was laid to rest. \nAs for the car (the car who it really belonged to), it had to be registered and re-tagged in Zeth and Mylah's names. After all, a car can not be registered in the name of a deceased meerkat.\n\nEarly in 1986, it had been rumored that hostilities were ramping up again between UNITA rebels and the MPLA government. Some local animals had been talking about carrying guns for protection again, but so far, it had not come to that. \nIt was also the year Moze, going on age 7, would be of school age, but Moze would not be attending school. Moze would be helping with the family income. Although Bron did occasionally find some work he could do in spite of his hip dysplasia putting him at a great disadvantage, Moze still had to help his dad bring in family income whenever he and his dad could get a ride into the village and find what ever work they can get. Where they lived, programs like welfare, disability, Social Security and food stamps were non-existent...there were no social safety nets.\n\nIn early February of 1986, Moze Meerkat was only a couple of weeks from turning seven years of age. It was during that early part of February that Moze and a mongoose friend about his same age got into a bit of mischief, although no harm was intended. It was late in the afternoon after Bron and Moze with a few others had finished a temporary job for the metal fabrication shop prepping a production run of railing stanchions to be painted. While Bron and Moze were awaiting for Sanchez Genet to get off from work to give them a ride home, Moze and the mongoose cub who was working with them that day wandered over to between Kagiso Genet's liquor store and the narrow gauge railway tracks. \n[hugethumb]1253198[/hugethumb]\n[hugethumb]1253198,6[/hugethumb]\nMoze and his mongoose friend balance walked on the rails of the tracks for a short while before noticing some empty half pint and single shot booze bottles that some of Kagiso Genet's customers, upon consuming the contents, had tossed in the grass beside the liquor store.\n\"Moze. As garrafas. ?O que um trem faria com eles?\" (Moze. The bottles. What would a train do to them?), the mongoose cub asked,\n\"Podemos descobrir, eu sei\" (We can find out, I know), Moze replied with a smile as he and the mongoose cub began to gather up the bottles out of the grass.\nIt wasn't long before the two cubs were lining up the empty bottles along the tops of the track rails in hopes that a train will soon come along so they can witness the bottles getting crushed beneath the train's wheels...But it also wasn't long before an arriving customer, a male linsang, took notice of what was going on and informed Kagiso of what the cubs were up to around side of the store.\n\"Obrigado por me dizer essa coisa\" (Thank you for telling me this thing), Kagiso thanked the linsang, and after making the sale of the linsang's choice of rum, then went outside to address the situation.\n\"Soh! Soh! Vocês filhotes. Fora das trilhas com aquelas garrafas. Você não faz essa coisa\" (Yo! Yo! You cubs. Off the tracks with those bottles. You do not do this thing), Kagiso Genet reprimanded the cubs, then seen to it they cleared all the bottles off the rails, off the railroad right-of-way and back into the grass where they found them.\nKagiso then told Moze and his mongoose friend, \"Depois que um trem quebra as garrafas, há o vidro quebrado. Em seguida, é pisado. E os pés do animal estão cortados ... Agora corra, e não faça novamente essa coisa\" (After a train breaks the bottles, there is the broken glass. Then it is stepped on. And animal's feet are cut...Now run along, and do not again do this thing).\nUnbeknown to Kagiso, the customer and the cubs, Valdez Mongoose who is the station master of the passenger depot saw the whole thing from across the street. The Valdez Mongoose knew where Moze's dad and the mongoose cub's dad were working that day and immediately made his way over to the metal fabrication shop.\nMoze Meerkat and the mongoose cub arrived back to the metal fabrication shop when the Station Master Valdez Mongoose was still explaining to Bron Meerkat and the mongoose cub's dad what the cubs had done...Bron Meerkat and the mongoose cub's dad were not very happy dads at that time to say the least.\n\"Um pedaço de vidro. Em uma mangueira no trem aquele poderia voar e fazer danos ... E vidro poderia voar para os filhotes e machucá-los\" (A piece of glass. Into a hose on the train that could fly and do damage...And glass could fly at the cubs and hurt them), Valdez Mongoose had mentioned.\n\"Essa coisa que eu ouvi. ?Você fez isso?\" (This thing I heard of. Have you done that?), Bron asked his son.\nMoze pondered a moment.\n\"O mestre da estação. Ele viu tudo o que ele diz\" (The master of the station. He saw everything he says), Bron added.\nAfter seeing his mongoose friend admit to placing glass bottles on the tracks, Moze also admitted to doing so as well.\nThe dads of the cubs apologized to Valdez for their cub's actions and both Bron and the Mongoose cub's dad headed straight to a small tree which was near the shop to break a switch from it...Then both Moze and his mongoose friend got their legs lit up good with a switch in the presents of everyone.\nDuring Bron and Moze's ride with Sanchez Genet back home, Moze was still trying to rub out the stinging in his legs...Same was also so with the mongoose cub as he and his dad walked home to where they live in the village.\n\nIt was on the 21st of February of 1986, Moze celebrated his 7th birthday. It was not the typical birthday party how much of the world knows it, with the cake, candles, ice cream, chips, soda (Moze and Jorad had never even tasted soda before), balloons, horns, party poppers, gifts and so on...For that kind of party, it takes more money than those living in a poverty stricken community have. The celebration consisted of Zeth and Mylah taking everyone to the village, having some shared meals at the cafe' and having pastry or pie, among of which is their well known, homemade persimmon pie. The cafe' never had soda, but the cubs did like iced tea. Although there was no electrical grid in the homeland to run an ice maker, the metal fabrication shop on the edge of the village had an industrial generator that was run off of a twin cylinder steam engine to power their tools and equipment. An agreement had existed between the cafe' and the shop that the shop would freeze ice for the cafe', and the cafe' would always give 30% off on meal prices for the employees of the shop. And among the birthday festivities, playing hide and seek was always fun with other cub friends and cub relatives who attended. For the family, spending money to eat out at a cafe' was a luxury which was something the family seldom ever did, thus when they did, it was a really big treat.\nAbout a week and a half later, March the 3rd, Jorad celebrated his 3rd birthday...celebrated at the village in much the same way.\nAbout the time of Jorad's 3rd birthday was also the time Lacara was beginning to notice she was pregnant with her third cub.\nIt was just a few days shy of two months later, on May 1st, 1986, Moze and Jorad witnessed their, then youngest, brother being born on an old blanket in the same dirt floor bedroom Moze and Jorad had been born in. Bron and Lacara decided on the name 'Zhang' for the newest member of the family. Being that Jorad was still nursing at three years old, which is normal for many 3rd world societies, Lacara would let 3 year old Jorad and new born Zhang nurse together until Jorad was eventually weened from the teats. \nAs the rest of that year continued, Moze and Jorad would play with their brother Zhang and keep him entertained. When Moze was with Dad at the village, or at some other location where he and Dad were able to find work, it was Jorad, Zhang and Mom who were at the house. This was about the time Jorad was also weening from Mom's teats, to leave Zhang to nurse from Mom alone.\n\nIn the following year of 1987, Angola's MPLA government launched a crackdown campaign against UNITA. It was looking like the rebel movement would finally be crushed once and for all, thus putting an end to Angola's many years long civil conflict.\nMay 1st of that year of 1987 was Zhang's first birthday, in which grand parents Zeth and Mylah, with Great Grandma Gloria, took the family into the village to celebrate Zhang's birthday at the cafe'. \nIn the weeks to follow, Bron and then 8 year old Moze had been getting a ride to the village with Sanchez Genet where Sanchez, Bron and Moze found a temporary job lasting for several weeks. It was spraying weeds along the narrow gauge rail line for the CFB railway, including trimming tree limbs from out the way of the trains and helping to replace rotted ties, and it paid pretty well too. Because of Bron's hip dysplasia, he was assigned most of the weed spraying which was done from a motorized rail buggy. A family not having a car would usually miss out on a work opportunity like this one, which is why it is such a blessing to know someone who does have a car...Although Sanchez Genet's old, ragged, Wartberg Kombi station wagon was at that time holding up fair at best and quite often needed some work from time to time to keep it running, at least it was transportation. \nAnd Sanchez Genet was grateful to be able to offer transportation for the family and other friends. Sanchez had also been without a car himself for five years until he bought that old, 1950s, Wartburg wagon in 1978 from a Hyena friend. Sanchez Genet at one time owned an old 1914 Model T Ford he had acquired in 1950. Even back in 1950, that Model T was a 36 year old car that was given to him by a friend of his family. Before he got it, the front fenders were rusted off of it, there were boards and blankets for seats, and the hood was gone. \nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYi20X2FB6U\nhttps://beta.furrynetwork.com/artwork/625092/sanchez-genets-old-car/\nhttps://www.sofurry.com/view/931837\nhttps://www.sofurry.com/view/931840\nDuring the time Sanchez drove that old Model T, a tin roof had to be built on it, a board was installed to support the radiator, and it's only headlight stopped working. One year before the end of Angola's war for independence from Portugal, Sanchez Genet had owned that old Model T for 23 years. July of the year 1973 was the day Sanchez's old Model T ran it's last mile...A stray, anti armored vehicle round, which was fired from Portuguese occupying forces, found it's way to Sanchez Genet's car and busted a big chunk out of the left side of the motor. At the time, everyone was thankful it was the car, and not someone. \nSy Aardwolf didn't have a motor in his junkyard that would fit Sanchez Genet's car, so it was decided the car would be abandoned as junk. To this day, that old Model T rests among palm trees and palmettos, as a rusty pile of metal, overgrown with vines, bushes and weeds. \n \nAlthough still living a life of poverty, life had been getting better for the locals, as well as for the Meerkat Family.\nA month after turning one year old, Zhang had his moment of his own sexual discovery. Bron and Moze were out with the maintenance crew for the railway that day. At home, Lacara and Jorad, then age 4, heard Zhang in the bedroom giggling and laughing. When they went into the bedroom to see what Zhang was giggling about, they saw Zhang with his little penis sticking erect way out of it's sheath. Zhang was pushing and wiggling the head of his penis around with his paws, giggling, laughing and having himself a good time. Zhang's penis would frequently spring up from having the head stimulated, then bob back down. When Zhang noticed his mom and older brother watching him, he looked up and grinned as Lacara and Jorad chuckled.\nThat was the day Mom and next older brother Jorad found out that Zhang's penis has a longer tapered shape to it's head than what an average male meerkat has. Zhang Meerkat's little pee-pee head HAS now been seen.\n[largethumb]881908,8[/largethumb] [largethumb]881908,9[/largethumb]\n [largethumb]881908,10[/largethumb]\n\nAlmost two months later, around the end of June of 1987, Bron, Lacara and the sons had gotten a ride with some linsang friends into the village. While in the village, the family went into a hardware store so Bron can get some nails to nail some loose ceiling planks back into place at the house, and Lacara wanted to get some seeds to grow some cantaloupes.\nUpon entering the hardware store, they noticed a gathering of various animals...mongooses, civets, genets, a hyena, and a serval, who were engaging in a discussion with the cheetah who owned the store. When Bron inquired to what it was about, the other animals said that there had been speculation going around that there was a large build up of South African Army forces in the area of Rundu, Nambia near the Angolan border.\n\"Algumas delas sao preparacoes for airstrikes, eles dizem\" (Some of it is preparations for airstrikes, they say), the cheetah said.\n\"Ataque de aeronaves?!\" (Attack by aircraft?!), a civet asked.\n\"UAU!\", the serval exclaimed. \n\"Definitivament nao e bom\" (Definitely not good), Bron mentioned, as everyone knew South Africa had been an ally of UNITA.\n\"A counteroffensive at the crackdown on Unita. Todo mundo sabe disso\" (...Everyone knows that), the cheetah replied. \n\"A guerra civil. No mes de Maio, we thought it was over with\" (The civil war. In the month of May...), the hyena added.\n\"Sim. Will it ever be?\" (Yes...), Lacara asked, as though she already knew the answer.\nA mongoose had noted that Rundu was far to the east, thus meaning their prime objective would have to be somewhere far east of the local homeland...That was about the only good news to that situation.\n\"Mavinga...Jamba\", a linsang mentioned the Angolan towns far to the east that would be north of Rundu.\n\"Sim\", the mongoose replied.\nThe linsangs who the meerkats got the ride into the village with heard about the military build up in Rundu while they were in the cafe'. \nNeedless to say, there was a somber mood during the trip back to the house.\nA little more than a month later, on August 4th, 1987, South African forces invaded across the border from Rundu. Fortunately for the local community, the invasion was far away, in the cities of Mavinga and Jamba in the southeast corner of the country as the animals at the hardware store had figured it would be about a month ago. It was a few days later by the time Bron and Moze heard news of the South African invasion...They heard about the invasion from Sanchez Genet while getting a ride to the village to work a temporary job prepping custom shelving for painting that the metal fabrication shop had made. \nDuring the rest of 1987, the Meerkat Family and other locals would get news of what was to be known as 'the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale' over car radios, and by word of mouth from other animals who regularly travel everyday, such as truck drivers, and train operators of the trains that would stop in the village. For the next few months, they would hear about the MPLA 21st Brigade being driven back, the South African Army running low on ammunition at one point, air strikes, an important bridge being destroyed, and the heavy losses suffered by their country's military forces. There wasn't much the local animals could do about it, except to be thankful they were not living in the southeast part of the country where it was going on. \nHowever, there was a short while that small number of UNITA rebels did come within 30 km (20 miles) of the local community. It was believed by the locals that they were sent out as recons. Many of the locals who had access to transportation grabbed up guns and ammo and set out to hunt them down. Among those who went out on those patrols were Zeth Meerkat, Bron Meerkat (you don't need two good hip joints to fire a gun), Amos Meerkat and Sanchez Genet and his brother and nephew.\nAs a result of the overwhelming participation of the locals, a few UNITA rebels had been taken out, and what few of the rest who strayed near the community were driven back east. \nBron and Sanchez noticed a type of rifle they've never seen before that was taken from one of the fallen rebels. A serval, who was very familiar with firearms, had identified it as an M-16.\n\"O armas. Partir da nacao poderosa? De atravessar o oceano a oeste?\" (The gun. From the powerful nation? Across the ocean to the west?) a civet, who was somewhat familiar with firearms, asked.\n\"O grande nacao corporativa?\" (The big corporate nation?) Sanchez Genet added.\n\"Sim\", the serval answered.\n\"O armas e Americano\", Sanchez replied.\n\"Sim sim. Fabricado em Americana\", the serval affirmed.\nIt was only a few days later that two other rifles that were taken from fallen rebels were also confirmed as being M-16s.\nFrom that point on, the animals in the local community suspected that big corporate country across the ocean to the west as aiding UNITA. \nThen, in the middle of December, when Bron, Lacara and the sons went to the village with Zeth and Mylah, they couldn't help to notice that everyone seemed to have a sense of relief and was in a happy mood. At first the Meerkat Family didn't know why, as the radio in the old Rekord wagon had quit working a month earlier. But from those in the village, they had heard that it was a week ago that a large Caribbean island country across the big ocean to the west had sent military help to Angola. The locals later learned that the leader of that country was an eccentric coatimundi, with a long chin haired beard, and would often be smoking a cigar. They were now hearing news stories about the UNITA offensive being stopped. And in the following month, January 1988, everyone heard about the attacks launched by the UNITA that had failed, and the South African Army running out of supplies. For the local animals, what had been a feeling of despair was now replaced by a feeling of optimism and national pride. \nWhen the family celebrated Moze's 9th birthday at the cafe' in the village on February 21st 1988, there was some conversation that came up among the adults about the war, while the cubs enjoyed the sweets, treats and festivities. It was a rainy day that Moze turned nine years old, so everyone remained in the cafe' as several adults at one table were talking about how UNITA and South African forces were still getting their asses kicked by the Cuban forces that came to the aid of their country. Kwasi Civet made mention that he and Jumanne Mongoose had been out to the southeast part of the country, and at a distance from one of the UNITA held areas, they were able to spy on them with a pair of binoculars.\n\"Voce tem sorte, que eles nao viu voce\" (You have luck they did not see you), Bron said to Kwasi.\n\"Isso que eu sei\" (This I know), Kwasi replied. \"No entanto, o que vimos, eu vou direi\" (However. What we saw, I will tell).\nKwasi Civet then told how he and Jumanne Mongoose, while taking turns with the binoculars, saw two raccoons and a possum who seemed to be in a position of coordinating everything.\n\"Especie de animais en Americana\", Zeth promptly replied as Mylah nodded in agreement.\n\"O marsupial e guaxinins. Parece que eles eram agentes de inteligencia. Certamente da uma nacao diferente\" (The marsupial and the raccoons. It seems that they were intelligence agents. Certainly from a different nation), Jumanne Mongoose said.\nThen Kwasi Civet noted, \"E ouvir isso. O marsupial e um gauxinim. Eles foram circuncidado...O que ISSO te diz\" (And listen to this. The marsupial and one raccoon. They were circumcised...What does THAT say to you?).\n\"Voce acredita que eles sao animais Muculmanos da Libya ou Somalia?\" (You believe they were Muslim animals from Libya or Somalia?), Lacara asked, as she is vaguely familiar with the customs of north African countries.\n\"Nao nao nao. Americanos\", Sanchez Genet replied seemingly on que.\n\"Eles eram especie de animais em Americana. Eles nao sao especie animais de Africana como nos samos\" (They are species of animals in America. They are not animal species of Africa as we are), Zeth informed Lacara.\n\"Eles eram Americanos\", Sanchez Genet affirmed.\nThen Kwasi Civet laugh and volunteered a detail, \"Ha ha...O um guaxinim. O cabeca dele penis. Lo ganchos con uma curva\" (Ha ha...The one raccoon. The head of his penis. It hooked with a curve).\nEveryone, especially the females, got a good chuckle out of hearing that bit of information. \n\"Ah sim...Eles eram Americanos\", Sanchez reiterated as he also remarked, \"Ianque tanque seppos\".\n\"Ha ha ha. Sim. Ambos cheio de merda\" (Ha ha ha. Yes. Both full of shit), Kwasi Civet added to Sanchez Genet's slang remark meaning, Yankee septic tanks.\n\"Nao so de Americano\", Jumanne Mongoose mentioned. \"China ajuda a Unita tambem\" (Not only America. China helps Unita also).\n\"Sim\", Kwasi replied. \"Unita tem armas chinesas, eles dizem nos\" (Unita has Chinese guns, they tell us). \nZeth Meerkat gathered his thoughts for couple of seconds, then made the somber statement, \"Ha mais envolvido nesta guerra do que sabemos\" (There is more involved in this war than what we know).\n\nBy the time Jorad was celebrating his 5th birthday on March 3rd of that same year, everyone would hear news reports and conversation about the war taking a toll on UNITA. \nAnd two months later on May 1st, when Zhang celebrated his 2nd birthday, it had been reported that UNITA had suffered heavy losses, and the South African Army's supplies in their Angolan campaign had been exhausted\nBy the end of August, UNITA had been stopped, although they still had their stronghold areas. The South African Army pulled out of Angola, and the Cuban troops who were aiding Angola also pulled out once everyone was confident that things would be peaceful for the time being.\nLater that year Bron and Moze found a wooden South African Army ammo crate, with a hinged lid, which made a good storage chest to keep tools in.\n\n[hugethumb]837070,9[/hugethumb]\n\nEarly in December of 1988, Sanchez Genet heard of a worship center in a village 37 miles away where services there are lots of fun to attend. So early one Sunday morning, Sanchez, along with some of his family members, got into the old Wartberg station wagon and drove down there to check it out.\nLater that afternoon, when the Genet Family members returned from those services, Bron Meerkat and other members of the Meerkat Family asked how those services were. Sanchez explained that what they attended was called a 'Rastafarian' church. Sanchez went on to explain how during the services, the congregation played and sung Reggae music and smoked Marijuana. Sanchez's son, Sefu, mentioned that everywhere you looked, there were pictures of the former Lion King of Ethiopia. Other Genet Family members who went along and attended said that at times those services got a bit wild.\nWhen asked if they were going back next Sunday, Sanchez simply told them, \"Nao\" (No).\nSefu then told everyone that the family decided to continue to attend the worship services in their own nearby village with Pastor Sy Arrdwolf like they've always had done before. \n\nIt was in the year 1989, Jorad had turned 6 years of age, and was getting old enough to go out with his dad Bron and his older brother Moze to help bring in family income. Like his brother Moze, there would not be the day Jorad would see the inside of a schoolhouse. \nWhen ever there was a ride available into town, Bron would go with one or both of the older sons to look for work. When no ride was available, Bron would have to stay home with Lacara and Zhang while Moze and Jorad woke up at dawn to walk to the village. Having hip dysplasia, Bron could not walk the three kilometers on the way to the village, but he always did remind his sons to ask around for a ride into the village for the next day so Bron could get a chance to find work.\n\nOn an early summer weekend in December of 1989 (December through March is summer in the southern hemisphere), the Meerkat Family got a ride with Sanchez Genet and his family out to a pangolin couple who owned a mango grove. Sanchez Genet's old, 1950s model, rusted out, Wartburg Kombi station wagon was crowded with all who was riding along.\nhttp://moyomongoose.deviantart.com/art/Sanchez-Genet-s-Car-614151075\nThe mango grove had produced a good crop, and at a stand the pangolins had set up at their place, they had plenty of mangoes they were selling for cheap. The genets and meerkats stopped by and got enough mangoes to fill a few wood crates they had bought along...and those were really nice mangoes too.\nOn the way back to drop the Meerkat Family off at their home, Sanchez Genet found a swinging South African tune on the radio of that old Wartburg Kombi wagon.\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ey_nmfP-ezE&list=PLJSwi0NElmO2Vyex17PFaFv2tuUp8KIXL&index=1 \n\n[largethumb]969988,2[/largethumb]\nDuring the trip on the way back, as that song still played, Zhang, then age 3, and Sanchez Genet's grandson, Ojo, then age 4, were riding on the cargo floor behind the rear seat where the boxes of mangoes were. As the car went bumping along the dirt road, Zhang and Ojo complained that the floor felt like it was springing up and down, as everyone else in the car was wondering what they meant by that. It quickly became obvious what was going on. The entire rear cargo floor suddenly began to drop out of the bottom of the car. Zhang and Ojo cried half scared out of their wits. Moze quickly grabbed Zhang over into the rear seat. Jorad and Ojo's dad quickly grabbed Ojo into the rear seat. Sanchez realized what was going on and slammed on the brakes. With the car still in motion, the entire rear cargo floor tore away and mangled up under the rear bumper, along with the crates of mangoes. Zhang and Ojo were pulled out of harm's way without a second to spare. By the time Sanchez got the car stopped, the car had no bottom from behind the rear seat to where the back cargo door is. Everyone scrambled out of the car because it had filled up with road dust due to the cargo floor dropping out, mangling and dragging against the dirt road before it had rolled and crumpled out from under the rear bumper. \nThe adults and older cubs comforted and calmed Zhang and Ojo as the dust cleared away, just before everyone surveyed what happened to the car. The meerkats and genets could clearly see that the floor of Sanchez Genet's Wartburg wagon now ended just behind the rear seat with only a rim of rust around the inside of the body where the rear cargo floor use to attach inside the car...The cargo floor was now a mangled wad of rusty sheet metal laying on the dirt road 30 meters behind the car, along with mashed mangoes and splintered crates scattered everywhere. The gas tank did stay with the car though, still attached and dragged along the road inside the car by the filler tube. \nEven though a Wartburg has a full separate frame, the rear of the frame ends between the rear wheels and does not extend back past the rear suspension. Wartburgs were made so the back of the body overhangs beyond past the frame...So there wasn't even a frame where the cargo floor fell out. \n\n[hugethumb]1115858[/hugethumb]\n\n{This link shows Wartburg car frames at the factory (later models than Sanchez Genet's car), from footage 3:57 through 5:05}\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIUVEYmUB-A\n\n{Older style, 1950s frame with cross leaf springs, like Sanchez Genet's car had, shown in this link, but it does not show rear of frame.\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tusiqptP9o\n\nAnything behind the back seat after the cargo floor fell out, would be resting directly on the road, even if still inside the car...like a 'Flintstone car' from behind the rear seat back. \nThe Meerkats and Genets were not really worried about the mangoes. They were just thankful no one was hurt, and were thankful the gas tank didn't blow up in the car when it was dragging along the road inside the car. The gas tank of a Wartburg is normally located above the rear suspension, but Sanchez Genet's car had an old, used gas tank, not made for that car, that was held in place with steel banding, bolted to the underside of what was the cargo floor. \nIn fact, Sanchez Genet mentioned, \"O tanque de gasolina. Damos gracas a Deus ele nao explodiu\" (The gas tank. We thank God it didn't explode).\nLacara replied, \"Aw, Sanchez. Eu nao quero pensar NISSO\" (Aw Sanchez. I don't want to think of THAT). \nMoze got chuckles and laughs from everyone when he commented, \"Parece que o boter perdeu a sua bunda na estrada\" (Seems the car lost it's ass on the road).\nBut there was still yet to be another scarey close call. Where the problem with the car happened was on curve in the road. And while the meerkats and genets were figuring out how to secure the gas tank up off the road so they could get the car home, a hyena driving an old International Harvester pick up with no front brakes came around the curve approaching from behind. The hyena locked up the rear brakes, which worked off the parking brake cable. He steered away and barely missed Sanchez Genet's car as Sanchez dashed back into the car and slammed the door just in time to avoid being struck by the truck or getting the driver's door torn off. The hyena's truck did a 180 degree spin out on the dirt road as it came to a stop beyond Sanchez's car, facing the opposite way from which it came.\nAfter everyone calmed down and the hyena was assured everyone was OK, the hyena offered to tow the car for them with a chain he had in the truck. The gas tank was removed from the car and placed in the bed of the hyena's truck. Then it was agreed to tow the car to Bron and Lacara's place, because they had some board planks stored up in a porch loft that another cargo floor can be made from.\nBron and Lacara rode in the cab of the truck with the hyena while everyone else rode in the bed, and Sanchez rode in his car to steer it as it was being towed with the chain.\nIt was late in the day, so the Genet Family slept over that night with the Meerkats.\nThe following morning, Sanchez Genet's car was fixed, starting out with two lengths of large size bamboo set apart for two cargo floor support runners. One end of each of the two bamboo supports were secured through holes that were made in the inner surface of the threshold structure under the rear cargo door, which the threshold was still in solid shape. A hammer and a chisel held in a pair of vice grips were used to knock the holes through. The ends of the bamboo that went through the holes in the body under the rear door were pushed against the inside of the outer surface of the threshold. The other ends of the bamboo were wedged over the rear body mount above where the frame ended at the rear suspension, and under the sheet metal floor where it tore off behind the rear seat. That made sort of a rear frame extension constructed out of bamboo that the car didn't originally have. The gas tank was fastened onto the bamboo supports with hemp rope and bailing wire. It was also noticed there were two pinholes in the tank, from the mishap, that had to be repaired with sheet metal screws and teflon tape. Then the animals were ready to set in the new cargo floor. Some of the board planks, that Bron had stored, were then cut to size and nailed across the bamboo support runners to make the new cargo floor out of wood...being careful not to nail into the gas tank. Then the edges of the new, wooden, cargo floor were sealed with duct tape. Then tar was applied over the duct tape and overlapping the wood floor and the rusty inner body walls of the car...But it was sealed with tar only from the underside of the car so no one riding behind the back seat gets tar wads stuck in their fur. The duct tape on the topside of the floor was to prevent tar from oozing up inside the car. The new cargo floor wasn't level though. It had to be run at a slight incline, higher near the rear seat, and tilting down toward the rear door. After all, it wasn't like the animals could shape bamboo to match the contour of the original car floor. Although it wasn't exactly a typical car floor, it worked, and Sanchez Genet was delighted with it. The muffler had also sustained a small amount of damage when the old floor fell out, and the tailpipe had to be straightened back out. But although the car was a bit noisier than usual after it was repaired, the noise level wasn't really all that bad.\n\nThroughout the year 1990, Bron and Lacara, like many others they knew, were really relieved about the positive developments that everyone had been hearing about regarding the war. To start with, it didn't seem like South Africa was going to be involved in anymore fighting in Angola. The local animals had been hearing about South Africa having a different leader, Tilson Menelsa Aardwolf, and of a movement that had started in that country to end it's apartheid rule. And by 1991, the development that everyone felt so thankful for, was that UNITA was now making moves to abandon being a rebel militia, and began talks with the MPLA to become a political party within the government. That certainly was something Bron and Lacara considered a Godsend...especially being concerned for the safety for their eleven year old, seven year old and four year old cubs.\n\nEarly one summer morning, on a Saturday, in January of 1992 (southern hemisphere, Angola), a young adult, male, meerkat who was not from around the area was panhandling for money around the cafe'. The linsang couple who owned the cafe' didn't consider it a problem until the meerkat stranger began pestering customers for a paw-out at the front door of the cafe'. When the male linsang, one of the owners of the cafe', asked the meerkat to move on to some other part of the village, he noticed the meerkat replied in English with some Afrikaan, but didn't seem to understand Portuguese.\nThe cafe' owner then told the meerkat in English, \"Me customers you run off. Please, down the street. There, you can you do what you do?\".\n\"Oh. Yea. Sure\", the meerkat timidly replied, then made his way diagonally across the street to the CFB Railway passenger station.\nThat branch of the CFB Railway is two and a half foot, narrow gauge rail line, with most trains pulled by Garrett, articulating locomotives; \nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itJBnRAJrW8\n\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjd3I9CY8ZU\n\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCyOfvWwqSk\nWhen the meerkat entered the station, a mongoose came to the ticket counter and asked in the usual curtious way, \"Que eu possa ser útil para você?\" (May I be helpful to you?).\n\"I don't know what it is you say\", the meerkat replied.\n\"Oh. How can I be of help for you? Where is it you wish to travel?\", The mongoose restated his question.\n\"I am trying to get to Tanzania so I can locate my uncle\", the meerkat replied. \n\"Our trains. They do not go to Tanzania. The nearest to Tanzania you can ride will be Kuvango. From there, you will need to make other travel arrangements\", the mongoose informed the meerkat.\nThe meerkat then mentioned, \"For the moment, I have no money...How can you help me?\".\nThe mongoose then rememered something, even though it was a Saturday, then offered a solution, \"The freight depot, just across the tracks. They are inventorying shipments today and helpers they still need...And they will pay you, with cash\". \nThe meerkat could clearly see from the passenger station, animals in the freight depot, across the tracks, who were busy checking and moving packages and crates...some freight parcels which were earlier received, and some in preparation to be loaded aboard boxcars on the siding to await a train to pick them up. \n\"I can not do that\", the meerkat replied.\n\"A passenger train, going northbound. It will be here at twenty minutes after eleven. Now it is twenty five before eight. To earn money for a ticket, you have plenty of time\", the mongoose insisted, and also noticed the meerkat had five toes each foot instead of the normal four...but that was not important.\n\"It just looks so hard\", the meerkat retorted.\n\"You see here, young meerkat\", the mongoose protested. \"You will not ride a train for free. I try to help you. The freight depot, helpers they still need\".\n\"But...but...I have bad luck right now. You can not help me?\" the meerkat asked.\n\"Young meerkat, I must ask you to leave\", the mongoose finally said. \"I try to help you. You do nothing\".\n\"But but but\", the meerkat began.\n\"You must leave. There is no buts. A but here is a bunta that is you ass. Go. Leave now\", the mongoose told the meerkat.\n\n[hugethumb]1123101[/hugethumb]\n\nThe meerkat then left the passenger station and made his way to the west end of the village. There, he went to the metal fabrication shop, but not in the lobby area where customers normally go...He wandered into the shop floor area where the animals there were busy, working that Saturday, catching up on an overdue order.\nA jackal approached him and asked, \"Você está procurando trabalho hoje?\" (You are searching for work today?).\n\"What you are saying, I do not understand you\", the meerkat replied.\nThe jackal didn't know English very well, so a civet came and spoke with the meerkat.\n\"Is it a job you try to find here today?\", the civet asked.\n\"Oh no\", the meerkat answered. \"I just need some money\".\nThose animals who overheard and knew English busted out laughing. And when those animals who didn't know English heard it explained in Portuguese, and they too busted out laughing. \n\"If in the case you mom never tell you, and you dad never tell you, you work for you money. I will tell you, you do\", the civet told the meerkat.\n\"Sim. He be right. The way you think it be, it be not\", a genet further told the meerkat.\nSanchez Genet, who was also working there that day, told the the meerkat, \"We work, so can you. The freight warehouse, they need workers today. Some of my friends, they are working there now\".\nThen the business owner, a caracal cat, came over and asked, \"O suricato. O que é que ele quer?\" (The meerkat. What does he want?)\nSanchez Genet, along with the civet and the other genet told their boss what the meerkat had just said to them.\n\"Ele fala inglês. Nao português\" (He speaks English. Not Portuguese), the civet further added.\n\"What is your name, meerkat?\", the caracal cat asked in a more refined manner of English.\n\"Pancho, Sir\", the meerkat answered.\nThen the caracal cat told the meerkat, \"Alright, Pancho sir. We don't paw out money for nothing around here. If you get money here, you earn it here. Understand?...I'm asking you now to leave this property and don't come back...If I see you back, I will have the constable here, and you can spend a night in the zoo\".\nPancho Meerkat got the message very clearly and left, then walked across the wide, dirt street to the gas station...in which he was promptly run off from when he began panhandling from some of their customers there.\nPancho then crossed the side street to Sy Aardwolf's automotive shop and junkyard.\nLike the other animals Pancho encountered in the village, Sy greeted him in Angolan dialect Portuguese, beginning with a cheerful, \"Ola...\", then heard Pancho respond in English that he didn't understand him.\n\"Hello. What is it that you need today?\", Sy then asked Pancho in English.\n\"Some money for a train ticket if you have it to spare\", Pancho answered.\nSy thought a moment, then invited Pancho, \"My office, come on in, please. Let us talk\".\n\"I guess so\", Pancho answered as he took Sy up on his offer.\nUpon entering the office, which had automotive parts laying about on it's dirt stained concrete floor, Sy requested to Pancho, \"Don't mess with anything on the desk\", referring to a spread of tools laid out on a shop towel on the desk.\n\n[hugethumb]1153123,32[/hugethumb]\n\nIn Sy Aardwolf's office, Sy sat at his old, ragged, solid wood desk (the one with the tools on it) which was mostly bare of it's varnish and it's green linoleum top laminate separating on the edges. Pancho took a seat on an old, metal, fold-up chair that had it's share of dings in it and a few worn coats of different colour paint.\nAfter they introduced their selves, Sy opened the conversation, \"So it is somewhere you must travel...When money I give, it is for those in need, not for everyone who extends the paw\".\n\"I need to go north to see my uncle. And I have no money to ride the train\", Pancho replied.\n\"Have not you seeked any work for today?\", Sy asked.\nPancho paused a moment, then answered, \"I have not found work\".\nSy mentioned, \"The train that will take you north, it will be here at twenty past eleven. It is now - uh\", looking up at a clock, \"fifteen past eight\". \n\"That is a few hours from now\", Pancho replied.\nSy then concluded, \"To find someone in this village by now who is in need of a worker today, then to earn enough to board the train, it will push it close\". \nSy Aardwolf and Pancho Meerkat conversed in the office a while longer. Through the conversation, Sy learned that Pancho was from Namibia, and had grown up in a meerkat colony...Sy had before heard about those partial subterranean, communal colonies being 'sort of a meerkat thing' in Namibia. Sy had also learned that Pancho had been banished from the colony where he was born and raised, and was now traveling north to look up one of his uncles who was also banished as an outcast from the colony a few years earlier, and had since then went to Tanzania.\n\"Did you walk here? Ride?\", Sy asked Pancho.\n\"Yesterday in the evening, after I crossed the border, I sneaked a ride in an open boxcar aboard a northbound freight train in Cuangar\", Pancho answered. \"And the train got me here last night\".\n\n[hugethumb]1261158[/hugethumb]\n \n\"The railroad company. With that they would not be very happy\", Sy replied. \"The train crews do not like it either when animals hop the rides on the freights\". \nOn through the conversation, Pancho told of letters his family recieved from his uncle, telling of a warthog friend his uncle met in Tanzania. \nSy Aardwolf, also being the pastor of the Community Worship Center, spoke with Pancho for a while also about spiritual matters...what many would call religion.\n\"Oh Sy. Você tem um cliente, eu vejo\" (Oh Sy. You have a customer, I see), a female aardwolf mentioned at the doorway of the office. \n\"Está tudo bem. Entra, Zella. Esta é Pancho Suricato\" (It is all right. Come in, Zella. This is Pancho Meerkat), Sy Aardwolf said to her, then said to Pancho, \"This is Zella, my wife\".\n\"Ola. Estou feliz em conhecê voce\" (Hello. I am happy to know you), Zella greeted Pancho.\n\"Oh, Zella. Português ele não fala. Pancho veio de Namíbia\" (Oh, Zella. Portuguese he does not speak. Pancho came from Namibia), Sy told Zella.\n\"Oh oh. Happy I am to get to know you, Pancho\", Zella then said to Pancho.\n\"The pleasure is mine likewise\", Pancho replied.\n\"Our cubs, Deja and Hiraldo. Them I wish you could meet\", Zella said to Pancho.\n\"Então é. Deja. Ela é casada. Ela é um adulto. Eu não diria que ela ainda é um filhote\" (So is. Deja. She is married. She is an adult. I would not say she is still a cub), Sy said to Zella.\n\"Sim sim. Eu sei disso. Mas Deja ainda é nosso filhote\" (Yes Yes. I know that. But Deja is still our cub), Zella insisted.\n\"Tudo bem, tudo bem\" (Okay, okay), Sy conceded to Zella.\n\"Deja is our wonderful daughter\", Sy told Pancho. \"She is nineteen in the years. She is out from the house, and to a wonderful son-in-law she be married\".\n\"Our son, Hiraldo, he is away getting parts now. He will be the age of fourteen in two months\", Zella said to Pancho.\n\"So he's still a cub...Thirteen\", Pancho mentioned.\n\"Pancho, to meet him, you would like very much\", Zella added.\n\"Sim. No entanto, o trem estará aqui antes Hiraldo retorna de Pocolo\" (Yes. However, the train will be here before Hiraldo returns from Pocolo), Sy reminded Zella.\nSy then told Pancho, \"Hiraldo had to drive the truck to go to Pocolo. He has to get a tire, also parts we need here. It will be in a few hours before he returns. By then, you will be along your way and aboard the train\".\n'A cub as young as thirteen taking a truck out to make a parts run...to a town hours away via mountain roads', Pancho thought to himself...That wasn't a common occurrence where Pancho was from.\nWell, anyway, Pancho did get to know Sy and Zella.\nZella hearing her husband mention about a train, she asked Sy, \"Pancho está deixando a bordo do trem esta manhã?\" (Pancho is leaving aboard the train this morning?).\nSy promptly replied to Zella, \"Oh. Eu mencionei sobre o trem. Sim\" (Oh. I mentioned about the train. Yes). \nSy then briefly gave an explanation to Zella, in Portuguese, which Pancho was able to pick up on that it was about Pancho's situation. Then Sy and Zella talked it over for a minute or two, which Pancho didn't comprehend as the conversation was still in Portuguese. Zella then asked Pancho, in their slightly broken English, a few questions about his situation...after which Sy and Zella assured Pancho they would help him with some cash and with getting him a train ticket. \n\"Eu coloquei a jarra de café na área de reparo. E colocado sobre a mesa de ferramenta\" (I put the coffee pot in the repair area. It is placed on the tool table), Zella informed Sy.\n\"Tudo bem. Obrigado\" (OK. Thank you), Sy replied. \n\"We all hope everything goes good for you\", Zella said to Pancho as she started on her way back to the house, which is next door to the shop.\n\"Well...Thank you\", Pancho replied. \nSy and Pancho talked until it was about nine o'clock, which at that time Sy was preparing to give Pancho that amount of cash he and Zella agreed on.\n\"The last time you have eaten, when was that\", Sy asked Pancho.\n\"Yesterday in the evening. Back in Cuangar. A monkey pawed me some money to get something a while before I hopped a ride aboard the freight train\", Pancho answered.\nSy mentioned that he himself did not take the time to have breakfast that morning before opening the shop, then offered to take Pancho to the cafe' to get something to eat. After Pancho thanked Sy and accepted his offer, Sy took a small amount of money from a metal cash box in a draw of his desk and gave Pancho the amount of cash he and Zella had agreed on. Sy then put the rest in his wallet...the kind that clips onto the underlying fur hairs.\n\n[hugethumb]1156880,3[/hugethumb]\n\nJust before they were to leave the office, Sy noticed Pancho still holding the money Sy had given him in his paw.\n\"Have you a clip wallet?\", Sy asked.\n\"No I do not\", Pancho replied.\n\"Something here I have. I will give it to you\", Sy said as he pulled an old belt and pouch from a shelf and gave it to Pancho.\n\n[hugethumb]1171146,2[/hugethumb]\n\n\"It is yours now. It came out of a junked car here\", Sy said as he pawed it over to Pancho.\n\"Thank you very much\", Pancho said to Sy as he fastened the belt around his waist and placed his money in the pouch.\n\n[hugethumb]1153123[/hugethumb]\n \nHowever, there was an issue caused by the belt and pouch...It sat so low around Pancho's waist, it was close enough to his penis to tease it. The feeling of the belt being so close over 'little pee-pee' resulted in it getting erect...and as is the case with the meerkat species, as pee-pee got hard, pee-pee poked out...then all the way out...With some species of male animals, the penis is designed to do that way.\n\n[hugethumb]1153123,5[/hugethumb]\n\nAnd when it occurred to Pancho how close pee-pee was to rubbing it's head against the fuzzy felt pouch, pee-pee then got really hard as it began bobbing up and down.\n\n[hugethumb]1153123,10[/hugethumb]\n \nIn the meantime, Sy was in a backroom of the office looking for an owner's manual that came from one of the junked cars. A customer's car Fusko Mongoose was changing out a distributor on didn't have the manual it came with. The manual Sy was looking for was from the same make and model but only two years difference. Sy figured he'd have Fusko give it to the female genet who owns the car.\nUpon finally knowing he couldn't find that manual, Sy called back to Pancho, \"We have time for the cafe' before the train gets here...The pouch belt, it fits good?\".\nPancho answered, \"Well Sy...That belt you gave me got me stimulated\".\n\n[hugethumb]1153123,16[/hugethumb]\n\nSy came back from out of the backroom and asked Pancho, \"What do you mean?\".\nThen Sy knew what Pancho meant...Pancho's penis was hot hard and boinging it's head up against the utility belt the pouch was attached to...Pee-pee had gotten a really good bobbing up-n-down motion going by this time.\n\n[hugethumb]1153123,14[/hugethumb]\n\nSy let out with a \"UAU\" (WOW), then laughed, then said to Pancho, \"Ah sim. I see what you mean. That we need to fix. You can not go into the cafe with your xi-xi doing THAT\".\n\n[hugethumb]1153123,17[/hugethumb]\n\nSy adjusted the pouch belt so it was a bit higher on Pancho and away from his genital area. There were a few other adjustments made on the belt until it was just right. Sy didn't want to have the belt too loose to where it would slip back down to where Pancho's penis would be out and hard again...especially in the cafe'.\n\n[hugethumb]1153123,19[/hugethumb]\n\n[hugethumb]1153123,20[/hugethumb]\n\nSy Aardwolf's penis also poked out momentarily when he knelt down to fix the belt he gave to Pancho, but that was because Sy's penis usually pokes out when he kneels or squats...It's in the same manner as a male dogs penis pokes out when he sits.\n\n[hugethumb]1153123,22[/hugethumb]\n\nBut anyway, that was the first look Pancho ever had of an Aardwolf penis...Until then, Pancho had always thought that an aardwolf penis and a dog penis pretty much looked alike.\n\n[hugethumb]1153123,23[/hugethumb]\n\nAs soon as Sy got up and stood back on his feet again, his penis slipped back into sheath.\n\n[hugethumb]1156887,4[/hugethumb]\n\n[hugethumb]1156887,5[/hugethumb]\n\nEventually, the erection Pancho's penis was having subsided, and it finally went back into sheath...Now Pancho and Sy can make their way over to the cafe.\n\n[hugethumb]1153123,25[/hugethumb]\n \nSy then had Fusko, an Angolan slender mongoose who works for him, tend the shop until he got back, then Sy and Pancho headed over to the cafe'...Although the village is somewhat spread out, it isn't very big, so Sy and Pancho walked down the dirt street to where they had to go. \nUpon their arrival to the cafe' a waitress, Rosie Hippo, remembered seeing Pancho earlier that morning, then went and told the linsang couple who owns the cafe'. Within moments, the male linsang approached Sy and Pancho, as his wife watched.\n\"This morning, Me ask you to go away. Me need to get the constable here?\", the male linsang retorted to Pancho.\n\"É bom. O suricato é com eu ... Se é bom com você\" (It is good. The meerkat is with me...If it is good with you), Sy told the linsang.\n\"Bom então. Se ele comporte\" (Good then. If he behaves), the linsang agreed.\n\"Ele ira comporte\" (He will behave), Sy affirmed.\nThen the linsang said to Pancho, \"You good here then. But you do not beg for money here...That is good?\".\n\"That's good\", Pancho agreed.\nSy and Pancho soon placed their order, then enjoyed a late breakfast (after 9:00 am) and relaxed over a few coffee refills...However, what the qurrel was that one of the cafe' owners earlier had with Pancho, Sy didn't bother to make it any of his business....The comment from the male linsang 'but you do not beg for money here' probably told Sy enough.\n It was well past ten o'clock when Sy paid the tab, left a tip for Rosie, and he and Pancho went over to the CFB Railway passenger station to purchase the train ticket...It would be about an hour when the northbound train arrives.\nUpon entering the passenger station, the mongoose in charge there told Pancho, \"Go away. No one rides a train for free. I try to help you and you do nothing\".\n\"Ele está comigo\" (He is with me), Sy told the mongoose.\n\"Sy. Ele tem nao dinheiro. Ele quer passeio a bordo de um trem de graça\" (Sy. He has no money. He wants to ride aboard a train for free), the mongoose retorted.\n\"Ele tem dinheiro que eu dei a ele\" (He has money I gave to him), Sy assured the mongoose.\n\"Ele poderia ter bumbar para que o dinheiro. Eu disse a ele onde\" (He could have worked for the money. I told him where), the mongoose further retorted.\n\"Ele me disse que não consegue encontrar trabalho hoje\" (He told me he can not find work today), Sy replied.\n\"Ha ha\", the mongoose laughed, then told Sy, \"Ele disse uma mentira para você. O armazém. Eles precisavam de ajuda toda a manhã. Eu disse isso a ele. E ele diga que o trabalho parece muito difícil\" (He told a lie to you. The warehouse. They needed help all morning. I told him that. And he says that the work seems too difficult).\nEven though Pancho didn't know Portuguese, he had some idea what Sy and the mongoose were discussing.\nAnd it was begining to become clear to Sy Aardwolf why Pancho Meerkat may have been outcasted from that meerkat colony where he was from in Namibia...And probably that his uncle was outcasted for the same reasons.\n\"Agradeço-lhe por me dizer essa coisa. Obrigado\" (Thank you for telling me this thing. Thank you), Sy told the mongoose.\nSy then questioned Pancho, and upon getting the truth from him, took Pancho aside and gave him a good, stern lecture about laziness, freeloading, slothfulness, and lying...And it was not a fluffy, little, 'feel good' sermon either. \nWhen Sy was done lecturing Pancho, he and Pancho went to the counter and purchased a train ticket to Kuvango, which the mongoose said would be the closest point that branch line ran to the direction of Pancho Meerkat's intended destination.\nAt eleven o'clock, the animals who were working that morning at the freight warehouse were given a twenty minute break. Among them were Bron Meerkat and his two older sons Moze, then going on age 13, and Jorad, then going on age 9. They had gotten a ride that morning with Sanchez Genet on his way to the metal fabrication shop. During the break, Bron, Moze and Jorad noticed Sy Aardwolf at passenger station across the tracks and came over to see him. \nUpon seeing Bron and his sons, Sy Aardwolf pointed Bron out to Pancho and said to him, \"See that meerkat who walks with a limp? I know him. His family is in my congregation where I am pastor. He has bad hips, but any work he can do he still trys to find...And his sons, they too help their family...You should have been working with them this morning\".\n Sy introduced Pancho to Bron, Moze and Jorad, then explained how he was helping Pancho with his situation he was in. Once everyone and Pancho got acquainted, Sy and the other animals got to conversing about various things while waiting to see Pancho off aboard the train...which was now due to arrive in about ten minutes.\nIt wasn't long before Moze saw Pancho heading across the street.\n\"Pai, olha onde Pancho esta indo\" (Dad, look where Pancho is going), Moze told his dad.\n\"Sy\", Bron called out, then pointed Pancho out to him.\nPancho was headed straight for a store which was beside the tracks directly across the street from the passenger station...The sign on the store read 'Perto o Trilhos - Licor e Vinho' (Near the Tracks - Liquor and Wine).\n\n[hugethumb]1253198[/hugethumb]\n\n\"Nao nao nao\", Sy retorted as he headed out of the passenger station and across the street after Pancho.\nPancho figured with the money he had left over after the purchase of the train ticket, he could get a little something to sip on aboard the train along the way. Before Sy caught up with Pancho, Pancho entered the liquor store.\n\"Uh, you speak English?\" Pancho asked the genet behind the counter.\n\"Sim. English I do speak\", the genet replied. \"Your pleasure, what will it be?\".\nPancho looked over the selection which was behind the counter along the wall.\n\"That Kwilu\", Pancho said as he chose a half pint of Congolese, Kwilu rum.\nhttps://images.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;_ylt=A0LEV7sAQi5YuXMA7jIPxQt.?p=kwilu+rum&fr=yhs-pty-pty_extension&fr2=piv-web&hspart=pty&hsimp=yhs-pty_extension#id=0&iurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.finasucre.com%2Fmedias%2Fupload%2Fimages%2FNos%2520produits%2FBouteille%25201.bmp&action=click\nSy walked in as the genet placed Pancho's choice on the counter.\n\"Pregador Sy Aardwolf? Você? Dentro aqui?\" (Preacher Sy Aardwolf? You? In here?), the genet asked, knowing Sy does not drink booze.\n\"Kagiso. O dinheiro que ele tem, isto foi dado a ele. E não para ser gasto dessa forma\" (Kagiso. The money he has, it was given to him. And not to be spent this way), Sy Aardwolf exclaimed to the genet, then explained the situation.\n\"This. It is not for you\", Kagiso Genet told Pancho as he promptly took the small bottle of rum back and placed it back on the shelf. \n\"The money I help you with, I do not give for you to spend in a cuca shop. It was not earned by you. You do not spend it that way\", Sy reprimanded Pancho on the way back out of the liquor store to return to the passenger station.\nBy the time Sy and Pancho got back to the station, the distant approach of the train could already be heard. \n\n[hugethumb]1253198,6[/hugethumb]\n\nIt was also by that time, Bron, Moze and Jorad had already crossed back over the tracks to the freight warehouse as their break time was over and it was time for them, and the other animals they were working with that day, to get back to work.\nThe whistle of the narrow gauge, Garret, articulating locomotive sounded and the bell clanged as it approached the street crossing. Within moments, the Garret locomotive pulled it's passenger coaches to a stop at the station. Each of the four coaches were a home made, wood frame, coach body with corrugated tin roof, built on an old flatbed car chassis. Two of the coaches had clapboard exterior, and two had corrugated tin exterior. One clapboard body coach had inward opening, wood shutters in place of glass in the windows...And the other three had wood framed, glass, slider windows. All coaches were painted tan with a dark brown, wide stripe along each side.\nSy Aardwolf instructed the mongoose in charge of the station, \"Este suricato. Certifique-se de que ele chega em Kuvango. Ele não está a deixar o trem até que esta chega a Kuvango. Depois que ele chega a Kuvango, ele vai para onde ele quer.\" (This meerkat. Make sure that he arrives in Kuvango. He is not to leave the train until it reaches Kuvango. After he reaches Kuvango, he goes where he wants.).\nAs Pancho boarded the train, the mongoose passed the same instructions on to a bat eared fox who was the train's conductor. After the conductor acknowledged understanding the instructions, he led Pancho from the corrugated tin body coach where he had boarded the train, and into the following clapboarded coach with the glass slider windows...There were no diaphragms between the coaches. Going from coach to coach, you stepped along overlapping footplates. And there were two levels of slack chain on each side, fastened between the coaches to serve as safety grab rails while going between coaches. \nNot long after Pancho took a seat on one of the coach's non-upholstered wood benches, near an open slider window, the conductor called to the locomotive operator, \"Todos estão a bordo\" (All are on board).\nThe operator, a bonobo, sounded the whistle, released the brakes and applied the throttle of the locomotive as the firebox attendant, a pangolin, clanged the bell...The train was now pulling away from the station on it's way north with Pancho Meerkat further on his way to his destination where he planed to locate his uncle and warthog friend. \nThe last Sy Aardwolf heard of the departing train was the distant sound of the whistle as the train approached the two road crossings on it's way up the mountain grade to the highlands going north away from the village.\nSy Aardwolf then returned to his shop and junkyard to conduct the rest of his business day.\nA late night a severe thunderstorm was expected to come through that night moving from the west...The storm was still a long way off when Hiraldo returned from Pocolo with the tire and car parts, although static crackles from the distant lightning were already being heard occasionally coming over the car radio that played off a deep cycle battery in Sy's shop. Hiraldo had mentioned to his dad that he heard some static crackle on the truck's radio on his way back from Pocolo.\nLate that night, by the time the storm finally arrived, Sy, Zella, and their son Hiraldo were already at the house and snuggled in for the night. \n[hugethumb]1356368[/hugethumb]\n[hugethumb]1356368,2[/hugethumb]\n[hugethumb]1158992,3[/hugethumb]\nDuring the approach of the storm, a severe weather warning comes over an old Philco car radio that Sy has wired to a deep cycle battery in the shop near a metal fold-up chair the radio is grounded to for an antenna...Sy left the radio playing for the night when the family went to the house. That is so the battery will discharge and can be charged from a charger in the truck in the morning.\nDuring the broadcast, there was some radio static, as well as >crackles< and >pops< when the lightning would flash up.\n\nThe severe weather warning;\n\"Se você estiver em ou próximo Embunda e Namene, procurar abrigo agora. Ficar em sua casa.\nEsta é uma tempestade muito perigosa.\nEsta tempestade tem relâmpago graves e ventos poderoso. >crackle POP<\n - - - - - - - - - - - -\nA tempestade está se movendo para fora do oeste, a vinte quilômetros por hora. >static<\n- - - - - - - - - - - -\nCitamos novamente, Esta é uma tempestade muito perigosa. >POP POP<\nCuidado, há granizo com esta tempestade. Alguns do tamanho de bolas de golfe.\nSe você estiver perto de um riacho, ou perto de um rio, há o perigo de graves inundações. >static<\n- - - - - - - - - - - -\nA tempestade está se movendo para fora do oeste, a vinte quilômetros por hora. >static<\n- - - - - - - - - - - -\nSe você estiver em ou próximo Embunda e Namene, procurar abrigo agora.....\" >POP<\n >static<\n@ What it would be translated as English;\n(If you are in or near Embunda and Namene, seek shelter now. Stay in your home.\nThis is a very dangerous storm.\nThis storm has severe lightning and powerful winds.\n- - - - - - - - - - - -\nThe storm is moving out of the west, twenty kilometers per hour.\n- - - - - - - - - - - -\nWe quote again. This is a very dangerous storm.\nBeware, there is hail with this storm. Some the size of golf balls.\nIf you are near a stream or near a river, there is the danger of serious flooding\n- - - - - - - - - - - -\nThe storm is moving out of the west, twenty kilometers per hour.\n- - - - - - - - - - - -\nIf you are in or near Embunda and Namene, seek shelter now.....)\n[hugethumb]1158992,6[/hugethumb]\n\nDuring that storm, a bolt of lightning struck right behind the shop, about 10 meters (30 feet) ahead of an old junked Renault...The house Sy and his family live in is next door to the shop, so the Aardwolf Family heard the BANG from it pretty loud.\n[hugethumb]1172398[/hugethumb]\n[hugethumb]1172398,5[/hugethumb] \n[hugethumb]1171437,2[/hugethumb] \n[hugethumb]1172398,7[/hugethumb]\n[hugethumb]1261142[/hugethumb]\n[hugethumb]1259816[/hugethumb]\nThe smaller village to the north where the cotton plantation, fabric mill and sawmill are got hit with golf ball size hail during that storm.\n\n[hugethumb]1235051[/hugethumb] \n\n\nIt was in the year of 1992, the local animals had been hearing about the nation's constitution being revised. Everyone, including the Meerkat Family had concerns whether those revisions contained good changes or bad changes. Eventually, the animals who operated the railway depot in the village managed to get a copy of the revised constitution sent from the nation's capitol in Luanda. As soon as it arrived by train, it was promptly posted where it can be read, which everyone was well pleased with. \n\nTwo weeks before Moze's 13th birthday, Lacara found out she was pregnant her forth cub. It was a month later on March 29th, 1992, on an old blanket, on the dirt floor of the one and only bedroom of their home, Lacara gave birth to a forth male cub with her husband and three other sons by her. It was agreed that the newest member of the family would be named Cheesah.\n[hugethumb]1184700[/hugethumb]\nUnbeknown to anyone here, far away in Salem, India,\na creepy rat, less than a year out of med school, operates\na 'quack' medical practice in an old ratty strip mall. \nNearly 22 years later, little newborn Cheesah Meerkat \nwill be Dr. Rat's worse nightmare. \n[hugethumb]1184706[/hugethumb] \nThat was the year Jorad turned 9 years of age, and Zhang turning 6. And it was the year Zhang began to go out at times with one or both of his older brothers, or with his dad, into the village to find work. Most jobs for a 6 year old cub were not very heavy jobs. Jobs that consist of harder work are for those who are older.\nAnd when Bron and the older sons were at home with Lacara and Cheesah, Cheesah would always get love, attention and playing from the other members of the family. He being the cub of the family, always enjoyed being the center of attention.\nZhang, still being a young cub, would still be at home most of the time with Mom and younger cub brother Cheesah. Dad and older brothers Moze and Jorad were still the ones going out most times to seek work. \n\nThe 29th and 30th of September of 1992 was the first government election in which there were UNITA party candidates. The voting precinct for the part of the Cunene Provence where the Meerkat Family and friends lived was set up at the CFB railway passenger depot in the village. \nOn the 29th, the Meerkat Family showed up with everyone else at the railway station to vote, with Lacara holding Cheesah who turned six months of age that day. There were more local animals in the community who did not own a car (such as was the case with Bron and Lacara) than those who did. But that majority of animals who did not own a car, did get rides from the animals who were fortunate to have a car. Those living near or in the village walked to the voting precinct at the railway station...Everyone was determined to come to the railway station and vote. In fact, the cafe', which was diagonally across the main dirt street from the railway depot, had a big paper sign on the front window posting Article 18, #1 and #2 of the fundamental rights and duties of the Angolan constitution;\n\n\"1. Todos os cidadãos são iguais perante a lei e gozam dos mesmos direitos e estão sujeitos aos\nos mesmos deveres, sem distinção de cor de pele, espécie, subespécie, grupo étnico, sexo, local de nascimento,\nreligião, ideologia, grau de instrução, condição económica ou social.\n2. Todos os actos que visem prejudicar a harmonia social ou criar discriminações e privilégios\ncom base nesses fatores devem ser severamente punida por lei. \"\n\nTranslated in English:\n(1.   All citizens shall be equal under the law and shall enjoy the same rights and be subject to \nthe same duties, without distinction as to fur color, species, subspecies, ethnic group, sex, place of birth, \nreligion, ideology, level of education or economic or social status. \n2.  All acts aimed at jeopardizing social harmony or creating discrimination or privileges \nbased on those factors shall be severely punishable by law.)\n\nThe big paper sign was in a sense a reminder posted by the owner of the cafe' to vote MPLA.\nHowever, due to the relatively high illiteracy rate among the animals in the community, there were many of the locals who were unable to read what the paper sign posted on the cafe' said. But those who knew how to read would take the time to read and explain the sign bearing the words of Article 18 to those who were among the illiterate animals of the community.\nA special concession also had to be made for those animals who were illiterate, therefor not being able to read the election ballot, which included quite a few of them...Two peel-off china markers, a black one and a red one, were borrowed from the freight depot warehouse just across the tracks. And on the ballots to be cast by those who were illiterate, an black mark was made next to the names of the MPLA candidates, and a red mark made next to the names of the UNITA candidates. That way, for those who did not know how to read the ballot, they at least had a way of knowing what party they were voting for...They just had to remember, if the vote is for an MPLA candidate, check a blank near a black mark...and for a UNITA candidate, check a blank near a red mark. \nAnd needless to say, Bron, Lacara, and everyone else they knew, voted straight down the ballot MPLA. No one voted UNITA, knowing that party did not firmly stand against apartheid. Old timers such as Grand dad Zeth Meerkat, Grandma Mylah Meerkat, Great Grandma Gloria Meerkat, Sanchez Genet, Naomi Genet, Obi Genet, Sanchez and Obi's mom Kubria who was by then going on age 101, as well as others from that generation remembered very well about apartheid during the old days of Portuguese colonial occupation.\n \nOn the morning following the election, a radio station played the Angolan National Anthem...Sanchez Genet and his son, Sefu, heard it playing on the radio of their old Wartburg station wagon while riding along the old dirt road on their way to work at the metal fabrication shop in the village.\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgppoKTseoE\nAngola's National Anthem always had reminded Sanchez of the time 26 years earlier, when his dad, Ajamu, died at age 71 while fighting in the Colonial War for Angola's independence from Portugal...And of how close he came to also loosing his older brother, Obi, who almost died at age 50 in that war. \n\n[hugethumb]1111551,2[/hugethumb] \n \nThe election however, did produce a disastrous result...MPLA did win the seats of government, but it wasn't long before accusations began between MPLA and UNITA, which ranged with everything from election fraud to UNITA accusing MPLA of not holding to promises they have made. Before the end of the year, UNITA resumed the civil war against the government as they had been fighting before.\nBy the end of 1992, there were the reports of the civil war going on, just like it had always been before.\n\nThere was a period of time, in February and March of 1993, that the family members had been unsuccessful finding work. Food and what little money the family had was running low, although, there are still eatable plants, nuts and berries that grow wild, and bugs are always a part of the diet for meerkats as well. However, although there are nuts, berries and bugs during those times when there isn't any food or money in the house, there are also seasons when nuts and berries are not in bloom. During such times when food was scarce, the cubs were allowed to eat before the adults did. The cubs need to grow...the adults are already grown. Day after day, Moze and Jorad, who were then ages 10 and 14, would walk to the village before dawn only to find there was no work to be had each day. There were days Bron would go to the village with Moze and Jorad when they got a ride with Sanchez Genet and one of his sons, Sefu, on their way to work. By that time, Sanchez Genet and his son, Sefu, were working a permanent job at the metal fabrication shop, although not five day workweeks, so the ride was not available each day. But still, each day, it was the same thing for the meerkats - no work. On one of those days when Bron and his two older sons got a ride with Sanchez and Sefu to the village and still found no work, Angelo and Erica D'Cruz Hound, the Portuguese Estrela dog couple who owns the grocery store, gave Bron a few boxes of non-perishable goods to bring back home so the family can have something to eat. Sanchez Genet helped out the best he could considering he and Sefu were working only two to three days per week at that time...Eventually however, a donation of food and cash being used up by a family of two adults and four cubs day after day after day can only last but so long...With no opportunity to find work, it was only a matter of time before there would be no food in the house again...Lacara had Zhang, then going on age 7, try to catch some fish from the creek with a string and sharpened bent nail with a bug on it attached to a stick, but it seemed no fish would bite...Social Security did not exist, thus older relatives were also having it rough, and were not in much of a position to help...As for welfare and food stamps, that too was non-existent and unheard of to any of the locals...Fortunately for one year old Cheesah, he was still nursing from Mom's teats. \nOne morning, the stretch of bad luck finally broke and the opportunity to find work finally did pick up again, and none too soon either. Moze and Jorad, who like the rest of the family, haven't eaten anything since the past two days, walked to the village that morning and noticed the serval who was in charge of the CFB railway warehouse needed some temporary help unloading two boxcars that a freight train dropped off on a siding during the night. There was already an adult mongoose and an adolescent genet working that job, but the serval told Moze and Jorad that he could use two more helpers. So the meerkat brothers received instruction from the serval in charge of the warehouse, and went to work following the lead of the adult mongoose. Fortunately for the adolescent cubs Moze and Jorad, who had to work like adults with nothing to eat going on a 2nd day, the job wasn't really all that hard. The boxcars were along side a loading platform up even with the floors of the boxcars, and the platform was under a roof that provided shade from the hot sun. And the two pallet jacks belonging to the freight warehouse, although very old and beat up and half worn out, were still at least in working order which made the job much easier. Among the freight to be unloaded were material, paint and other supplies for the metal fabrication shop, as well as machine parts and fabric dye for the cotton plantation and fabric mill in the village to the north. There was some inventory ordered by the local hardware store also, along with a few crates of groceries Angelo and Erica D'Cruz Hound ordered for the grocery store...Breaking into one of those grocery crates was a temptation for two hungry meerkat cubs going on a 2nd day with nothing to eat, but Moze and Jorad knew better, and realized that once they were paid there would be the means again of acquiring food the right way. \nWhen the job was done, they were paid well, and in cash...Working for the railway always pays better. And Moze and Jorad were also able to get a ride home with Sanchez Genet and his son Sefu. It was at the end of the work day for Moze and Jorad when Sanchez and Sefu were getting off from the metal shop, thus they were able to give Moze and Jorad a ride back home.\nOn the way home, Sanchez Genet's old Wartburg wagon reminded Moze and Jorad how close they came to loosing their brother Zhang, and Zhang's friend Ojo, that time the cargo floor fell out of it a few years earlier, which bought up a conversation of how well that wood plank floor in the back of that old Wartburg was still holding up. Mose and Jorad even looked back at the floor...and yup...the rear cargo floor still looked like the floor of a boxcar, or the wood plank floor of the cafe' in the village.\nOnce they got home, and Sanchez and Sefu Genet were droping Moze and Jorad off in front of the house, Bron and Lacara were so happy that their sons were able to find work...and good paying work for the railway warehouse at that. But Moze and Jorad didn't keep any of the money they earned that day. There hadn't been any food at the house for the past two days, and a family of six meerkats does have to eat. Lacara collected that day's earnings from her sons and asked Sanchez Genet if Sefu could take her to the village. At the village, Lacara bought food for the family, including three, 100 pound bags of whole grain rice. \nIn 1st world major countries with the high standard of living the meerkats had never known, most cubs would have a fit, a cow, a rage and shit a brick over Mamma taking THEIR money THEY wanna spend on a video game or the latest music CD or something. But with the Meerkat Family living in the 3rd world, Moze and Jorad never did complain. The brothers knew all too well how poor the family was, and that a family survives when all it's members pull together. After all, while most cubs in prosperous countries wondered when they'll see the next releases of Nintendo, Sega and Game Boy, many animals in the local homeland had known what it was to wonder when they'd see their next meal...Thus, Moze and Jorad were just thankful they had the opportunity to earn some money that day so Mamma could get some food in the house for everyone.\n\n[largethumb]837070[/largethumb]\n\nThe night of June 23rd is Véspera de Santo John (Eve of Saint John - or - St. John's Eve) The following Sunday was four days after the night of festivities in the village. That Sunday Bron, Lacara and the cubs got a ride to the community worship center with Sanchez and his family in Sanchez's old Wartburg station. The riding accommodations were a bit crowded but it was better than walking...especially being in that year of 1993, Cheesah was only a year old and would have had to been carried if the meerkats had to walk to the village.\nThere was a sizeable attendance that Sunday morning, and the sermon Pastor Sy Aardwolf preached was on how cubs should obey their parents, and also on the Bible teachings of the right way how parents should raise their cubs. After the end of the service, Jorad, then age 10, and Zhang, then age 7, wanted to hang out around the village a while. Bron and Lacara agreed that would be OK, but made it clear to Jorad and Zhang they would have to walk home, which the the cubs agreed to. So Bron, Lacara, Moze, then age 14, and Cheesah, then one year old, rode home with Sanchez Genet and family while Jorad and Zhang remained in the village.\nJorad and Zhang socialized and played with some of their cub friends who's families lived in the village while they were there. In the early afternoon, the cubs watched a southbound freight train come through the village on the narrow gauge railroad. At Kagiso Genet's liquor store, one of the cubs who Jorad and Zhang were with got up the nerve to ask Kagiso why cubs can never have a sip of booze...Kagiso, as he always does in such a situation, ran the cubs off away from his store.\nEventually, as Jorad, Zhang and a civet cub friend were milling around outside the railway freight warehouse, Zhang found a left over Roman candle from the Eve of Saint John celebration four days earlier...and it had not yet been lit...UAU! What a find. The cubs were wondering how they were going to go about lighting the Roman candle being that they didn't have access to any matches. However, it wasn't long before a hyena pulled up to Kagiso Genet's liquor store in an old, ragged, chalky black, 1955, Opel Kapitan which had small amounts of hail damage.\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ix5zhJAxYNU\nThe civet cub got the idea of placing the Roman candle on the exhaust manifold of the hyena's car as an auto-fooler as Jorad and Zhang got a good laugh thinking how funny that would be. So when the hyena grabbed some cash from the glove box, got out of his car and went in to the liquor store to make a purchase, Jorad raised the hood of that old 1955 Opel Kapitan. With Zhang's help, the civet tucked the Roman candle between the cylinder head and exhaust manifold of the hyena's car with the fuse touching the manifold. \nThe hyena, who knew the families of Jorad and Zhang and of the civet cub, came out of the store with a 5th of gin he had purchased as Jorad was still closing the hood of his car.\n\"Jorad! Meu boter. ?O que você está fazendo?\" (Jorad! My car. What are you doing?), the hyena asked.\n\"Oh ... Uh ... Só olhando\" (Oh...Uh...Only looking), Jorad replied as Zhang and the civet cub nodded in agreement.\n\"Não é com as patas que você olha. Seus olhos que você tem para isso ... ?Você entende?\" (It is not with the paws you look. Your eyes you have for that...You understand?), the hyena said as he placed his bottle of gin in his car, placed his monetary change in the glove box, then pushed the hood down to make it latch shut.\nJorad, Zhang and the civet cub waved with smiles as the hyena started his car and began to leave...Then the three cubs snickered and giggled as the hyena proceeded west, driving down the wide dirt street which became the dirt highway leading west out of the village.\nShortly after the hyena left the village, he turned right onto the road going north. The hyena hadn't gone very far down the north road to the small village where he lives, where the cotton plantation, fabric mill and sawmill are, when the exhaust manifold got hot enough to lite the fuse of the Roman candle. The hyena was cruising along that narrow dirt road with his 5th of gin on the front seat...Then suddenly >WHEEEEEEEEE POP - POP - POP - POP...WHEEEEEEEE POP - POP - POP - POP...WHEEEEEEEE....<. There were small, bright, fire balls in an array of bright colours bouncing out everywhere from under the front of the car. Immediately, the hynea stopped the car, scurried out, and hurriedly raised the hood. >WHEEEEEEE POP - POP - POP - POP...< the Roman candle continued as the hyena had to leap back out of the way of brightly coloured fire balls ricocheting off the underside of the hood...Finally, the Roman candle burned itself out, emitting a >WHEEeeee - whooost<.\nIt didn't take a rocket scientist to put 2 + 2 together...Cubs messing with the car back at the liquor store + this = cubs being the culprits.\nThe hyena retrieved the Roman candle, got back into the car, turned the car around and proceeded to drive back toward the village...The hyena knew where to contact Bron and Lacara.\nAs the cubs decided to call it a day, just before Jorad and Zhang began the three kilometer (two mile) eastward walk back home, they noticed the hyena in that old, ragged Opel Kapitan cruising by as he drove on through the village and headed down the road going east.\nDuring the hour it took Jorad and Zhang to walk home, they had many good laughs talking about that Roman candle in the hyena's car...But the laughter stopped when the two cubs arrived home. Parked in front of the house was that old, ragged, chalky black, Opel Kapitan. Mom Meerkat holding one year old Cheesah, and Dad Meerkat were out front talking with the hyena, and they didn't look very happy...Daddy Bron Meerkat was holding the spent Roman candle.\nAt that point, Moze was told by Lacara to go into the house.\n\"Seu pai quer falar com você\" (Your dad wants to speak with you), Lacara told Jorad and Zhang as Bron approached their two younger cubs with his usual limp due to his bad hip joints.\n\"Jorad. Zhang. Este\" (Jorad. Zhang. This), Bron said as he held the Roman candle up, \"?É familiar para você?\" (Is it familiar to you?).\nNeedless to say, Jorad and Zhang didn't have anything to say in their defense, thus when questioned, admitted to their roles in sabotaging the hyena's car...Bron and Lacara even got Jorad and Zhang to tell of their civet cub friend's part in it too...The hyena would pay the civet cub's parents a visit later as well. There was already a broken off switch from a nearby tree waiting in the house. Jorad and Zhang were marched straight into the house and had their legs lit up good-n-proper. After the switchin' was done, Bron and Lacara came back out and again apologized to the hyena for the actions of their two cubs, in which the hyena thanked Bron and Lacara before he drove off.\nJorad and Zhang were two cubs who would now think twice about messing with someone's car again.\nCome Monday morning, the hyena paid the civet cub's parents at the village a visit too...Thus Civet Jr. got his ass lit up good by Daddy Civet as well. \n\nThere was one night in July (winter in the Southern Hemisphere) of 1993, it got a little bit chilly...not really a severe cold night...Southern Angola has mostly a warm climate, but it was definitely a cool night. \nThat night, the Meerkat Family moved the ragged old blue bureau into the kitchen, and moved that rustic living room table and their old sofa out under the overhang roof port. Firewood was gathered into a small pile on the dirt floor of the living room, and a small fire was lit to provide warmth. Curtains on the downwind side of the house were opened to let the smoke out. Then the family brought the blankets into the living room to sleep on around the fire. Members of the family would take turns getting up to put a piece or two of wood on the fire when it would go down, so it wouldn't get cold in the house.\nIn the morning, after sun rise, it got warm again. The ashes were raked up and put outside around the muscadine vines, the blankets were put back into the bedroom, and the living room furniture was put back in place.\nThis method of staying warm on a cool night was common among those animals who lived in homes with dirt floors. \n\nEarly one morning in August of 1993, Moze and Jorad had gotten a ride with Sanchez Genet into the village to look for work. It being the Southern Hemisphere, August is around the end of winter, although winter in Angola is not the harsh winters other parts of the world know.\n\n[hugethumb]1123101[/hugethumb]\n\n\"Na loja de metal. Para vocês dois. Eu vou mencionar uma palavra boa. (In the metal shop. For both of you. I will mention a good word)\", Sanchez told the meerkat brothers as he droped them off at the village cafe'.\nMoze and Jorad had always thought how nice it would be if they could get hired onto a steady job with the metal fabrication shop where Sanchez Genet and his son Sefu work. In fact, Sefu Genet had by this time been able to get his own car...something Moze and Jorad would like to see the family have. \n\"Aqui. Para você. Pegar algo para comer. (Here. For you. Get something to eat)\", Sanchez said as he gave Moze and Jorad some money to get some breakfast with.\n\"Obrigado. (Thank you)\", said Jorad.\n\"Muito Obrigado. (Thank you much)\", Moze added.\nAs Sanchez drove to the metal shop to go to work, Moze and Jorad ordered some breakfast at the cafe', and keeped an ear open for anyone needing help that day. Rosie Hippo, a waitress at the cafe' who is a long time friend of the Meerkat Family, promised Moze and Jorad she would inquire around to the other customers that they were looking for work. Rosie also, like she has always done, gave Moze and Jorad their hot tea and a pastry for free.\nAs the meerkat brothers were finishing breakfast, Rosie came to their table with some good news.\n\"Moze. Jo-ad. Dois fotógafos de uma editowa. O equipamentos de câmera, Elees precisam de ajuda pa ca-egah. Um tabalho, voce pode teh hoje\" (Moze. Jorad. Two photographers from a publisher. The camera equipment, they need help to carry. A job, you can have today), Rosie told them in her usual non-rhotic dialect.\n\"Onde eles estão agora?\" (Where they are now?), Moze asked Rosie.\n\"Eesa doninhas e lonta, um cliente deesse pawa mim\" (That weasel and otter, a customer told to me), Rosie replied as she pointed out to Moze and Jorad, a weasel and an otter that a customer had told her about.\nMoze and Jorad thanked Rosie as the weasel and the otter approached their table.\nThe otter made an attempt to introduce himself in Portuguese, saying, \"Hello, Uh, I mean ola. Ola...Me, uh, Oliver Otter. Voce suricatos...uh...Voce tem algum traballo? Mucho, uh, muito, uh uh, mucho salario\".\nOh well, Oliver Otter did attempt to ask Moze and Jorad if they were looking for work with good pay? \nThe weasel made some progress when he corrected Oliver, telling him, \"Bloody 'ell anyway. It is not 'tem algum'. To say, search for work', it's said as, 'procura de trabalho...And it's 'trabalho', not 'traballo'...Now observe, Oliver. I'll show you how it's done\".\nThen the weasel attempted his introduction to Moze and Jorad, \"Soyou...uh...Sou Eu...uh uh uh...Eu Sou Vince Weasel. Por favor Eu...know...voce\", attempting to say 'pleased to know you' to Moze and Jorad, but it came over being understood as 'please, I in you'.\nFor a brief moment, Moze and Jorad looked at Vince Weasel and Oliver Otter like they were a couple of nuts.\n Then Moze said to the photographers, \"If English you can speak, so can we. Our Portuguese, I see you do not speak it well\", as Rosie Hippo giggled.\n\"Oh great! We are from the U.K.\", Vince Weasel affirmed. \"Yes. We do speak English\".\n\"Deh Englese, me too con speak\", Rosie informed Vince Weasel with a smile. \"You shoot of told to meh so\".\nVince Weasel and Oliver Otter introduced themselves as free lance photographers on assignment for a British magazine publisher (but this time in English). They said they would need help carrying photo equipment, and they were willing to pay very well. Vince Weasel even offered to treat Moze and Jorad to supper at the cafe' when they return to the village after work that evening.\nMoze and Jorad wasted no time accepting that offer as they paid their tab and were on their way.\nMoze and Jorad were really impressed by the brand new Mercedes T1 utility van the photographers had. It is very seldom the local animals ever see such a nice vehicle where they live, much less ever get the opportunity to actually ride in one. The van rode so quiet and smoothly, and had that new car smell, and had air conditioning that actually worked.\n\"Uau! This van. It makes cold air inside?\", Moze asked.\n\"It's what we call air conditioning\", Vince Weasel, who was driving, informed the meerkat brothers.\n\"Bloody 'ell anyway...Bet they never seen A/C before\", Oliver Otter said to Vince in a muffled tone.\n\"Such a thing we never knew before\", said Moze, after overhearing Oliver.\nJorad mentioned, \"The controls. The steering wheel. It is on the wrong side like some boters we see\".\nVince chuckled and said, \"We brought this van with us from the UK. All motor cars, lorries, coaches where we are from are this way, because everyone drives on the left side of the road there\".\nOliver then asked Jorad, \"I'm a bit curious if you don't mind my askin', but you mentioned boter. What is that?\".\n\"It is a car\", Jorad answered.\nMoze added, \"What you call the automobile, we call boter in our country\".\n\"Ohhhh\", Oliver replied. \nThe professional grade photo equipment was also something like the meerkats had never seen before. At the time, the last camera the Meerkat Family owned was a 1930 Lietz, 35 mm, that was brand new when Sanchez Genet and his brother, Obi, had stolen it when they were cubs 63 years ago (and were spanked good by their parents for it too). It had been nine years since the shutter wore out on that camera and quit working. On the way to the job site, a song played on the van's radio. And even though Vince had the radio turned down low so everyone could hold conversation, Moze and Jorad were really impressed with the van's quadraphonic sound system...The Meerkat brothers, like many other locals, have only heard radios with one mono speaker in the dash, like in the old cars they know that do have a working radio, much less quadraphonic. \nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxP2b3FuwV8 \n\"We're doing some shots of some of the majestic countryside you all have sixteen kilometers west of here\", Vince Weasel, who was driving, informed the meerkat brothers as they left the village heading west.\n\"All we need is help carrying our equipment up and down mountainsides\", Oliver Otter added. \"I'll tell you ahead of time, some of it is going to be really steep\".\n\"Where you are talking about, I know of\", said Moze.\n\"Moze, you seem to still be an adolescent...and Jorad...you're what...eleven, twelve?\", Vince Weasel began to ask.\n\"I am age ten\", Jorad answered.\n\"You can see our photo equipment\", Vince mentioned as the van continued to carry them down the narrow dirt road to their destination. \"Are you two sure you're up to it to be lugging this stuff?\"\n\"Many hard jobs we've done, and mountains we always walk up and down\", Jorad assured Vince. \"We are use to it\".\n\"This will certainly be an experience you can tell the other cubs about when school starts again\", Oliver Otter suggested.\n\"Nao. School, we do not go to\", Moze replied.\n\"Blimey! You don't go to school?\", Oliver asked in astonishment.\n\"Our dad. He has bad hips. For our dad to find work, it is difficult\", Moze answered.\n\"To help our family, it is up to us\", Jorad added.\n\"A cub not going to school in the UK where we are from would be absolutely absurd\", Vince Weasel added. \"Hasn't you're family applied for assistance...you know...welfare or something of that sort?\".\n\"Huh?\", Jorad responded.\n\"Well-fair? What is that?\", Moze asked.\nVince Weasel and Oliver Otter then explained to the meerkat brothers how social assistance programs work in developed countries such as the UK where they are from.\n\"That, they actually do?! Uau!\", Jorad asked surprisingly, still hardly believing what Vince and Oliver had just told them.\n\"Money, they give away? That, they really do? What you say to us, we do not have here\", Moze affirmed.\n\"Such a thing like that, I never heard of...NO one has\", Jorad added.\nVince Weasel and Oliver Otter had before heard of cubs in the workforce in 3rd world countries, and of cubs growing up to be illiterate. But actually witnessing it seemed to bring it to another level of reality. It was like an awakening to the phrase, 'welcome to the real world'.\nSo as they continued their ride, Vince and Oliver and the Meerkat Brothers exchanged stories of their experiences in the countries they live in, which both photographers and meerkats found to be intriguing. \nAt one point during the ride to the job site, Vince Weasel mentioned, \"I hear you all have been having trouble with the bloody rebel militias in this country. Is that something we need to keep an eye out for where we're going?\".\n\"Vince and I were concerned about that when we accepted this assignment\", Oliver Otter added.\n\"Here, for now, it has been peaceful.\", Moze assured Vince and Oliver. \"But in the southeast of the country, there you do not want to go. It is dangerous there\".\n\"East of here, there is much fighting with Unita\", Jorad added.\n\"Unita?\", Oliver asked.\n\"Unita guerrillas. They are the rebels\", Moze explained.\n\"And from Unita, there would be apartheid, our mom and dad said\", Jorad further added. \n\"Well...Thanks for the heads up about the southeast part of your country\", Vince told Moze and Jorad. \nAfter about 40 minutes of navigating along rural, winding, mountain, dirt road, they finally arrived to the job site.\n\"Here we are\", Vince Weasel said as he slowed down and steered the van off the road and across a large meadow which had a rocky creek.\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Lj-oKUG8Po\nBefore long, the photo equipment was set up and Vince and Oliver were getting photos of the meadow, distant mountains, exotic flowers, cliffs, and of bird's eye views from the cliff tops. Where they went, Moze and Jorad would carry their heavy, cumbersome equipment for them, and at times help them set it up in various locations, then take it back down to move to another spot. There were a few locations on the tops of cliffs where a 3+ meter (10 foot) pivotal boom assembly was set up to place a remote controlled camera on. The base of the boom was weighted down with sandbags, then the boom mounted camera was extended out beyond the cliff to obtain a view like you were in an aircraft. There was definitely some work involved in setting up that boom assembly, then dismantling it to move to another spot. \nThen they would go down the mountain side to get pictures of a creek with it's waterfalls that flowed over boulders covered with moss and ferns among the palm trees and palmettos.\nGoing back up the mountain, Vince Weasel and Oliver Otter would get worn out, But it didn't slow down Moze and Jorad that much. The meerkat brothers were use to walking up and down mountains.\nBy evening, Vince and Oliver got the photos they came to get, then it was time to pack up the van, see about getting Moze and Jorad paid, and go. And there was also that supper at the cafe' that Vince and Oliver had earlier promised Moze and Jorad once the job was done. \n\"We seem to have dropped an adapter somewhere\", Vince Weasel said as the last of the equipment was loaded into the van.\n\"We had it with us coming up the mountainside\", said Oliver Otter.\n\"Then it's somewhere here in the meadow. We all need to split up and look for it\", Vince Weasel announced.\nShortly after everyone began walking around the meadow in search for the adapter, Vince Weasel said to Oliver Otter, \"Oliver, go look in the van. It may have been misplaced in the van\".\nAfter Oliver got into the van, he called to Vince Weasel, \"Blimey, Vince, you need to come see this\".\n\"Keep looking for that adapter. We need to find the bloody thing\", Vince said to Moze and Jorad as he went to the van, and the meerkats continued looking in the meadow for the adapter.\n>Rur-rur-rur VERRROOOOOMMM<, the van sounded off, and Vince Weasel and Oliver Otter speed off in the van across the meadow then speed away down the dirt road heading west, without Moze and Jorad being paid for their day's labor. \nIt was then, Moze and Jorad figured out there was no missing adapter. They both knew then they were played for a couple of suckers.\n\"Cabeças de merda! Eles planejaram isso desta forma! SO!\" (Shitheads! They planned it this way! {'SO' being a dynamic expression}), Jorad retorted.\n\"Nós nunca vê-los novamente, eles fariam bem em esperança\" (We never see them again, they would do good to hope), Moze said as the sound of the departing van can be heard fading in the distance.\n\n[hugethumb]1263687[/hugethumb]\n\nThe only thing left to do was to begin the 16 kilometer walk back east to the village...And they were nowhere near home. Home was east, not west, of the village.\nIt was already nightfall by the time Moze and Jorad reached the village. Sanchez Genet had been waiting up for Moze and Jorad since he got off from work at the metal shop.\nMoze and Jorad were relieved to see Sanchez still sitting in his car parked in front of the cafe', which had closed for the night a short while earlier. Before Moze and Jorad discovered that Sanchez had waited up for them, they were beginning to think they were going to have yet another hour of walking before they were to get home that night.\nWhen Moze and Jorad told Sanchez what the photographers had pulled on them, Sanchez told them, \"O que eles fazem contra você, para eles essa coisa vai acontecer também. Se uma semente ruim que você planta, uma coisa ruim voce vou colhe\" (What they do to you, for them this thing will happen too. If a bad seed you plant, a bad thing you will reap.).\nDuring the ride to take Moze and Jorad back home, Sanchez told the brothers of how that had once happened to him before he got a permanent job at the metal fabrication shop. Sanchez also told Moze and Jorad of how their Great Granddad Dominique Meerkat had been cheated out of a days pay on two occasions when he was younger. It's like when it happens, what can you do?\nSanchez also advised the brothers that it is good when ever local businesses need help, such as the railway depot, the cafe' the thrift stores, the clinic, the car parts yard, or the metal fabrication shop. He told them that they will not cheat someone out of their pay like outsiders passing through could do. \nBack at the house, Bron and Lacara were a bit agitated over two swindling scoundrels cheating two of their sons, ages 10 and 14, out of a hard earned day's pay...especially being as poor as the family is. The only thing they could do was assure Moze and Jorad that it does happen, but fortunately it doesn't happen often.\nDays later, when Waitress Rosie Hippo at the village cafe' heard about what the two photographers pulled on Moze and Jorad, she swore that if they were ever in the cafe' again, she would know an otter and a weasel who will get hot coffee...\"accidentally\"...spilled in their laps and all over their genitalia.\n\"O que eles fazem contra os meus amigos, eles também fazem isso para Rosie\" (What they do against my friends, they also do it to Rosie), Rosie Hippo said.\n\nIt was also in that year of 1993 that Sanchez and Obi Genet's mom, Kubria, passed away in her sleep during the night of October 3rd...two days after she celebrated her 102nd birthday.\n\n[hugethumb]1111551[/hugethumb]\n\nAlthough Sanchez and Obi, then ages 74 and 76, took their mom's death pretty hard, they did realize how old she was...And at age 102, how much longer could Mom have lived?\nKubria's body was taken aboard her younger son's old Wartburg station wagon to the cummunity worship center on the north edge of the village, where funeral services were to be conducted by Pastor Sy Aardwolf...With Sanchez Genet's wife Naomi riding on the front seat beside him, it was the most sorrowful drive along that old dirt road Sanchez had ever taken in that old car of his.\nThere was no big, long, gloss black, shiny, Cadillac herse...There was no marticulously ornate funeral parlor...There was no embalming...There was no undertaker...There was no autopsy...The casket was home made...Overnight was at home with the family for the last time, instead of in a morgue...There was no death certificate...There had not even been a birth certificate issued back in 1891...In that part of Angola, those things did not exist...In fact, many animals in that part of the country would not have known what those things were even if you tried to explain it to them.\nIn that homeland, when you are born, and when you die, everyone knows who you are anyway, so no one worries about \"certificates\"...And when you die, your family and church sees to the needs of your funeral arangements. \nAfter Sy Aardwolf concluded the funeral service, the body of Kabria Genet was laid to rest in the cematery adjacent to the community worship center. Kubria's late husband, Ajamu, had not been burried there though. At the time Ajamu died in 1966 fighting in Angola's colonial war for independence against Portugal, the Genet Family lived near Menongue far to the north, thus that is where Ajamu Genet was burried.\n\nToward the end of 1993, when Cheesah was a year and a half old, he had his moment of seeing \"Piu-piu Pequeno\" (Little Pee-pee) stick his head out for the first time. It was in the evening when everyone was at home. It was just before nightfall, and the coal oil lamps and lanterns located around the house had already been lit. Mom had a pan of water on the wood stove under the porch overhang to make tea for everyone. Bron and Moze had a homemade checkerboard, that was marked out on an old piece of cardboard, on the old, ragged, living room table, and had a game of checkers going with 12 nuts and 12 washers for game pieces. Cheesah came walking in from the bedroom, hiding his genitalia with both paws. \nMoze asked, \"Cheesah, o que voce esta querendo?\" (Cheesah, what are you up to?).\n\"PIU-PIU VER VOCE!\" (Pee-pee sees you!), Cheesah loudly proclaimed as he suddenly moved his paws away, and his hard little penis went >BOING<, and stuck it's head up so proudly.\nBron and Moze laughed as Cheesah laughed along with his little penis poking it's head out.\nThen there was that buttered popcorn smell, typical of the genitalia sex scent of those kind of animals. But on Cheesah, it is very pungently strong.\n\"Ah. Piu-piu fedido\" (Oh. Stinky pee-pee), Moze made the observation as he and Dad laughed.\nCheesah thrusted his pelvic out forward with little meerkat pee-pee extended way out there, and said, \"Piu-piu diz Ola\" (Pee-pee says Hello), as everyone laughed.\n\"Eu sei que ele diz\" (I know he says), Moze laughed, \"Por ele fedor\" (By his stink).\n\"Meu piu-piu fedido?\" (My pee-pee stinky?), Cheesah asked.\n\"Natureza abencoada seu piu-piu, meu filho\" (Nature has blessed your pee-pee, my son), Bron assured Cheesah.\nWith that said, Cheesah joyfully trotted out to the carport like, porch area where Jorad and Zhang were playing with the toy car their late great granddad Dominique had bought for the cubs 8 years ago.\nWhen Cheesah, again hiding his penis with his paws, got the attention of Jorad and Zhang, he suddenly reveled his penis, and exuberantly proclaimed, \"PIU-PIU VER VOCE!\".\nThe brothers thought it was so cute and funny, they rolled laughing. \n\"Ele e piu-piu FEDIDO\" (He's a STINKY pee-pee), Jorad said as he could smell Cheesah's strong sex scent.\nThey could also hear Moze and Dad laughing from the living room, and Mom asking from the kitchen what the laughter was all about.\nThen Jorad's big headed, meerkat penis poked out with an erection.\n\"Meu piu-piu ver SEU piu-piu\" (My pee-pee sees YOUR pee-pee), Cheesah giggled to his brother Jorad as both of their penises were sticking out.\n\"Sim. Ele fazer\" (Yes. He does), Jorad chuckled back to Cheesah.\n\"Meu piu-piu tambem\" (My pee-pee too), Zhang added as his penis was also poking out erect, making it three meerkat cub penises sticking their heads out of sheath as though the penises were having a pee-pee convention.\nCheesah then joyfully scampered back indoors, and through the living room, past Bron and Moze, and into the kitchen to go show it to Momma...with his penis still poking it's head out, as though little pee-pee was leading the way where ever Cheesah ran through the house.\nAs Lacara was filling a tea infuser with tea leaves, Cheesah called out, \"Mamae! Mamae!\", as he stood on the dirt, kitchen floor, with his paws hiding his penis.\nWhen Lacara turned and looked, she got a laugh as Cheesah dragged his paws downward, his penis springing up, >BOING<, from behind the paws, and Cheesah proclaiming, \"PIU-PIU VER VOCE!\"\nThen Lacara pretended to talk to Cheesah's penis to amuse Cheesah, saying, \"Veso que voce tambem. Voce o piu-piu bonitinha\" (I see you too. You're a cute pee-pee).\nAfter Cheesah finished giggling, he pointed to Mom's pussy, and asked, \"As femeas tem um piu-piu?\" (Do females have a pee-pee?).\nCheesah had many times noticed pussies on females before.\n\"Nossa buceta E o piu-piu\" (Our pussy IS the pee-pee), Lacara assured her son Cheesah.\n\"UAAAAAU\" (WOOOOOW), Cheesah expressed with amazement as his little pee-pee was still sticking his head way out erect.\nThen Cheesah told his mom, \"Mamae...Piu-piu diz Ola a buceta de mamae\" (Momma...Pee-pee says Hello to momma's pussy).\nLacara laughed, and replied to her son, \"Buceta tambem diz Ola a Piu-piu de meu filho\" (Pussy also says Hello to Pee-pee of my son).\nCheesah then went into the living room and took a seat on the sofa next to Moze and Dad playing checkers. And Mom brought in some hot tea from the kitchen for everyone as Jorad and Zhang came in to also have tea.\nCheesah's little pee-pee was still sticking it's head out, and upward, and proud as he sat on the sofa with his cup of tea.\nBron advised Cheesah to be careful not to spill any hot tea on that newely discovered penis of his.\nBecause Cheesah's penis permeated the living room with his strong, pungent sex scent, the curtains in the windows were pulled aside to air out the house (Windows have no glass. The curtains are the windows).\nAt bedtime, the lamps and lanterns are extinguished, except for a lantern that hangs from the bedroom ceiling, and a coal oil lamp on the living room bureau. And they are both turned down low.\nAnd being that the only dirt floor bedroom the house has is shared by all family members, everyone could tell by the smell when Cheesah's little stinker pee-pee stuck it's head out...After all, because this was the first night Cheesah's pee-pee stuck his head out to have a look at the world, little pee-pee was often wide awake all night that night. \nCheesah's penis looks about identical to the penis his older brother Zhang has. \n[largethumb]881908,12[/largethumb] [largethumb]881908,11[/largethumb]\n\nIt was New Year's Day of 1994, and there was the usual gathering at Perto O Trilhos Licore e Vinho (Near the Tracks Liquor and Wine)...Many of the local males who did partake of 'strong drink' would chip in on a bottle or two of rum from Kagiso Genet to pass around among themselves...The more who showed up at the gathering meant the sale of more rum. And although the locals for the most part were financially poor, it has been said, 'When times are either prosperous or poor, booze will always sell'.\n[hugethumb]1262356,3[/hugethumb]\n[hugethumb]1262356,4[/hugethumb]\n\nHowever, not everyone celebrated New Year's Day in that way...especially those with families. On New Years Day of 1994, Lacar's mom and dad, Zeth and Mylah invited family and friends over to their place for a get-together. Zeth and Mylah were the only family members who had a car, so they provided the transportation. The meerkat cub's Aunt Beth and their Uncle Amos and his wife Aunt Lubaya were also there, with cousins Sengo (M), Jatoo (M) and Nantale (F). Great Grandma Gloria was there minding other cubs for friends of the family. And Sanchez Genet with some of his relatives were also invited as close friends of the family, among of who were Zhang's friend Ojo Genet, his sister Janina and cousin Shemsa. \nThere was cold tea, cooled in a creek spring not far from the house, bugs with rice, fish, nuts and berries, and Mylah had baked a cake. Most of the cubs who were there, including Moze, Jorad, Zhang and Cheeash, had never seen a cake before, and they had thought Mylah was baking some bread. But once the icing was on the cake, and it was served, the cubs really liked it.\nMost of the cubs went outside to have a cricket game, those of which being Jorad, Zhang, Ojo, Janina, Shemsa, Jatoo, Nantale and several of the recently introduced cubs Gloria was minding. An old board made a good cricket paddle, and a mango pit was used for a cricket ball, and the cubs had a great time.\nThere was one slight mishap however. It was when Jorad pitched the mango pit cricket ball to Ojo who was up at bat. Ojo smacked the mango pit - or rather, cricket ball good and hard and really sent it flying...right into the driver's side vent glass of that old Rekord Olympia wagon owned by Granddad Zeth and Grandma Mylah, that Dominique left to them years ago. The vent glass was broken, but because cars were not equipped with tempered glass when that car was built, the glass cracked into larger pieces and did not fall out. \nThose cubs who were involved in the game were called into the house to sit an hour of time out. Then they were given a good lecture and told the next time it happens, the cricket paddle will be use for a paddle, but not as a cricket paddle. When the cubs resumed their cricket game, this time it was further from the house and cars.\nThe vent glass was repaired with some duct tape on both sides, so the pieces of glass would never fall out.\nZeth and Mylah didn't have any duct tape at their house, but Sanchez Genet was able to spare some duct tape that was used to seal up the edges of that wooden cargo floor that was built in his old Wartburg station wagon.\n\nThere would be times Moze, Jorad and Zhang would tease Cheesah about the way his penis gave off that pungent sex scent. Early in 1994, the older brothers invented a nick named a phrase for Cheesah that went, \"Cheesah esta besta de pipoca\" (Cheesah is beast of popcorn). The sex scent of those kind of animals smells like buttered popcorn, and when it is said in Portuguese, it does have a jingle to it.\nCheesah would always get mad at his brothers for it, and would retort, Nao rir de meu piu-piu!\" (Don't laugh at my pee-pee!).\nThere were times Bron and Lacara would get onto the older sons about it, but occasionally, Cheesah would still be teased about that.\nSometimes Cheesah would think he was being teased, then accuse one of the older brothers of it. Like the time the potty shanty needed to be re-roofed. Bron, Moze and Zhang were in the village getting what work they could get for that day, so that left Jorad, then age 11 to re-roof the potty shanty, with Cheesah, then 2 years old, to assist him. The potty shanty was a small \"A\" frame structure roofed with palm and palmetto fronds, which were tied to the stick framing with vines...It's where the family members go to poop and pee. \nJorad could not reach the top of the shanty, so Cheesah would stand on Jorad's shoulders and tie in the upper roofing fronds as Jorad would instruct him.\nWhile Cheesah was standing on Jorad's shoulders, tying the upper fronds in place, Cheesah's little pee-pee got a hard-on and stuck all the way out of sheath, just over brother Jorad's head, and - WOW - little Cheesah Meerkat pee-pee was really stinky like buttered popcorn that day.\n\"AHHH! Cheesah! Get seu Piu-piu back in sheath! E fedido!\" (...Is stinky!), Jorad complained to Cheesah as he was looking up at the bottom of his cub brother's hard penis.\n\"Esta rindo meu piu-piu? SO!\" (Are you laughing at my pee-pee?) Cheesah scorned.\n'SO!' is a dynamic expression used in Angola.\n\"Nao. Eu sou aquele que e cheira-lo\" (No. I am the one who smells it), Jorad protested.\nThe situation was soon remedied by Jorad and Cheesah walking around in the cool creek for a few minutes where the water came up to Cheesah's waist...A penis in cold water calms down and goes back in, and a meerkat male's penis is no exception. Once Cheesah's little stinky penis was flaccid and back in sheath, he and his older brother finished the re-roofing job on the potty shanty.\n\n Shortly after nightfall one warm evening in the month of March in 1994, there was a thunderstorm approaching from the west. The storm was about a half hour away as the family was sitting at the kitchen table, having nuts and berries and hot tea. And looking out from the doorway that leads outside to the porch overhang where the cooking stove is, clouds can be seen flashing with lightning above the horizon in the night sky, although thunder could not yet be heard. However, the night breezes had already began blowing that usually herald the approach of a big storm.\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7ifNaY8N2s \nBy the time the family bedded down for the night, the storm was close enough for thunder to be heard as the smell of fresh rain was already in the air. The coal oil lamps and lanterns were extinguished, except for the lantern that hangs from the bedroom ceiling, and the coal oil lamp on the living room bureau. The family usually sleeps cuddled up together on a spread of blankets on the dirt floor of the bedroom (There is no bed like the developed countries know. The blankets on the floor is the bed), but on this night, the cubs bedded down on a separate spread of blankets, away from Mom and Dad. That was because Bron and Lacara were wanting to have sex, thus the cubs would sleep where they are out of the way. It was no big tabu for the cubs to be in the same room when Mom and Dad are having sex. There is only one bedroom in the house for everyone to share, and the cubs have seen Mom and Dad having sex many times before.\nBy the time the storm had hit and was raging outside with lightning, thunder, hard wind and pounding rain, Bron and Lacara were at it having sex, really loving on each other and feeling so good...By now Bron's meerkat penis was really deep into Lacara's meerkat pussy, as they were hugging, kissing and telling each other, \"Hmm...Amo-te\" (Hmm...I love you).\nAs the storm raged outside, and Mom and Dad continued having sex, the brothers were cuddled up in a huddle in the other side of the bedroom. As they laid on their spread of blankets, they would occasionally peek back at Mom and Dad, then smile and whisper funny things to each other like they sometimes do.\nThe brothers giggled as Moze whispered to them, \"Este, será um irmão ou uma irma?\" (This, be a brother or a sister?)\nAbout that time a 'hot cell' of lightning activity in the storm passed overhead with lots of lightning and thunder-bangs, striking really close, and lighting up the windows bright blue as though it were day time. There would be a bright flash - boom. A closer bright flash - bang. A distant bright flash - - boom rumble. Then a close one - BANG.....A REALLY CLOSE ONE - B A N G. That one struck 50 meters from the house. The cubs were so frightened, they jumped up and piled in with Mom and Dad. \n\"Estamos seguros em ó casa\" (We are safe in the house), Lacara assured the cubs as Bron Meerkat pulled his penis out of his wife's pussy. \nThen again, BRIGHT BLUE FLASH - BANG. Then the cubs snuggled even closer to their Mom and Dad.\n\"Nossos suricatos são gatos assustados\" (Our meerkats are scaredy cats), Bron said as he and Lacara laughed while Bron's penis went back flaccid and slipped back into sheath.\nDuring the storm, the cubs felt more secure snuggled up to Mom and Dad. There were always other nights Bron and Lacara could have sex, so the family slept cuddled together on that stormy night.\n\nDuring the following month of April, there was big fish, probably about 10 pounds or so, that would occasionally come into a wide pool in the creek in the wooded area behind the house. That time of the year was when they got the heaviest rains, thus the creek and pool were swollen, which meant that big fish would be around a while...So for weeks, the brothers had been trying to catch it with a stick and a length of builder's twine for a pole and line, with a homemade hook fashioned from a small nail, and grass hoppers for bait...all of which was to no avail as they never could catch that fish.\nOne day, while Bron and Moze were working in the village, Jorad, Zhang and Cheesah were at home, out in the woods collecting bugs to be cooked up with some rice for dinner that evening. Near the creek, the brothers saw that the fish had returned to the creek pool. Zhang made the suggestion of getting their homemade fishing rig from the house and have another go at catching that fish. Jorad agreed on the idea, so Jarod picked up the box of bugs, and he and Zhang headed back to the house with little Cheesah tagging behind.\n\"O peixe é aqui! O peixe é aqui!\" (The fish is here! The fish is here!), Jorad announced to Lacara as he placed the bug box on the kitchen counter, and as Zhang started toward the tree supported shed to get the fishing rig.\nLacara called Zhang back from the shed, then told her sons, \"Hoje teremos peixe\" (Today, we will have fish).\nThen she had them follow her into the living room. In the top draw of that old, light blue, ragged, living room bureau is where the guns are kept...Even though Angola has no constitutional guarantee of the freedom to own firearms, there were no laws prohibiting anyone from having them...or at least no one was aware any such laws existed.\n\"With this, we will get the fish. This will not fail\", Lacara told her sons as she got out the old, G3A3 Portuguese war rifle that her dad, Zeth had given her, then loaded three rounds...more than one in case there was a miss. \n\"Esto armas. Nao dar ista a Zhang ou Cheesah. Isto nao e um brinquedo. VOCE usa-lo\" (This gun. Do not give this to Zhang or Cheesah. This is not a toy. YOU use it), Lacara instructed Jorad being the oldest of the three as she pawed the loaded rifle over to him.\nLacara also reminded Jorad to always be careful how he carries a gun, and where where he points it. And she also instructed Zhang and Cheesah to stay behind their brother until they are sure he is not going to fire anymore rounds, reminding her sons, \"O gatilho, quando você puxa-lo, a municao você não pode parar.\" (The trigger, when you pull it, the bullet you can not stop).\nAs Lacara sent the cubs to go get the fish, she told Jorad, \"O peixe. Não atire no meio do peixe. Que é a carne. O cabeça voce atire\" (The fish. Do not shoot the middle of the fish. That is the meat. The head you shoot).\nSeven minutes later, Lacara heard >POW<. Then a 2nd >POW<, this time followed by the cubs cheering...she knew then, they finally got the fish. An sure enough, several minutes later, the cubs returned to the house, Jorad carrying the rifle, Zhang carrying the fish with most of it's head blown off, and Cheesah tagging along behind.\n\"Esta noite nos comer peixe. Estou muito orgulhoso dos meus filhos\" (This night, we eat fish. I am very proud of my cubs), Lacara praised her sons as she took the fish to the kitchen to begin to prepare it. Then she instructed Cheesah to turn the bugs loose so they don't die and spoil, then instructed the cubs what was not going to be cooked of the fish that day was to be cured so it would keep for other meals. \nAs Jorad and Zhang cleaned the rifle to be put back away, they enjoyed the aroma of the cooking fish, as they were ever so anxious for it to be ready. When Bron and Moze returned home from the village that evening, they too, expressed their pride in the younger cubs for getting that fish. During the family get-together almost three months earlier was the last time the family had fish to eat, but that night, the family had fish for dinner.\n\nEarly in May of 1994 (only a few days after Zhang's 8th birthday), the creek was still cloudy from the heavy April rains the month before. Because of past rain run-off, the only drinking water the family had access to, which was the creek, was at that time clouded with wash-off sediments. As a result of drinking the cloudy water, Cheesah had contacted an intestinal parasite. This was evident from Cheesah experiencing unexplained abdominal cramps and abdominal swelling. Bron and Lacara pretty well knew what it was, being that other animals getting those kind of parasites in sediment stirred drinking water was fairly common in that part of the country.\nEarly the following morning, Bron and Lacara sent the two oldest sons Moze and Jorad to walk to Sanchez Genet's house to explain Cheesah's situation, and that they needed a ride to the medical clinic in the village.\nA couple of hours after Moze and Jorad set out to Sanchez Genet's house, Bron and Lacara, as well as Cheesah and Zhang, could the that unmistakable, two stroke engine sound of Sanchez Genet's, old, Wartburg station wagon approaching along the dirt road. And within a minute or so, Sanchez, Moze and Jorad were riding up to the house. It was then, Bron, Lacara and Cheesah got into the car for Sanchez to take Cheesah and them to the clinic...Moze, Jorad and Zhang stayed at the house as seven animals in that old Wartburg wagon would have made quite a crowd.\nAt the clinic, it didn't take long for Dr. Kanye Civet to identify what kind of intestinal parasites Cheesah had. Dr. Civet then issued some Flumoxal for Cheesah to take, which would disable the parasites ability to resist being digested, thus Cheesah's digestive system can destroy the parasites...There were no pharmacies in that part of the country. Medication was always issued directly by the doctor.\nWithin a week, Cheesah's parasites were cleared up and gone, and by June the abdominal swelling had gone back down to normal...And coincidentally, the heavy rains were over by June and the water was clear and safe to drink again.\n \nLater in 1994, Great Grandma Gloria had passed away in her sleep during the night. At the time, she had been living in with her Son, Zeth, and her daughter-in-law, Mylah. \nIt was Mylah who found Gloria passed away shortly after dawn. Being it was a natural death, no autopsy was performed. However, autopsies are almost unheard of anyway, and considering that Gloria Meerkat had a recent history of symptoms associated with heart problems, the doctor at the village hospital concluded that she may have passed away from a heart seizure.\nGloria was missed by the family and by friends very much. She was laid to rest beside the grave of her late husband, Dominique, in the cemetery of the community worship center in the village.\n\nChristmas and New Year's Day is in the summer in Angola because of being in the Southern Hemisphere.\nOn a warm summer day, about a week before Christmas of 1994, Jorad Meerkat, then age 11, and his female meerkat friend, Kelila, then age 12, had met in the village. Both had walked from their homes, Jorad two miles from the East Road to look for temporary work, and Kelila a mile and a half from the South Road with a burlap sac to purchase a few staple items for her parents. \nBut the two young meerkats delayed their plans they originally had for coming the village. Jorad and Kalila were just about entering adolescence, and already been having certain feelings for each other for some time. And Jorad and Kalila being from households with only one bedroom shared by their families, they've both seen their parents having sex many times before...Jorad and Kalila had been wanting to try what they see Mom and Dad do...find out what it's like...experience that wonderful thing called \"sexo\" (sex). Even though Bron and Lacara had advised Jorad to be patient until he is a bit older, and Kalila's parents had advised her the same, that \"urge to merge\" can get pretty strong. \n\"Eu sie de um lugar\" (I know of a place), Jorad told Kalila. \"Uma mancha de grama. Longe da aldeia e fora da estrada\" (A patch of grass. Away from the village and off the road).\nSo Jorad and Kalila decided to walk down one of the dirt streets leading out of the village until it becomes the rural, dirt road that Jorad had mentioned.\nUpon Jorad and Kalila arriving to a wooded area back off the road where the grassy spot is, the two young meerkats hugged each other, and it didn't take long for Jorad's penis to get fully hard and poke all the way out. Jorad was the brother out of the four brothers who had the pee-pee with the big, squeezy head which possessed a big corona, which Kalila was always 'turned on' by it, and found to be so cute.\nJust before they stepped out of view of the dirt road and into the thickly wooded area, Kalila reached over and gave that big headed pee-pee of Jorad's a gentle head squeeze.\n\"Aww, bonitinho xi-xi. Sua grande cabeca, eu amo. Muito sensual\", Kalila said as she squeezed Jorad Meerkat's pee-pee's big head. (Aww, cute pee-pee. Your big head, I love. Very sexy).\nJorad let out a giggle as his penis quickly 'boinged' upward, popping it's big head out from Kalila's paw. \n\"Sim. Ele gosta disso\" (Yes. He likes that), said Jorad.\nJorad promptly returned the favor by rubbing his paw into the clef of Kalila's pussy and squishing the outer halves of her pussy around. \n\"OOOOO, SIM!\" (OOOOO, YEA!), Kalila let out in a rush of sexual excitement.\nBut the foreplay didn't last all that long. Jorad and Kalila soon found their way further into the woods and brush, where it didn't take them long to find that grassy spot Jorad told Kalila about, then began getting down to it. They went timidly to begin with, as the nose point of Jorad's penis was nuzzling up and down along the clef of Kalila's pussy, it being their first time. But it wasn't long before Jorad's penis got it's big head parting the halves of Kalila's pussy aside from each other, followed by Pee-pee's big corona disappearing into that pussy, then Pee-pee's shank shoving it's big head deeper in. That's when Jorad gave it a thrust, shoving Pee-pee's big head in as far as it can go, then the two young meerkats went at having sex like they were long time married pros at it.\nEven though Jorad was still too young to discharge cum, and Kalila was still too young to emit a vaginal discharge, the experience for the both of them was nothing less than incredibly awesome. This was something like they NEVER had before. \nAfter they were done, Jorad asked Kalila, \"Se voce esta gravida agora. nossos pais. O que vamos dizer a eles?\" (If you are pregnant now. Our parents. What do we say to them?) ...like after already having sex is the time to be thinking about that.\nBut Kalila assured Jorad, \"Para que isso aconteca, nos somos muito jovens\" (For that to happen, we are too young) telling Jorad about her her parents once told her that cubs their age are still to young to conceive cubs.\nWhen Kalila returned to the village to pick up some items for her mom, and Jorad returned to the village to find work for that day, Jorad and Kalila were two very happy meerkat, adolescent cubs.\nThere were days Jorad and Kalila would meet again at that grassy spot to have sex together. On a few occasions, the two young meerkats spent about 20 minutes in the '69' position, examining and playing with each others genitalia before having sex. There was one time while Jorad and Kalila were having sex, that it felt like Jorad's penis wanted to puke cum in Kalila's vagina. But at Jorad's young age, his penis could only do a dry heave instead of spewing forth cum...But it still felt sooooo erotically wonderful.\nJorad and Kalila's affair had always been their little secret until one morning late in January 1995, older brother Moze, then about to turn age 16, was walking to the village to find work. Shortly before Moze was to arrive to the village, he heard something in the bushes, then walked off the road to go check it out. That's when Moze Meerkat saw younger brother Jorad fucking on Kalila as they were both were having a grand time.\n\"Meu irmao jovem. Voce e muito feliz.\" (My young brother. You are very happy), Moze announced, seeming like he suddenly appeared out of nowhere. \nWhen Jorad and Kalila noticed Moze looking and chuckling at them, it seemed it was going to be \"cat's out of the bag now\".\n\"Oh! Uh!\", Jorad exclaimed as he quickly pulled his hard, big headed penis out of Kalila's pussy.\nIf dicks could talk, Jorad's penis, still sticking all the way out and proudly displaying it's big, pointy nose head with it's big corona, would probably say, \"Nos fomos pegos\" (We got caught). \nKalila didn't have anything to say.\nBut Moze, being two months away from turning 16, admitted to Jorad and Kalila that he himself had also been getting intimate with his female friend, Leia....Apple don't fall far from the tree, does it?\n\"Se eu apontar um dedo para você, três ponto de volta para mim\" (If I point a finger at you, three point back to me), Moze told his younger brother, as Kalila and the brothers chuckled.\nThe parable of the three fingers pointing back was something Moze and Jorad remembered Sy Aardwolf preaching on about a year earlier, in a sermon titled, 'Quando você é rápido para apontar para os outros, três dedos estão apontando para você' (When you are quick to point to others, three fingers are pointing at you)...It was about gossiping on, condemning and judging others.\nMoze then promised his younger brother, \"Se voce nao dizer, Eu nao vou dizer\" (If you do not say, I will not say)...which was a big relief to Jorad and Kalila.\n\nAbout three and a half months later, on a Sunday morning in April of 1995, Pastor Sy Aardwolf preached a sermon titled, \"Se alguém pode vender-lhe o mundo e tudo nele. E isso só custa a sua alma. Você faria o acordo?\" (If someone can sell you the world and everything in it. And it only costs your soul. Would you make the deal?).\nSy Aardwolf's sermon was grinding on little 12 year old Jorad so bad he couldn't stand it...and after several years of Bron and Lacara, and older brother Moze, occasionally trying to persuade Jorad to get that Eternity matter settled, Jorad, in tears, finally got up off his chair and went down to the alter. After Sy Aardwolf led Jorad in prayer, Bron and Lacara asked if Zhang go on down with his brother...Sy noticing that, even tried to encourage Zhang to come down. But Zhang, just going on age 9 at the time, seemed too shy to do so, so never yet made that decision...As for Cheesah, he was still not yet at that 'age of accountability' to where he would understand what it was all about.\nIn the days to follow, it would seem like that relationship Jorad had with Kalila would not continue as it was...But sometimes the desires of the flesh can be a strong thing, and there were a few times temptation would get Jorad and Kalila to give in to it. \nBy the following Sunday, Jorad and Kalila hit on an seemingly good solution for their little love affair...It involved Kalila coming to church with Jorad and his family, although Kalila's family didn't care to come along. During the services Jorad now felt that feeling of being in good keeping, instead of any longer being spooked when Sy preached about lost souls and Eternity. After the Sunday morning service was over, Jorad said to his parents he wanted to stay around the village a while, and he'd go ahead and walk home. So after Bron, Lacara, Moze, Zhang and Cheesah rode back home with Zeth and Mylah, it was time to put that wonderful plan of solution into action...As Sy Aardwolf was about to get into his work truck with his wife and son, Jorad and Kalila approached Sy.\n\"Pregador Sy\" (Pastor Sy), Jorad called out. \n\"O que você precisa, Jorad?\" (What do you need, Jorad?), Sy asked.\n\"Eu e Kalila. Queremos nos casar\" (Me and Kalila. We want to get married), Jorad answered.\n\"Sim. Por favor\" (Yes. Please), Kalila added.\nThe two meerkat youths had thought along the lines of, Wow...This way, the relationship would be okay.\nIn the truck, Sy and Zella's son, Hilraldo, began to chuckle.\n\"Não. Não\" ( No. No.), Zella told Hilraldo, telling him not to be laughing.\n\"Não. Eu não posso. Isso não vou fazer. Ambos de voce são apenas filhotes\" (No. I can not. I will not do that. Both of you are only cubs), Sy adamantly affirmed. \nJorad and Kalila still pleaded with Sy to get them married, but at their age, the answer was still, \"Não\".\nSy then asked, \"Kalila ... Estou correto?\", (Kalila...Am I correct?)\nKalila acknowledged.\n\"Qual a sua idade?\" (What is your age?), Sy asked Kalila.\n\"Treze, Senhor\" (Thirteen, Sir), Kalila answered.\nSy, already knowing Jorad's age, explained, it would be only six years before they would both be adults, and in six years, he would be more than happy to conduct a marriage service for them.\nAs Sy got in the truck to leave, he suspected what had been going on between Jorad and Kalila, and that they were trying to find a justified way to keep their cub sex relationship going.\nAs for Jorad and Kilila, it was like...Oh well. They tried.\n\nAlso during about that time, animals in the village, especially at the cafe', were still talking about the peace treaty UNITA and MPLA had agreed to, the Lusaka Protocol Peace Accord. The first members of the family to hear about it were Moze and Jorad, on one of the days they had gone to the village looking for work. When the rest of the family heard about the peace accord from Moze and Jorad, upon them returning home the evening they heard of it, the family was optimistic that this could finally mean the end of the civil war that had been going off and on for what had been then 19 years. But the hope for the end of the war wasn't long lived. Many of the local animals had already been for some time hearing about tensions again arising between UNITA and MPLA, and rumors of a collapse of the peace agreement. \nIn the following year, 1995, those rumors had proved true of a collapse of the Lusaka Peace Accord. And it wasn't long after that, UNITA was again at war against the nation's government.\n \n[hugethumb]1184803[/hugethumb]\nThe War\n\nOne winter morning, late in the month of June of 1995 (Southern Hemisphere, but still near the Equator), when Zhang was age 9, the homeland was invaded by UNITA guerrilla fighters from a region of the country in the mountains to the north, as well as some from the southeast corner of the country which was still mostly UNITA controlled. The invaders consisted of various civet species, colobus monkeys, galagos, and miscellaneous other species including pangolins, and they were leaving no survivors in their wake. Months earlier, there had been a peace accord (the Lusaka Protocol) agreed to among several separatist movements who fought against Portugal for Angola's independence, but that peace accord had collapsed. Since Angola's independence in 1974-75, there had been 20 years of power struggle, which had been an ongoing series of civil war fighting waged against the MPLA government by those loyal to UNITA. That movement was fully intent on seizing control of the country, and it wasn't long before the invaders were joined by forces from Cabinda, a small country to the north that was not at that time recognized by the UN as a legitimate country. As it already was, the UNITA had in years past, with the help of what had been apartheid South Africa, controlled territory far to the east around Mavinga and Jamba. However, the UNITA invaders could no longer rely on South Africa as the ally they had in past years, as that country had pulled out of Namibia years earlier and had issues of their own abolishing their apartheid rule. \nBut in spite of South African troops being out of the picture, the rebel insurgency still had the homeland in the Province of Cunene where the Meerkat Family lived badly outnumbered and desperately needing everyone, regardless of gender, health condition or age, who can hold and fire a weapon. And no one in the that part of the country could rely on much protection from the country's military...The military was doing all it can do to defend the rest of the country. So the need for those who can fight meant owners of businesses had to cut back on business hours, including some closing up shop for days at a time, to go fight. And cubs who were going to school had to pull out of school, along with their teachers and school masters, to go fight in the war. Even the leaders and law enforcement officers of towns, leaders of provinces as well as the leaders of the country along with other elected officials picked up weapons to go fight. \"Everyone who can hold and fire a weapon\" meant \"everyone who can hold and fire a weapon\", with only few special exceptions.\n\n[hugethumb]1114333[/hugethumb]\n\nThe animals of the community were determined that UNITA's attempt at separatism and dismemberment of the territory of the homeland would be vigorously combated.\nEven the few animals in the village who were descendants of several generations of Portuguese colonialists pledged to help fight against the UNITA rebels...Among them were Angelo and Erica D'Cruz Hound who were the Portuguese Estrela mountain dog couple who owned the local grocery store.\nhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estrela_Mountain_Dog#/media/File:Estrela_Mountain_Dog_Lion%27s_Mane.JPG\nAnd another being Jordao Soarez Wolf who was a Portuguese Iberian wolf who was the manager of the bank location there in the village.\nhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iberian_wolf#/media/File:Canis_Lupus_SignatusZOOM.jpg\nThe parents of both Angelo and Erica Hound had supported the struggle for Angola's independence during the colonial war back in 1960s and early 1970s. Jordao Wolf's parents had actually taken part in the fighting for Angola's independence in that war. \nThis was also about the time when the 23rd of the month came around, and needless to say, the Vespera de Santo John celebration was not held at the village due to the war. Having such an event would be very risky with a guerilla war going on, especially at night when the celebration is normally held, thus it had to be cancelled for that year. \nWhile the UNITA invaders had only a limited amount of assault vehicles and other military equipment, the anthro-animals of the southern part of the country had less than that. All they had for military weapons, for the most part, were old civilian firearms that had been in their families for generations. They did have some Portuguese G3A3 assault rifles and old ammo that had been taken from fallen Portuguese during Angola's War for Independence years earlier, along with a few M-16s and Chinese rifles taken from fallen UNITA fighters in more recent years. What they had for grenades were homemade explosives and dynamite with the fuses trimmed down to only a few seconds, which was often surrounded by old nails, sharp stones and broken glass wrapped in duct tape...Some of the dynamite was old and unstable. \n[hugethumb]1266672[/hugethumb]\nTheir military transport were their own personal vehicles, nearly all of which were in ragged shape, and many in poor mechanical condition. \n[hugethumb]1265067[/hugethumb]\nSy Aardwolf and his son Hiraldo did manage to resurrect a few junked cars out of the junkyard at the shop to where they would run well enough to get by. \n[hugethumb]1361065[/hugethumb]\nOf course it was obvious why those cars were in Sy Aardwolf's junkyard to begin with...One of them was a unibody car with collision damage so bad the wheels could not be aligned, plus it had to get a push from another car to be started because there was no starter available to fit it. Another car ran on only three or it's four cylinders due to a cracked piston, and it too being a unibody car, the body was rusted out extremely bad. Among them was also a four cylinder with automatic transmission that had a cracked engine head (fortunately the crack did not involve the cooling system) and the transmission had only 1st gear...plus the part of the floorboard where the rear seat use to be was completely rusted away, and the only means of applying the brakes was to pull the parking brake lever. One of the cars, that had barely enough compression to start up and run, was missing the driver's door, and it had no reverse. The rest of the cars that were able to be resurrected from the junkyard were not in much better shape either. Some of them, Sy had to set the idles at a higher RPM so they would not keep stalling out. Most of the tires they ran on, which were mixed sizes and had little or no tread, had to be pumped back up several times each day. And batteries for all of them were what ever Sy Aardwolf could scrounge from around the shop that would at least somewhat hold a charge. But regardless of how poorly those old resurrected junkyard cars ran, they did run, and everyone was in dire need of any transport vehicles they could get their paws on, and were grateful to have them. \nThe populations of many parts of the country's southern provinces were basically a rag tag, civilian army with an unwavering loyalty to the country's non-apartheid Labour Party presently in power, the 'Movimento Popular de Libertacao de Angola' (MPLA). And there was no option of surrender or negotiation which no one wanted anyway...That was because the UNITA invasion was a genocidal one as was evident when those who had cars with radios that worked had already heard reports of extermination campaigns being carried out in a few of their northern villages, and knew their only two choices were prevail or be killed...and the 2nd choice was certainly not a viable option.\nMembers of the family who were called upon to help defend the homeland were Zhang's dad, armed with a Portuguese G3A3, in what ever way he could serve with his hip joints being bad, and Zhang's two older brothers and Zhang himself. Cheesah was only 3, and Lacara, the mom, had to stay home to care for him. Zhang, like his friends and older brothers, found himself helping to defend the homeland in a guerrilla combat war, as a 9 year old cub soldier. At his young age, Zhang, was issued the 4/10 gauge shotgun belonging to the family, and given rifled slugs for ammo. \nZhang, like his older brothers Moze and Jorad, got the experience of firing on other living beings, and at age 9, it wasn't long before Zhang had two kills to his credit...This is at an age where cubs in 1st world, developed, \"nanny state\" countries know war only from their favorite video games fought from the comfort of a sofa...But this was not a video game...This is where it got real...This is where a cub really learns to grow up, and learns to grow up fast. Maybe even too fast...It's also where death has no discretion as to who is a cub and who is an adult. And at a time or two, Zhang had a close scrape with death himself from enemy gunfire. \nMoze, Jorad and Zhang, as well as others, were well instructed in martial arts when there was time for it, because there wasn't the guarantee of a firearm, or ammo, being available. In some parts of the country, there was a shortage weapons, and more so a shortage of ammo. Some meerkats and other animals in the southern provinces were fighting with weapons, ammo and grenades (the real grenades) that were taken from fallen enemy fighters. Occasionally a rifle taken from a fallen enemy fighter would be identified as an M16-A1...which was evident that UNITA was being supplied with American weapons.\nNot long into the war, it was realized that pangolins, civets and various other species who are MPLA loyal citizens from distant parts of the southern provinces were mistaken for UNITA fighters, and as a result, came under friendly fire...Because they were not from the local area, the locals did not know who they were. This was soon remedied by issuing strips of cloth for themselves and their allies to wear either as a bandana or as a band tied around an arm to identify who they are. Sometimes the cloth wasn't easy to come by, but strips of cloth were always available torn from furniture or old blankets. Sometimes cloth was taken from the upholstery of their old ragged cars if no other source was available.\nThe UNITA forces began trying to confuse the civilian fighters in Cunene by having some of their own civets and pangolins wear bandanas and arm cloths so they couldn't be identified as an enemy by the local fighters. But that idea proved to be a folly, and it wasn't long before the UNITA leaders abandoned it. Because it was a guerrilla war, their own fighters wearing the cloth strips caused them to come under friendly fire from their own forces. \nOne hot July afternoon, only a few weeks into the war, Zhang saw his next oldest brother, Jorad, take a sniper shot in the chest. Zhang immediately dropped his weapon and ran over crying to Jorad, who was still conscious, but laid dying. Immediately, the adult meerkat who was with Jorad and Zhang threw himself to the ground to shield the cubs from further gunfire with his own body, as he frantically tried to locate the sniper. \nAs Jorad was moaning, \"Estou a sangrar...Estou ferido gravemente (I'm bleeding...I'm hurt badly.)\" another round barely got past the adult meerkat and ricocheted near the cubs, followed by the distant sounds of muzzle fire and projectile crack, as Zhang laid with his brother, Jorad, hugging him. \nThe adult meerkat finally spotted the pangolin sniper and took him out with a fatal 30.06 shot to the forehead. The adult meerkat knew the pangolin was a UNITA fighter by him having no bandana or arm cloth...and from the obvious fact the pangolin had just shot Jorad who was clearly wearing a bandana.\nJorad gave his last farewell to Zhang. Then said to Zhang in a weak voice, \"Zhang, I love you. And mom and dad. And our brothers. Say good bye for me to them. Tell them I love them.\" \nThen Jorad passed away. Zhang cried bitterly, embracing his deceased brother for a while before he and the adult meerkat picked up the weapons and ammo from the bodies of Jorad and the pangolin sniper and moved on. Jorad's body was picked up for burial that evening.\nJorad's funeral was held the following morning at the village community worship center, which is an unpainted, concrete-cinder block building, with stone slab floor and slate shingle roof, and with it's cemetery beyond it's north side. It was on the outskirts of the north end of the village, just off of a narrow dirt lane highway leading north out of the village which ran along side the narrow gauge railroad. For a hearse, Jorad's body arrived in back of Granddad Zeth's old '54 Rekord station wagon...There was no hearse...No one in that part of the Cunene Province had ever even seen a real hearse before. There were no funeral homes or embalming either, as those things were totally unheard of. As customary for the locals, Jorad's body spent the night at home before Granddad Zeth stopped by at dawn with his car so the family can take the body to the village worship center that morning for the funeral. \nSy Aardwolf, who was the proprietor of the automotive garage and junkyard in the village, and was also the pastor of the worship center, was the one who conducted Jorad's funeral. Sy's family and son-in-law were also present, including his son, Hiraldo, who is a close friend of Moze, being only a year older in age. \nPreaching a funeral is a grim task to begin with, but for Sy Aardwolf, there is something about preaching a funeral for a cub that has a way of being a harder thing to do.\nThe worship center had no piano and organ, but they did have an old harmonium (portable pump style organ).\nhttps://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A0LEV0QEHthZahAA.JJXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEzZnNnMjV0BGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDVUlDMV8xBHNlYwNwaXZz?p=harmonium&fr2=piv-web&fr=yfp-t#id=73&iurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.delhimusics.com%2Fexotichub%2Fcotion%2Fimguplod%2Fbuy-harmonium-41%2Fbuy-harmonium-14.jpg&action=click\n\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAiELn2Intk\nAfter Sy finished preaching the funeral, the animals who were in attendance moved chairs aside to provide an isle way for the pallbearers and casket. Then as those animals chosen to be Jorad's pallbearers carried out the homemade, aleppo pine, crate casket, adorned with wildflowers, containing his body, a very beautiful a song was played on that old harmonium for Jorad's farewell. \nhttps://youtu.be/lBXiRX4yaaA?t=52\n[hugethumb]1456026[/hugethumb]\n[hugethumb]961951,31[/hugethumb]\nThe six pallbearers who shoulder carried Jorad's casket were Jorad's dad Bron, his granddad Zeth (who never dreamed he'd someday help carry his grandson's casket), older brother Moze, friend of the family Sanchez Genet, Sanchez's son Sefu, and Jorad's Uncle Amos from his mom's side of the family. \nWhen Jorad's casket was being lowered into the grave, several gunshots could be heard in a far off distance to the northwest...That meant fighting somewhere going on. It was hoped that during Jorad's burial that everyone would not have to run to the cars and grab up their guns, but fortunately, no further gunshots were heard and no UNITA rebels had showed up. \nAlong with the family members and friends attending Jorad's funeral was also, then 13 year old, Jorad's female meerkat friend, Kalila, in as much mourning as the family was. Most of the family, including Kalila's family, never really caught on to it, but Bron and Lacara had for some time speculated, as well as Moze already knowing, that Kalila and their late son Jorad may have been a bit closer than \"just friends\"...Sy Aardwolf pretty well figured that out, being a pastor, and having had dealt with situations involving adolesent sex affairs and underage pregnancies ...There are a lot of things someone misses out on in this life when someone dies as a 12 year old cub. But for Jorad, at least the experience of having sex was not one missed out on in his life of only 12 years, thus Jorad's parents held no feelings of disrespect for Kalila, considering...After all, Bron and Lacara remembered 16 years earlier that they themselves were adolescents who were not yet married at the time they were expecting their first cub, Moze. \nDuring the remainder of that war, Zhang also saw two cousins die...thus two more funerals at the worship center. One cousin was his Uncle Amos' oldest son Sengo, he saw actually get shot, the way he saw his brother die.\nAs for Sy Aardwolf, doing a funeral has never been an easy task...But a funeral service for a cub or an adolescent is especially a hard thing to have to do.\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLS2QoATpiM\nAnd the other cousin was on his dad's side of the family who he came up on as she laid unconscious and dying... Her death too resulted in the grim task of Sy having to conducting a funeral for another adolescent cub.   \nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QveFFI0yQfQ&feature=youtu.be&t=10\nLater during the war, Zhang was blazed in the thigh while helping a wounded fellow meerkat to safety, which he would later be awarded a medal of honour for.\nIn the months that followed, UNITA also began to resort to using cubs as soldiers. During a conversation in the village, Valdez Mongoose who tends the railway passenger depot told Bron Meerkat and two of his three surviving sons Moze and Zhang about a patrol he was on only a few days earlier. Valdez Mongoose told of how his patrol encountered an adult bear of colonial Portuguese descent who was accompanied by a young jackal cub...Both were UNITA loyalists as was obvious by the absents of a cloth band and that the adult bear and jackal cub opened fire on the patrol, one of them blazing the left arm of Kagiso Genet who was with the patrol that day, although the arm wound was not serious. According to Valdez Mongoose, it was unclear who's gunfire actually killed the adult bear, leaving the jackal cub firing back at the patrol by himself. But Valdez knew for sure it was a shot from his own rifle that went through the chest of the jackal cub instantly killing him. Valdez Mongoose also told of how badly he felt having to shoot a cub to death, something he will have to live with for the rest of his life...And that the cub was from a UNITA loyal jackal family who a few of the locals personally knew 70 kilometers (45 miles) east of the village...But as everyone knows, failure to take down an enemy soldier, regardless of how young or old, could result in your own death or the deaths of those fighting along beside you.\nBron Meerkat and others were later told the weapons retrieved from the bodies of both the bear and jackal cub were U.S. made, M-16-A1 rifles.\nFamilies of the deceased bear, and of the deceased jackal cub were able to claim the bodies and provide their own burial arrangements for their fallen beloved... Had Sy Aardwolf been called upon to conduct funeral services for either of them, there would have been a temporary truce agreed between their families and the locals loyal to MPLA. As far as for the jackal cub, Sy had mentioned that for the time being he could not bear conducting a funeral service for another cub. \n\nSeptember 12th of that year was a cool spring day. Mid morning that day, Bron and the surviving older sons Moze and Zhang, were already out with patrol details for the day. Lacara was at home minding Cheesah, and at the time had some water heating up for tea on the old wood stove under the roof overhang adjacent to the kitchen. The morning was going uneventful until Lacara heard the sound of animals walking through the jungle some distance behind the house, after which, Lacara stepped inside through the side kitchen doorway. Lacara peered from inside the kitchen around the doorway curtain, and within moments saw two male hyenas and a female jackal, all three with rifles slung behind them and wearing web belts with grenades and ammo. One of the male hyenas even had a shoulder fired missile launcher slung behind him...And none of them had a cloth bandana or arm band...That meant only one thing...UNITA militia rebels. Lacara slipped back away from the doorway, allowing the curtain to slowly draw back closed, then went into the living room where Cheesah was napping on the old sofa.\n\"Cheesah, Acordar\" (Cheesah. Wake up), Lacara softly told Cheesah.\n\"Huh\", Cheesah said as he awoke.\nLacara then, in a low tone, told Cheesah about the UNITA rebels, and instructed him not to say anything as she opened the top draw of that ragged, light blue beureu that their Angolan flag hangs on the wall above...That's where the guns are kept. \nLacara could hear one of the male hyenas outside saying, \"Quando eu tenho a mãe, em seguida, você pode ter ela, meu amigo\" (When I have the mother, then you can have her, my friend), followed by laughter from the two male hyenas.\nThe female jackel promptly added, \"O filhote macho. Não o mate ainda. Ele vai ser meu brinquedo para um tempo \" (The male cub. Do not kill him yet. He will be my toy for a while).\nFrom that, Lacara knew they had before been spying on the house...But when, there was no way to know...Could have been that morning...Could have been days ago. \nLacara wasted no time loading a Ruger 22 caliber rifle with 10 round magazine, then had Cheesah climb the ladder from the large roof port area up into the attic loft. \nLacara then pawed the rifle up to Cheesah, with the first CCI Stinger round already chambered and the safety off, and told him, \"Se você ver Unita. Matá-los. E não pare de atirar\" (If you see Unita. Kill them. And do not stop shooting).\nThen Lacara quickly grabbed the family's loaded Colt 45 pistol on her way through the living room back to the kitchen. As Lacara got to the kitchen doorway, one of the male hyenas was approaching the side opening of the one meter (3 foot) high wall surrounding the area just outside the kitchen.\nWith the translucently sheer curtain still drawn closed, Lacara took aim on the hyena as he came through the wall opening. >BANG-kalphelup< The hyena fell dead like a sack of potatoes. Lacara quickly threw the curtain aside and dashed out.\n\"LARGUEM AS ARMAS! LARGUE TUDO O QUE VOCÊ TEM\" (DROP YOUR GUNS! DROP EVERYTHING YOU HAVE!), Lacara shouted at the jackal and remaining hyena.\n\"O que aconteceu, mamãe?\" (What happened, Mamma?), Lacara could hear Cheesah call from the attic loft of the house.\n\"É bem. Fique quieto\" (It's OK. Be quiet), Lacara called back to her son. \nThe UNITA rebels were caught completely off guard. They still had their rifles slung over their backs, and Lacara had a bead drawn on them with that 45.\nThe one hyena who recently thought he was about to have a good time raping Lacara, now laid dead in a pool of his own blood near Lacara's feet. As well as there was now a bullet hole in the curtain and a 45 cal shell casing on the kitchen dirt floor.\n\"ARMAS! MUNIÇÃO! GRANADAS! AGORA! \" (GUNS! AMMO! GRENADES! NOW!), Lacara demanded.\n\"Nós... Hum... Ficaremos sem nossas armas. Na zona de combate\" (We...Uh...We will be without our guns. In a combat zone), the female jackal timidly retorted.\n\"Sem suas armas, você pode deixar. E sem suas armas e sem sua vida, voce pode deixar. Qual você escolhe?... Para ser como o seu amigo e?\" (Without your guns, you can leave. And without your guns and without your life, you can leave. Which do you choose?...As your friend is?), Lacara gave the ultimatum.\nThe hyena slipped his 'bullpup' assault rifle with it's rope sling off his shoulder and dropped it to the ground. Then he dropped his missile launcher and his belt with grenades and ammo. The female jackal did the same with her rifle and her grenade and ammo belt. Lacara didn't have to tell the two surviving UNITA rebels to leave...They took off, first walking fast, then ran away into the jungle and kept going.\nLacara then came back to where Cheesah was up in the attic loft, got the rifle back from him, and had him climb back down. Lacara and Cheesah then went through the living room, through the kitchen then back outside to collect up the UNITA guns, ammo and grenades...That's when Cheesah had his first look at the dead hyena, the hole in the curtain and the spent shell casing on the kitchen floor.\n\"Ele está morto?\" (Is he dead?), Cheesah asked.\n\"Sim. Ele e\" (Yes. He is), Lacara answered her son.\nLacara collected the rifles, including the open frame stock assault rifle from the dead hyena, then removed the magazines and cocked the breaches open, then had Cheesah take them to the table in the living room. Lacara herself took the belts with the grenades and ammo to the living room table and laid them over the rifles...Lacara wasn't about to allow a three year cub to hold and carry grenades...Then the missile and launcher was propped up against the bureau.\nLacara had thoughts if she should have taken down the other two UNITA rebels as well, not being sure if they might later return. However, Lacara felt some assurance that after the two remaining rebels watched their comrade being taken down, then being disarmed of their weapons, they most likely were not coming back. \nCheesah was pretty scared over the ordeal, but Lacara sat with him on the sofa and comforted him a while...Lacara still left the loaded guns out in case the two UNITA rebels were to return. As the hours went by, it got more obvious the two remaining rebels had no intention of returning. The thought of how tragic the ordeal would have turned out if Bron and Lacara Meerkat had no guns in the house never entered Lacara's mind, as the thought of being without guns for protection in a civil war torn country was unthinkable to begin with. Everyone in the community knew all to well that Angola was no place for the anti-gun sentiment often espoused in developed 1st world countries.  \nThat evening, when Bron, Moze and Zhang returned to the house, getting a ride home with Sanchez Genet, they were startled by what Lacara had told them what happened that day. Everyone had a look at the body of the dead hyena that was still laying where Lacara had dropped him...And by now, this was not the first corps that Moze at age 16, and Zhang at age 9, had seen. \nLittle, three year old Cheesah exclaimed, \"Mamae atirou nele!  Mamae atirou nele!\" (Mamma shot him! Mamma shot him!).\nLacara and Bron then explained to their youngest son Cheesah that when things like this have to be done, it's not a thing to boast about.\nThe real suprise came when Lacara directed Bron, Moze, Zhang and Sanchez into the living room and showed them the weapons and ammo piled on the table in front of the sofa. \nEveryone couldn't help but to laugh when Cheesah, upon taking a seat on the sofa, proclaimed, \"Olha o que TEMOS!\" (Look what WE got!), referring to the pile of military hardware on the living room table.\n\"\"Este ranzinza será útil\" (This surely will be useful), Bron said.\n\"Uau! Precisamos granadas\" (Wow! We need grenades), Moze mentioned.\n\"Um foguete!\" (A rocket!), Zhang exclaimed, seeing the missile and launcher propped against the bureau.\n\"Contra a Unita pode ser usada agora. E não contra nós\" (Against Unita it can be used now. And not against us), Sanchez added.\n\"Cinco dias a partir de hoje é o dia do heróis nacional. E um herói que você é hoje\" (Five days from today is the day of national heroes. And a hero you are today), Bron said to his wife, Lacara, followed with a kiss...referring to September 17th being Angolan National Heroes Day.\nSanchez also mentioned that he believed two of the rifles looked to be Chinese made, one of which had an appearance that was weird  and stubby...although the origin of the rifles could be confirmed by other animals come morning. Sanchez and the others were sure the rest of the weapons and ammo appeared to be domestic...either taken from fallen Angolan MPLA soldiers, or perhaps stolen from a military arsenal.\nAfter the ordeal with the UNITA rebels showing up at the house, a decission was agreed on to have Moze go out with night patrols so an older male can always be at the house with Lacara and Cheesah. Bron and Zhang would be at the house during the night, and Moze would be at the house in the daytime.\nAs for the dead hyena UNITA rebel, it didn't seem likely that any of his family would know where to come to claim his body...And no one certainly knew where he was from. So early that following morning, the body was taken to the village worship center to have Sy Aardwolf conduct a brief funeral service for him. Moze and Zhang helped Sanchez and their parents load the deceased hyena, who was wrapped up in a couple of old ragged blankets, into the back of Sanchez's station wagon. As Zhang and Moze were in the back of the station wagon, helping to pull in the deceased hyena, Zhang seemed a bit spooked by a blood soaked spot on the blankets. \n\"O sangue. Não tenha medo\" (The blood. Do not be afraid), Lacara told Zhang as they got the hyena all the way into the car. \nThe two UNITA rifles were also loaded into the car to be confirmed if they were Chinese made or not. Then Sanchez closed the cargo door, then he and Bron left with the body to go meet up with Sy Aardwolf at the village.\nAs Sanchez Genet and Bron Meerkat rode the three kilometers of the dirt road from the Meerkat Family's home to the village worship center with the dead hyena in the back of Sanchez's old Wartburg station wagon, a South African came over the car's radio which was turned down low.\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P62a5a348TU \nAlthough the song was in English, Bron and Sanchez understood the lyrics. Sanchez was aware of the title of that song, and as they rode along the dirt road to the village, he mentioned it to Bron the title being 'No More War'.\nBron replied, \"Quando não temos mais guerra, uma coisa boa que seria\" (When we have no more war, a good thing that would be).\nSanchez and Bron met up with Sy Aardwolf at his automotive shop on the west edge of the village. Also at Sy Aardwolf's shop were Galvin Hyena and Kagiso Genet...Being that the deceased hyena was an outsider, and there were not going to be many animals attending the funeral, Sy Aardwolf managed to find two volunteers to serve as two of the pallbearers. One was the owner of one of the thrift stores, Galvin Hyena, who's wife, Ayoko, plays the harmonium for the church. The other volunteer was Kagiso Genet who owns the liquor store near the railway tracks. Kagiso had never attended church, and tended to be spooked by preaching, Eternity and funerals, and was hesitant at first to volunteer. But Kagiso finally agreed to close up the store long enough to go render service as a pallbearer. \nFrom the shop they went to the community worship center with Sy leading the way in his old flat bed truck with Galvin and Kagiso riding along, and with Sanchez and Bron following behind in the old Wartburg wagon carrying the hyena's body. Upon Sy, Sanchez and Bron arriving to the worship center with the dead hyena, Grand Dad Zeth Meerkat and Grand Ma Mylah also arrived in their old Rekord station wagon with Lacara, Moze, Zhang and Cheesah riding with them...Zeth, Sanchez, Bron, Moze, Kagiso Genet and Galvin Hyena served as pallbearers, each grabbing the very bottom blanket with both paws to carry the hyena's body into the church house.\nAfter Mylah and Lacara gathered some wild flowers to lay at the alter near the body, Lacara mentioned to Sy, \"Eu tive que matá-lo. Foi ele ou Cheesah e eu\" (I had to kill him. It was him or Cheesah and me).\n\"Não matar a hiena teria sido mal\" ( Not killing the hyena would have been bad), Sy said to Lacara, then continued, \"Na escritura, à vista de Deus, está escrito, se você não providencia a sua família, e se você não protege sua família, você é pior do que um infiel\" (In scripture, in the sight of God, it is written, if you do not provide for your family, and if you do not protect your family, you are worse than an infidel).\n \"Você fez a coisa certa\" (You did the right thing), Sy assured Lacara, then added, \"Dele funeral eu prefiro que seja, em vez de pregar funerais para você e Cheesah hoje\" (Of his funeral I rather it be, instead of preaching funerals for you and Cheesah today).\nAyoko Hyena played a hymnal on that old harmonium for the deceased hyena;\n https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4DeGnbg2jM\nAfter Sy Aardwolf conducted the funeral service for the dead hyena, the body wasn't buried in the cemetery though...Instead the hyena's body was carried to the palm tree and palmetto grove out behind the worship center and buried there, halfway between the church house and where the narrow gauge railway runs by beyond the grove.\nAs the grave was being backfilled, Kagiso Genet was spooked by a question that Moze asked Sy Aardwolf about the deceased hyena, \"Pregador Sy. Você acredita que ele está no Inferno?\" (Pastor Sy. Do you believe he is in Hell?).\n\"Preciso voltar para a loja\" (I need to get back to the store), Kagiso said, not wanting to hear about Hell, as he hastily left to go back and reopen the liquor store.\nSy Aardwolf then answered as they continued backfilling the grave, \"Moze. Não é nosso lugar julgar as almas dos outros. Dele testemunho, não era bom, só posso dizer. Mas julgar a alma não é para nós\" (Moze. It is not our place to judge the souls of others. Of his testimony, it was not good I can only say. But to pass judgement on the soul is not for us).   \nAfter the the deceased hyena was laid to rest, Sy Aardwolf and a few other animals who were familiar with military firearms confirmed two of the UNITA rifles as both being of Chinese origin...Both Norinco 86S 'bullpup' assault rifles.\nhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norinco_Type_86S#/media/File:China_86S.jpg\nAnd the one Lacara took from the body of the hyena she shot the day before, a Kalashnikov designed 81-1 assault rifle...the kind with the open frame stock, also a Chinese made rifle.\nhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_81_assault_rifle#/media/File:Type-81rifle.JPG\n\nAt the end the following month, late Halloween night to be exact, Kagiso Genet returned to the village from being out with an evening patrol. Not long after Kagiso returned, he had discovered that his liquor store had been broken into through the side window that was on the opposite side of the building from the railroad tracks. Fortunately for Kagiso, the inventory was not cleaned out...All there was missing was several bottles of whiskey and a case of Congolese rum. Constable Orlander Aardwolf had been leading a patrol that evening on the outskirts of the village, and they had sighted UNITA rebels in the area a while after sundown...It was believed it was a band of UNITA rebels who gained entry into Kagiso's liquor store by means of prying open the window, hastily picking out what they wanted, then made off with their 'despojos de guerra' (spoils of war)... \n...Of course the belief that it was UNITA rebels was confirmed when they noticed tire tracks on the dirt street made by a military vehicle near Kagiso's store. There were also the footprints of the animals who left then returned to the military vehicle that lead toward the pried open window. Everyone knew there was no presents of the Angolan military in this part of the Cunene Province due to being overwhelmed defending other parts of the country. And none of the locals loyal to defending the country had military vehicles. But some of the UNITA rebels did have possession of a few stolen military vehicles. \nOrlander Aardwolf concluded that if reselling the booze for money was the motive, most likely a vehicle would have been driven up to the opened window of the store and loaded with everything it could haul...plus there was money still in the cash drawer that was not touched. \n\nIn November of that same year, which is shortly before summer in the Southern Hemisphere, the UNITA rebels were well on their way to being defeated. It was then, Zeth Meerkat, who is Grandpa on the four brother's mom's side of the family, was killed while helping to drive the last of the invaders back to where they came from. It happened when a jackal fighting for UNITA broke from his fleeing comrades, ran into the jungle, circled up from behind the patrol Zeth was with, then shot Zeth in the back. Immediately a mongoose in Zeth's patrol quickly whirled around and shot and killed the jackal...The rifle picked up from the fallen jackal was no other than a forward assist equipped M-16A1. \nOnly four months after laying Jorad to rest, the funeral for Granddad Zeth was held at the village worship center, with Pastor Sy Aardwolf presiding over the service. Zeth Meerkat's body had arrived from home early that morning aboard Sanchez Genet's old Wartburg station wagon. Being that a large area had been blown from Zeth Meerkat's chest as the result of an M-16 exit wound, the family had an old blanket placed over the chest of Zeth's body. And like as it was with Jorad's funeral, with chairs being moved aside to provide an isle way, then the homemade, wood casket containing Granddad Zeth Meerkat's body was being carried out of the church building to the adjacent cemetery, a farewell song was also played for him on that old harmonium. \nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hgZllyxzBE\nAs Zeth was laid to rest beside the graves of his parents Dominique and Gloria, family members and friends still listened out for the sound of gunshots and were watchful for any rebels that might show up, being ready to grab their guns at any time if they had to. Beside Zeth's grave, a burial plot was reserved for when the day comes his wife Mylah should pass away. Granddad Zeth had an older brother, Rudo, who had died back in 1963 fighting in the war for independence from Portugal. However, Rudo had not been buried in that cemetery. Back in that day and time, Lacara's side of the family was living near Menongue which was in a province to the north. \nOf course, as with the death of her 2nd son Jorad, Lacara along with the rest of the family also took the death of her dad very hard.\nNo certificates of death were ever filed either...They never are...Same goes for births and marriages as well. That part of the country is not densely populated. When someone is born (always at home), everyone knows who was born. When someone dies, everyone knows who died. When a happy couple gets married, everyone knows who they are. And most animals in that part of the country were never aware that such certificates exist anyway.\nWithin a week of Lacara's dad's death, the civilian fighters in Cunene finally prevailed, and the UNITA fighters were drove back north into their mountain homelands and back to other places they had came from. \nDuring this most recent flash point in the ongoing civil war, the animals Zhang and his family knew had only encountered UNITA forces. It was fortunate the better trained and well equipped South African army had no longer been involved in the war. Had that been the case, the outcome for the untrained, poorly equipped locals would have been a really disastrous situation. \nOnce the UNITA rebels were driven away, the locals did not continue to pursue them. Doing so would have only meant more guerrilla fighting and bloodshed by going after them. Besides that, the rebel animals took such a loss of life among them during the later part this round of the war, and another invasion would be a mistake they weren't about to repeat anytime soon.\nThen it was only a couple of months later, in January of 1996, which is summer in the Southern Hemisphere, the MPLA government had defeated the remaining UNITA forces further north.\nOne of their first priorities was to conduct a campaign of locating and disbanding the rebel guerrilla militias so they would no longer be a threat to any other animals again. Former rebel leaders who were captured were either executed or imprisoned for their roles in the attempted insurrection, and also for the genocide campaigns and other war crimes committed against the citizens of the country. There were a few of the former rebel leaders who had fled the country and never were found. And many rebel leaders had fled back to the southeast corner of the country around Mavinga and Jamba which were still in UNITA control. However, the government did offer large bounties for their capture. As for their militia compounds throughout the country, they were burned and bulldozed under, and their abandoned war equipment was seized and placed into service in the Angolan military. However, UNITA still had it's stronghold of control in the southeast corner of the country which still remained a challenge for Angola to contend with. But in spite of a state of civil war since 1974 that still continued to exist, everything was at least under control...for now.\n\nLike all others who died fighting against the UNITA rebels, Grand Dad Zeth, Jorad, and the two cousins who died, even though as civilian fighters, were posthumously awarded the gold grade, Medalah Merito Militar (Medal of Military Merit) by military representatives from Luanda for their sacrifice in the war.\nZhang, like all others who were wounded, but lived, received the bronze grade, Medalha Merito Militar.\nThe award ceremony was conducted at the cafe' in the village by the two genets and the mongoose who were the military representatives...Needless to say, it was with a large crowd inside the cafe' as well as outside around the front door. \nBecause those who helped protect the country were civilians, thus there being no military records on anyone there, the representatives had to rely on the testimonies given by the locals at the cafe' as to who was eligible to receive a medal of honour. There was nothing to have prevented anyone from giving a false testimony in collaboration for a friend to receive a medal they did not deserve...And because that part of the province never issues birth or death certificates, it would have been easy enough for someone to pull off receiving a gold grade medal posthumously in behalf for someone who never existed...However, none of that kind of stuff ever happen...The locals of that community had better integrity than to try to pull off something that dishonourable. All testimony by all animals there was straight, forthwith and truthful. Only those who were entitled to a medal of honour were the ones who received one, and that was the way the locals wanted it to remain.\nAfter the award ceremony was completed, a gathering of locals who had brought along a collection of horns, drums and other musical instruments assembled on the edge of the dirt street in front of the cafe' and played the Angolan National Anthem for everyone who took part in defending the homeland. The instruments were a bit ragged, but the animals who played them did a beautiful job at it...A professional band probably could not have been able to do it any better.\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwDAWytUrX8 \nEven in the cafe', those animals who were seated at tables and booths stood to their feet as everyone placed their right paw over their heart, and the military representatives saluted, for the playing of the Anthem. \n \n As for Moze and Zhang, along with others they were growing up with, they'll never be required for future military service upon becoming adults...Like their deceased brother Jorad, they've already fulfilled that obligation as cubs. \n\nBTW, work had become available for the locals, as well as those who lived in or near other villages along the narrow gauge railway line. CFB Railway needed temporary labourers to assist in repair of tracks and phone line...During the fighting with UNITA rebels, rebels had dismantled sections of railway. And those among the rebels who were climbing animals, such as genets, civets and various primates, climbed poles to cut down sections of phone line. The repair efforts kept many of the local animals profitably employed, and with the good wages typically paid by the railway, for a good while. \n\n[hugethumb]1184804[/hugethumb]\nLife Goes On\n\nZhang stayed with his martial arts training well after the encounter the locals had with UNITA rebels, and Zhang eventually achieved 2nd degree black belt. As a young teen, Zhang made progress in controlling a lifelong temper he always had with the help from his parents and from the martial arts instructor who Zhang had been received his training from.\n\nThree years after the local community had to fight off rebel forces, the year now being 1998, Zhang's family was beginning to fare more prosperously. The country still had ongoing trouble from UNITA forces from time to time in parts of the country as Angola's civil war still lingered on. Although the country continued to have it's problems, the way of life had been getting better as oil drilling and diamond mining had improved the country's economy. \nMoze, then 19, and Zhang, then 12, had never in their lives been in a school classroom, but it was decided by Bron and Lacara that Cheesah, then 6, would get the schooling they themselves and the older brothers never had. School was about 16 kilometers (10 miles) to the north, and with the family being without a car, it was a good walk along those substandard dirt roads where they lived. Cheesah would have to walk three hours each way to school and back every day, leaving for school before dawn while it is still dark, and getting back home late in the afternoon, except for the times friends and family who did have cars could give him a ride. And a ride aboard a school bus was not an available option either...The 'luxury' of school buses did not exist in that part of the country. Along Cheesah's route to school and back were the residences of a family of mongooses and of a Jackal couple, but a ride from any of them was not available, as like in the case of Bron and Lacara, none of them owned a motor vehicle either.\nHad Sy and Zella Aardwolf's son, Hiraldo, still been going to school, Cheesah could have at least gotten a ride to the village after school everyday with the aardwolves...but Hiraldo had already graduated the year before, thus had already completed his schooling.\nOn those school days of rainy weather, Cheesah would take a large palmetto frond along to use as an umbrella to keep most of the rain off himself and off his homework assignments. \n\n[hugethumb]1123081[/hugethumb]\n\nFive kilometers (three miles) from the school, there is about a two kilometer stretch of dirt road (a little over a mile) that runs side by side with a narrow gauge branch of the C.F.B. Railway through a mountain pass. For about 130 meters of that pass (400 feet), is where it gets the name the locals call \"Passagem do Anjo da Morte\" (Death Angel's Pass), and for a good reason. It's where the road cut in the mountainside becomes so narrow, the road narrows down to only one lane, and the narrow gauge railroad tracks and road share a 3 meter (9 to 10 foot) wide road cut together in the side of the mountain.\n\n[hugethumb]1123186[/hugethumb]\n\nWhere both road and tracks overlap together, the pass is hardly wider than an average parking spot in a parking lot. On one shoulder of the tracks and roadway overlap is a sheer rock face wall going straight up...And on the other shoulder, 3 meters over to the other side, is a sheer drop off going down more than a hundred meters (a few hundred feet) with no railing or guardrail to stop anything from going over the edge...plus it's on a curve with the distance viewed ahead limited by the rock face wall. It's the kind of stretch of road where if you make one mistake, you would die. The speed limit on that 130 meter long stretch shared by both automobiles and trains is 10 km/h (6 MPH)...and for a very good reason...It's so in case a train and a car met on that 3 meter wide road / railway cut, they can both stop in time to avoid a head on collision (trains don't exactly stop in an instant). And also, so any pedestrians would have plenty of time to stand against the rock face to stay out of the way of a train passing by.\nWalking home from school, Cheesah would get to where the tracks ran along with the road at about 1:15 pm. That was about the same time a southbound freight train would pass that way, going toward the village on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays. If it was a cool or rainy day - provided it was one of the days the train ran - the aardwolf who was the engineer of the train would feel sorry for the little, six year old, meerkat cub walking in the rain out in the middle of nowhere, then stop the train and offer Cheesah a ride to the village. That would always cut a lot of walking distance off of Cheesah's journey home from school. That narrow part of the mountain pass was 11 kilometers (6 1/2 miles) from home...From the village where the engineer stopped the train to let Cheesah off, the walk to home was only a 3 kilometer walk (2 miles). Cheesah would ride in the cab of the locomotive (being a freight, the only other place to ride was in the caboose), which was a narrow gauge version of the Garrett, articulating, steam locomotive with the two sets of drive wheels under the tender and water tank sections, and the boiler and cab being the mid section...which was a real treat for a six year old meerkat cub. \nA narrow gauge Garrett is shown:\n[hugethumb]1273274,2[/hugethumb]\n http://youtube.com/watch?v=h2hRMpMX3KM .\n http://youtube.com/watch?v=OfyLBmA-NHY .\nAnd the heat from the engine's firebox always felt so good after getting wet on a cold, rainy day...Plus Cheesah made good friends with the aardwolf who was the engineer, and with the baboon who was the firebox attendant. \nWhile still on that very narrow pass before the tracks and dirt road separated from each other, you could look out the left window of the locomotive and see the rock face close enough to reach out from the train and touch it with your paw. And from the right window, a bird's eye view of what is out beyond the sheer drop off, giving the illusion like the train was up in the air with nothing under it unless you looked out through one of the locomotive's windshield panes at the tracks ahead of the train. The engineer maintained the train at 10 km/h, and tooting the whistle every 10 seconds while the firebox attendant rang the bell to warn automobiles and trucks not to venture onto the 3 meter narrow portion of mountain cut shared by the road and tracks in the way of the approaching train. Once they were past that 130 meter long stretch of narrow road / railway cut, the train would run at speeds between 50 and 65 km/h (30 to 40 MPH) on the way to the village....There were even several days when Cheesah was allowed to sit on the driver's seat of the locomotive...UAU! What a special treat THAT was!...However, it was made very clear to Cheesah not to touch any of the locomotive's controls, but he was allowed to blow the whistle.\nDuring one of those train rides to the village on a rainy day, while Cheesah was sitting near the locomotive's firebox to shed off the chill of the cold rain, his little penis poked out of sheath...It wasn't long before the inside of the locomotive's cab began to bare that strong, buttered popcorn like, meerkat smegma, sex scent Cheesah's penis has always had. Unbeknown to Cheesah, upon the baboon firebox attendant smelling that strong, meerkat, sex scent, saw Cheesah's penis poking out. The baboon reached over, and with a grin, tapped the aardwolf train driver on the shoulder, then held his nose and made a 'pee-yoooo' facial expression as he pointed to Cheesah. The aardwolf, already figuring what that smell was, laughed when he saw Cheesah's little penis proudly showing itself... The aardwolf and baboon then smiled to each other about Cheesah being one of those animals who is \"blessed\" with that strong, overwhelming, sex scent. Cheesah was unaware of the attention his stinky little penis had drawn, and after a few minutes of Cheesah's penis poking out as though it was having a look around at everything, it finally went back down flaccid and slid back into it's sheath...Needless to say, the aardwolf and baboon opened a couple of the locomotive's windows to let the scent air out. \nThere were two times in particular that Cheesah missed that train ride after school on a cold, rainy day. One rainy day, a Thursday, was when Cheesah and a linsang cub got 45 minutes detention after school for talking while the teacher was trying to teach the class. School normally dismisses shortly after noontime around 12:05. But on that day, Cheesah, like his linsang classmate, was dismissed from school around 12:50 pm. Trying to make time through the pouring rain, there was no way Cheesah could run the 5 km (3 miles) to the mountain pass in 25 minutes, thus he had gotten to the mountain pass well after the train had already gone by.\nOn another rainy day, a Monday, on Cheesah's way home from school, the train was running an hour late that day. And by the time the train arrived at the pass Cheesah had already walked half way home in the rain, and was already down the 9 km (5 - 1/2 mile) stretch of road that forked off southeast toward the road between home and the village, which ran nowhere near the railroad tracks.\nAnd there were a few cold, rainy Tuesdays and Wednesdays which were days the train was not scheduled to run.\n\nDecember 10th, 1998 was the 2nd Thursday of December, and two weeks plus a day before Christmas. The summer break from school beginning Christmas and New Year's Day had not yet begun, so it was a school day for Cheesah Meerkat...After school, Cheesah Meerkat, then age 6, got that ride he often gets from the crew of the southbound freight train from where they pick him up at Passagem do Anjo da Morte (Death Angel's Pass) to the village, which is a blessing considering Cheesah's parents had no car, and the Cunene Province could not afford school buses...Except on that day, Cheesah did not have to walk the 3 kilometer (2 mile) walk from the village to home...Cheesah got that ride compliments of Constable Olander Rikuso Aardwolf (Sy Rikuso Aardwolf's younger brother).\nConstable Orlander Aardwolf arrived to the the Meerkat Family's house in the white, 4x4, patrol truck, with Cheesah riding on the passenger's side seat, then pulled up to the front door of the house.\n\"Saia do caminhăo, Cheesah. Sua mãe e pai com quem conversaremos\" (Step out the truck, Cheesah. Your mom and dad we will talk with), Constable Aardwolf said to Cheesah.\nLacara came outside, seeing her youngest son stepping out of a constable's truck, looking like he had been crying, and asked, \"Orlander. Este. ?Sobre o que é isso?\" (Orlander. This. What is it about?).\n\"Seu filho. Ele roubou uma vara de hortelã-pimenta do supermercado\" (Your son. He has stolen a stick of peppermint from the grocery store), Constable Aardwolf informed Lacara.\nBron overheard Constable Orlander Aardwolf as he limped, due to bad hip joints, out of the house, and reprimanded Cheesah, \"Um ladrão que não criamos, Cheesah. ?Por que você fez isso?\" (We did not raise a thief, Cheesah. Why did you do this?).\n\"Eu ... eu queria o doce\" (I...I wanted the candy), Cheesah timidly answered, already knowing he will most likely get a switchin'...A while ago, Cheesah was scared he was going to go to jail (known as the zoo).\nConstable Orlander Aardwolf explained to Bron and Lacara that after Cheesah stepped off the train that he usually gets a ride on his way from school on, he met up with a pangolin cub friend in the village. Cheesah and the pangolin cub went into the grocery store, and the pangolin cub stole a snack cake. Then Cheesah wanted a peppermint stick, and his little pangolin friend dared him to steal it.\nBy this time, Bron and Lacara were not very happy.\nOrlander Aardwolf went on to explain that Cheesah and the pangolin cub were caught by the grocery store owner's wife, Erica D'Cruz Hound, a Portuguese Estrela mountain dog, as they tried to leave the store with the stolen booty.\nhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estrela_Mountain_Dog#/media/File:Estrela_Mountain_Dog_Lion%27s_Mane.JPG\nOrlander Aardwolf also told Bron and Lacara that Angelo and Erica D'Cruz Hound, the Portuguese Estrela dog couple who owns the grocery store, were willing not to pursue juvenile criminal charges on the cubs...However, like as went for the pangolin cub, Cheesah was not to be allowed in the grocery store unless he was accompanied with a parent...And that stipulation would be for the next three years... The way the Portuguese Estrela dog couple figured it, by the time Cheesah turns 9 years of age, he will certainly know better by then than to be stealing.\nAt that point, Bron walked over to a tree, broke off a switch, and lit Cheesah's legs up a good one.\n\"Urso de Santa pode ter a boa noção de trazer nada para você para o Natal\" (Santa Bear has the good notion to bring nothing to you for Christmas), Lacara called to Cheesah as Cheesah went into the house crying from the switchin' he had just received from Daddy Meerkat.\nJust before Constable Orlander Aardwolf left to return to the village, Bron and Lacara apologized for the actions of their youngest son.\nAs added punishment, and a valuable lesson for Cheesah, Bron did not let Cheesah have the upcoming weekend off to do what he wants...For the weekend of the 12th and 13th of that December, Cheesah had chores to do to earn that peppermint stick. And if there were no chores to do, Daddy Meerkat invented chores to do to keep Cheesah busy that weekend...Plus, Cheesah did not get that peppermint stick anyway as Bron and Lacara felt delinquent behavior should not be rewarded.\nDays later when Moze, then 19, dropped by with his mate, Leia, for a visit with the family, they heard about the little snack cake and peppermint stick caper that his youngest brother Cheesah with his pangolin friend tried to pull off.\nMoze had a decent income going by then, and said to Cheesah, \"Se algum doce você quiser, deixe-me comprá-lo para você. Você não precisa roubá-lo. Roubar é errado\" (If any candy you want, let me buy it for you. You do not have to steal it. Stealing is wrong).\nAt age 6, Cheesah had learned a good lesson about stealing. \n\nShortly before Christmas that same year of 1998, Bron and Lacara for the first time had finally gotten an automobile. Lacara's mom, Mylah, had recently given Lacara and Bron her old station wagon upon Mylah moving in with her son Amos, and his wife. Lacara's dad had died in the war three years earlier, and her mom could no longer continue the upkeep on the car. At that time, that old, 1954 Rekord Olympia wagon had been passed down through the family for the past 37 years...This would be the third generation of the family to own that car since Great Granddad Dominique Meerkat acquired it back in 1961.\nMylah had considered giving the car to Lacara's sister, Beth, or to brother Amos and his wife. But Mylah felt a place in her heart for the fact her son-in-law, Bron, has hip dysplasia, so she gave the car to Bron and Lacara. \n\"Uau. O boter velho que pertenciam ao Grand Dad Zeth\" (Wow. The old car that belonged to Grand Dad Zeth), Moze said, looking over the car.\nLacara told her oldest son, Moze, \"Quando meu pai era um adolescente, seu great grand dad Dominique had este boter\" (When my dad was an adolescent, your great grand dad Dominique had this car).\nLacara's mom, Mylah, then proceeded to tell Moze, Zhang and Cheesah about the time when their great grand dad acquired the car.\n\"Quando o pai do Zeth...seu grande pai grand...compru este boter, o boter was only sete years of age\" (When the dad of Zeth...your great grand dad...bought this car, the car was only seven years of age), Mylah began.\n\"Great Grand Dad had muito dinheiro naquela epoca?!\", Zhang interrupted with enthusiasm.\n\"Uau! Grande Pai Grand era rico?!\" (Wow! Great Grand Dad was rich?!), Cheesah added.\n\"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha\", Bron laughed, then told his sons, \"Nao nao nao. Uma raposa de Portugal precisava vende lo rapido. He sold it para barato\" (No no no. A fox from Portugal needed to sell it quick. He sold it for cheap).\nThen Mylah told the three brothers, \"Escutem, and I will tell you\" (Listen, and I will tell you).\nMylah told her grandsons, Moze, Zhang and Cheesah, about the war for Angola's independence from Portugal that started in 1961. She told them of how the fox who owned the car was among those of the Portuguese plantation field bosses who quickly fled the country back to Portugal when the violence started to sweep through Angola. Great Grand Dad Dominique and Grand Dad Zeth were taking part in a protest march in the city of Menongue against Portuguese occupation when they noticed the fox, who was desperate for money for a plane ticket out of the country, going around the Menongue Airport announcing that his car was for sale really cheap.\nMylah continued telling the brothers the story as she had heard it from her late husband and in-laws, how their Great Grand Dad Dominique and Grand Dad Zeth had saved some money from working for a sugar plantation under the recently abolished, forced labour law. \nShe told them, \"Seu grande pai grand ligou para a raposa. Ele disse, 'Eu vou compra o boter. Vou compra lo. Aqui, Eu tenho dinheiro'\" (Your great grand dad called to the fox. He said, 'I will buy the car. Will buy it. Here, I have money').\nThe story goes that Dominique Meerkat didn't have...or wasn't willing to give...near as much as the fox was asking for the car. But what Dominique would give for the car would be just enough for the fox to buy a plane ticket back to Portugal, so the fox accepted what Dominique offered for the car, then the fox gave Dominique the keys. The fox already had the title in the glove compartment with his signature on it. Great Grand Dad Dominique got a, then seven year old, 1954 Rekord Olympia station wagon for really really really cheap, that was then in immaculate condition. And the fox was able to board a plane bound for Portugal.\nhttps://www.sofurry.com/view/933113\nMylah finished the story with telling the brothers how surprised the family was when Dominique and Zeth arrived to the house with such a nice car like the ones the plantation bosses can afford.\nMylah went on to tell her three grandsons, \"Um boter tão bom. O seu grande mãe Grande Gloria não podia acreditar ... E seu tio grande Rudo e sua esposa Tywia, não podiam acreditar\" (A car so nice. Your Great Grandmother Gloria could not believe...And your Great Uncle Rudo and his wife Tywia, they could not believe\". \nThe story Mylah continued to tell to Moze, Zhang and Cheesah has it that Great Grandma Gloria, had at first thought perhaps Great Grand Dad Dominique had stolen the car, until her husband Dominique and her younger son Zeth explained how they got such a nice car for cheap, assuring Gloria that the car was legitimately acquired. And a real signature (not Xs, scribbles or loops) where the fox had sign-off on the title was proof that the car was not stolen, because Dominique Meerkat and his son Zeth were illiterate and could not have possibly forged an actual written signature. Thus, Gloria Meerkat, older son Rudo and daughter-in-law Tywia were then so delighted that Dominique and younger son Zeth were able to bring back a car for the family...and getting a very good deal on a very nice car at that time too. \nThat was the first time the brothers heard that story, and they enjoyed the way Grandma Mylah told it quite well.\n\nBTW: In the Angolan dialect of Portuguese, a car is often called a 'boter' in place of the use of the Portuguese word 'carro'.\n\nAfter 37 years, the car was nowhere near being in the pristine condition it was in when Dominique Meerkat first got it in the year 1961. \nhttps://www.sofurry.com/view/933179\nThe first few months after Lacara's mom gave Bron and Lacara the car, it required a lot of work to keep it running. The car didn't even have it's rear seat...The upholstery from the rear seat was needed for arm bands and bandanas to identify friendly forces during the war three years earlier. When ever the family went somewhere together, the brothers, Moze, Zhang and Cheesah would sit on the floorboard which no longer had it's carpeting or rubber mat (whichever the car was originally equipped with). The car just had a bare metal floor with a lot of it's paint worn away and a couple of small rust holes you could see the road through. The ignition switch was turned on and off with a screwdriver, the driver's window was rolled up and down with a pair of vice grips, the radio was missing, and the passenger's door had to be pulled just the right way to get it to latch shut all the way. The car still had it's original, teal color, factory paint which was pitted and chalky with surface rust showing through, some of the chrome trim was gone, all hubcaps except for one were gone, and the doors showed signs of rusting out down at the bottoms.\nhttps://www.sofurry.com/view/933180\nThere was a branched out crack on the passenger's side of the windshield.\nhttps://www.sofurry.com/view/933182\nThe right taillight lens was broken, and the left taillight had a wiring problem and did not work. The turn signal switch assembly in the steering column was broken and did not work, and the vent glass on the driver's door was still broken and held together with duct tape on both sides from that time Ojo Genet batted a mango pit into it at a family reunion four years earlier.\nhttps://www.sofurry.com/view/933181 \nThere was a little bit of lifter tap in the motor, and the transmission would keep a loud drivetrain howling noise going up a mountain on those old dirt roads, or during acceleration. \n(This Bedford bus video has that drivetrain howling noise... \n... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=303hSQqGnIw )\nHowever, the car was good on gas, didn't burn oil, tires held air OK although badly worn, and was fairly reliable once the family got the bugs worked out of it.\nAs for air conditioning, the car never was equipped with it...Not many new cars were equipped with A/C back in 1954. \nThat old car was a blessing to have, and the family was very thankful to have it. Having a car also made finding work for Bron and the older sons less difficult...that was when work was available. And being without a car use to be especially a hardship on Bron due to him having hip dysplasia.\nNeedless to say, Cheesah was also very thankful the family finally got a car...which meant no more of those long three hour walks to school everyday once school resumes after the summer break.\nThe speedometer didn't work in that old car either. But with the dirt roads being the way they are, you couldn't drive fast enough on them to really need a speedometer anyway...In many places, you're lucky if you can get up to 50 Km/H (30 MPH).\nLacara's younger brother Amos, and a few friends of the family had proposed the idea of some of the adult males taking the car to north of Menoque to get some work at the sugarcane plantation during the harvest season. The rumor had been going around that a wealthy rat family in Egypt who for years owned 80% of the sugarcane plantation had finally bought out the remaining 20% from the other shareholders who use to disapprove against any wage increases for the workers. \nAmos Meerkat and the family friends told Bron and Lacara that \"O velho rato pai\" ('The old papa rat', as they referred to the plantation's owner), \"He now pays the workers good wages since he now owns the plantation outright\".\nBut Bron and Lacara did not agree to lone out the car. Menoque was a long drive from home, and that would deprive Cheesah transportation to and from school while the car was away. And Bron could not easily do without the car with his hips the way they are. \nThere were times, however, although it was seldom it ever happened, Bron and Lacara wouldn't have money for gas for the car until Bron or one of the older sons could get some work. During those situations, Cheesah would still have to walk to and from school until there was gas in the car again. But in spite of those hardships, at least someone in the family would go to school and have a chance at a decent education the other family members never had.\nZhang, like his parents and his older surviving brother, had no formal education, and Zhang was completely illiterate until age 12, and his older brother, Moze, wasn't literate by much. But friends of the family who had a knowledge of literacy began teaching Zhang how to read and write, as well as improving on Moze's literary knowledge.\n[hugethumb]1184700[/hugethumb]\nStill late in that year of 1998...unbeknown to family, friends and locals...in a far away land...this was also going on;\nhttps://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=872539\nBut that's another story involving an arrogant, college educated, creepy rat from a wealthy Egyptian family, whom the Meerkat Family and their friends, living in 3rd world poverty, didn't yet know. \n[hugethumb]1184706[/hugethumb]\nAnyway...getting back to Angola...in the following year of 1999, the country had still experienced some occasional military intervention due to the collapse of the Lusaka Protocol Peace Accord several years earlier. However, those issues were mostly going on in the major cities, thus leaving many of the rural areas of the country largely unaffected. \n\n Less than a week into 1999, Moze and Leia, who had been going together for a little more than four years, made the decision to get married. It was only a few days earlier that Moze proposed and Leia accepted. They planned it to be on Sunday, January 10th, 1999, two days before the 20th anniversary of Bron and Lacara's marriage...which was 20 years to the day since Sy Aardwolf had been ordained a pastor.\nOn that Sunday morning of January 10th, before Pastor Sy Aardwolf began the service, he announced to the congregation it was 20 years to the day that Kosoko Leopard ordained him as a pastor, and that in two days it will be Bron and Lacara's 20th wedding anniversary, it being the first marriage he had conducted. After the congratulations from the congregation, Sy commenced with the service, in which hymns were sang and kept in key with the harmonium, which was then followed by the preaching of a sermon.\nAt the end of the service Moze and Liea came forward, Moze calling out, \"Pregador Sy\".\nThen Moze and Leia informed Sy Aardwolf that they wanted to be married right-a-way.\nAs everyone was preparing to leave, Sy announced to the congregation, \"Todos esperar. Aguarde. Posso ter sua atenção?\" (Everyone wait. Hold up. May I have your attention?).\nAs everyone stopped, Sy then announced to the congregation, much to their surprise and delight, that Moze and Leia had just came forward requesting to be married. \nEveryone in the congregation was so happy to witness Sy Aardwolf begin the marriage service, and asking Moze and Liea the wedding vows...which was answered from both Moze and Lacara, \"Sim. Eu faço\" (Yes. I do). \n Pastor Sy Ardwolf then said to Moze and Leia those sacred words, \"Com os poderes conferidos em mim, eu declaro você, Moze Bandogo Meerkat e Leia Okoro Meerkat, marido e mulher ... Que Deus o abençoe com um casamento longo e feliz\" (With the powers conferred on me, I declare you, Moze Bandogo Meerkat and Leia Okoro Meerkat, husband and wife ... May God bless you with a long and happy marriage).\nThus Leia Okoro Meerkat took on the name Leia Bandogo Meerkat.\nBefore leaving the church, everyone greeted and shook paws with Moze and Leia, and wished them a happy marriage.\n\nAlso in the year of 1999, Moze (then age 20 and married to Leia Meerkat) had been working for an oil company seismic crew, searching out possible drilling sites around the areas of Caiundo and Capico, which was northeast of home. One job site was within 40 kilometers of the city of Menongue, where Mom's side of the family is from. Moze and others on the crew never did go into Menongue though. Due to the military intervention going on at that time against UNITA and the remaining remnants of FNLA, it was safer to stay out of the large cities if you didn't have to be there. \nAs a result of Moze working for the oil company, this was the first time any of the family members had a good, steady paying income going, which was a blessing to Moze and his wife, Leia...Oil companies do tend to pay pretty well. Moze was also able to get fairly nice car that was in much better condition than his mom and dad's old Olympia. But it was still an old car with a few issues. It was a 1970 Opal Rekord Station Wagon. \nhttp://moyomongoose.deviantart.com/art/Moze-Meerkat-gets-a-Car-530029325\nThe car had no rust to speak of, and some dings here and there that could be noticed only if you were up close to the car. It's factory original, black paint wasn't chalky or bleeding rust, but it did have little discoloration due to age. The brakes had to be pumped to stop the car, and like the car his parents had, it too had worn tires. The car also had two bullet holes, one at the bottom of the driver's door, and the other one in the left fender behind the front wheel. \nMoze and Leia found out from the Linsang they bought the car from that the bullet holes were a little souvenir the car received from the civil war when the homeland was invaded four years earlier. For Moze, the bullet holes in the car reminded him of younger brother Jorad, Grand Dad Zeth, and two cousins the family had lost in that war.\nMoze's parents and two brothers were really impressed by how much nicer Moze and Leia's 1970 Opal Wagon looked when they showed up with it at their place. After everyone talked a while and admired the car, they all went out for a ride in it, with Moze driving, Leia riding up front, Bron and Lacara riding on the back seat, and Zhang (then 13) and Cheesah (then 7) riding in the very back. Zhang and Cheesah would refer to their older brother's car as 'the new car'...even though at the time, it was a 29 year old car. \n\nIn following year of 2000, during the month of February, Moze's wife, Leia, found out she was pregnant. Two months later on the morning of April 19th, in the bedroom of a modest bungalow in the village where Moze and Leia were now residing, Leia gave birth to a female cub whom Leia and Moze named Dora...And Dora wasn't born on a dirt floor either like her older relatives were...Moze and Leia's bungalow had a wooden floor, and Dora was born on a halfway decent bed, although still on ragged blankets. \nNeedless to say, the members of the rest of the family were delighted to see Moze and Leia's daughter. Mylah was now a great grandmother, Bron and Lacara were now grand parents, Moze and Leia were now a dad and mom, and Zhang, Cheesah, as well as Jorad posthumously, were now uncles. \nIt was barely more than a week after the birth of Dora, and only a few days before Zhang turned 14, Lacara had a heart attack. Being that their part of the province had no ambulance service or phone service, the family took Lacara by car to the only hospital the community had available, which was a substandard medical clinic in the nearby village, not much better equipped than a field hospital. But it was better than staying at home to die. However, Doctor Naru Linsang, who was at the clinic that day is very competent in the medical profession, thus Lacara was in good paws. The nearest, really decent, modern hospitals were in Ondjiva, which was the capitol of Cunene, being the only real city in that province, and the other being in Menongue, in neighboring Cuando-Cubango Province. Both cities were in average of 160 kilometers (100 miles) away, which would have been more than a three hour drive on the dirt roads. Many members of the Meerkat Family had never in their lives traveled that far from home before, thus had never even seen those cities. Moze had once been within 40 kilometers (25 miles) of Menongue while on the oil company seismic crew. Moze never actually been in the city, but from high ground with a pair of binoculars could barely see some of the city's taller structures and see planes approaching and leaving the Menongue Airport from far away on the horizon. However, the medical clinic in the nearby village, although as basic as it was, did provide Lacara with the best care they had available. \nEven though Moze and his wife, Leia, had their ten day old daughter, Dora, to care for, they still donated everything they can to go to pay Lacara's medical bills. Zhang had recently gotten a job as a metal worker apprentice at the metal fabrication shop in the village, through a vocational program that Sanchez Genet helped him get into. Zhang kept none of his pay from his job. He gave it all toward paying for Mom's medical treatment. Dad helped the best he could, being disabled. Younger brother Cheesah, then age 8, offered to drop out of school and try to find work so he can help. But Mom and Dad wouldn't allow it. No one in the family had a formal education. And if Cheesah could complete his schooling, at least one member of the family will have a decent education.\nA few days after Lacara had her heart attack, it didn't look like she was going to make it. Her husband, Bron and her three sons, Moze, Zhang and Cheesah were at her bedside. So was her mom, Mylah and her brother, Amos and sister, Beth. Lacara told them that if the worse came, she'll be in a better place with her 2nd oldest son, Jorad, and her Dad, Zeth. Fortunately however, it would be many years yet before Lacara was to be reunited with Jorad and Zeth. A few days later, and with medical treatment provided from the clinic, Lacara's condition improved and she finally made a full recovery. Within a couple of days, Lacara was released from the clinic with some heart medication to go back home. \n[hugethumb]1184700[/hugethumb]\nAlso in the year of 2000...unbeknown to family, friends and locals...in a far away land...this was also going on;\nhttps://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=891479\nhttps://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=891479&page=6#pictop\nhttps://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=891479&page=14#pictop\nhttps://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=891479&page=26#pictop\nMore good can be said for Dr. Naru Linsang than for that quack of a rat.\nBut that's another story involving a Hell bent, creepy, quack doctor rat who was a continent away from where the Meerkat Family and friends were living at the time. \n[hugethumb]1184706[/hugethumb]\n\n[hugethumb]1184805[/hugethumb]\nZhang Meets a Female\n\nAnyway...getting back to Angola...it was two years later, 2002, Zhang noticed an artwork wall mural being painted by an attractive, female meerkat, who was commissioned to paint it. The smooth, stucco walled building was painted to make it look like the wall was part of the stone laid sidewalk with jungle scenery beyond it. Zhang and the female artist, Annika, became acquainted after Zhang stopped to admire the painting. In the weeks to follow, Zhang, then 16, and Annika, then 23, became close friends. Zhang showed an interest in art, and asked Annika if she teach him some about it. So during the following year or so, Annika would occasionally let Zhang come over for art lessons to her studio in the nearby village where she lived.\nAnnika had more work opportunities, painting murals and doing portraits, in Ondjiva, which was a 140 kilometer (85 mile) drive to get there. The anthro animals in Ondjiva had the money that many of the animals in the nearby village didn't have for those services...and by then, the cities were not such dangerous places to visit anymore.\nOne day, Annika invited Zhang to ride with her to Ondjiva in the old, ragged, Russian made, 1967 Moskvitch she had.\n\"Zhang, before you get in, hold this over the carburador for a couple of minutos\", Annika said as she got a small piece of cardboard out of the glove compartment and pawed it to him.\nAfter Zhang opened the hood and got the top off of the air cleaner housing, he noticed the choke plate was missing from the carburetor.\n\"Entao este. It's the choke\", Zhang chucked as he briefly held the piece of cardboard up.\n\"Sim (yes). Since my family had the boter, it was never there\", Annika replied as she started the car.\nAfter a couple of minutes of holding the cardboard over the carburetor while the motor idled, it was warmed up and ready to drive. After Zhang got the air cleaner back together, closed the hood, got in and put the cardboard back into the glove compartment, Zhang and Annika were on their way to Ondjiva.\nZhang and Annika had a lot of conversation on their way to Ondjiva, as well as this experience for Zhang being the furthest so far he had ever in his life traveled from home. The radio in Annika's Moskvitch even worked, although it was from out of a different car, thus they had some music on their way there.\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzt5t_zZNFM\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHD57wpXE_c&list=RDHHD57wpXE_c#t=7\nOccasionally between songs, Zhang and Annika would hear commentary and follow up reports over the car's radio of the recent shooting death of UNITA's top leader in the Moxico Province...which was a big news story throughout the country at that time. Like the rest of the family, Zhang felt a sense of justice in UNITA's leader being assassinated, being that it was UNITA rebels who killed his older brother Jorad, two cousins and Grand Dad Zeth.\nAt one point along the way to Ondjiva, Zhang commented how smooth he thought the car rode.\nAnnika then pointed out that it might seem to ride smoother because as they got closer to Ondjiva, the road was in better condition.\nWhen Zhang talked about the station wagon his grandma gave his parents, Annika told Zhang that her Moskvitch automobile was driven by her parents for years, then given to her when her parents got an old Volvo station wagon which has more room.\nhttp://moyomongoose.deviantart.com/art/Meerkats-Riding-in-their-Old-Ragged-Car-569906748\nA short while before they arrived to Ondjiva, the dirt road left off where substandard paved road began. This was the first time in Zhang Meerkat's life he had ever seen a paved road...Zhang Meerkat was very much enjoying the ride to Ondjiva with his female friend Annika...and riding on a hard surface road for the first time...looking forward to seeing a 'real city'...and listening to the music on the car radio along the way.\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfFva_v7FTU&list=RDYfFva_v7FTU#t=38\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FP9EIjJQU8&index=4&list=PLylZnyOkrGoFM3PCpsp7UXWmRB9bKFNm8\nOnce they arrived in Ondjiva, Zhang was amazed seeing a town that was larger and more modern than their nearby village.\n\"Voce parecia surpreso\" (You look surprised), Annika said to Zhang as they continued riding into town.\n\"In Ondjiva, this is my first time\", said Zhang. \"Other than our village, a town like this, Eu nunca vi antes\" (...I've never seen before).\nAnnika gave thought to how it was no surprise to her, as she was aware of many others in their community who have never traveled more than 80 kilometers (50 miles) or so away from home in their entire life.\n\"Longe de casa (away from home), this far I have never been\", Zhang mentioned.\nWith that said, Annika offered to ride around and show Zhang the town a while.\nLater, at a cafe', Annika had several customers who had her draw portraits of them as Zhang watched her. Annika's work was very good, and she was paid well for the portraits she did too.\nBefore Zhang and Annika headed back home, they had dinner at the cafe' in Ondjiva. Normally, it's the male who buys dinner for the female. But Annika knew Zhang didn't have any money, and Zhang was only 16 then, so Annika paid the bill...which Zhang thanked her very much for, \"Obrigato, Muito, Annika\".\nFor Zhang, that day was quite an experience, and he could hardly wait to tell Mom, Dad and his brothers about his trip with a friend into Ondjiva.\nThere were times that followed that Annika had Zhang come along with her to Ondjive, which each time, Zhang considered it a special treat.\n\nBy the time Zhang was 18, and Annika 25, they were dating, and there was now a strong love bond between them. Zhang would still come over for art lessons, and by this time, they would spend some quality time together.\nOne evening, in mid April, after Annika had just turned 26, and Zhang was a couple of weeks from turning 19, the two of them were laying on a large, roll out mat, on the stone slab floor of the porch atrium that adjoined Annika'a home / studio which was on the outskirts of the village. As they were sipping on Merlot wine and watching the stars come out, Annika snuggled up to Zhang as they were both laying on their backs. Zhang put a paw around her. Then Annika rested her paw on Zhang close to his genital. Zhang reached his paw he had around Annika far enough to reach her pussy, as Zhang's penis started poking his head out, and popping out further and further in timing with Zhang's heart beat. Zhang was rubbing at the edge of Annika's pussy, a little timid to go the rest of the way over onto her.\n\"It's OK Zhang\", Annika softly told him. \"Your paw. Bring it over more. Va em frente (Go for it)\".\nNow Zhang was gently rubbing the right side of Annika's pussy as his penis was just about completely extended out and hard, but still going at it a little timid.\n\"Talvez isso ajude (Maybe this will help)\", Annika said, as she began passionately massaging Zhang's penis head.\nZhang's penis immediately stood out straight, hard and as far out as it can go. Zhang felt good all over from the erotic tingle he felt all around it's little head. His knees wobbled in and out, his feet jittered and he felt those butterflies in his lower ventral area. At one point, Zhang thrusted his pelvis up and down in a motion like he was having sex, while Annika continued giving little penis his head massage. Zhang massaged Annika's pussy, squishing it around, rubbing his paw deep in the clef, pulling it open, then pushing the labial halves firm against each other bulging the middle of Annika's pussy outward, and then tickling the entrance to Annika's vagina until Zhang could feel Annika's pussy puking oil out onto his paw. Zhang wasn't timid by then, and Annika was lovin' every second of it. So was Zhang.\nThen Annika turned on her side with her ventral facing Zhang. No one had to tell Zhang what next to do. Zhang turned facing Annika, embraced her up against him, pushing his hard penis into Annika's pussy, as Annika also embraced Zhang. Zhang's penis didn't find Annika's vagina right away. Zhang moved his penis head up and down inside Annika's pussy clef, frantically trying to find the vagina. Then Zhang felt it...The penis found it. Then Zhang went in as deep as his penis can go, as both Zhang and Annika were having sex like there was going to be no tomorrow, and feeling like they were in Sex Heaven if there were such a place.\nAt climax, Zhang rejoicefully called out to Annika, \"Amo-te! Amo-te! Amo-te! Amo-te! Ohhhh! Annika minha garina! OUUUU! Amo-te! Amo-te! (I love you! I love you! I love you! I love you! Ohhhh! Annika my girl! OUUUU! I love you! I love you!)\", then Annika kissed Zhang all over his face, neck and chest, then tightly embraced him.\nThis was Zhang's first time at having sex. For Zhang a whole new world had just opened up to him...A whole new beautiful world.\nWith the coal oil lamps dimmed way down low, Zhang and Annika had sex off and on through out the rest of the night, until dawn. At one point during the night, Zhang and Annika fell asleep while they were still copulated together, with Zhang softly telling Annika in his sleep, \"Sim. Amo-te. Sim. Amo-te. (Yes. I love you. Yes. I love you)\", and slept copulated for more than an hour, then being awakened after Zhang's penis went flaccid, slipped out of Annika's pussy and back into Zhang's sheath.\n\nIn the days to follow, Zhang and Annika would get together again to have sex. Then came the time they were doing it almost every night...sometimes out in the atrim, and sometimes in the main part of the house, on blankets on one of the wood floors which had a metal patch or two in them. \n\n[largethumb]962473[/largethumb]\n\nOn May 2nd, 2005, one day after Zhang's 19th birthday, Zhang proposed to Annika, Annika accepted, and on that same day, the two happy meerkats went to seek someone to conduct the ceremony to get them married. The justice of the peace for the village and local countryside was Orlander Aardwolf, who was also the constable...However Orlander was away from the office at the time. So Zhang and Annika went to see Olander's brother, Pastor Sy Rikuso Aardwolf, who owned the old car parts yard and repair shop across the main dirt road from the metal fabrication shop on the west end of the village.\n\"Ola, Annika. Ola, Zhang\" (Hello, Annika. Hello, Zhang), Sy Aardwolf greeted them upon their arrival, thinking at first that Annika needed a part for the Moskvitch she drives.\nSy Arrdwolf was then delighted when Zhang and Annika explained to him that they wish to be married. An automotive junkyard is hardly a place to conduct a marriage ceremony...So Sy had a mongoose who worked for him mind the store while Sy, Zhang and Annika set out walking to the Community worship center where Sy is also the pastor of. It doesn't take long to walk anywhere in the village to it's metal shop, car parts yard, cafe', bank, other businesses, medical clinic, railway station, and various residences. The village is fairly small, being not quite big enough to have it's own city charter. \nBefore long, the three of them arrived on foot to the worship center, which is an unpainted, concrete block building, with stone slab floor and slate shingle roof, and with it's cemetery beyond it's north side. It was on the north end of the village, just off of a narrow dirt lane leading north out of the village which ran along side the narrow gauge railroad.\nIn that unpainted, concrete block worship center building, nestled back in among the palm trees, palmettos and other jungle growth, with no one else present but the Spirit of God Almighty Himself, Sy Arrdwolf conducted the marriage ceremony of Zhang Bandogo Meerkat and Annika Nzoa Meerkat. Annika took on the name, Annika Bandogo Meerkat, and from that day on, Zhang and Annika Meerkat are husband and wife, with a love bond you couldn't tear apart if you tried.\nThat evening as Zhang and Annika arrived in Annika's car to Zhang's parent's place (3 km {2 miles} east of the village), Bron and Lacara noticed their son, Zhang, riding in an old Moskvitch being driven by a female they've never seen before as they pulled up to the house from the driveway. \nZhang's family was unexpectedly, but pleasantly, surprised when Zhang introduced Annika to them and announced they've become husband and wife. That would now leave Cheesah being the only brother still living at home with Mom and Dad.\nLike was in the case when Bron and Lacara were married, there was no jewelry store around to buy a pair of weddings from...and no one could afford gold rings had there been a place to buy them. So Bron eventually carved out a pair of beautiful wooden rings from a mopane tree for his son and daughter-and-law. Mopane trees, common in Angola, yield a very hard, durable, termite resistant wood...They may not have been gold, but they were Zhang and Annika's wedding rings. \nAnnika's husband now lives with Annika, instead of with his parents Bron and Lacara and younger brother Cheesah.\nIn spite of Zhang having had a hard life growing up, or maybe because of it, Zhang is an achiever and a go getter with a strong sense of ambition.\nWith Zhang out from under Mom and Dad's roof, that left Bron, in spite of his having hip dysplasia, being the only wage earner of the household...that is whenever he could find work he was capable of doing. And because of the fact that Bron was now having to at times use a walking cane, it didn't make finding work any easier. With Moze and Zhang being \"out of the nest\", Cheesah going to school, and Jorad being had died in the war of 1995, that left only Bron (partially disabled), Lacara and Cheesah (then 10 years old) residing at the household. However, Moze, Zhang and other relatives did help out whenever they could.\nAnother source of assistance the local inhabitants began to receive was from United Way humanitarian workers who would occasionally come by, giving food and other help to those who needed it. They were usually a female wolverine, a male stoat, and a young male fox who had recently joined United Way. Although the wolverine and the stoat were longtime veterans of doing humanitarian work, the young fox was still getting some of his first paw looks at what life in the third world is really like. The young fox also found it almost incomprehensible that many of the locals had never been to school a day in their lives, and couldn't even read or write their own names.\nBron, Lacara and other family members considered the assistance from United Way a Godsend, as it relieved a great burden of concern over the family's welfare. The 4 wheel drive SUV with the United Way logos on the doors was always a welcome sight when ever it showed up. \nThe young fox, who's native language was Dutch, had mastered English well, but he still had difficulty speaking in Portuguese, and the Angolan dialect threw him off even more. However, being that Bron and Lacara could also speak English fluently, and Cheesah's English at that time was fair, and the wolverine spoke English and Portuguese fluently, and the stoat spoke Norwegian, English and Portuguese fluently, it was agreed that the conversations among them could be spoken in English. \nThere were also friends of the family who, like Bron, Lacara and Cheesah, received the much appreciated assistance in the way of food, fuel vouchers for those who had cars, offering assistance with home repairs, and other help where needed.\nGrandma Mylah Meerkat also received food assistance from United Way which she was very thankful for. Since her husband, Grand-dad Zeth Meerkat, was killed in the 1995 war, it had been a hardship on Mylah. And the workers did take time out to offer Mylah transportation assistance. Mylah greatly appreciated that, being that she had gotten too old to drive and had given her car to her daughter Lacara and son-in-law Bron.\nThe young fox who had recently joined United Way was totally overwhelmed that the local animals who lived in the area never had electrical service, phone service or municipal water, and that some had never owned a car before...Not to mention none of the locals knew what a cellular phone or a personal computer even was (there weren't the towers around for internet and phone service anyway). Of course there was always radio to listen to if you were lucky enough to have a car with a radio that worked. All this was a difficult thought for the young fox to wrap his mind around being that, in his country, he had grown up with those luxuries and had always been use to taking them for granted.\nAs for the Meerkat Family and other local animals in Cunene, the quality of life had been getting better than it had been in years past. \n\nAlso in that year of 2005, Cheesah was beginning to understand English well enough to speak it as a 2nd language like his other family members can. Cheesah had recently gotten up to middle school level where there was the opportunity to take elective courses, and Cheesah had taken English as a foreign language elective course (English being an elective in Afro-Portuguese speaking Angola). \nCheesah, being use to the Angolan dialect, still applied the dialect to the English he had learned, as well as did the other students in his English class. However, the teacher who taught the course did make an attempt to try to get the students to drop the dialect. But that's not an easy thing to do when you grew up speaking that way all your life. The emphatic \"SO!\" occasionally used on the end of a strongly stated, commanding, phrase was another part of the dialect Cheesah's English teacher had to deal with...It's commonly used in parts of rural Angola. \n\n[hugethumb]1184807[/hugethumb]\nIntroduction to Annika's Family\n\nANNIKA MEERKAT, female, born in nearby Cuando-Cubango Province of Angola (Africa) on April 17th, 1979, age 34, is Raphael's mom.\nAnnika came from a lower middle income family, born to her dad, Banga, and to her mom, Murua, having two older sisters, Nafula, the oldest, then Abina. And later, a younger brother, Najja, was born.\nAnnika was 2 years old when younger brother Najja was born. Because Najja was the only male sibling among three sisters, and the youngest, Annika and her two older sisters use to tease Najja when they were all at cub age, except Nafula didn't tease Najja very much. She was becoming an adolescent about the time Najja was getting old enough to be teased. Abina and Annika were the ones who did most of the teasing...that is until their parents, Banga and Murua, put a stop to it with a paddle.\n\n[hugethumb]1184811[/hugethumb]\nAnnika's Experience of the War\n\nThere were times Zhang and Annika would exchange war stories from that time it got real bad in their homeland back in 1995. Annika told of her experience of that June morning of 1995, when the northern rebels invaded the homeland, Annika was 16. Although the part of the country Annika help to defend didn't see as much action as Zhang had seen. \nAnnika once told Zhang of the time about half way through the war, when Annika, and another female meerkat her age, Zella, was up on a bluff that overlooked a small jungle area and an open plain beyond. Annika and Zella were sitting on a boulder that was on top the bluff when a chunk of rock popped only inches from Annika's paw, accompanied by a ricochet noise, and followed by the close sounds of muzzle fire, and projectile crack. As the two meerkats scurried behind the boulder, another chunk of rock blew out of the boulder near Zella's head, with the sounds of ricochet, muzzle fire and projectile crack. Annika, then Zella, saw them...a colobus monkey and a galago crouched behind a mound. A brief exchange of gun fire took place with Annika blasting the galago through the chest with her 20 gauge shotgun. The colobus monkey immediately turned tail and ran away, disappearing into the patch of jungle. Minutes later, Annika spotted the fleeing monkey out on the open plain. He was almost a half mile away, and Annika's 20 gauge wouldn't reach him. Zella's weapon would. She had an AK-47. Zella fired several times before she and Annika finally saw the colobus monkey fall with his chest blown out.\nThe AK-47 had been taken from the dead body of one of the invaders. She was using it until she could no longer get ammo for it. Then she would go back to using her 32 caliber rifle.\nIn November of that same year, after the northern provinces were defeated and the fighters driven back to where they came from, Annika and her brother Najja, then 14, received honorable mentions for outstanding service.\nAnnika also received martial arts training during the war, and stayed with it after the war until she achieved green belt.\n\n[hugethumb]1184812[/hugethumb]\nHow Annika Fared After the War\n\nAnnika, like quite a few other school age meerkats and other animals, didn't go back to school after the war. Because the war went well into November of 1995, and almost every animal from age 7 through 77 was called upon to fight, it was too late for schools to conduct the 1995 - 1996 school year. During that year, many school age animals got jobs and didn't bother returning to school during the 1996 - 1997 year.\nThe last grade Annika attended before the war was 10th grade. Instead of going back to school, she pursued being a free lance artist instead. Annika made a good living being commissioned to do wall murals, portraits and other art work. For many buildings in the nearby town, or what could be called a town, the murals were a vast improvement. Many of those buildings had walls made of stacked stone, or wood frame from raw timber with corrugated tin walls. Some of the better buildings were stucco or clay wall, but still looked rather shabby.\nHowever, most of Annika's work opportunities were in Ondjiva, which was 110 kilometers (70 miles) away. Luckily Annika did have a car. It was an old ragged Moskvitch, but it always did make it to Ondjiva and back OK. \nIn Ondjiva, Annika got to be well known for her exceptional work doing portraits of the wealthy and somewhat wealthy anthro animals who were living in the Cunene Province. Annika would be paid well for portraits and novelty paintings she'd do for them.\nIt was when Annika was doing a wall mural for a cafe' in the nearby village, a cute, 16 year old, male meerkat, Zhang, stopped by to admire her work. That's when they became acquainted, later became friends, at even a later time fell in love, and when Annika was 26, and Zhang turning 19, they got sexually involved with each other, and shortly thereafter got married. \nThe tail end of Chapter 4 of Zhang's history tells that story.\n\n[hugethumb]1184814[/hugethumb]\nThe Country Experiences Political Troubles\n\nIt was well into June of 2005, Zhang and Annika had been married for over a month.\nThere had been a trend toward their homeland of Angola becoming politically unstable over the past month, and it wasn't getting any better. Large numbers of other species of anthro animals had immigrated to Angola, from areas north of Cabinda that were experiencing political corruption and other problems. The immigrants who came to Angola wanted a share of control of the country the governing anthro animals wouldn't let them have. Zhang and Annika's families had been hearing about riots in a few major cities far to the north because of the situation. But fortunately, those riots were nowhere near the Cunene or Cuando-Cubango Provinces where they lived. The animals in those provinces just wanted to go about their lives and be left alone.\nHowever, there were some immigrant animals who had settled into Cunene and Cuando-Cubango, and had brought their problems to Cunene and Cuando-Cubango with them. Throughout the rest of the summer, whenever Zhang and Annika went into the village, they would often encounter a genet, mongoose, civet or some other of those immigrant animals who would try to make an issue with them about \"how certain animals are trying to hold all the power in Angola\".\nDuring a visit Zhang and Annika took to Ondjiva, Zhang thought he was going to have to fight off a palm civet who was talking that way and blaming meerkats and mongooses for the country's problems, when Zhang told him, \"Why can't you get a life?\".\nIt was good for the palm civet he didn't try anything. Had he did, Zhang having cubhood war experiences, could have easily snapped and went ballistic on the palm civet. And with Zhang being 2nd degree black belt, and still having a temper issue, Zhang could have easily messed up that palm civet really bad.\nBoth Zhang's and Annika's families would have similar stories to tell of their encounters during their trips to the village, or to Ondjiva, about an occasional disgruntled immigrant who would openly blame meerkats and various other species of animals for the country's problems.\nIt was worse further north. Train crews with the narrow gauge railroad, and route truck drivers, including Annika's brother Najja, would bring back stories of how bad it had gotten in the major cities in the northern provinces. They would tell of how the 'blame game' in those cities was so bad, there would be animals of one species who would get blamed for all the trouble going on, who in turn would blame animals of other species for all the trouble.\nAs for the agitating animals who immigrated to Angola, those of which who settled into the area where Zhang and Annika's families lived, their numbers were few, the locals knew who they were, and the locals began to make it clear to them, \"Uma atitude con voce, voce trazer aqui? Norte voce melhor leva lo...Extremo norte longe deste lugar\" (An attitude with you, you bring here? North you better take it...Far north away from this place). \nThe Angolan dialect Portuguese may have sounded awkward to them, but they did get the picture from the locals quite clear. Those of the immigrant animals who decided to stay in the local area eventually mellowed down quite a bit...Those who did not, headed back north to where they came from as the locals had suggested. After all, there were things in those major cities to the north that simply did not fly in Cunene or Cuando-Cubango.\n\nEarly in the month of September, Annika found out she was pregnant with Zhang's cub. Zhang and Anika felt like this was the best blessing they've ever had, and both of their families were thrilled to hear news of it.\nWhen Bron, Lacara, Cheesah, Annika and Zhang was visiting with Annika's family, Lacara asked, \"O filhote (The cub). Have you thought of some names?\"\nMembers of both families began offering suggested names.\nZhang told everyone, \"Whether the cub is male or female. Of course, we don't know yet\".\n\"Voce sabe, Zhang?\" (You know, Zhang?), said Annika. \"I somehow feel like its a boy\".\nBron asked Zhang, \"Son, when is the cub due? Voce e Annika sabe?\" (Do Annika and you know?)\n\"Nao fazemos, Pai\" (No we don't, Dad), Zhang answered. \"Annika and I have been together each night. Just when it conceived, we nao know\".\n\"We figure Novembro, is what Zhang and I are guessing\", Annika added.\n\"Setenta e cinco dias for us meerkats\" (75 days...), said Murua, Annika's mom. \"Novembro. That would be about correto\".\nTwo days after the visit with the relatives, riots began flaring up in many cities over the power struggle between the animals who were native to Angola and those who had recently immigrated into the country. Then a new problem for the country also appeared. A pangolin, who called himself, \"Sar Al Binar\" had mustered huge cult following in the far western part of the country near the Atlantic coast, and was threatening to wage a holy war on the country. Most of the country had for generations adhered to Christian and family values, and Pangolin Sar Al Binar had made public statements that his agenda is to destroy that whole way of life. However, it didn't appear like he had anywhere near enough followers to even begin to think of pulling it off.\nZhang and Annika, along with everyone they knew, were keeping up with news reports on where the country was headed. As a nation, the country was literally falling apart. But then came the worse news of all. Out of the northern provinces had once again formed a large paramilitary revolution from the old FNLA and UNITA movements. In a matter of days, they had taken over some northern provinces, and the rebel leaders issued a declaration claiming the territory they've taken to be the sovereign state of the Republic of North Angola. And they had also began make preparations to conduct another invasion into the Southern homeland provinces, and a much bigger invasion, with more allies than the one 10 years earlier.\nDuring another family get together, the families discussed moving to a different country. Annika even mentioned concern for her unborn cub .\n\"If things get muito ruim (...really bad). The chances of our filhote (cub) surviving. What would they be?\", Annika asked.\n\"The way this country is getting. It will nao longer be a safe place to live\", Banga, Annika's dad, said.\n\"It's already gotten that way\", said Bron\", \"You can see that. Just look around\".\n\"What does this mean? There will be another war?\", Cheesah, then age 13, asked, remembering the war when he was age 3, and remembering his older brother Jorad and his grandfather Zeth being laid into their graves.\n\"Ia, filho. Parece assim. Nao e bom\" (Yes, son. Seems like it. It's not good), Bron answered his youngest son.\nIt was then decided by both families, that research should be started right away as to looking for another country to immigrate to.\nAfter days of research, Southern India is what the meerkats decided on to be the most ideal of those countries that were willing to take animals fleeing Angola as being in refugee status. And although the meerkats, being Angolan, spoke Portuguese, they were also able to hold a conversation in fluent English. And English is a common language spoken in India, therefore, there wouldn't be a language barrier when they arrived there. It would mean leaving jobs, leaving those cars behind that could not make a long trip, possessions and homes. Not to mention Zhang's younger brother, Cheesah, will have to pull out of school five years early. School was to start next month, the Angolan school year running from October to July. That would leave Cheesah with only a 7th grade education, unless he can get into India's school system. But all those things were on their way to being gone anyway with the way events were going. The main concern at this point was to get out of the country while they still can.\n\n[hugethumb]1184818[/hugethumb]\nFleeing the Country\n\nBy the time conditions within the country began to rapidly deteriorate, the families already had the passports they needed, being that they filed application early on when the first signs of the country's recent troubles began. Over a period of several days, the families packed what their vehicles could carry, and had been making travel arrangements. Being that the nearest phone service was in the nearby village, making those arrangements would not have been possible had it not been for the generosity of long time linsang friends who owned the cafe' who let them use their business phone to make the necessary calls and inquiries. And there was a long wait to use the phone on each of the days the family made the three kilometer trip to the cafe'...Other families who resided where there was no phone service were also using the phone at the cafe' to make arrangements to leave Angola. The CFB railway station and the metal fabrication shop also had phones which they allowed the local animals to use.\nEven the linsangs who own the cafe' were trying to get passports to leave the country, but the last time they could get to Ondjiva, they were told there was a moratorium on issuing passports...Even though, it would mean walking away from a business they've built up over the years. Waitress Rosie Hippo had earlier gotten a ride into Ondjive to get a passport and was already preparing to try to get what rides she could get to return to her family back in Kenya.\nThe arrangements the meerkats were finally able to make were to drive out to the sea port town of Port of Beira in Mozambique, on the Indian Ocean coast. Once there, they were to contact a freighter Captain, Janosch Fossa (pronounced as Yonnis Fossa). The meerkat families would travel aboard Janosch Fossa's vessel, an India bound freighter. The able bodied males would work aboard the freighter while the able bodied females and older cubs would help with cooking and cleaning as payment for the ride over.\nWhen they sold their homes for what they could get out of them, they didn't get a whole lot. It wasn't like the homes could stay on the market for months. Plus hardly anyone was buying real estate because of the turmoil the country was in. If anything, lots of other animals were also selling their homes in order to leave the country. The family, along with just about everyone else they knew, had to settle for selling to investors who came from the cities of Menongue and Ondjiva. Those were investors who were buying up what land and homes they could, trying to put their money into tangible assets in fear that the Angolan currency might become worthless.\nOnce the homes were sold, and those vehicles that could make it to Port of Beira were packed, there was one thing not left overlooked. The family did take a short while to visit the graves of their deceased loved ones for the last time.\nAfter the grave visits, the last thing left was to close out their bank accounts, make currency exchanges for Indian currency and currency exchange for travel expense going through Zambia and Mozambique on their way to the east coast. Upon entering the bank, which was their last visit to the nearby village, members of the meerkat families noticed the bank's employes and customers seemed to be in a somber mood, and quiet enough to clearly hear the building's well worn, wooden floor creak as it was being walked on.\n\"Everyone so gloomy? Why?\", Chessah asked.\n\"In provinces north of here, animals from North Angola crossed over. Our southern provinces. They are now under attack. It started only a while ago\" , a meerkat at a teller desk answered.\n\"A lot of our fellow creatures. They are leaving the country\", a loan officer who knew Annika's family told them. \"You all are doing the right thing by leaving. I'm about ready to get my family. And we too will leave\".\n\"It's horrible\", said Murua.\n\"The country getting like this. We never thought we'd see it\", Banga replied.\n\"No one ever thought it would\", The loan officer added.\nOther customers in the bank began talking about their experiences, and that they were also leaving the country.\nThere wasn't a lot of foreign currency left at the bank, but Zhang, Annika and their families were able to make exchange for some of the Zambian and Mozambique currency needed to get them across the continent. However, the bank had no Indian currency to exchange for them. And in their small town, that was the only bank within an hour's drive.\n\"When you do get to India, exchange your Angolan currency for Indian currency soon as you can\", another bank employee friend of Annika's family said. \"This country could fall any time. Then Angolan currency will be worthless\".\nAs the families left, they bid \"Adeus\" and thanked them for everything, then they got into their cars, and they were on their way down the dirt street, headed for the highway going east out of the country. For many members of the Meerkat Family, this would be the first time in their lives they would travel more than 80 kilometers (50 miles) from their place of birth. On their way out of town, it became evident that others had the same idea of leaving, as they saw other vehicles loaded with belongings headed east like they were. There would still be about 480 kilometers (300 miles) of driving through neighboring Cuando-Cubango Province before they would reach the Zambian border.\nFor much of the family, this was quite an experience in itself to have traveled so far from the place where they were born and had called home.\nTraveling accommodations were a bit crowded because of personal belongings that were also packed inside the cars.\nThe only place in Moze and Leia's Opal wagon for their daughter to sit was on Mom's lap...There was stuff also on the front seat.\nNajja's truck was so loaded, there was also stuff packed on the passenger's seat and on the passenger's side floorboard.\nBron and Lacara's wagon was packed so full of stuff, Cheesah had to ride on the front seat squeezed in between Mom and Dad...and a 1954 Rekord Olympia is not a very wide car.\nZhang, Annika and her sister Abina was also riding with a car full of belongings in Annika's car.\nSo was Banga and Murua's old Volvo wagon full of stuff.\nAnd Yousaf and Nafula's Renault 4, van body car was packed full as well.\nTwo of the station wagons in the convoy, Moze and Leia's Opal and Banga and Murua's Volvo, had roof racks, and they were loaded with everything that can be loaded on them.\nThere was to be yet another family group traveling with their vehicles loaded the same way, including relatives from Yousaf and Leia's families. They would be making the trip a day behind. \nAfter hours of driving, the Meerkats didn't have many kilometers left to travel before reaching the border into Zambia. At this point in their journey, the road out of Angola had become incredibly crowded. They've never seen this many vehicles on the highways before: cars, trucks, vans, buses, bicycles, taxi scooters and even a few wagons drawn by non-antrho beasts of burden. There was even an old Land Rover that was so packed and crowded, two linsangs had to sit on the edges the window openings of the back doors with their legs inside the vehicle as they rode mostly outside while holding onto the roof rack. Animals of about every species the family knew of were in that exodus on the way out of the country. And the dust was terrible as the highway leaving Angola, like many others, was a dirt and gravel roadway. As the meerkat family's convoy of cars neared the eastern border, heading out of Angola, they noticed the side of the highway going east out of country was crowded with the exodus of fleeing vehicles, including their own. And at times, they would see vehicles on the shoulder of the highway that had broken down. The side of the highway coming in from the east, going back west into Angola, didn't have a single vehicle on it. After a while, the meerkat families finally made it to the Zambian border, and at least getting out of Angola was a welcome sight. They've now gotten that far. The eastbound side of the highway was backed up with so many vehicles leaving the country, a hyena and a cheetah at the check point, going into the next country, just waved them on through as long as a vehicle didn't look suspicious to them.\n This was the Meerkat Family's first time out of the country, except for Annika's brother, Najja, who had before made deliveries for customers in and out of Namibia with his truck. Once in Zambia, they found out that driving in that country was done on the left side of the road, unlike in Angola where traffic travels on the right, which did take some getting use to. The highway past the Zambian border was a better roadway than the dirt and gravel road back in Angola. At least it was substandard asphalt paved, although unmarked, barely wider than one lane and with occasional potholes anyone driving on it would have to watch out for. It was a very good road compared to the dirt, rocky and mud roads the meerkats have known all their lives.\n\n[hugethumb]1184821[/hugethumb]\nThe Road Trip.\n\nAs the family continued on their way east, there were fewer vehicles on the road with them due to many refugees traveling off to different destinations. Many of those fleeing Angola either had different destinations to other countries within Africa, or to different sea ports to board different ships to different continents.\nAt the end of each day, the family would keep their cars going through the night. During the trip, they would take turns driving while others slept along the way so they could keep going until they reached Port of Beria.\nYousaf and Nafula's Renault was always the last car, and Moze and Leia's '70 Opal wagon running as lead car. That was because they were the only two cars that had properly working lights...the '70 Opal and the Renault. \nNajja's old Thames truck had only one taillight with no brake light.\nThe left taillight on Bron and Lacara's '54 Opal wagon had a wiring problem, leaving only the right taillight, with it's broken lens, working.\nBanga and Murua's Volvo wagon had either a bad light switch or bad ground where the taillights would stay lit only half the time.\nAnd the taillights on Annika's Moskvitch never had worked even during the years as far back as when her parents had owned the car. \nMoze and Leia's Opal wagon had to be the lead car also because of the problem with the brakes, so that left the Renault being the tail car.\nAnd even at that, because of a wiring problem no one could ever track down, the lights on Yousaf and Nafua's Renault were turned on and off by attaching and removing a wire with an alligator clamp directly to the hot lead of the battery...They had to open the hood each time to turn the lights on and off. \nDuring the 2nd day of the road trip, on the way through Zambia, the meerkat families stopped at a few banks along the way and tried to exchange their Angolan currency for Indian currency, or for any country's currency that will still be accepted for exchange in the event Angola was taken over. But none of the banks would exchange it. It was beginning to look as though the family was not going to be able dump the currency everyone knew was becoming worthless.\nAt one bank, a genet teller got her manager, a serval, to see what he can do for them.\n\"I'm really sorry\", the serval told them. \"No financial institution in their right mind will accept Angolan currency with that country about to collapse\".\nSome of the family members explained their situation to the serval, and expressed concerns about arriving to a new country, being broke.\nThe serval told them, \"Here's what I can do. We don't have Indian currency. But I can exchange to you Zambian currency, allowing 20% of what your Angolan currency is now worth. It's the best I can do. Any bank in India will exchange our currency. I'll just dump off the Angolan currency into an investment, but I'm still taking a financial risk\".\n\"We're really going to take a big loss on that deal\", Zhang noted.\n\"Son, it's all we got\", replied Bron. \"Part of something is better than all of nothing\".\nSo it was decided by the meerkats to take the serval up on his offer. Zhang, Annika and their families would not be going to India rich. But at least they would not be broke.\nBron, being poor all his life like the rest of the family, never owned a motor vehicle before the Rekord wagon his mother-in-law gave to him and his wife. But the 51 years of wear on the car became obvious while still coming through Zambia, about an hour's drive before they got to the Zimbabwean border. The engine in that old, beat up Rekord station wagon developed a sharp clacking sound.\nCheesah, who was sitting on the front seat, squeezed in between his parents, asked, \"Esse barulho vindo de o boter. What is it?\" (That noise coming from the car. What is it?).\n\"A connecting rod bearing in the engine. I think it's gone out, Son\", Bron told Cheesah as he flashed the headlights to get Najja's attention to pull his truck over and stop. \n\"Bron, voce certeza?\" (Bron, are you sure?), Lacara asked, hoping Bron was wrong.\n\"Estou certeza. Soa como uma haste\" (I am sure. Sounds like a rod), Bron replied as he prepared to pull the car off the road behind Najja's truck. \nAs Najja pulled over, he flashed his lights for Moze, who was driving the lead car with his wife Leia and daughter Dora, to pull over. Then the other three remaining cars with Zhang, Annika, Abina, Banga, Murua, Nafula and Yousaf pulled over to the shoulder of the road behind Bron and Lacara's car.\n\"Qual e o problema?, Banga asked Bron as he walked up to Bron's car, still idling and engine clacking. \"Oh nao. That don't sound good\".\n\"Sounds like a connecting rod. I think it's getting ready to go. .\", said Bron as other family members came walking up.\n\"Bron, If seu boter doesn't make it, Lacara, Cheesah, and you can ride with us\", Banga offered. \"It might be a little crowded\".\n\"At least seu boter does have a back seat\", Lacara jokingly said to Banga as others laughed.\n\"Cheesah could ride with Annika, Abina and I\", Zhang said as Annika nodded in agreement.\n\"I could make room on my flat bed for your belongings\", Annika's younger brother, Najja, told Bron. The truck was already pretty well loaded. \nhttp://youtube.com/watch?v=Ajn6sZmvTWw .\n\"Well, let's see how far este velho boter will make it\", said Bron.\nIt was decided to let Bron drive up ahead of Moze and Leia's car, so if his car had anymore trouble, the others would know to stop. Moze and Liea's Opal wagon was to follow behind Bron and Lacara's car, but maintaining a good distance because of a bad master cylinder that required pumping the brakes to get the car stopped. \nEveryone got back into their vehicles and continued their journey.\nAs the family drove on, the clacking in Bron's station wagon got progressively louder.\n\"How far will it go, Dad\", Cheesah asked Bron.\n\"Nao Eu sabe, Son. There's no way to tell\", Bron answered. \"It can go anytime. And I've seen them run for months that way\".\nAbout a half an hour later, the meerkats got the answer to Cheesah's question of how far will it go. That's when the rapid clacking gave way to a loud \"BOOMP\". The rear wheels locked up (rear wheel drive). Bron pressed the clutch petal, disengaging the rest of the drive train from the locked up engine and allowing the rear wheels to turn again. The meerkats in the the other vehicles could see steam coming from Bron's car, and knew to pull over. Bron's car had finally quit running.\n\"Para este boter. O fim da estrada\" (For this car. The end of the road) Bron said as the car coasted to a stop off the side of the road.\nWhen Bron got out and raised the hood of his car, he could clearly see a connecting rod driven out through the side of the engine, and steam and coolant blowing out.\n\"Looks like it's gone it's last kilometer, Dad\", said Zhang after he walked up and had a look at the engine.\n\"Nao Eu posso queixar. Tem sido um boter bom\" (I can't complain, Son. It's been a good car), Bron told Zhang. \"I just wish it had not picked now. Nao a time like this to quit on me\".\n\"A good boter it has been\", Lacara added. \"Tres geracoes, it has been with our family\" (three generations...). \nThe arrangements that were discussed earlier, when Bron's car was first showing signs of trouble, were carried through with. And a note was put on the car to let the grand parents and parent's siblings know every thing was OK. They were traveling in a different group, about half a day behind, and everyone knew they would recognize Bron's car and be concerned. Along with transferring belongings from Bron's car, they also collected the gasoline from the fuel tank for the other vehicles. They had nothing for a siphon hose, so a hole was made in the bottom of the tank with a hammer and a screwdriver held in a pair of vice grips (metal tank), then wallowing the hole out bigger with the screwdriver. Then a beat up, old gas can that Najja had in his truck was placed under to catch the stream of gasoline. When the can would fill up, a rag was held tightly on the hole while the can was being emptied into other vehicles.\n\"Pai. Leia e Eu tenho um pode agua com um bico\" (Dad. Leia and I have a water can with a spout), Moze called out to Bron as Leia held the can up so Bron could see it.\n\"Traze lo aqui\" (Bring it here), said Bron.\nBoth cans were alternately placed back under the tank of Bron's disabled car and the process was repeated until the tank had emptied out. A moment was also taken to collect the marker light bulbs and headlights to change out on the other 6 volt vehicles that needed them. Being that their vehicles had the old style, round, sealed beam, glass headlights, they were interchangeable.\nAnd the battery in Yousaf and Nafula's Renault 4 had not been holding a charge very well lately. That became more so obvious when Yousaf couldn't get the car to crank anymore. When Yousaf turned the key, the solenoid would make a rapid clicking sound.\n\"Being that my boter nao runs anymore, the battery we can put in seu boter\", Bron offered to Yousaf.\n\"My boter. It has a seis volt system\", Yousaf mentioned. \"Obrigato a mesmo\" (Thank you the same).\n\"My Rekord is seis volt also\", Bron replied, that being a sigh of relief to Yousaf and Nafula.\nFortunately, the electrical system in Bron and Lacara's disabled Rekord wagon was a 6 volt system like in Yousaf and Nafula's Renault 4, so the batteries were able to be swapped out. They had to set the battery from the Rekord so it sat crooked in the Renault in order to get one of the cables to reach, but once the battery was changed out, Yousaf and Nafula's car was able to start. \nThe last of the belongings in Bron's car were loaded onto Najja's, already loaded, 1962 Thames K series flatbed, and some belongings into Moze and Leia's car, with 5 year old daughter, Dora, riding on Mom's lap. Their Opel station wagon didn't have room to take on any more luggage.\nAfter everything was tended to, Cheesah wanted to see the blown engine in his dad's car. Thirteen year olds have a way of being curious.\n\"We don't have time for that, Cheesah\", Bron told him. \"Get over there with your brother and Annika. You're riding with them\".\n\"Cheesah! Anda SO.\" (Cheesah. Come on-SO), Zhang called with Angolan dialect emphasis 'SO' to his younger brother, motioning him over with his paw. \"Get over here.\"\nCheesah got in with with Zhang and Annka. And Bron and Lacara got in with Annika's parents, Banga and Murua. Annika's sister Abina, got in with Zhang and Annika to make room in her parent's car for Bron and Lacara.\nJust before they got back on their way, Annika's oldest sister Nafula and her husband Yousaf, asked everyone to travel at a slower pace, because they've also been having problems for the past 30 kilometers with their Renault trying to overheat.\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghtZ9TYVvr8\nThe meerkats continued their journey, on their way to Port of Beira, abandoning Bron's old station wagon on the shoulder of the highway. A note for the other group of relatives had been placed on the windshield, and the old battery from Yousaf and Nafula's car was left on the passenger's side floor board. The key to the doors, and the screw driver used to turn the ignition switch was left on the dash. And the title was placed on the driver's seat with Bron and Lacara's signature signing the car off to whoever wants an old, beat up, 1954, Rekord Olympia station wagon with a blown engine.\nMoze and Liea's Opal wagon was always the lead car because of the problem it had of having to pump the brakes to stop the car. The meerkats figured a car with bad brakes shouldn't be behind the other vehicles. The next vehicle to follow was Najja's old Thames truck \n http://youtube.com/watch?v=wunPE65r3dE \nBehind Najja's truck was Annika's 1967 Moskvitch. \nhttp://youtube.com/watch?v=cjA5bxm1dng \nThe next vehicle was Banga and Murua's 1961 Volvo Duett wagon with the vibration in the front wheel\nhttp://moyomongoose.deviantart.com/art/Meerkats-Riding-in-their-Old-Ragged-Car-569906748\nAnd the last vehicle, Yousaf and Nafula's Renault 4 which had developed the engine temperature issue. \nAs the journey continued, Bron and Lacara noticed that Banga and Murua's car wasn't doing much better. The clutch was showing signs of wear, there was an intermittent vibration from one of the front wheels.\n\"Your car. I hope it holds up better than mine did\", Bron said to Banga.\n\"Well, the clutch slips a bit. That's been going on three months\", said Banga. \"But it's the wheel. I'm worried about THAT. It only started since we began this trip. And it's gotten worse\".\nIn other parts of the world, those old cars the meerkats were driving would be valuable to antique car collectors. But where they had come from in Southern Angola, they were just old, beat up cars that had been around almost forever, and far from being in pristine condition.\nA part of the Meerkat Family's road trip to Port of Beira took them through a Northern part of Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia), and through some mountainous terrain. Like in Zambia, traffic there also travels on the left side of the road. From there on, their trip went pretty much without vehicles breaking down. And by this time, they were driving on roads, such as Route A3 toward Mutare, that were far better than the roads they knew back in Angola, which were dirt, and what few that were paved were full of pot holes.\nhttp://youtube.com/watch?v=E1dKQCPY6Ok\nhttp://youtube.com/watch?v=dfBjbpRGR_U\nThese were well built asphalt roads, smooth and with no potholes.\nhttp://youtube.com/watch?v=zL6Atzgnquo\n Although the roads had no pavement markings, they were plenty wide enough for vehicles to navigate with lots of room...except for on the bridges. When the meerkats arrived into the city of Mutare, they were impressed with how much more modern and beautiful it is than the poverty plagued towns and villages they knew back in their old homeland. And it wasn't very far before they would be crossing the border into Mozambique.\nThis was also the first time some of the family members had ever seen traffic lights, or even knew what they meant, which presented a bit of a problem. At a red light, Moze thought you were suppose to treat a red light like a stop sign, and when the traffic was clear on the adjacent street, he drove on through. Najja, being a truck driver, had been to big cities before and knew not to proceed until the light was green. \n\"It looks like Najja is have problems with his truck\", Zhang said as he stepped out of Annika's car to ask Najja what was wrong with the truck.\n\"Look up there\", Cheesah said, pointing ahead as a City of Mature police officer, an aardwolf, pulled Moze over just beyond the intersection. \n\"Zhang. Cheesah. Your brother ran a red light\", Annika said...From her past trips to Ondjiva, Annika knew.\nBanga then pulled his Volvo wagon around to Najja's truck as Yousaf blew the horn in his Renault to stop Banga from running the light...Yousaf also knew because he grew up in a big city.\n\"What's wrong?\", Banga called from the driver's window back to Yousaf .\n\"You go through while that light is red, you get a ticket. That's why that officer pulled Moze over\", Yousaf answered, calling from his driver's window up to Banga.\n\"Even if it is clear to go?\", Banga asked with surprise, calling from the driver's window back to Yousaf.\n\"Even if it is clear\", Yousaf affirmed. calling from his driver's window up to Banga.\n\"Dad, that red light means do not go\", Najja called from his truck to Banga.\nAbout that time the light turned green, and the rest of the family proceeded through the intersection and over to where Moze, Leia and Dora were pulled over.\n\"What is this?...May I help you all?\", the aardwolf police officer asked after the four other vehicles pulled up.\n\"We are traveling with them\", Najja called from his truck to the police officer.\nAbout that time, another police officer drove up...a rather short, jovial, happy-go-lucky bonobo.\n\"You pull ALL these over? Ho ho\", the bonobo laughed to the aardwolf as he stepped out of his patrol car.\n\"Just the black station wagon. This meerkat ran a light\", the aardwolf replied.\nMoze and some of the other family members explained that where they were from, they have never seen traffic lights before.\n\"Them gonna put us in o jail?\", Dora, then age five, began to cry.\n\"Ohhh, he he. No we're not, little cub\", the bonobo assured Dora, then added, \"...Long as you not a little bandit who robbed a candy store\".\n\"Uau! Nao!...Eu nao do esta\", Dora replied as everyone got a laugh.\nThe bonobo's charismatic, bubbly personality laid aside any fears Dora had that the aardwolf was going to arrest everyone. \nDuring the conversations, the meerkats mentioned they were refugees from Angola, which the officers already figured from the tags on the vehicles. \n\"Is there one among you with a valid license who can drive this car the rest of the way to where ever it is you're going?\", the aardwolf asked the meerkats, being that Moze or Leia didn't have a driver's license.\nAmong all the family members traveling, the only ones with valid driver's licenses were Najja, his brother-in-law Yousaf, his dad Banga, and his youngest sister Annika...Moze, Leia, Zhang, Cheesah and both of Annika's older sisters had never had driver's licenses. And Bron, Lacara, and Annika's mom Murua had licenses that were expired...The tags on the vehicles however were still valid.\nThe aardwolf was inclined to start writing up tickets, but the bonobo mentioned that with the meerkats being refugees, they would most likely not show up to pay the fines anyway.\nThe aardwolf and the bonobo debated the matter between each other for a few minutes longer, with the bonobo putting an emphasis the fact the meerkats have been through a lot being refugees, and the fact they are on their way out of Zimbabwe anyway. The two officers finally agreed to let the meerkats off with warnings, and give a brief pep talk to them about what the different colours of a traffic light mean, and that you don't treat a red light like a stop sign. After that, the meerkats were allowed to continue on their way. \nWhile in Mutare, the meerkats stopped at a petrol station and fueled up their vehicles. As the rest of the meerkats were fueling their vehicles, Bron had noticed that Moze had the hood up on his car a lot longer than it would take to check the oil.\n\"Is everything OK, Son?\", Bron asked as he noticed Moze was tending to something with cap off the car's distributor.\n\"It will be, Dad\", Moze answered as he was rubbing a small piece of emery cloth between the points. \"It's these old points. Trying to get more life out of them. They should have been replaced a long time ago\".\n\"We did hear your boter backfire a few times. It was as we slowed down to pull in here\", Bron added as Cheesah came over to check it out.\n\"This time, it looks like I'll have to re-adjust the dwell. I'll need something for a feeler gauge\", said Moze.\n\"Cheesah, go to the attendant. Ask for a book of matches\", Bron told his youngest son.\n\"Uma pacote de fosforos? (A packet of matches?)\", Cheesah questioned.\n\"Just do as I'm telling you. You'll learn something in a few minutes\", Bron told him. \"Ir busca la SO. Ir, ir.\"(Go get it-SO. Go, go).\nSo Cheesah went and got the matches as he was told, and after a minute, came back and pawed the matchbook over to his dad.\n\"This is the universal feeler gauge\", Moze told younger brother Cheesah as Bron pawed them over to Moze.\nAs Moze adjusted the dwell with an allen wrench from his tool box, and with the matchbook cover as a feeler gauge, Bron and Moze explained the procedure to Cheesah.\nBefore long, Moze had everything put back together and ready to go. Moze didn't do anything with the timing. The meerkats have always timed their cars by ear anyway. If it was close, it was good enough to drive down the road.\nThere was also the matter of the left tie rod end on Annika's Moskvitch being held together with bailing wire. Due to the many kilometers of driving since they left Angola, Annika had Zhang check it for her, and so far it had been holding together OK.\nAs the family went in to get some things to eat along the way, they had noticed the prices for food items, as well as the price of the petrol they got for the cars, were very high.\n\"Everything here. In your store. You charge so high. Why is that so?\", Bron asked the store owner in English.\nThe store's owner, a linsang who spoke Chishona better than the broken English he could speak, replied, \"No no no. No me store only. This way...it for all place. This place, that place, an' more place\".\n\"So the high prices. It is like this in Mutare everywhere?\", Lacara asked.\n\"Ohhh, no Mutare only\", the linsang answered. \"All Zimbabwe this way. You see, economy...it no good\".\n\"How pretty Mutare looks, one would not guess that\", Moze commented.\n\"Mutare, she beautiful city, yes. Zimbabwe no look bad way when you see city, but it bad\", the linsang said, then continued, \"But economy, it bad thing. Price for this an' that go crazy it bad thing. For Zimbabwe, price for this an' that, they again go up, an' again go up. It no stop an' this day an' that day it no stop. And for buy this thing, an' that thing, an' for buy food for family, more an' more money we need. It crazy\".\nWith what the store's owner had explained, the Meerkats understood that Zimbabwe was obviously ravaged with rampant inflation. That being the case, you could only agree with the high prices and go ahead and pay them. \nIn the store, Cheesah was still amazed by the electric lights, like the ones he had been noticing in the buildings they stopped at along their journey. Although Bron, Lacara, the grandparents and some of Annika's family had seen electric lights in the more developed parts of their old homeland, the rest of the family members had never seen them in buildings until they began the trip. What little bit of lighting that worked on their motor vehicles was the only electric lighting most of them had been familiar with. Zhang had seen electrical service in the metal fabrication shop where he got his apprentice training. And he had used power tools and equipment and worked by electric lighting. But the shop had their own industrial size generator to run large machinery with. And a 220 volt, 50 cycle, step down transformer was also wired to the generator for paw held power tools. All of which was powered up by a large, twin cylinder, double stroke, steam engine that had one of those old type, riveted boilers with a wood burning fire box. However, Zhang's younger brother Cheesah had never known that electrical service or electric lights even existed in buildings. Where the family was from in the Cunene Province of Angola, a power grid did not exist. It had always been sunlight by day, and coal oil lamps, candles or moonlight by night, except for motor vehicle lights and onsite generated power for industrial purposes.\nOnce the meerkats were on their way again, it wasn't long before they got onto the Beira Road just out of Mutare, which took them onto Route EN6 into Mozambique. Like it was, traveling through Zambia and Zimbabwe, they were to continue driving on the left side of the highway, which had been proving difficult because that put the driver's side of their vehicles away from the center of the road, with the exception of Najja's old Thames flat bed. It was built with the driver's side on the right. Now, most of their road trip was behind them. That part of Mozambique is not very far of a drive between it's west border and Port of Beira. The meerkats were happy to find that Route EN6 going through Mozambique was also a well built road like A3 and the Beira Road were, when they came through Zimbabwe. Some time later, the asphalt pavement left off where concrete highway began. Although the concrete portion of the road was one of the country's older stretches of highway that had occasional patch repairs now and then, it was still fairly smooth, and decent to drive on. It was originally built to the old 3rd world country standards, barely wide enough for two lanes with no markings on it, and no place to pull off except into knee high weeds and jungle growth. Palm trees leaning over the highway from the groves and jungle cast shadows of their palm fronds down onto the concrete surface making the highway appear to have palm frond pattern all over it. And the sound of driving over the expansion joints making that steady rapid >clip clop clip clop clip clop< rhythm, that in combination with the rickety hum of the four cylinder engines their old, ragged cars were equipped with, was soothing to those who were not driving to fall asleep by.\nA few hours before sunset, local thunderstorms began moving through. There was a really big storm the family drove right into, with lots of rain, hard winds and lightning, and some of the lightning striking pretty close.\nhttp://youtube.com/watch?v=RsucJ5NA5m4 .\nNajja's truck didn't have windshield wipers, so everyone had to pull off onto the shoulder the highway in a spot near those knee high weeds and stop for a couple of hours until the storm passed.\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiAdq26XOqU\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvXG9Lws_-4\nBecause of the amount of time Annika's car was turned off waiting out the storm, the engine would have to warm up again before they could continue on their way. Ever since Annika owned her ragged, old, 1967 Moskvitch, the choke plate had been missing off of the carburetor. A small piece of cardboard was always kept in the glove compartment to use as a temporary choke. After the storm had left, Zhang had to raise the hood and take the top off the air filter housing, and hold that piece of cardboard over the throat of the carburetor while Annika idled the engine until it warmed up. ( http://youtube.com/watch?v=2_vd70JwbyE shows a rickety sounding 1968 Moskvich engine idling. Annika's car doesn't look as nice as the one in the video though.) Once the engine was able to run without the cardboard being held over the carburetor, Zhang put the air filter housing back together, closed the hood, got back into the car, put the piece of cardboard back into the glove compartment, and everyone continued on their way. \nShortly after nightfall, as Annika was driving, Zhang had gotten the radio in her old car to work. Sometimes the radio would play, and sometimes it would not. Annika's car, being older than both Zhang and Anika, had a radio from a different car that was one of those old push button kind. When Zhang tuned it onto an old Angolan jazz song, Annika asked him to leave it tuned there, but reminded him not to turn the volume too high because Cheesah and Abina were asleep on the back seat.\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mv5ql2h7K8\n\"It's one of my favorite songs. Back in the homeland, we use to listen to it\", said Annika. \"But I know it can't be coming from Angola\".\n\"We're to far away to pick up a signal from Angola by now\", replied Zhang. \"Besides that, in Angola, there may not be anymore radio stations left. Those that are, would still conducting emergency broadcasting tonight\".\n\"Those who did not make it out of the country. I really feel for them\", Annika added.\nAs the song played, Zhang and Annika thought about how peaceful it was, the family riding through the warm night in those old vehicles of theirs with the windows down, averaging about 70 kph (45 mph) on that old, narrow, concrete highway that was still wet from freshly fallen rain along some stretches, as they saw the night sky occasionally being lit up by distant thunderstorms, with the car radio making a short crackle from the static of each distant lightning strike. Quite a contrast from what they knew had to be going on back in Angola. \nZhang and Annika heard Cheesah's voice from the back seat, so Zhang looked back to check on his younger brother when he said in his sleep, \"Mmph. Eu quero foda voce. Amo-te\".\nAnnika's sister, Abina, was awaken by what Cheesah had said and thought it was she, Cheesah was laying the love lines on, until she noticed he was still asleep. Zhang and Abina noticed Cheesah, was evidently having one of those sexy dreams. That was obvious by Cheesah's penis poking all the way out of his sheath, erect and occasionally bobbing upward then dropping back down again.\n\"Hey, Cheesah\", Zhang, almost laughing, called to his brother as Abina chuckled, \"In that dream of yours. Who you having sex with?\".\nCheesah responded, while still half asleep, with, \"Uhm...Sim...Hmmm\", then dozed back off to sleep to the song on the car radio and to the rhythm of the car traveling over the highway expansion joints.\n\"I thought the love he wanted to make, he wanted to make to ME\", Abina said with a smile, then observed as she giggled, \"Ooo! Cheesah piu-piu pequeno esta pulando novamente! (Ooo! Cheesah's little pee-pee is hopping up again!)\".\n\"I can well imagine Cheesah's dream. Must be a GOOD one\", Zhang laughed.\nAnnika turned the interior light on and took her eyes off the road only long enough to glance back at her young brother in law.\n\"Aww, let him sleep, Zhang\", Annika said with a chuckle. \"I know it must be a really sweet dream he's having\".\n\"I guess you're right\", Zhang agreed with his wife as they both smiled to each other. After all, no one was really concerned about Cheesah having a wet dream all over the back seat of Annika's car and on Abina. At age 13, Cheesah was a couple of years away from that yet.\n\"Mmm, your brother's sex scent. It is strong\", Annika said to Zhang as Cheesah's smegma had put an odor in the car, smelling like popcorn butter and epoxy.\n\"Cheesah's little xixi menino, among us four brothers. His scent has always been the strongest\", Zhang replied with a smile as he rolled the window on his side the rest of the way down.\n\"Moze, Jorad and I use to tease Cheesah about that. We had a nickname for him.\", Zhang told Annika.\n\"That is?\", Annika asked as she rolled her window down more.\nZhang whispered in Annika's ear, \"Cheesah esta besta de pipoca\", as Annika lit up with a smile.\n\"Aw, that's cute\", Annika said, then giggled. \"I bet he did not like it\".\n\"Oh, he would get mad at us for it\", Zhang replied.\n\"What did they call him?\", Abina asked her sister.\n\"I'll wait and tell you later. When we leave the car\", Annika answered Abina. \"So Cheesah don't wake up and hear it\".\n\"Good idea\", Zhang added.\nIn English, that nickname is, \"Cheesah this popcorn beast\"...or, \"Cheesah this beast of popcorn\" (genital smell of meerkats). \nZhang and Annika continued to watch the distant thunderstorms light up the night sky, with the radio picking up the lightning static, as they continued riding along that long stretch of old concrete highway. The other family member's vehicles were also holding up so far without any more mechanical problems. Then Zhang began to doze off to sleep to an old, 1974, South African ambient tune on the car radio.\nhttps://youtu.be/BIHNXGRy4ag?t=685\nThe Mozambique radio station they were within signal range of seemed to have been playing a lot of Angolan songs that night. The old car being equipped with a column mounted gear shift and a front bench seat made it easy for Zhang to cuddle up beside Annika with no console or floor mounted lever in the way. As Zhang finally fell asleep and laid his head on Annika's side, Annika then put a paw around her husband and continued driving with the other paw on the steering wheel.\n\nThere was yet one more issue with the vehicles to take place before the road trip portion of the journey was to be completed.\nIt was still in the predawn hours, with about an hour's drive before they were to reach Port of Beira. Zhang had by then taken over driving so Annika could get some sleep. The next vehicle ahead of Annika's car was Najja's truck, which Bron was driving so Najja could get some sleep riding with Banga, Murura and Lacara.\nThe stretch of highway they were traveling on still continued as that narrow, unmarked, concrete roadway with the expansion joints that made that >clip clop clip clop clip clop< sound as the wheels of the vehicles ran over them.\nZhang had the radio playing, but softly as not to keep Annika, Abina and Cheesah awake. \nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7VkQYwKMSQ \nSuddenly, there was the loud noise of an unmuffled four cylinder engine from Moze and Liea's car, which was the lead car in the group. Najja's truck swerved to the right side of the highway (the oncoming lane in Mozambique), then Zhang saw a muffler tumbling down the highway, making a spread of sparks in the night each time it hit the pavement. Zhang was barely able to swerve to miss it with the car's tires squealing.\n\"O que e esso, Zhang?!\" (What is it, Zhang?!), Annika said as she was awakened.\n\"O QUE ESTA ACONTECENDO?!\" (WHAT'S GOING ON?!), Cheesah exclaimed as he awoke.\nAbina immediately looked out the back window as she awakened and saw the muffler get knocked into the weeds off of the bumper of Banga's car.\n\"PAI BATER EM ALGUMA COISA!\" (DAD HIT SOMETHING!), Abina exclaimed as Annika looked back to see what was happening.\n\"O silenciador para o boter de Moze. Seu boter perdeu o silenciador\" (The muffler of Moze's car. His car lost the muffler), Zhang said as everyone could hear the loud engine noise emitting from Moze and Liea's Opal station wagon up ahead.\nWhen Yousaf and Nafula rode past in their Renault, the muffler had already come to rest in the weeds off of the highway.\nThe family pulled over and stopped long enough to see if everyone was OK, and swapped their experiences of the incident. \nBesides mentioning how fortunate it was no one got hurt, Moze bought up the point that it was good it wasn't another car that quit running...especially that Banga's car has a vibrating wheel, and Yousaf's car has been running hot.\nBron stated he was thankful he didn't turn Najja's truck over swerving around the muffler Moze's car had lost...Bron not being use to driving Najja's truck.\nBanga admitted he was about to fall asleep at the wheel, and it was striking the muffler with his car that got him wide awake.\nIn spite of how tired Banga was, he was going to continue to drive. But with some pleading from his daughters, Nafula, Abina and Annika, as well as from his wife Murura, his son Najja and his in-law Lacara, who were riding with him, he decided to let Murua take over driving before continuing on their way.\n[hugethumb]1184700[/hugethumb]\nDuring those ten minutes or so, still before dawn,\nwhile the Meerkats were conversing while pulled \nover to the side of the highway in Mozambique,\nthe dad of a creepy rat doctor in India drew his \nlast breath on a hospital bed in El-Minya, Egypt. \n[hugethumb]1184706[/hugethumb]\nNeedless to say, for the rest of the way to Port of Beira, Moze and Liea's Opal wagon was the loudest car in the group, sounding off like and old World War I bi-wing airplane as it went down the road, still lead vehicle ahead of the rest of the vehicles. \nIn another hour or so, the meerkats are to reach Porto da Beira (Port of Beira). \n \n[hugethumb]1184822[/hugethumb]\nArrival into Port of Beira\n\nAfter days on the road, it was shortly after dawn when the Meerkat Families arrived to Port of Beira, Yousaf and Nafula's Renault 4 barely made it with it's sewing machine like sounding engine running hot, and it's radiator beginning to boil over. Moze and Liea's car came through town sounding off without a muffler, giving the locals an early wake up call that they didn't care for. And that vibration in the front wheel of Banga's Volvo wagon had by now became consistent and had gotten worse.\nWith the directions the meerkats had, they were able to find the Sea Port OK, as well as where they were to meet up with Janosch Fossa (pronounced Yonnis Fossa).\n\"Trenger du hjalp?\"(do you need help?), a small black bear asked as he approached the meerkats on the dock.\n\"Nos nao falamos sua lingua\" (we do not speak your language), Lacara replied.\n\"Jeg kan ikke forsta du\" (I can not understand you), said the bear.\n\"Nos falamos Portugues. And we speak English\", Bron, shrugging his shoulders, told the bear.\n\"Oh. I am Norwegian. But I can also speak English\", said the bear. \"I had asked if you needed assistance\".\n\"We sure do\", said Bron. \"We're suppose to meet Captain Janosch Fossa. He is at this sea port, we are told\".\n\"Star of Antananarivo. Janosch Fossa\", the bear affirmed with a smile.\n\"I am Audin Bear\", the bear then introduced himself to the meerkats.\nAfter the meerkats introduced themselves to Audin Bear, Bron told him, \"I take it you know Captain Fossa\".\n\"EVERYONE knows him. He is quite a character, but you'll like him\", Audin told the meerkats.\n\"His freighter is moored not far from here\". Audin continued as he gave further directions where to find Janosch Fossa's freighter, the Star of Antananarivo.\n\"Well, I have to return to my ship\", Audin Bear told the meerkats as they thanked him for the information.\nOnce the meerkats further inquired around for Janosch Fossa, it was obvious that just about everyone knew him, as Audin Bear had told them. The meerkats could see that Captian Janosch Fossa had quite a reputation with shore workers and seafarers. It seemed that everyone they asked, including a mongoose shore worker they talked with for a while, told them, if you are on Janosch Fossa's bad side, he's your worst night mare. But if you are on his good side, he's your best friend, and will do just about anything for you.\nCheesah, forgetting the language difference, told the mongoose, in Portuguese, about how he will try to stay on Yannis's good side.\n\"I don't speak Portuguese\", The mongoose replied, recognizing what language it was.\n\"Oh, sorry. I sometimes forget\", said Cheesah. \"I think I'll try to stay on his good side\".\n\"That must be Yannas coming this way now\", Moze told the families, as he pointed out a fairly well built, male fossa who was approaching them.\n\"He's one of Janosch's crew\", the mongoose told them as he headed back to his work area.\nThe fossa overheard Moze Meerkat. \" I'm not Janosch. I'm Joel Fossa\", he said introducing himself. \"I'm first mate on Janosch Fossa's crew...And I take it you all are the refugees from Angola we are to take to India?\"\n\"Yes we are\", Bron answered. \"We also have others. By morning, they should be here\".\n\"Your captain. We heard a lot about him since we arrived here\", Annika added.\n\"He's a very likable Fossa\", Joel replied. \"Provided you're honest with him, and don't try to take advantage of him\".\nAs Joel Fossa took the meerkats to see Captain Janosch Fossa, the families told of their road trip and how their country of Angola had become politically unstable, and of the paramilitary invasion going on there.\n\"We've been hearing about that\", said Joel. \"I'm glad you were all able to get out when you did\".\n\"Believe me. You're not the only one who is glad of that\", replied Banga. \n\"Well, there it is\", said Joel. \"Star of Antananarivo. That's our vessel.\"\nThere, was moored an 80 year old freighter, that looked like it had seen some years and a lot of sea voyages. But it appeared to be well kept up. The ship had a good coat of paint, the hull being black, white and red, with the upper structure painted in white, and was in fairly immaculate condition for the aged old sea going vessel that it was. It was a ship like the old 'crater-class' kind still left in service, and was very similar in size, type and appearance to the Norwegian freighter S.S. Corvus, built during the same time era. \nhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Corvus#/media/File:SS_Corvus.jpg\nThe Star of Antananarivo hauled things like large machinery and other cargo in wooden crates down in it's hull with a limited amount of items secured on deck...It was NOT the kind of freighter that carries it's cargo in those modern, steel, cargo containers that trucks and trains also carry.\nJoel pointed out the Indian flag on the freighter's stern. \"She use to be registered in Madagascar. Hence why she's named after Madagascar's capitol city.\" said Joel. \"Two years ago, the ship's corporate owners had our ship operate out of India, and registered it as an Indian Vessel\".\n\"Why would they do that?\", Cheesah asked out of a thirteen year old's curiosity.\n\"Corporate?...Who can figure them?\", Joel replied. \"We had an all fossa crew until then. The best crew this ship's ever had. Captain Janosch and his family, and I, took up residence in India to keep our jobs aboard the Star of Antananarivo\".\n\"I take it your old crew did not\", said Moze.\n\"They chose to stay in Madagascar and look for different jobs\", Joel answered. \"The rest of our crew we now have are native resident of India who hired on after the registration change. At times, Janosch and I have to get after some of them for one thing or another\".\nAs everyone climbed up the gangway to the deck of the freighter, a feeling of excitement mounted. Although the meerkats have been in small river vessels before back in Angola, this was their first time aboard a large, sea going vessel.\n\"You must be the refugees\", a large, burly built, male fossa called out as he greeted the meerkats out on the deck. \"I'm Janosch Rakoto Fossa\".\n(Janosch is pronounced as \"Yonnis\")\nThen the meerkats introduced themselves, and Janosch and Joel introduced the meerkats to the rest of the crew.\n\"THERE is a crew member for you. You can be friends with him on the way over\", Lacara said to Cheesah as she pointed out a young fossa about Cheesah's age, and as some of the crew chuckled.\n\"Oh, he's not a crew member\", Janosch said to Lacara. \"He's one of my sons, Habbar. He wanted to come along with me on a voyage\".\nIt was getting into the hot part of the day, so Janosch invited everyone to the ship's galley where everyone got better acquainted...A tour of the ship can be later in the cool of the evening. Janosch had some food ordered up, and got out couple of cases of THB (Three Horses Beer) for who ever wanted some.\nhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Horses_Beer#/media/File:THB_Pilsener.JPG\n\"We enjoy a drink now and then while at port\", said Janosch Fossa. \"But when we're out at sea, this stuff stays locked up\".\nThe meerkats had stories to tell of their road trip, Angola's national troubles, and of the war with UNITA ten years earlier. Janosch and Joel had stories to tell of their experiences out at sea, and ports they've been to around the world. Janosch Fossa had some things to say about how the corporate owners of the ship had never been aboard a sea going vessel in their lives, and how they know nothing about navigating one.\n\"Those corporate know-it-alls would get lost on a pond in a row boat\", said Janosch.\n\"Investors is all they are. Grabbing a rupee, an ariary-ariary, a pound or a dollar every chance they get is all they know\", Boatswain Roy Fox added as Janosch Fossa nodded in agreement.\nMoze, Zhang and Janosch had a lot in common, being the tough types. And Janosch, like Bron's sons and family, also came from a dirt poor family where he had a hard life growing up near Toamasina, in Madagascar. Zhang, Moze and Janosch had lots to talk about. They were about like drinking buddies from the get go. However, it didn't take much beer to get Janosch and his crew, or the meerkats in a festive mood as it was only on occasion any of them drank alcohol beverages. The captain and crew of the Star of Antananarivo never had alcohol while out at sea...a rule Captain Janosch Fossa strictly enforced. And because the meerkats had always been so poor back in Angola, they seldom had enough money to spare for things like the luxury of alcohol beverages.\nAfter they had a couple of drinks, Janosch would occasionally say something in Malagasy or French, and a merkats would remind him, \"We don't speak French\", or just simply say, \"Nao compreendo\". And a meerkat would occasionally tell Janosch something in Portuguese, and Janosch would reply, \"I don't speak Portuguese\" or \"Tsy azoko\" (I don't understand). But they all did speak English.\nIt was a festive atmosphere as they were playing some Malagasy folklore music from some CDs that Janosch Fossa had aboard the ship. \nhttp://youtube.com/watch?v=7rVLPBqCH3w -\n http://youtube.com/watch?v=6L7u3pvqXaE to mention just a couple. \nSome of the tables and chairs were moved aside to make an improvised dance floor, and everyone had a good time. Zhang and Annika danced to some slower songs Janosch had chose for them, out of concern for the unborn cub Annika was pregnant with. \nhttp://youtube.com/watch?v=ajlVbrqjbx8 - \nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSE1B3qwNnA&nohtml5=False \nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIhNGxODaTA&nohtml5=False\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVIfvEnIXCM&index=110&list=PLVCbuZI5piz8agTkPJcDJWsewkAPF5fP5 .\nJanosch' son, Habbar Fossa, got out a checker board, and he and Cheesah enjoyed several games of checkers.\nMoze noticed a book on one of the galley's tables, titled, 'Ny Baiboly'.\n\"Ne Baboly?\", Moze asked, looking through the pages written in Malagasy.\n\"It's a Malagasy edition of the Bible\", Janosch Fossa answered. \"It's been in here since I became captain of this ship\".\nJanosch then went on to explain that back when the Star of Antananarivo was still registered in Madagascar, and when the ship still had it's all fossa crew, many of the crew members had a belief in a religion common to Madagascar in which God is worshiped through deceased ancestors. \n\"On me, THAT'S a new one\", Bron mentioned.\n\"It goes back many generations\", Janosch Fossa added. \"It's believed the dead protect the living...At the time, that's when I finally decided to keep a Bible in here. Some of my crew members would pick it up and read it. I think it did some of them some good\". \n\"They needed a Bible from you have told us\", said Lacara.\nJanosch Fossa then went on to say, \"Did you know in the south of Madagascar, they even take their deceased relatives out from their tombs every seven years...\". \n\"EEEWOOO!\", Cheesah exclaimed as he dropped a checker game piece he was about to move. \n\"They believe it's so the spirits of the dead ancestors don't feel forgotten\", Janosch's son, Habbar, told Cheesah.\n\"That is louco\", Lacara retorted.\nJanosch then continued, \"I know...It is...My wife and I never taught our cubs any of that\", as he picked up the copy of Ny Baiboly from where Moze had set it down, then said, \"What we've taught our cubs comes from here\".\nKaamil Civet, the ship's assistant engineer, mentioned, \"I have an aunt and uncle who are Hindu. I've been trying to get them to get out of that for a long time\".\n\"Sometimes that's not easy\", Janosch replied.\n\"If that way they were raised for all their life, it IS not easy\", Bron added.\nFor the the following 20 minutes or so, Captain Janosch Fossa, the Meerkat Family and the ship's crew members had a pretty interesting conversation about religion, church and spiritual matters.\nAs Habbar and Cheesah began another game of checkers, Janosch had Second Mate Nandoh Orangutan go bring the camera from the ship's bridge. \nA few photos were taken of the occasion such as of Zhang, Moze and Janosch. And of Cheesah and Habbar standing side by side with paws around each others shoulders, and various candid shots of the others...with Janosch Fossa's camera. The meerkats never owned a camera, except for an old, stolen, 35mm Leitz which had been in the family for three generations which the shutter wore out on 20 years earlier. So Janosch did promise to later send the meerkats some prints.\nLater when it was getting to be evening as the day got cooler, Janosch Fossa gave the meerkats a tour of the ship, after which it came time to discuss business. Captain Janosch Fossa informed everyone that the Star of Antananarivo was to set out to sea for India the morning after tomorrow. That would allow plenty of time to get the meerkat's vehicles loaded aboard the following day, and for the rest of the relatives to arrive in a few hours. Janosch also mentioned, that in the morning, he'll have jobs assigned to the able bodied members of the family as their means to earn the family's passage on their way to India. Janosch also mentioned that on the way there, there will be a stop in Madagascar. \nLater that evening, First Mate Joel Fossa showed the meerkats their sleeping quarters and a place to bathe. It had been the first time they've had a bath and a place where they can sleep comfortably since they've left Angola. They've been sleeping in their cars while others took turns driving on the way over. \nLater, it was getting to be bedtime, and for some of the family, it was the first time in their lives they actually slept on a real bed instead of old, ragged blankets spread onto a dirt floor...In fact, Cheesah began laying a blanket onto the floor before Joel Fossa recommended to Cheesah that a bed would be more comfortable.\nAfter Cheesah took Joel's advice and picked the blanket back up off the floor then crawled onto the bed, he said, \"Like you said, Joel. This IS nice\".\n\"Is this your first time on a bed like this?\", Joel asked Cheesah.\n\"Blankets on a dirt floor. That has always been our bed\", Cheesah's dad, Bron, said to Joel.\n\"Something this good, I never slept on before\", Cheesah answered.\nThis was the first time in Cheesah's life he had ever known what it was to lay on a bed.\nJoel then thought of an aunt, uncle and cousins of his own family who use to always sleep on old blankets on the floor of their home in Toamasina, that was until the family was able to help them do better...but a DIRT floor...At least Joel Fossa's aunt, uncle and cousins had a wooden plank floor to sleep on before they had beds.\nJoel Fossa and the meerkats talked for a little while more before everyone finally dozed off to sleep.\n\nAt about 5:30 in the morning, other vehicles were arriving. It was the rest of the family members. Those were the siblings and surviving parents of Banga, Murua and Bron, Lacara, as well as Yousaf and Leia's relatives. The rest of the family got out of bed and went out to greet them, and the arriving family members were introduced to Janosch Fossa and crew.\n\"That's what I call a big crew\", First mate Joel Fossa said as he noticed how many meerkat family members had just arrived.\n\"Well. We have a full house sailing with us now\", Captain Janosch Fossa laughed.\nLacara's mom, Mylah, told her son-in-law, Bron, how worried everyone was when they saw Bron's broken down, abandoned, Opal station wagon on the roadside in Zambia, until they got out and read the note on the car explaining everything. Mylah added that she was so happy that everyone was OK.\n\"That old, one ton truck of yours. I thought you were going to drive it here\", Bron told his brother-in-law, Amos.\n\"I started the trip with it\", said Amos. \"We lost it on the way. About 300 kilometers before we saw your car. One of the axle shafts came out of the rear end. It's sitting on three wheels as we speak. On the side of the road, back there in Zambia\".\n\"We thought a tire would go flat on us\", Yousaf's mom, Zoe, mentioned as Yousaf's dad, Oswald, pointed to the right front tire on their Opal Kapitan, which had a strip of rubber hanging from it.\n\"Just as we got into town, it started slapping the road, Oswald said.\n\"We should be thankful though. These old vehicles we still have. They did make it here.\", said Banga.\n\"That reminds me,\" Yousaf added. \"About one of the tie rod ends on my car. It needs to be rewired back together. But for now, I have to get this running hot problem fixed\".\n\"A wired tie rod end. You car too?\", Zhang replied to Yousaf.\n\"I have one like it on MY car. It's the same way\", Annika added as Zhang and Yousaf chuckled.\n\"Stay on top of that you should. Never let a tie rod fall apart on you\", Oswald reminded them.\n\"Janosch\", Joel called to him.\n\"What is it?\", Janosch asked.\n\"I hope those meerkats find a better way of life in India than they had in Angola\", said Joel.\n\"I hope so too, Joel\", replied Janosch. \"I hope so\".\n\n[hugethumb]1184830[/hugethumb]\nThe Voyage\n\nAt dawn, everyone had a good breakfast, then Janosch Fossa assigned the males their work assignments for the duration of the trip. Part of Cheesah's area of responsibility was cleaning the restrooms. He didn't like it, but someone has to do it. Some of the females shared in kitchen work and other domestic type work. And Janosch reminded his son, Habbar, to get some of his school work done that day. Being that Janosch's sons like to come along aboard the ship at times, Janosch's cubs are home schooled. \nAt about noon, Janosch Fossa set some time aside to get the Meerkat's vehicles loaded into the deck of the freighter. A car was driven into a cage like structure, then lifted onto the ship with one of it's cranes. The car was then driven onto the deck. Then the same was done for the next vehicle. When Banga began to drive his old Volvo Duett station wagon over to the ship, the car lost it's front right wheel. Banga's car, now on three remaining wheels, skidded to a stop on it's front spindle and control arm where the front wheel came off. As Banga was sitting in the driver's seat, saying, \"Perdeu uma roda! Uma porcaria! (Lost a wheel! Crap!)\", the wheel rolled off the edge of the dock and >SPLASH< in into the water.\n\"That's another vehicle on three wheels\", said Amos Meerkat.\n\"The vibration in the wheel on the way here. I think that's what it was all about\", Bron said to Banga.\n\"Blown wheel bearings\", said Banga. \"Irritated over it I am. But at least the car got us here\".\n\"I just thank God it fell off HERE, and not while we were coming down the road\", Murua added.\nIt was decided that Banga Meerkat's old Volvo, being that it also had a slipping transmission, wasn't worth taking along. So it was left for Port Authority to dispose of it how they saw fit. Janosch Fossa arranged for a wood shipping crate for the contents from Banga's car. It was like pulling whales teeth to get a crate, but Janosch did manage to get one.\n\nOn the following morning, the Star of Antananarivo was pulling out of port.\n\"For an old ship, it sure runs quiet\", said Cheesah.\n\"We're being pulled out by tug boats right now\", replied Cheesah's new found friend, Habbar Fossa. \"Our ship isn't running yet. When we get away from everything, we'll drop the tow lines, then the ship will run on it's own.\"\nAfter the the ship was towed away from dock, and the tug lines released, the Star of Antananarivo's twin diesel engines were revved up, then the ship was on it's own heading to open waters.\n\"The motor that must be, isn't it\", Cheesah said to Habbar.\n\"Engines. Diesel engines. Two of them\", Habbar corrected Cheesah. \"We're running on our way now\". \nOnce out in the open water they were on their way. A few of the meerkats, at the ship's stern, looked back to watch the African Continent slip out of sight. Bron came to the stern of the ship and reminded those looking back of the Biblical principal of 'looking ahead while at the plow'.\n\"We should look ahead, not back\", Bron said. \"There's a better way of life where we are going\".\n\nA while later, Habbar took Cheesah to show him the engine room way down in a lower level of the the ship's hull below.\nUpon entering the engine room Cheesah beheld the ship's two, old, very early model, diesel engines, with their mint green paint badly worn through age, labouring along, keeping the ship going.\n\"UAU. Engines this big, I never saw before\", Cheesah said over the sound of the engines running with their various other mechanical sounds due to their age.\nThe ship's engineer, Natoo Linsang, advised the two cubs not to get too near the engines.\nCheesah was amazed almost beyond belief when Habbar told him, \"Those modern ships that carry those stacks of truck trailer containers have even bigger engines than these are\".\nThe engineer's assistant, Kaamil Civet, who had recently came on shift, mentioned to Cheesah, \"Some of those modern ships are even too big to get through the Panama Canal\".\n\"Panama Canal?...What is that?\", Cheesah asked, followed by Kaamil Civet briefly explaining to Cheesah what the Panama Canal is, and where it is at. \nCheesah then told Habbar, Kaamil and Natoo about the twin cylinder steam engine that use to run the generator for the metal fabrication shop back in the village of the old homeland.\n\"Many years ago, all ships were either steamer or sail...and some had both\", Natoo Linsang said.\n\"Were you ever on one?\", Cheesah asked Natoo Linsang as Habbar laughed.\n\"Ha ha\", Natoo laughed, \"No. That was way before my time. My great uncle served aboard one though\".\n\"My dad said this is one of the first ships to have diesel engines instead of steam engines\", Habbar told Cheesah.\n\"This ship, she was completed in 1923...Shipyard laid the keel in 1920\", Natoo added. \"This old ship has sailed a many waters. And she has seen a lot of years\".\n\"My dad's Uncle Antwan served as a boatswain aboard this ship a long time ago\", Habbar told Cheesah. \n\"And quite the Hell raiser too during port liberty, I've heard\", Natoo Linsang said.\n\"That's what I've also heard Captain Fossa tell\", Kaamil Civet added as they all chuckled. \nNatoo Linsang then told Cheesah, \"Antwan Fossa...It was he who also helped his nephew Janosch get hired aboard this vessel as a watchstander's apprentice...Eventually, Janosch earned his shipmate's license. As old shipmates retired and new apprentices hired on, Janosch Fossa earned his way up through the ranks. Before Captain Mongoose took retirement from Indian Oceanic Shipping Corporation, Janosch was his first mate then, and had the credentials he needed to certify for his captain's license...Also, when Janosch Fossa became captain, Joel Fossa became first mate\".\n\"Uau\" (wow), Cheesah pondered. \"Joel, what is his relation?\".\n\"You mean family?\", Kaamil Civet asked.\n\"Joel's not an uncle or cousin or brother or anyone like that\", Habbar Fossa added.\n\"First Mate Joel Fossa, he's not related to the captain's family\", Natoo Linsang affirmed. \nAfter Natoo, Kaamil, Habbar and Cheesah talked a while longer, the two cubs went back topside to resume their chores. Natoo Linsang and his two engine operators went back to tending to the needs of the ship's engines. And Kaamil Civet went to get some rest so he and his two operators can relieve Natoo Linsang's engine room crew eight hours later. \n\nOnce out on the open sea, and far away from the continental land mass, the meerkats noticed how clear and deep blue the ocean was...so clear, any marine life as far as about 100 meters down (several hundred feet) can be easily seen from the deck of the ship, like you were looking down through glass. This was something none of the family members had ever witnessed before. However, for Janosch Fossa, his son Habbar, and the crew, seeing this was nothing new...them being seafarers. \n\nEarly in the voyage, the Star of Antananarivo made it's stop at Madagascar's chief seaport in Toamasina to drop off a delivery of infrastructure supplies. The voyage was certainly an experience for the meerkats, and it was the first time they've ever seen Madagascar, although the meerkats were not allowed to leave the ship, as their travel arrangements didn't include setting foot in that country. But they did enjoy seeing the country's beauty that could be seen from the deck of the ship, including the view of the seaport and the City of Toamasina.\nThe City of Toamasina use to be Captain Janosch Fossa's hometown where he grew up...actually in a poverty stricken neighborhood on the outskirts of town. It was also where he and his wife Sthella and their cubs resided when they still lived in Madagascar. Toamasina was also where First Mate Joel Fossa had grown up as a cub. So Janosch and Joel phoned their parents and siblings to tell them they were in port in Toamasina. They then made arrangements to have the relatives get together with them, Janosch bringing Habbar along, for an evening out at a nearby, old time, seafood restaurant that wasn't far from the dock where the ship was moored. Second Mate / Navigator Nandoh Orangutan, assisted by Boatswain Roy Fox, was placed in charge of the Star of Antananarivo until Janosch, Habbar and Joel returned later that evening.\nFor Janosch, his son Habbar, and Joel Fossa, it was nice to have the evening out with relatives they haven't seen in a while. And Janosch Fossa's parents were delighted their grandson Habbar came along with them also. \nThe seafood restaurant was high class and pricey, with it's dim lighting, high quality bamboo style tables and chairs and dark red table cloths, and catering to a large tourist clientele. And it was well known mostly for it's giant size shrimp, and for the fact they get their seafood, including lobster, fresh each day only from local fishers who have long earned their trust...and they do pile on the onion rings which some animals swear are the best in all of Madagascar. They also played some nice music to dine by, such as;\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBRR2SmZpuA&index=38&list=RDPBRR2SmZpuA\n\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDP4q2E72i4&index=27&list=RDPBRR2SmZpuA \n\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mO12cVjX7IE&list=RDp2GaVmRqSco&index=29\n\nSeveral tables were placed together to accommodate the large family group, and the two Malagasy civets who were the waiters already knew this one was going mean a very large sum of tips between them.\nJoel's and Janosch's parents needed no introduction as they had been long time acquaintances. Among the many relatives present, Janosch's Uncle Antwan was also there...although now not as wild and crazy as he was in his younger years. \nDuring the conversations among the family, Antwan mentioned to Janosch, \"Nikarakara tsara ny sambo, Zana-drahalahiny (Take good care of the ship, Nephew). Members of our family have faithfully served aboard her\".\n\"I always do, Dadatoa Antwan (Uncle Antwan)\", Janosch Fossa assured his uncle with a smile, acknowledging that the Star of Antananarivo has sentimental meaning to the family.\nAlso present was a cousin who use to serve aboard the Star of Antananarivo as the ship's assistant engineer under Janosch Fossa's command as captain...That was before the ship's port of origin was reassigned out of India.\nAlso present was a great uncle on Janosch' mom's side of the family who was a retired ferry captain.\nMuch of Joel Fossa's family also held various officer's and watchstander's positions aboard sea going and local vessels...including three members, among those present at the restaurant, two dock workers, and a 'mule tractor' operator (moving and yarding containers) for the Port of Toamasina. \nJanosch's older brother Kairu, with his wife, and their two adolescent male cubs had joined them at the restaurant a bit later...And the cubs were thrilled to see Uncle Janosch and cousin Habbar.\nKairu Fossa is a tug boat captain for the Port of Toamasina. Captain Kairu Fossa and his crew and tug had finished running a long shift that day and had gotten off only a few hours ago. \nAnd an uncle on Janosch's dad's side of the family is a first mate aboard a channel dredger, and a cousin who is a boatswain aboard a cargo container freighter, although neither were there at the restaurant. Janosch's uncle was offshore with his ship and crew at the time. and the cousin was out at sea on a voyage. \nJanosch Fossa, who is paid well as a ship's captain, treated mom and dad to their meals being that he and Kairu's parents had always been poor...Janosch and Kairu Fossa's dad had been unable to work due to leg injuries since before Janosch was even born...Older brother Kairu agreed to take care of Mom and Dad's part of the tip.\nAs well as there were old time family stories recalled among the families of Janosch and Joel that evening at the restaurant, there was also the sharing old sea stories...Seafarers are quite common in Janosch Fossa's family, and there are a few in Joel's family as well.\nThe total amount of all the tips left by the family members came to about 600,000 ariary...not as much as it would sound like, but still what would be equivalent to almost $200 in U.S. dollars. Between the 27 members of Janosch and Joel's families who attended, the combined amount of the bills were in ariarys equal to around $1,000 U.S. dollars, give or take...It is a pricey place to eat but well worth the money. \nThat evening, while Janosch, Habbar and Joel were still away from the ship, there were a few times that Cheesah's parents, Bron and Lacara, had to get on to Cheesah for blinking lights on and off aboard the ship...Cheesah being fascinated by the electric lights going on-n-off at the push of the buttons...The lighting system of the Star of Antananarivo was still equipped with those old push button switches that were common in houses during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, where the top button turns on the lights, and the bottom button turns them off.\n\"Captain Fossa and his crew, they might have something to say about that, Son\", Bron would remind Cheesah.\nBut it wasn't long before Cheesah was back to blinking the lights again. During the times Cheesah had been playing with the lights aboard the ship, two shore workers, a Malagasy civet and a ring tailed mongoose, who were standing on the dock had been noticing some of the ship's portholes (a ship's window) lighting up and blinking back out.\n\"Quelqu'un à bord du navire clignote lumières\" (Someone on the ship flashing lights), the Malagasy civet said to the ring tailed mongoose. \"Savez-vous ce qu'il en est?\" (Do you know what it is?).\n\"Fantatro fa sambo\" (I know that ship), the mongoose replied to the civet. \"Je ne pense pas vieux Capitaine Janosch Fosse embauche animaux déjantés sur son équipage\" (I do not think old Captain Janosch Fossa is hiring crazy animals on his crew).\n\"Oui. Je ne pense pas...INDRAY! IZY NATAONY MANAO IZANY!\" (Yea. I do not think so...AGAIN! THEY DID IT!), said the civet about the time Cheesah blinked another light.\n After Janosch Fossa and his son Habbar with Joel Fossa returned from their evening visit with their relatives, Janosch also got after Cheesah for blinking the lights. \n\"Cheesah\", Janosch Fossa reprimanded. \"You blinking those lights got two shore workers out there thinking we're all nuts or something...Besides, you'll blow the bulbs playing with the lights like that. So let's not have any more of that...OK?\".\n\"Oh...OK\", Cheesah agreed.\nBut they didn't go hard on Cheesah for it. Because of the fact the old homeland never had electrical service, they realized how fascinated Cheesah was with clicking buttons on a wall, and a room would light up, then get dark again. \n\nAt dawn the following morning, the Star of Antananarivo pulled out of the port of Toamasina to continue on it's northeast course to India. On the way out of port, Captain Janosch Fossa noticed his brother Kairu's tug boat coming back the other way...Kairu and his crew had just began their shift. Janosch had the watchstander at the helm blow the ship's whistle as Kairu tooted the tug boat whistle...>RHOOOOO< ....>TOOOOT<.\nFrom the ship's bridge, Janosch waved to his brother, as Kairu waved back from the tug boat's wheel house as the two vessels met each other. \nA few hours later that morning, the Star of Antananarivo was again far enough out at sea where the deep blue waters were clear as glass 100 meters or so down...As was with Madagascar's eastern oceanic shelf, they had left that behind a long time ago...They were by now on the deep water...Madagascar's eastern oceanic shelf does not go out from land very many naughts. \n\nSince the voyage began, the meerkats always noticed a shoulder held missile launcher hanging on a wall in the galley. The meerkats knew what it was because they've seen war in their former homeland of Angola.\nThat evening of the same day they left the Port of Toamasina, when everyone was sitting down to dinner, Moze Meerkat asked Janosch,\"What's the missile launcher for?\"\n\"I'm surprised you knew what it was\", Janosch replied.\n\"We've seen our country war torn before\", said Moze. \"That's not the first one of those I've seen\".\n\"It's to deal with pirates...\", Janosch Fossa answered.\n\"Ocean robbers?!\", Nafula gasped.\n\"If you prefer to call them that\", said Janosch. \"Joel and I, and two of my other ship's officers know how to use it. If we're attacked by pirates, that's what's waiting for them\".\n\"Along with the rest of our arsenal as well\", Joel Fossa added.\n\"We have several assault rifles\", said Janosch. \"One AA-52, four AK-74s, two Daewoo K-2s, and one Uzi. We also have two sniper rifles, a Serbian made M-92 and a Turkish AMR. The sniper rifles and the missile launcher would be used against their mother ship if we're attacked\".\n\"I just hope we don't run into any ocean robbers...or uh, pirates\", said Annika. \"After we left Angola, we had our share of adventure\".\n\"And at times, MORE than our share. And while we were still living there too\", Zhang added.\n\"Do you think we'll see any!?\" Cheesah asked.\n\"I've never seen pirates in these waters\", Janosch answered. \"But if you ever get up around off the coast of Somalia, those waters are infested with Somali pirates. And it seems like the baboon and jackal pirates are the worst out of all of them\".\n\"Somalia is in REAL rough shape. One of the poorest countries in the world. A collapsed banking system. Hardly a central government\", said Mose.\n\"It's sad too\", said Bron. \"To live that kind of a life of desperation. And we would think WE had it bad\".\n\"The trawlers from rich countries. They have robbed their fishing from them too\", Lacara noted.\n\"We ourselves are no strangers to living in a poor country... And being taken advantage of\", said Annika.\n\"No offense intended, Captain Janosch. And I don't like saying this\", Liea added as she felt a bit uneasy about making the comment in the presents of a ship's captain. \"But the Somalis seem to be victims their selves. Just like the ships they raid\".\nJanosch Fossa paused for a moment, then explained, \"I myself grew up in hard poverty in rural Madagascar. And like Angola and Somalia, Madagascar isn't exactly a 1st world country either\".\nThen Janosch continued, \"Before I was born, my dad use to pull tourists around in a rickshaw in our nearby town of Toamasina for a living. One day, a drunk tourist wolverine hit my dad with a car, then drove away. My dad's legs were messed up and he was disabled walking with a cane for the rest of his life. I've known what it was as a cub to go hungry, and to be driven by desperation. I've seen the time my dad was caught stealing off of a market vender's table in Toamasina so the family could eat. The vender was an old ring tail mongoose who knew our family. He felt enough compassion for us to give us some food to take home, and didn't have my dad arrested, which was very kind of him. I've known well what hard times were\".\nThen Janosch motioned his paw toward the missile launcher hanging on the galley wall and continued, \"But if we're ever attacked by pirates, my first concern is for the safety of my crew and the safety of any passengers I have aboard this vessel\". \nAs everyone finished eating, they still enjoyed good fellowship and conversation, but it was agreed that the subject about 'those living in 3rd world countries becoming sea pirates out of desperation' was to further be avoided.\nCaptain Janosch Fossa did not share the same pity that the Meerkats had for those anthro-animals who turn rouge out of desperate circumstances. Had it been anyone else talking the way Leia Meerkat did, Janosch probably would have slapped the shit out someone for it. But Janosch did consider that life experiences for the Meerkats may have differed some from what he himself had known. Janosch realized a hard way of life can shape how someone feels about situations differently than if they had grown up in better living conditions. That may have been why Janosch did not come down hard on Liea Meerkat for referring to Somali pirates as 'victims', in spite of the fact that sea pirates are a captain's worse night mare. \n\nIn the days that followed as the Star of Antananarivo continued on it's northeastward way, there would be periods of leisure time when some of the crew were not very busy, and members of the Meerkat Family had their chores caught up. Those would be the times they would exchange stories of their past experiences. The meerkats told stories of their way of life and of the civil wars in Angola. And the ship's crew members would tell of their past experiences out at sea. \nBoatswain Roy Fox, who was also 3rd mate, told of a time from a year ago, when the ship was caught in a really violent storm out at sea, 1,200 naughts west northwest of Australia, and at times the ship going 'bow under' in the huge waves. Roy Fox also told of how the crew began to wonder if they were going to make it.\nFirst Mate Joel Fossa told of the time on a run to Greenland, when they came close to striking an unexpected stray ice burg one night that was not on an advisory list. It was a time when the ship's home port was in the Port of Toamasina, and the ship still had an all Fossa crew. Joel went on to tell how a watchstander spotted the ice berg just in time to warn the captain and crew so they can take action to avoid hitting it...and without a moment to spare.\nCaptain Janosch Fossa told of the day and time way back when he himself had just been hired on as a watchstander's apprentice aboard the Star of Atananarivo. That was back when his Uncle Antwan was the boatswain, and Captain Mongoose (Malagasy ring tail mongoose) was the captain...qiute a long time ago. Janosch told of the times when the crew would get liberty call when the ship came into a sea port, and the crew would always find where a tavern was. Janosch told how when his Uncle Antwan got enough beer in him, he would start Hell raising, get into fights with one or more of the locals, or get into some other kind of trouble where Captain Mongoose had to go ashore to get Boatswain Antwan Fossa out of jail.\nJoel Fossa also told of that time, 7 years ago, in the South Pacific when they rescued a kinkijou aboard a homemade raft who had left an island he had been stranded on in his attempts to find civilization.\nYannas told of the time, 9 years ago, during a run from India to Madagascar when they picked up three young adult lemurs as passengers paying their own fare to go back home to Madagascar...two males with a female traveling with them. One night, during that voyage, when the sea was rough, the lemurs were clowning around on deck and one fell overboard.\n\"By the time we got the ship stopped and lowered a lifeboat with a search detail...on a rough sea...at night...we thought we had lost him\", Janosch went on to say. \"But one of my watchstanders barely heard 'Mba ampio aho' from a long way off behind the ship, then spotted him with one of the ship's search lights\".\n\"Ampo hio?\", Cheesah asked.\n\"Yes\", Janosch answered. \"He was crying 'Please help me' as he was bobbing up and down in the waves, and doing everything he could to not go under. As my watchstander managed to keep the search light beam on him with the ship being rocked around, my search detail fought the waves rowing out over the rough sea and rescued him\".\n\"I noticed those lemurs didn't mess around on deck after that\", said Joel.\n\"Sometimes an experience like that is what it takes to make reality sink in\", Janosch added. \"After he got calmed down, I gave him and the two others a stern talking to about fooling around on the deck of a ship\", Janosch further added.\n\"Your ship, it travels a big route from what you told us\", Moze commented.\n\"Lots of those places, I learned in school where they are\", Cheesah added.\n\"This ship is commissioned as a tramp freighter\", Joel Fossa mentioned.\n\"Tramp freighter?\", Mose asked.\n\"A tramp freighter is sent anywhere a ship is needed\", Janosch Fossa added. \"We don't run the same route all the time. We go where ever they send us\".\nOf course, one story that wasn't left out how the corporate owners of the Star of Antananarivo reassigned the ship's home port of origin to Port of Karaikal in India. Which meant Janosch Fossa and his wife and cubs relocating to India, as well as Joel Fossa and his wife, in order for Janosch and Joel to keep their jobs and their positions as captain and first mate with the ship...Also as well as a new crew having to be hired out of India because the rest of the former crew, which was an all fossa crew, didn't want to relocate from Madagascar...That decision from corporate never did set with Janosch, or Joel, very well.\nThe Meerkat Family certainly did enjoy the sea stories, which it was beginning to feel like a sea going vessel is more interesting once you find out a little about it's history. \n \nLater during the voyage, the half grown cubs, Cheesah Meerkat and Habbar Fossa, experianced a bit of anatomical curiosity about each other, being of different species and design. It was when Cheesah was cleaning the restroom, and Habbar came in to pee. Cheesah noticed Habbar completely unsheath himself back to the base to pee.\n\"O QUE ACONTECEU, HABBAR!\" Cheesah let out, \"Your poor little dickie. What happened to it?\"\n\"What are you talking about?\" Habbar asked as he continued peeing.\n\"Eh estranho...uhh...strange looking. Looks like behind the head was wrung...And like it's face pushed flat\", Cheesah answered.\nHabbar laughed then said to Cheesah, \"All us male fossas are built by nature this way\".\nCheesah noticed how Habbar's penis, starting from the base, had a long smooth lining, then a divided cluster of barbs, then a short smooth area, then a bulged place behind the head with more barbs, then the diameter going down small at the neck, then the back of the head flairing out like the shape of the end of a trumpet or like a bell, and the front of the head being nearly flat, with the pee opening protruding a little below center.\n\"Sure looks strange\", said Cheesah.\n\"Not if you're a fossa\", replied Habbar as he finished peeing and shook it, with the flair shaped head flopping up and down like a ringing bell. \"Other species say we're blessed to have a pee-wee like this\", Habbar continued. \"When I have time alone, having a pee-wee like this is sure fun to play with\".\nTrying to find the right words, Cheesah began, \"So...the captain...uhh...\"\n\"Captian Janosch Fossa. My dad. He has a pee-wee just like mine, but bigger\", said Habbar. \"My two brothers, my uncles, my male cousins. All us male fossas are made that way\".\n\"I'll sure say this. Yours is the first fossa dickie I've ever seen out of it's sheath\", said Cheesah. \"Espantoso\".\n\"Eshun-toozoo?...or what ever you said\", Habbar replied.\n\"Oh. Amazing\", said Cheesah, \"It's amazing. I've never seen a dickie like it\".\n\"I've never seen one poking out on a meerkat\", said Habbar.\n\"I'll let you see mine. If you want to\", Cheesah offered.\n\"I am curious\", said Habbar.\nCheesah placed his paws to each side of his sheath, and with the thumbs and index digits, pressed his sheath back, revealing the full length of his penis, having a moderatly long sulcus, and a head formed into a point with a graceful sweep to it, and with the point extending out past the pee opening, looking like a little pointy nose on it.\n\n[largethumb]884718,2[/largethumb]\n\n\"Oh, I've seen one like that before\", said Habbar. \"A mongoose friend of mine has a pee-wee that looks a lot like yours...except I recall his pee-wee having a more chubby looking head than yours has\".\n\"Well, MINE is not that chubby\", Cheesah replied. \"There's some mongooses I know. Two of them do have dickies with chubby heads. One other mongoose I know, his dickie has a long narrow head like mine\".\n\"So like with us fossas then\", Habbar replied. \"On my dad's pee-wee, where the pee hole is, the point extends out further than mine does and curves down some. And my older brother Haja has a pee-wee with a puffed face and has a big point where it's pee hole is\". \nCheesah then volunteered the info, \"My brother Zhang's dickie has a head like mine. And the dickie my oldest brother Moze has, actually looks up at the same time it points ahead when it gets hard\".\n\"Look up and point ahead?\", Habbar chuckled.\nCheesah explained to Habbar how the head on Moze' penis deflects upward when it gets hard, then added, \"And my deceased brother, his dickie had a big plumpie head\". \n\"The sqeezy head kind\", Habbar giggled.\n\"I did squeeze it once when I was a small cub\", Cheesah volunteered as he and Habbar laughed.\n\"I bet your brother was starttled\", said Habbar.\n\"Took him by surprize anyway...He did jump.\", Cheesah replied as he and Habbar again laughed.. \nHabbar mentioned to Cheesah, \"For some reason, until now, I've always thought what a pee-wee looked like on you meerkats was completely different from the pee-wee's I've always seen on mongooses\".\n\"I don't see why. Mongooses and us are related species...Herpestidaes, my dad told me\", said Cheesah.\n\"I guess that explains why it looks a lot alike on your kind and on mongooses\", said Habbar. \"It is a cute design. But do all you male meerkats pee-wees give off such a strong scent? I can really smell it since you poked your pee-wee out to show it to me...It's like popcorn\".\n\"Not all of us. You might say my little dickie is extra blessed. In the...uh...scent department. When he pokes out, he really knows how to make his presents known\", Cheesah replied as he and Habbar chuckled.\n\"One of THOSE kind of pee-wees\", Habbar continued chuckling. \"A stinky dinky\".\n\"When I was younger, my brothers use to tease me about it. They would call me the popcorn beast\", Cheesah told Habbar as they both laughed.\nAbout that time, Janosch Fossa came in to use the restroom.\n\"Ce qui se passe en enfer ici!? (What in Hell is going on here!?)\" Janosch retorted with overtones of concern, speaking his inquiry in French, as he saw his son and Cheesah looking at each other with their penises still extended out.\nThe first thought that ran through Janosch Fossa's mind was, \"Don't tell me I've taken a meerkat cub aboard who is turning my son gay\".\n\"Habbar, Inona no nitranga teto?\" (Habbar, what happened here?) Janosch Fossa demanded of his son.\nHabbar quickly explained, in a mix of French and Malagasy, to his dad what they were doing.\nThen Cheesah told Janosch, clearly and slowly, \"Eu-sou-eh-teh-raw-sehk-soo-ahl\".\n\"I don't understand it if it's in Portuguese\", Janosch reminded Cheesah.\nCheesah contemplated replying, \"When you walked in, I did not understand the French you spoke\", but with the present mood Captain Fossa was in, he figured he better not. \nSo Cheesah restated in English, \"I am heterosexual\", then he explained what was going on, the same as Habbar had previously explained it.\nJanosch thought it over a few seconds then said, \"Hmph...Cub curiosity...Well, that's far enough. You two don't need to get carried away with it. Draw those things back into their sheaths before they start getting hard\".\nAs Janosch unsheathed himself to pee, Habbar and Cheesah glanced over, then Habbar wispered in Cheesah's ear, \"I told you my dad has one like mine but bigger\". Then the two cubs chuckled.\n\"OK, Habbar. That will do\", Janosch said as he glanced over at the two cubs, while he was still peeing.\nAfter Janosch finish peeing, he shook his penis before letting it slide back into sheath, with it's flair shaped head flopping up and down as would a ringing bell.\nCheeash thought to himself, \"A bigger bell head, looking like it's going, ding-a-linga ding-a-linga ding-a-linga...I guess if dickies could get dizzy, a fossa's dickie definitely would be, the way it's head being like that shakes around\".\nJanosch sent Habbar back up to the bridge house so Joel, who was at the helm, can continue teaching him about nautical navigation. And reminded Cheesah that he still had the passage ways to sweep after he got the restroom clean.\nJanosch then turned toward Cheesah, him knowing what meerkat sex scent smells like, and said, \"Oh, and Cheesah. I'm not saying this to embarrass you...but uh...well...you should wash that little thing of yours more often...WITH the sheath pulled back away from it. You got this whole restroom smelling like buttered popcorn\".\n\"Yes sir, Captain\", Cheesah replied with a smile.\n\"Ha ha. Cub curiosity\", Janosch laughed as he left the restroom. \"I guess we all had our turn at it while growing up\".\n\nWith less than a day left before the ship's arrival at the Port of Karaikal, they passed over the Chagos-Maldives-Laccadive Ridge, on which a series of atoll islands are located that make up the nation of Maldives. There were places that Captain Janosch Fossa had the Star of Antananarivo's engines slowed down to one-quarter throttle as not to make a large wake when passing a nearby island. The highest point on many of those islands are only a couple of meters (several feet) above sea level, including those with buildings and towns on them.\nMembers of the Meerkat Family were really impressed with awe the few times the ship passed near enough to an island to see from a distance it's beautiful white sand beaches, elegant marinas, and it's lush tropical foliage among it's buildings and beach houses. \n\"How do you like those islands?\", asked Assistant Engineer Natoo Linsang, who was presently off engine room shift.\n\"Nothing like it I have ever seen\", Lacara replied.\n\"They are really beautiful\", Bron added.\n\"India! Places like that it has too?!\", Cheesah asked with enthusiasm.\n\"Naw...Not in India...A few places in Sri-Lanka might come somewhat close\", Natoo answered.\n\"Awww\", Cheesah moaned with disappointment.\n\"Hey...Cheesah\", Older Brother Zhang told him. \"Many beautiful places there should be in India\".\nThen Natoo Linsang suggested, \"At a later time, why not take a vacation here? It's not that far from India, you know\".\n\"There you go, Cheesah\", Oldest Brother Moze added. \"To see Maldives, it's not too late\".\n\"Oh, that would be nice\", Lacara replied as she and Bron hugged each other.\n\"Oh it would\", Annika added as she put her arm around Zhang.\nAlso amazing to the meerkats was that while still over the Chagos-Maldives-Laccadive Ridge, there were places no deeper than about 70 meters (about 200 feet deep), and you could see the bottom and the sea life below like you were looking through glass.\nCheesah had even made the comment, \"When you look down, it looks like the ship is floating on air\". \n\nEventually, the Star of Antananarivo had made it's way past the Chagos-Maldives-Laccadive Ridge, leaving behind the atoll islands of the Nation of Maldives, and was again out over deep open water. \nAbout an hour before sunset, Cheesah and Habbar were walking on deck, and Cheesah noticed some things making flight just above the surface of the water.\n\"Habbar! You see that?! Those poor birds! They lost their way out here!...Far from land!\", Cheesah exclaimed.\nHabbar laughed, then told Cheesah, \"Those aren't birds. They're flying fish\".\nCheesah couldn't believe Habbar at first until Habbar asked Cheesah to have a 2nd look. And when Cheesah looked again, sure enough...FISH...gliding with large front fins as wings...some of them going fast enough to keep up with the ship at 22 to 25 naughts...and squiggling their tails along the water giving them the appearance like they were actually flapping wings. Some of them would fly distances of more than 30 meters (100 feet) before diving back into the water.\nhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_fish#/media/File:Pink-wing_flying_fish.jpg\n\"UAU!\", exclaimed Cheesah. \"About THIS! I gotta get Mom and Dad and everyone to see it!\".\nFrom up in the bridge of the ship, Captain Janosch Fossa, First Mate Joel Fossa, Second Mate Nandoh Orangutan, and the watchstander at the helm who was a palm civet looked out over the deck below and saw how fascinated Cheesah was seeing flying fish for the first time in his young life.\nAs they saw Cheesah running toward the ship's superstructure, Joel Fossa said, \"I bet Cheesah is running to get his family to come out and see the flying fish\".\n\"You know he is\", Janosch laughed.\nA few minutes later, as the Meerkat Family came out on deck to see the flying fish, the palm civet at the helm said to Janosch Fossa, \"There they are, sir\".\nSure enough, viewed from the windshield panes of the ship's bridge, the meerkats could be seen coming out onto the deck.\n\"Probably the their first time seeing them\", said Nandoh Orangutan as he, the captain, the first mate and the watchstander at the helm observed from the bridge the flying fish flying like escorts along the sides of the ship, and getting a kick out of how fascinated the Meerkats were, which was probably as entertaining to them as the flying fish were to the meerkats.\nAfter sundown, the flying fish stopped flying for the night, and Habbar Fossa and the Meerkat Family went back inside. Tomorrow morning, the Star of Antananarivo arrives in the Port of Karaikal, India.\n \n[hugethumb]1184831[/hugethumb]\nLife in a New Homeland\n\nAfter a few days out on the Indian Ocean, the Star of Antananarivo arrived to it's destination, the port city of Karaikal, in the southern Indian State of Tamil Nadu. And it was a good thing the Meerkat Family had a fluent knowledge of the English language. Because the first thing asked by the immigration official, who was a bear of small build and humble demeanor, was, \"Fala Ingles?\", him knowing they were Angolan.\n\"We do speak English. Yes.\", Lacara answered fluently. And her answer was also affirmed by the other family members.\nNone of the Meerkat Family, except for one, were able to present birth certificates. As was already expected by the Indian immigration officials, many poverty stricken parts of rural Angola never issued birth certificates...In fact, nearly all the family members didn't even know what a birth certificate was. When someone was born, everyone in the community knew who they were, and that was considered good enough back in the old homeland. Only Nafula's husband, Yousaf, had a birth certificate, because he had been born in the City of Namibia on Angola's Atlantic coast. Provided all members of the family were able to affirm under oath who everyone else was, the immigration process was then able to continue. And in a short while, due to the family's refugee status, the process was expeditiously completed, then the meerkats were sworn in as citizens of India.\nAs for those old vehicles the meerkats brought over from Angola with them, there wasn't hardly any import duty charged on them. Customs took one look at how old those vehicles were, and at the condition they were in, and declared their values as being next to worthless. However, the meerkats were advised to have some repairs made to the vehicles, such as Najja's truck not having windshield wipers, Moze's Opal wagon having bad brakes and now missing it's muffler, and a fair size list of various other safety issues needing to be fixed on the vehicles. \nThere were more safety issues with the first group of the family's vehicles that left Angola. Out of the four vehicles that made it to India, none of them had signal lights that worked...except for Yousaf and Nafula's Renault, on which the left signal did work, but the right signal did not. And there was the horn in Najja's truck that didn't work, and no brake light.\nAlmost half the tires among all the vehicles were bald, and some had inner plies and steel belt showing through. And that bad front tire, that began to peal apart while in Mozambique, on Oswald and Zoe's Opel Kapitan had already gone flat during the voyage coming over aboard the ship. \nAnd the mink, who's job it was to catch discrepancies on imported motor vehicles, REALLY took issue when he looked under Annika's Moskvitch and noticed the left tie rod end being held together with bailing wire. \n\"Who owns this car?\", the mink called out as he got back up from under Annika's car.\n\"It's mine\", Annika said as she approached him.\n\"I'm Navin Mink, custom's officer\", The mink hastily introduced himself.\n\"I'm Annika Meerkat. To meet you, I am pleased\", Annika humbly replied.\n\"This excuse for a tie rod end\", Navin Mink admonished Annika. \"You can call a tow truck and have it towed to a garage to get it fixed, and fixed right. But you're not DRIVING it there like THAT\".\nZhang and Annika argued the issue of needing the car towed until Navin Mink finally told them, \"Hey look. I can reject this car from even being here in India if I want to. It's getting TOWED to a garage, NOT driven there\".\nThen Navin Mink saw the wired tie rod end on Yousaf and Nafulas's Renault and retorted, \"ANOTHER ONE?! No way. You're not driving this car to a garage either. Get it towed there\".\nNavin Mink also found the Meerkat Family's guns, still packed in their cars, they had taken with them from Angola.\n\"WHOA!\", Navin Mink exclaimed to the meerkats. \"You're not going to keep THESE in this country\".\n As Agent Mink radioed for customs agent Rahshen Mongoose, Janosch Fossa told Bron Meerkat in a low tone, \"I wish I had known you had these firearms with you. I would have advised you all to leave them back in Mozambique\".\nNavin Mink was still rambling on and lecturing to the meerkats how most of their guns were illegal under Indian firearms laws when Rahshen Mongoose showed up.\n\"Navin, take it easy\", Rahshen Mongoose told him, \"What seems to be the problem here?\"\n\"THAT!\", Navin Mink exclaimed as he pointed into an open window of one of the family's cars at several rifles, including a Portuguese A3G3 war rifle. \n\"OK. We can get this matter taken care of. Calm down\", Rahshen assured Navin.\nRahshen Mongoose then gave the Meerkat Family a brief rundown about the firearms laws of India, and what the consequences are for violating those laws. But Rahshen gave the Meerkat Family a break being that they were not accustom to firearms laws where they were from. And, after all, their guns were stopped from making it out of the Port of Karaikal, so no harm done or intended as far as Rahshen Mongoose was concerned.\n\"We'll have to confiscate most of the guns you have though\", Rahshen Mongoose informed the Meerkat Family. \"There are a few you can keep\", Rahshen continued. \"But those guns will have to be registered immediately\".\nAmong the guns to be confiscated, was the Portuguese A3G3 war rifle...The meerkats hated to see that one go, but laws are laws. Rahshen Mongoose and Navin Mink then had the meerkats bring their guns they were allowed to keep to the customs office to get them registered. Rahshen and Navin also had to explain to the meerkats what gun registration was...It was something the meerkats have never heard of before.\nCaptain Janosch Fossa also had to go the customs office to declare an amendment to his cargo manifest from Mozambique to account for the guns belonging to the meerkats he was unaware of that he had unknowingly shipped to India. It was a bit of a legal mess, but it was soon straightened out. \nWhen the issue with the guns was settled, Customs Agent Rahshen Mongoose, told Zhang, Annika, Yousaf and Nafula about a reputable automotive shop that was nearby so the cars with the wired tie rod ends would not have to be towed so far. So that's where the cars were towed to have their tie rod ends replaced, along with other repairs on all their cars that should have been done years ago.\nThen, Navin Mink and Rahshen Mongoose watched the second group of the family's vehicles being unloaded onto the dock. Those were the vehicles belonging to the family members who had made the road trip across Africa a day behind the others. After those vehicles had been unloaded from the Star of Antananarivo, just as many problems were found with them as well. A vehicle that really drew Navin Mink's attention was one that was sitting on the dock with two of it's bald tires flat.\nNavin Mink gazed at the ragged, dilapidated vehicles, then said to Captain Janosch Fossa, \"Janosch, I can't believe you actually transported those death trap cars into this country\".\n\"Well, Navin, so I did\", Janosch Fossa proudly replied.\n\"Damn anyway, Janosch!\", Navin Mink retorted then abruptly walked away. \nAfter Navin Mink left, Rahshen Mongoose said to Janosch Fossa as the two chuckled, \"Oh, don't worry about Navin. I think he's had a bad day\".\nThe repair shop that Annika's car, and her sister and brother-in-law's car, were towed to was run by two otter brothers Havish and Sayed. And they were surprised to see the old Russian made car coming into their shop.\n\"A Moskvitch. You don't see those every day\", said the younger brother Sayed.\nThen the Otter Brothers were even more surprised when the other vehicles came in for repairs, such as Najja's old truck, the Renault 4 and the old Opal. The vehicles from Yousaf and Leia's families also came into the Otter Brother's shop, such as a Wartburg wagon that idled and popped like a dirt bike, an Opal Kapitan with layers of cardboard and a few old pillows on the back seat to cover the seat springs that were showing through the upholstery, and a Morris Minor with a half rotted piece of plywood sealed with tar to replace a broken rear side window, to name a few. \nSome of the cars were still packed full of belongings that were not yet put in storage.\n\"Sayed noticed a few cans of 30-W, non-detergent, motor oil behind the front seat of the Wartburg wagon.\n\"I'm just curious\", said Sayed, \"I know this car has a two stroke motor. Why the motor oil?\".\nSayed's older brother laughed, then told him, \"You can use that for two stroke oil. I used it in a moped a lot when you were still a cub\".\nLeia's dad, Sieheib, who owned the Wartburg, then said to Sayed, \"Where we are from, two stroke oil is hard to find. But like your brother says, the thirty weight oil works\". \n\"Three cylinders and only seven moving parts\", Havish added.\n\"That it is\", Sieheib confirmed.\nSieheib then noticed the Otter Brothers gazing at a big sheet of rusty metal, with tar around it, over the rear of the roof of his car.\n\"I see you wonder why the patch is there\", Sieheib told the otters.\n\"It has crossed my mind a time or two\", Havish replied.\n\"If you like, I can tell you\", Sieheib offered.\n\"Sure\", Havish said. \nSieheib explained how his Wartburg use to be a camper special, station wagon with the retractable canvas rear roof section when it was a new car many years ago. By the time any of the meerkats ever owned it, that canvas roof section had been long rotted out. Sieheib continued how what replaced the canvas for years is that large piece of rusty sheet metal. He explained how the metal patch had been hacked out of the side of an old wrecked panel van, by pounding a hatchet through it with a mallet. Then the metal had been beat out flat, then installed on the Wartburg with screws and wire, then sealed with tar.\n\"It always had leaked a little in a hard rain, but not too bad\" ,Sieheib mentioned like a small roof leak was no big deal.\n\"Well. As long as it works, I guess\", said Sayed.\nThe brakes on the Morris Minor was a scarey story. Years ago, rain water had gotten into the brake fluid reservoir and rusted the master cylinder and brake lines, and there was no money or means to get parts. That dilemma had been easily remedied by rigging the parking brake lever so it would not remain up when it was released. If you wanted to stop the car, you simply pulled up on the parking brake lever as you pressed the clutch petal, and that gave you rear cable operated brakes with no front brakes...That was the brakes. To release the brakes, simply let go of the lever. Needless to say, Havish and Sayed Otter saw it necessary to completely rebuild the entire brake system on that old Morris. \n\"Incredible...Simply incredible\", Sayed Otter had to say about how the brakes were on the Morris.\nAt least this was a time when the meerkats did have enough money to afford the proper repairs so badly needed on their cars. \nThe older brother Havish exclaimed to the meerkats, \"My goodness! These old cars. They're worth a lot to any collector, you know\". \nBeing from their old homeland, the meerkats had no understanding of what Havish Otter was talking about. They've never heard of anyone collecting old cars back in Angola. Some of those old cars were passed down from generation to generation, and to them, an old car was just another old car.\n\"We don't wish to sell them\", Lacara said to Havish. \"We need them to get around in\".\nUpon hearing Lacara's reply, the Otter Brothers just simply looked at each other with bewildered expressions.\nHavish and Sayed, had never expeirenced what it was to be so poverty stricken, that all you have for a car is a makeshift masterpiece your grandparents once drove, and to be thankful to have it. The Otter Brothers also had no understanding how someone can have a fifty year old car and not realize it's value. \nWhen Sayed was about to repair the brakes on Moze and Leia's car, he noticed the two old bullet holes in the left door and fender.\n\"Did someone own this car who had a drug deal go bad?\", Sayed halfway joked.\nUpon hearing Sayed's question, the family suddenly got quiet as a somber feeling seemed to set in.\nMoze then asked Sayed to step aside, and that he wanted to talk with him.\n\"Those bullet holes, they are from a civil war our old homeland had. That was about ten years ago\", Moze began as he explained to Sayed about the war, then continued about how because their old homeland province wasn't very populated, everyone including cubs, the elderly and females had to help fight.\n\"In that war, we lost a twelve year old brother when I was only nine. I was with him when he died. A grand dad and two cousins, we also lost\", Zhang added as Moze nodded in agreement.\n\"My son, Jorad, he would be twenty two right now\", Lacara mentioned.\n\"Oh, I didn't know. I had no idea. I'm really sorry\", Sayed Otter said as the family accepted his apology.\nSayed's older brother, Havish, also gave his condolences for the family as well.\nHavish and Sayed have heard about countries before where cubs have been on the battlefield. But hearing about it was nothing like personally meeting those animals who actually have testimony of being there as cubs. \nLater, when Sayed Otter was replacing the left tie rod end on Annika's car, he asked, \"I hear you all came from Angola?\".\n\"We did. Yes\", Bron affirmed.\nThen Sayed asked Annika, \"And you drove this car with that tie rod end across Africa?\".\n\"Well, yes. It's been that way for a couple of years\", Annika affirmed.\nSayed then mentioned to Annika, \"Ma'am, it's a wonder you didn't have it come apart on you on the way over. It could have gotten you or someone else killed\".\nHavish, who was changing out the tie rod end on Yousaf and Nafula's car, commented to the meerkats, \"You all must be mighty brave, or dare devils, to be driving these cars the way they are\". \nHavish and Sayed could hardly believe that the other vehicles were also driven across the African continent in the condition they were in. \nThis was a different way of life for the meerkats, as well as other things that would take some getting use to, including the culture, the music and the seasons being opposite to the months in the Northern Hemisphere, although both Southern India and their old homeland of Angola are pretty much in warm year round climates.\n However, they didn't have to get use to driving on the left side of the road by now, as they do in India. They experienced a lot of left lane driving coming through Zimbabwe, Zambia and Mozambique, on their way from Angola to Port of Beria. But the driver's side being on the left of their vehicles did present some inconvenience driving around India's wild traffic. Najja's truck was the exception. Being a truck meant for use in Kenya, it is a right paw drive vehicle. And in addition to inconvenience, under India's motor vehicle laws, the Meerkat Families cars had to have a small sign displayed, or letters painted, on the rear to warn other drivers, which read, 'left paw drive vehicle'. There was also some concern as to how long the meerkats would be allowed to continue driving their left paw drive cars on India's roads. They were told that it would not become an issue before the Angolan tags on their cars were to expire. Then other animals told the meerkats that because their cars are so old, they would be exempt from any regulations against driving a left paw drive vehicle on Indian roads. However, Janosch Fossa promised the meerkats that he would speak about the matter to an attorney friend of his, Attorney Ebeneezer Weasel.\nJanosch assured them, \"If they try to stop you from using your cars when your Angolan tags expire, Ebeneezer should be able to find what exceptions your cars would fall under\".\n\"Son, the tag on your car. It will expire in two months? Will it not?\" , Bron asked his oldest son, Moze.\n\"The end of November, it will be expired. Yes\", Moze replied.\nJanosch then told Bron and Moze, \"I see other left paw drive vehicles around here occasionally. I notice they are always old vehicles. I'll get with Ebeneezer and have him see what he can do for you\".\nWith all that said, the meerkats thanked Janosch for offering the help.\nThe Star of Antananarivo was scheduled for extensive maintenance work, so Janosch Fossa would have two months off with leave pay while the vessel was in down time. Janosch offered to help the meerkats get settled in during his two months off.\nWith the meerkat's vehicles unloaded from the ship, immigration procedures completed, and their Zambian currency exchanged for India currency, most of the relatives were able to find work. Although the jobs some of them found were not very good jobs, and didn't pay well, they did have an income. A few of the family members got better jobs, getting hired on working at the sea port. As for Moze, he got a job with a construction contractor. Najja put his beat up old truck to work, being in business for himself as a local hauler. \nBron and Lacara, with their youngest son Cheesah, were among the family members who settled in the City of Karaikal. Bron and Lacara found an old, small house that rented for cheap which was in a neighborhood near the sea port. The location worked out well for Bron Meerkat because he was able to get hired on with the sea port, helping to tend a security checkpoint where trucks enter and leave the port. Even though Bron had hip dysplasia, the security job was a job he could easily do. And because the neighborhood was not far from the sea port, it wasn't a far walk between the house and his place of work...At the time, Bron had not yet replaced his old Rekord wagon that blew it's engine during the trip across Africa. \nWhether a family member found a good job, or a not so good job, or not yet found a job, they were grateful the country they now live in wasn't on the verge of exploding into instability and collapse like the country they just left.\nChessah wanted to get hired on with Janosch Fassa's crew aboard the Star of Antananarivo, but at age 13, he was considered too young. And there was also the matter of Bron and Lacara wanting to get Cheesah enrolled in school. With Angola in collapse, it was unlikely Cheesah's parents could get a transcript sent from the school there. However, the school administrator they went to see was able to administer an aptitude test to determine what grade they could place Cheesah in. Once Cheesah resumed his schooling, and his niece, Dora, began attending school, Cheesah was amazed with how different the school building in the City of Karaikal was from his old school back in Angola. It's a nice building with air conditioning, electric lights, running water, tiled floors, restrooms with toilets and sinks. and even a cafeteria. And there were actually buses to take students to and from school.\nCheesah remembers the times, where they lived in Angola, there were no such thing as school buses. Before his parents had a car, he had to get out of bed and begin walking to school at 5:00 o'clock in the predawn hours, then arriving home at 6:00 o'clock in the evening. It was 16 kilometers each way, and over one mountain ridge. Even though his parent's old Rekord wagon was next to being a piece of junk on four wheels, the car had really been considered a blessing to have, up to the time the engine blew a connecting rod on that trip leaving Angola. Even so, the family was still grateful they had that car for the years they've owned it. \nAnd the school in Karakal had something Cheesah and the rest of the family had never seen before...lap-top and desk top computers. Cheesah didn't even know what they were at first.\nAt one point, Cheesah asked, \"We get to watch tape in this school?\" ('Tape' being an Angolan word for TV) when he thought the lap-tops were television sets.\nThe rest of the students wondered what Cheesah was even talking about.\nBut in the months to follow, Cheesah was well on his way to being computer savvy.\nThe school Cheesah use to attend back in Angola had walls constructed of stacked rock with clay for mortar, and a leaky corrugated tin roof supported by rough timber rafters that were not even milled into lumber, and it had no glass in the windows...only curtains that would wave as the wind blew through. It had no electricity, drinking water was drawn from a nearby creek, there was a designated tree away from the building for the \"potty\" area, and some classes were held outside (weather permitting).\nAnd Annika's dad, Banga, told of what little education he had, back in the days when Angola was known as Portuguese West Africa. The school building was a large, makeshift tent supported from trees in a meadow near the edge of the jungle. For school desks, you picked a place to sit on the ground. And the chalk board was a spread of sand, on the ground, inside the tent, the teacher would write in with a stick as the students gathered around to learn. Banga's school allumni still remember that sand spread as \"O kota placa de areia\" (The old sandboard).\nAnd cellular phones were a story in itself. The meerkats have never seen those before either, and never even had land line phones where they were from. And once they understood what cellular phones were, those meerkats who could afford a cellular phone, got one. The method of carrying them ranged from a clip on the back of the phone attached to fur hairs, to a pouch and belt worn around the waist, to a flip phone closed down on a necklace. Annika's brother, Najja, being self employed, saw the benefit of having one as a business phone. To some, these new phones were also somewhat of a novel toy. \nAs for housing, a lot of the families started out sharing apartments or renting shanty houses, and later, getting to a point where they could do better. Being that Annika was pregnant, Janosch Fossa offered to put her and Zhang up at his house to live with his family, which is a good drive inland from Karaikal, and out into rural country, in the mountains near Yercaud. Zhang and Annika have never been in that nice of a house before, and never even seen such a house back in their old homeland, much less been invited to live in such a place. Janosch introduced them to his wife, Sthella, his 1st and 3rd sons, Haja, age 16 and Mario, age 8, and the youngest member, daughter Malala, age 6. They already knew 2nd son Habbar, age 14. Arrangements were made for Cheesah so he can stay over, on some of his days off from school, at Janosch Fossa's place, with Annika and older brother Zhang. Cheesah and Janosch's 2nd son Habbar had become very close friends, and Cheesah was becoming friends with the other two brothers as well. Cheesah's place of residence was still with his mom and dad in Karaikal.\nWhile staying at Janosch Fossa's place, Zhang would look for work in near by Yercaud and in the next town, Salem, a larger city, but with not much success. In fact, for three days in Yercaud, Zhang would encounter a beggar, who was an old ragged lesser panda. When the panda would ask Zhang for money, Zhang would simply reply, \"Find me a job, and I'll give you a paw out\"...His way of telling him, \"I don't have it to give\".\nOne day, in a cafe in the nearby City of Salem, Zhang met a panda named Kim Sou. During their conversation, Kim Sou Panda found out that Zhang had recently immigrated with his family to India, and was looking for work without much success in finding a job. When Zhang found out Kim Sou was a martial arts instructor who ran a martial arts school in Salem, Zhang told Kim Sou about himself holding a 2nd degree black belt.\n\"I can use an assistant instructor\", Kim Sou told Zhang. \"It won't pay much, but it will get you by until you can find something\".\n\"And I can use a job\", Zhang replied. \"I accept your offer\".\nAfter they left the cafe, Kim Sou began to have Zhang follow him on foot to his school.\n\"Riding's better than walking\", said Zhang as he offered Kim Sou a ride in the car that Janosch Fossa had loaned to him.\n\"Oh, thank you Zhang\", Kim Sou replied as he got into the car. \"My car is in the shop waiting for a part to come in\".\nAt the martial arts school, Kim Sou had Zhang show him some moves to see what Zhang can do. Kim Sou was well pleased with what he saw, and Zhang was hired on.\n\"The school only runs two days per week\", Kim Sou told Zhang. \"And I can't afford to pay you much. This school doesn't by any means make my rich. But it is something until you can find a profitable job\".\n\"I'm just grateful to have the job\" Zhang replied. \"Besides, during the time I'm here, I'd feel honored to pass along some knowledge to those who want to learn\".\n\"That's why I keep this school open instead of going into something else or getting a full time job\" said Kim Sou. \"My heart's in it. I like what I do\"\nAnnika and the Fossa Family were happy for Zhang that he did at least find something, even though it was temporary until Zhang could find full time work. And with Kim Sou being 5th degree black belt, Zhang learned a few moves from him he had not until then known, plus some Aikido moves that Zhang's instructor back in Angola did not teach him. Zhang's martial arts training was for war time, to be use against invaders when there not enough guns to go around. The object to Aikido is not to kill, so in Angola, it was never taught.\n \nDuring the late morning of November 23, still in the year 2005, Annika called Zhang into the bedroom she and Zhang were using.\n\"Get Sthella. Have her bring some old sheets or towels in here\", she said to Zhang. \"The cub is about to be born\".\n\"This is a blessed day!\", Zhang told Annika as he went running to get Sthella, and to break the news to everyone.\nZhang and Janosch's family gathered in with Annika, Sthella bringing in the old sheets. Janosch's three sons had witnessed the miracle of their siblings being born. Malala had not because of her being the youngest. But this was the day they will all witness a new born meerkat coming into the world. Cheesah was staying with them that day, and was standing in the doorway.\n\"You can come on in Cheesah\", Zhang said to his younger brother. \"You're about to witness yourself become an uncle\".\n\"Well, we're already uncles\", said Cheesah, \"Dora\", referring to the five year old daughter of their brother Moze and sister-in-law Leia.\n\"You'll be his uncle also, right?\", Annika asked Cheesah.\n\"Sure will!\", Cheesah answered with enthusiasm.\nIt was at that moment Annika passed fluid.\n\"I feel the cub coming through\", Annika said just before fur and afterbirth can be seen pushing out of her clef.\nIt was Zhang who began holding the new born on the rest of the way out.\nAs Janosch cut and tied the umbilical cord, and Sthella gave the little one a wipe down, Zhang said to Annika, \"Do you remember, when we were still in Angola? You said you felt like he was going to be a male?\"\n\"Yes. I do remember saying that\", Annika answered as she was regaining her breath from giving birth to their cub.\n\"You were right\", said Zhang. \"We have a son\".\nAnnika was the first to snuggle their son, as he found the strengh to reach out with his little paws, and grab Mom's fur, and hugged her. Then Zhang gently hugged him, and eventually everyone else had a turn holding him. Even tough, old, Captain Janosch Fossa gently hugged the new born meerkat cub. As Cheesah held him, he said, \"Hey. How's my little nephew?\"\nThen he was given back to Annika so he can nurse. There was no crying or pitching a fit, as those are not the ways of new born animals.\nEveryone gave suggestions as to what to name Zhang and Annika's newest family member, but Zhang and Annika decided to name their son Raphael. Janosch Fossa even broke out the finest wine he had for everyone to celebrate the occasion. There was even a music CD played which included a really good Malagasy / French tune, http://youtube.com/watch?v=0fPxPcfKgMI . \nJanosch had wines he had picked up at various ports he's been to in many parts of the world. What Janosch broke out that day was wine he reserved only for special occasions. And this was a special enough occasion.\n[hugethumb]1184700[/hugethumb]\nUnbeknown to the Fossa and Meerkat Families...and \nthey could have cared less if they did know...while Raphael \nwas being born, a creepy rat doctor in the nearby City \nof Salem was throwing a cussing, raging, conniption fit\nin a postal facility over getting \"the shit end of the stick\"\nof the disbursement of his deceased dad's estate.\n[hugethumb]1184706[/hugethumb] \nThe next day, Zhang and Annika took Raphael to Salem to have it on record that Raphael Bandogo Meerkat is a native born citizen of India.\nWithin a few days, Zhang was blessed with a good job opportunity. He was able to get hired on as a yard worker with the railway, at the Salem Railway Junction. Annika and the Fossa Family were thrilled to hear about Zhang getting the job, and Zhang's former employer, Kim Sou Panda, wished Zhang well with his new job. The railroad paid well, and in a couple of months Zhang and Annika, with their son Raphael, had their own place, renting a fairly nice, modest home in the town of Yercaud. They were even able to help a couple of family members who weren't yet prospering so well. Cheesah and his niece, Dora, were now enrolled in school. Janosch Fossa let Zhang and Annika borrow an old Lexus the Fossa Family no longer used. That old 1967 Moskvitch that had belonged to Annika, since before her and Zhang were married, was by now literally falling apart, and had finally quit running. Zhang and Annika really liked the car Janosch loaned to them. And it had a lot more \"zip\" and get up and go.\nAs Raphael got up to ages 2 and 3, he enjoyed playing with the other cubs. Cheesah, then age 16, and Raphael would go over to play with Janosch Fossa's sons and daughter. Sometimes Moze and Liea would bring Dora, then age 8, to play.\n\n[hugethumb]1184835[/hugethumb]\nLife Gets Better for the Meerkats\n\nTwo and a half years later, late summer of 2007, Zhang put in for a position that became available where he worked. It was for an assistant locomotive operator trainee for a newly commissioned express train run. Zhang had the most seniority among the others who also put in for it, and it was Zhang who got the position. As an assistant locomotive operator, Zhang would earn a lot higher pay, plus working fewer days, than if he had stayed as a rail yard worker. Zhang's crew would relieve the crew of an eastbound bound express train in Erode in the late afternoon, then running the train the rest of the way to Chennai, near India's east coast. The crew would spend that night in Chennai, then, at 7:15 the following morning, they would begin the westbound return run. When they arrive at Erode around noon, they are relieved by the crew who would run the train to it's western turn around point in Coimbatore. http://youtube.com/watch?v=fYA3FJPJ9ul .\n.After work, Zhang would then ride a commuter train back to Salem. Annika would drive down from their home in nearby Yercaud to pick him up at the Salem station. Zhang would have a day off, work two days, have two days off, then work two more days each week, and still bring home more pay than working in the rail yard six days per week. With Zhang's higher pay grade, it was only several months, he and Annika were able to put a down payment on the purchase of a nice home in the mountain rural countryside. And it isn't more than several kilometers from where Janosch Fossa and his family live. At the closing of the sale of the house and land, Zhang had difficulty reading the paperwork in a timely manner. Because Zhang never learned to read or write until age 12, he is still a very slow reader. So Annika read the sale contract, escrow agreement and legal description out loud, The realtor, Jaharh Linsang, explained the contract as Annika read along, then Annika and Zhang signed off as the buyers.\nAlso, there was something Zhang and Annika were wanting ever since they've been married...a pair of gold wedding rings in place of the wooden rings they've been wearing. They bought a pair of 24 K gold rings at a jewelry store in Salem.\n\nWhen Cheesah started high school around the end of summer of 2007 (2007 - 2008 school year, 10th grade), Bron and Lacara allowed Cheesah stay in Yercaud with older brother Zhang, sister-in-law Annika and nephew Raphael so he can go to school in Salem with friends he knows, among of whom being Habbar Fossa, although Habbar was a grade ahead of Cheesah.\nJanosch and Sthella Fossa had always home schooled their cubs up through the 9th grade, but their cubs attended public school during 10th, 11th and 12th grades...Janosch and Sthella felt that some public school experience would help to improve on the social skills of their offspring. And as far as good and bad influences from fellow students go, the cubs had already developed a good foundation about discerning those things from what Mom and Dad had home schooled them.\n\nIn February of 2008, three months after Raphael turned age 2, Raphael's little penis poked out for the very first time. Cheesah was already home from high school for the day at Zhang and Annika's house, and was the first one who little Raphael approached. Little Pee-pee was poking all the way out hard like it was having it's first look at the outside world.\n\"Uncle Cheesah! Do you SEE him?!\", Raphael proclaimed to Cheesah, while pointing to his penis. \"He's cute! I think he's my pee-pee!\".\n\"He IS your pee-pee\", Cheesah said with a laugh to Raphael. \n\"O que Raphael quer?\" (What does Raphael want?), Annika called from the kitchen to Cheesah.\n\"Eu acho que Raphael descobriu-se\" (I think Raphael found himself), Cheesah answered.\nAs Annika came into the living room, Raphael proclaimed, \"Look Mamma! Pee-pee sayin' Hello!\".\n\"Yes he is\", Annika said with a giggle as Zhang walked in...Zhang was off shift from the railroad that day.\n\"Heh heh...that's my boy\", Zhang laughed.\n\"OUR boy\", Annika corrected Zhang.\n\"Oh, sorry, Hon...Our boy\", Zhang acknowledged as he put a paw around Annika.\n\"I don't think I'm the ONLY one in this family with a stinky xi-xi\", Cheesah mention as strong sex scent began to permeate around the living room...And it wasn't coming from Cheesah - His penis wasn't sticking out.\n\"Son, you have a stinky xi-xi like your Uncle Cheesah has\", Annika told Raphael and she, Zhang, Cheesah and even Raphael chuckled.\nRaphael then took another good look at his own penis, then said, \"Mamma. Pee-pee was lookin' where he's pointin' a while ago. But when Pee-pee got all stiffy feeling, he points THAT way, but looks up all the time\".\nAnnika hadn't figured out what her son was saying at first, until Cheesah made mention to Zhang, \"Like our brother Moze. The way HIS xi-xi seems to look upward when it's hard\".\n\"Sim. You mean like it's face is turned up on top looking up\", Zhang added as he took notice.\n\"Awww, that IS cute\", Annika added, seeing that the head of Raphael's penis flexes up that way when hard.\nThat was when Raphael asked, \"Mom. Dad. Is that good or bad?\".\n\"It's a GOOD thing\", Zhang assured Raphael. That's the way it was naturally made.\n\"That means your Pee-pee is looking up at you, Raphael\", Annika told her son.\n\"Yea! Pee-pee IS lookin' up at me\", Raphael gleefully exclaimed once he looked down and noticed how little Pee-pee seemed to have it's face turned up on top of itself so it can look back up at it's owner...regardless that it was pointing out horizontally.\nThis is how Raphael perceives little Pee-pee;\n\n[hugethumb]758518[/hugethumb]\n[hugethumb]758518,2[/hugethumb]\n\nHowever, once Raphael's penis went back flaccid, and before it went back into sheath, Raphael did notice that Pee-pee's head would return to it's flaccid shape...That's when Pee-pee's head again seemed like it's looking ahead toward where it's pointing.\nFor some time to come, that day would be known by the family as \"the day of Raphael's little discovery\". \n \n\nIt was in the year 2010 that Cheesah graduated high school in Salem. Cheesah finally got that education his parents Bron and Lacara always wanted him to have. \nShortly after graduating school, Cheesah did end up with a couple of 'dead end' jobs he didn't like. But by the end of that summer, Cheesah was able to get hired on as a maintenance assistant for the City of Salem, helping with maintenance of the city vehicles. It wasn't what you would call a high paying job, but it wasn't too bad.\nLittle nephew Raphael was to start kinder garden in the fall of that same year in Yercaud.\n\nThe meerkats even began to receive mail back from friends and relatives they've been trying to reach who never made it out of Angola a few years earlier.\nThis was the first time since they had left Angola that mail was again allowed to go out of the country.\nFrom what the relatives wrote to them, Angola had now become a peaceful place to live and began to prosper very well. The political issues that use to plague the country had been resolved. And the various rebel groups who were remnants of UNITA had been overpowered by the rest of the population there. Many of the rebel leaders who had now been taken back out of power had been arrested for war crimes and treason, and the MPLA government is back in control of the rest of the country. And the best news from the relatives was that the so called State of North Angola was no more. It is once again Angola as it was before the trouble erupted.\nThe family sent letters to the relatives in Angola with phone numbers they can call them on.\nIt's good to hear from the other meerkat relatives, although those of the family who came to India don't plan on going back. But they do stay in touch with their relatives abroad in the old homeland.\n\nVery early in the year 2012, Zhang and Annika also got a decent reliable vehicle, and it was a one in a lifetime deal too. An elderly widowed palm civet, who's husband recently passed away, had a utility vehicle she called a jeep. Her late husband left it to her and she was selling at almost a give away price. When Zhang and Annika, taking along Raphael, then age 6, went to see the so called jeep, the widowed civet mentioned that it had some collectable value to it, but since her husband died, she just wanted to get rid of it. When the Meerkats saw the vehicle, they found out what the widow palm civet was calling a jeep, was a 1970, five door, hard body, Land Rover, in pristine condition, in dark green, with a white top. It had 4 wheel drive, in line 6 cylinder engine and a manual transmission.\nhttp://moyomongoose.deviantart.com/art/Zhang-and-Annika-s-Land-Rover-556093453?ga_submit_new=10%253A1440502118 \nIt was the ideal rugged, well built, go any where, nostalgic, family wagon, built to hold up and last. And unlike the cars the meerkats were now replacing, the steering wheel was on the right side, which is better suited for driving in India.\n\"The only thing missing, is it use to have the safari roof panel above the regular roof\", the widowed palm civet told Zhang and Annika. Then she continued, \"Birds use to build nests up under it. My late husband and I would tell them not to build there, but they'd do it anyway. Then they'd expect us not to drive it, telling us they were scared that their young would fall out while going down the road. So we fixed that by taking it off and getting rid of it\".\nLittle Raphal was even hopping and climbing over the seats in glee and astonishment.\n\"I can hardly wait for the other cubs in school to see our new car!\" Raphael exclaimed as he took a place on the driver's seat and reaching up holding the steering wheel, barely being able to see over the dash. Raphael had recently started school at that time.\n Zhang and Annika hopped on that deal right away.\n\"And the engine. It can warm up on it's own. We won't need to hold a piece of cardboard over the carburetor\", Zhang said jokingly as Annika chuckled and hugged him.\nThe widow palm civet was puzzled by Zhang's comment until he and Annika explained how Annika's Moskvitch automobile was.\nThen she too laughed, then told Zhang and Annika, \"This old jeep treated my late husband and I very well. And as long as it's taken care of, it will treat you just as well as it treated us\".\n\"Hey look. It don't have the fast numbers\", Raphael announced as he pointed at the speedometer, noticing it only read up to 75.\n\"Well, the fast numbers, we don't need them, Babe\", Annika replied to Raphael.\n\"We seldom drive faster than seventy five kilometers per hour anyway, Son\", Zhang added.\n\"Oh my!\", the widow palm civet exclaimed. \"I almost forgot to tell you. That speedometer is not in kilometers. It's in the old English miles per hour\".\n\"I see that now\", Zhang mentioned as he saw MPH, instead of KPH, printed on bottom of the speedometer.\n\"So seventy five to this speedometer. It's going pretty fast\", Annika added.\n\"My goodness yes\", the widowed palm civet answered. \"You run this to seventy five, you'll be going almost 120. This kind of speedometer can easily fool you, being use to kilometers.\n\"We usually drive at seventy or eighty on the open highway. So in miles, that would be....?\", Zhang asked.\n\"Well, if you run it to forty five, that will give you seventy kilometers per hour. And running it to fifty will give you eighty\", the widowed palm civet explained. \nFor Zhang and Annika, getting accustomed a speedometer they were not use to was only a trivial matter. They really liked that Land Rover, and so did Raphael, especially after the meerkats, with the widowed palm civet riding along, took it on a test drive. When they got back from the test drive, Zhang went over to the car that Yannas Fossa had been letting he and Annika borrow, and got the checkbook from the glove compartment. The widowed palm civet received a check in the amount she was asking for the Land Rover, and Zhang and Annika received the title to the vehicle, signed off to both of their names, and a written bill of sale. The deal was done.\nNow that Zhang and Annika were the proud new owners of the Land Rover they had purchased, the first thing to do was to return the car that Janosch and Sthella Fossa had been letting them use. Annika drove the car back to the Fossa residence, as Zhang and Raphael followed in the Land Rover. When Janosch and Sthella saw Zhang and Annika's newly purchased vehicle, they were really impressed, which of course, was followed by an hour visit, talking about old Land Rovers and other old vehicles while Habbar entertained Raphael, before the meerkats went on their way. \nFor most of the remainder of that day, Zhang, Annika and Raphael cruised around Salem, and stopped in at a few places, before they headed back to their house in Yercaud.\n\nIt was past bedtime one night, a couple of days after Zhang and Annika bought the Land Rover. The family took a trip into town. As Mom drove, and Dad was trying to find the location of something on a map, Raphael was standing on the driver's side rear door, outside the vehicle, looking for butterflies to catch in his butterfly net as they rode along.\nMom would say, \"Get back inside so you don't fall off!\".\nThen Raphael awoke in his bedroom at 3:20 am, still snuggled in his bed...It was one of those crazy dreams...Raphael dreamed he was standing on the door of the Land Rover catching butterflies.\n\"What a crazy dream\", Raphael thought, then went back to sleep.\n[hugethumb]1254690[/hugethumb]\nThis was drawn for me as a Secret Santa 2016 gift by @Harkrun .\n \nAlthough Zhang and Annika had the Land Rover registered in both of their names, this was the first time Zhang, then 22, ever in his lifetime had a motor vehicle with his name on the title. And it was among the first of the vehicles they and the other family members had that wasn't either beat up or a falling apart piece of junk.\n\nOn a Saturday morning, about a month later, there was a knock on the front door of Janosch Fossa's house. It was Yannas' wife, Sthella, who answered the door.\nThere stood a male skunk of humble demeanor, who introduced himself as Seymour, and announced, \"I noticed the old Moskvitch automobile around side of your house. Would you be interested in selling it?\".\nThe skunk then reached into a pouch on a belt around his waist and got out a business card and pawed it over to Sthella.\nThe card indicated Seymour Skunk to be a dealer of restored antique automobiles.\n\"It belongs to friends of ours\", Sthella Fossa informed Seymour Skunk. \"If you want come inside and wait, I'll call them\".\nOnce inside, Janosch offered the skunk a drink while Sthella made the call.\nSthella was able to reach Annika by phone and told her there was a skunk who wanted to buy the old Moskvitch...which had been sitting up long enough, among the palmettos and banana trees, to have a couple of flat tires and weeds grown up around it.\nAnnika said she would like to sell that old car. It was one of Zhang's day's off from the Indian Railway, so Zhang, Annika and Raphael got in the Land Rover and promptly arrived to Janosch and Sthella's house with the title to the car.\nOnce everyone got introduced, Seymour Skunk offered 5,000 rupees for the old Moskvitch, which Annika was about to gladly accept.\n\"Wow! Five thousand!\", Zhang responded with surprise.\n\"He's gonna buy our JUNKY car?!\", Raphael asked.\nThen Janosch told Annika, \"Hold up a minute. Let me talk to him\".\nJanosch then had Seymour follow him alone into the den and began discussing the offer on the car.\nAnnika could hardly believe anyone would offer that much money for her old broken down car that no longer ran.\n\"He must want my old car really bad\", said Annika.\n\"Or he's crazy\", Zhang laughed as Annika and Raphael laughed along with him.\nJanosch Fossa and Seymour Skunk haggled about the offer over in the den for about seven minutes.\nWhen they came back into the living room, Seymour told Annika, \"I'll gladly give you 35,000 rupees for that old car\".\n\"Thirty five thousand\", Annika asked. \"For my old broken dow....\".\n\"Annika! Annika!\", Janosch called her attention as he motioned her to stop talking.\nSeymour reached into his belt pouch and got out his checkbook and a pen. Seymour wrote out a check for 35,000 rupees, and Annika signed the title of the old Moskvitch over to Semour Skunk.\nNeedless to say, Zhang and Annika thanked Janosch for haggling with Seymour to get his offer up 30,000 rupees higher...a big difference between that and the 5,000 Seymour originally offered.\nAfter Seymour Skunk left, Zhang remarked, \"For that old broken down car. Thirty five thousand rupees. If I didn't see it, I wouldn't have believed it\".\n\"I know\", said Annika. \"But I'm not complaining\".\nJanosch and Sthella then told Zhang and Annika that there are antique car enthusiasts that pay good money for rare and old cars. Janosch told Zhang and Annika that for a car like the old Moskvitch Annika had, Seymour Skunk was taking advantage of them by offering only 5,000 rupees for it, in spite of the condition it was in.\n\"The five thousand he would have given you for that car would have been nothing compared to what he'll sell it for after it's restored\", Janosch had mentioned.\nZhang and Annika had no idea old cars like that were worth anything. Back when they were living in Angola, they've seen lots of cars as old as 60 years old that were falling apart but would still run...and some that would only barely run.\nTo everyone where Zhang and Annika grew up, an old car was just another old car, regardless how old or how rare they were. Some of those old cars back in the old homeland had been around seemingly forever.\nAnd there were some of those cars that were passed down from generation to generation to the animals who presently drove them. Many animals in the southern part of Angola drove the very same cars that their parents and grandparents use to drive. And when those cars quit running, an engine, transmission or other parts were taken from another car that no longer ran to get that car going again so someone in an upcoming generation could someday have a car to use. Only when a car was literally falling apart...that is actually rusting apart into pieces, was it no longer kept running.\nLater that day, Seymour Skunk returned with a rollback wrecker truck, driven by a helper, a stoat, and picked up the old Moskvitch.\nNo one would have guessed it was only six years earlier that the meerkats had lost everything they owned except for their ragged vehicles and what they could haul in them, fleeing a country that was at that time falling into a state of collapse and violence.\n\n\n[hugethumb]588946[/hugethumb]\nPosting from @nelson88 drawn by Victor.\n\nOn occasion, there was a little thing Zhang and Annika did for Raphael, called, \"Xi-xi's playtime\"...It was a little session when Mommy and Daddy would stimulate Raphael's little penis as Raphael would lay back and enjoy how so good, erotic and tingly little Pee-pee feels. And when little Pee-pee got his little pointy nosed head massaged, Pee-pee would rare up like a standing snake, getting even harder, and poke all the way out of his sheath, making his owner Raphael feel good all over with even more erotic pleasure. And there was Raphael's strong sex scent that smelled like buttered popcorn when little Pee-pee poked out, but little Pee-pee didn't care what he smells like.\nOf course Zhang and Anniika felt \"Xi-xi's playtime\" should be done only on a seldom occasion as not to over do it...The custom was not uncommon back in the old Cunene Province homeland. Just about every cub, males and females, would on occasion receive sexual play from the parents, including members of the Meerkat Family going back for generations. \nThere had been times when Raphael would approach his parents with his little penis head poking out of sheath, and ask, \"Mom. Dad. Little Pee-pee wants you to play with him\".\nIf the last session of Xi-xi's playtime had been less than a couple of weeks or so ago, Zhang or Annika would tell Raphael, \"Not today, Son. When we feel it's the time for it, we will\".\nBut if it had been a couple of weeks or so, or a month ago, then Zhang and Annika would oblige Raphael and give little Pee-pee some more Xi-xi's playtime. \nOne of those sessions was during a visit when Cheesah was there, and Raphael asked, \"My Pee-pee wants Uncle Cheesah to play with him. Can he?...Please?\"\nAfter everyone got finished giggling and chuckling, Zhang and Annika gave the OK, and Uncle Cheesah massaged, patted and rubbed the head of Nephew Raphael's little Pee-pee.\nEveryone got another laugh when Raphael exuberantly exclaimed, \"OHHH! Pee-pee says thank you, Uncle Cheesah\", as Raphael's penis began boinging it's head out from between Cheesah's fingers. \n\"As long as he don't squirt me, that's thanks enough\", Cheesah laughed.\n\"He he he he...Don't worry, Uncle Cheesah. He won't. I promise. He's bein' a GOOD pee-pee\", Raphael giggled.\n\nThe family did get the first phone call from the relatives back in Angola, which Annika had answered the phone. And they were surprised to hear the relatives back in the homeland were calling from cell phones...something the family thought would never be seen in their part of the Cunene Province. The relatives told of how the way of life had begun to improve, Most everyone has cars now, which were still old but not the beat up hunks of junk the animals there had always known.\nRaphael talked to the relatives who had never seen Raphael before, and they were delighted to hear from him.\nRelatives in Angola told Zhang and Annika about electrical service now being made available to everyone in many parts of the Cunene Province, and also that the linsang couple had reopened the village cafe, which now has electrical service...The cafe owners never did make it out of Angola during the trouble back in 2005, but they, as well as their cafe, did survive the almost constant civil wars that had now recently come to an end.\nThe family members in Angola had their phone on speakerphone, so one of Annika's cousin's cubs mentioned that the cafe in the village now plays music on a radio, and they no longer use an old crank-up Gramophone playing records. Annika's cousin then explained to Zhang and Annika how bad that old Gramophone was beginning to wear out and drag, and how scratchy those old records had become...He went on to comment it doesn't exactly make for excellent music quality to dine by. \nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cmJOyKo8HY\n\"Lo soar engraçado, quando era lento\" (It was funny when it was slow), Annika's cousin's cub added as she giggled.\nAs for Rosie Hippo, the waitress, friends back in Angola received mail from her once she moved back in with her family in Kenya, thus everyone knew she was OK...Being from Kenya was why Rosie Hippo had always spoke with a non-rhotic dialect.\nMost everyone in the old homeland has cars now, which were still old, but not the beat up hunks of partly reliable junk the animals there had always known. Some of the relatives in Angola told of how they could now take trips to Menengue to work the sugarcane plantations during the harvest season now that they have reliable cars to get them there, and then back home again after the harvest season is over.\n\"Ter um boter, a viagem que podemos fazer\" (Having a car, we can make the trip), one of the relatives said.\n\"Ele ainda é um trabalho árduo\" (It is still hard work), Annika replied.\n\"Hoje nao. Operamos máquinas\" (Not today. We operate machines), the relative said.\nOther relatives from Angola who took turns talking told about how it's not done anymore by hacking all day long with a machete, and shoulder carrying bundles of cane to be loaded by paw onto a ragged old truck. The relatives told of how some of them got training and qualification to run machines such as cane cutters, track-hoes equipped with mechanical tongs, front end loaders and other equipment...and how those jobs paid well too. Harvesting sugarcane certainly is different from how it was done in the old days. \nAnnika told the relatives about how Cheesah was wanting to get hired on with the railroad. Like it was in Angola, if you can get on with the railroad, the pay is good...It would be better than that maintenance assistant job with the city where Cheesah had not gotten a promotion since he had been with them for almost three years. Zhang had been putting a good word in for Cheesah at the rail yard where Zhang himself use to work before he got his position as an assistant locomotive operator. \nIn the recent years, life has been good to the meerkats, and more so to Zhang, Annika and Raphael.\n\n[hugethumb]1184840[/hugethumb]\nA Little About Raphael Meerkat\n\nRAPHAEL MEERKAT, male, born near Yercaud, India, in the State of Tamil Nadu, to Angolan parents, on November 23rd, 2005, age 8, is Zhang and Annika's boy.\nAt Raphael's young age, most of what will be his history is still yet ahead of him. Raphael is a playful, inquisitive young meerkat who likes companionship, loves his friends and relatives, and loves, honors and obeys his parents, and like his parents, God fearing and a love for the creator. The lifelong love bond between Rahpael and his parents is a very strong one. Hardly a day goes by without Raphael, at least once, hugging his parents and telling them, \"I love you, Mama\", \"I love you, Dad\". And it's always the highpoint in Raphael's day when either Zhang or Annika would pick him and hug him, and snuggle him, and love on him, and tell him, \"Raphael, you're my boy. I love you\", and then hug him again. There are some nights, that Raphael's parents would decide, instead of having sex that night, they would allow Raphael to sleep with them, snuggled up between Mom ans Dad. And if you were to ask Raphael, \"Raphael, what movie picture hero would you want to be like?\", the answer he would give you would be, \"I just wana be like my Dad\".\nRaphael likes helping his dad, and learning things, when his dad is working on projects or doing maintenance on the family vehicle. And Zhang likes having his son with him, helping him. Zhang has been a good teacher to his son. Since age 7, Raphael has known how a gasoline engine works, and how to change spark plugs, do an oil change, check filters and maintain the fluids on their Land Rover wagon. Zhang even taught Raphael how to drive the family wagon, with the driver's seat pulled all the way foward so Raphael's feet can reach the petals. The stipulation to that was, that Dad or Mom would be with Raphael, and only on the secondary dirt roads, and no speed above 40 kilometers per hour (25 miles per hour).\nThere were a few small knocks in life that Raphael had already experienced. There was the time Raphael was caught by Zhang watching a television show ran by two hairy trolls who were a bad influence on cubs. Raphael was told before not to watch that show, so Zhang, letting his temper get the better of him, threw a bottle of flowers through the picture tube, and told Raphael there would be no more television in the house. When Annika got home, she made Zhang take the family into town and buy a new television.\n\n[largethumb]1182953[/largethumb] [largethumb]1182953,2[/largethumb]\n [largethumb]1182953,3[/largethumb]\n[largethumb]1182953,4[/largethumb] [largethumb]1182953,5[/largethumb]\nThere was the time Raphael had a problem with some bullies at school. Part of what started it was over the fact that Raphael has that extra strong penis scent like his Uncle Cheesah has. Other cubs would call him names like \"stinky dinky\", \"popcorn popper\" and \"pee pee pee pee pew-ee boy\".\nZhang taught Raphael some of the Aikido he learned from Kim Sou Panda years earlier. Zhang wouldn't teach Raphael the other martial arts, which had lethal moves in them, until Raphael got older. Aikido is turning the opponent's strength against their self, so Zhang figured that would be safe enough to teach a cub. Once Raphael got good at what his dad taught him, the bullying stopped almost overnight. Raphael got respect after that, and even the bullies were later in Raphael's circle of friends.\n\n\n[hugethumb]588946[/hugethumb]\nPosted by @nelson88 drawn by Victor.\n\nIt had been more than a month since Raphael's little penis had it's most recent \"Xi-xi's playtime\" session, and Raphael had been asking his parents for another playtime session for a few days. This was one of Zhang's days off from Indian Railways, it had been a while, so Zhang and Annika decided this would be a time for it.\n\"Come on in the bedroom\", Zhang said to Raphael as Zhang and Annika gathered at the bed.\n\"I'm coming! I'm coming!\", Raphael proclaimed as he ran into the bedroom with his little penis already poking out of sheath.\nRaphael promptly climbed up on the bed and laid on his back beside his parents. Raphael was feeling so good as little Pee-pee, already poking up straight and proud, began getting it's little head massaged. Raphael had his balls gently rubbed. That little nose point on Pee-pee's head got flipped and wiggled. Pee-pee's sheath got moved back and forth behind it's head.\nThere was a knock on the front door.\nNot wanting to interrupt Xi-xi's playtime, Annika called out, \"Who's there?\".\n\"It is me. Janosch\", they heard Janosch Fossa call back.\n\"Janosch and I are taking a drive to Karaikal\", Sthella Fossa added, \"We were wondering if you would like to come along\".\n\"That would be good\", Zhang said to Annika.\n\"We gonna visit grandma and granddad?\", Raphael asked as he was still enjoying having little pee-pee played with.\n\"Yes we would\", Annika replied to Janosch and Sthella. \"You can come in. The door is not locked\".\nAfter Janosch and Sthella entered the house, Zhang called from the bedroom, \"We're in here\", him and Annika not giving any thought to the sex play session. \nUpon entering the bedroom, Janosch Fossa and his wife were startled to see Zhang and Annika playing with their son's penis...and almost as startled to see Raphael laying back enjoying it.\n\"What is going on here?\", Janosch asked in a calm collective tone.\n\"Oh my\", Sthella added.\nZhang looked around puzzled, then asked, \"I don't see anything, Janosch. What do you mean?\".\n\"That\", said Janosch.\n\"All that is going on here, is Raphael getting some Xi-xi play\", Annika replied as she continued patting the face area of the head of Raphael's penis.\n\"Mamma. Can Janosch and Sthella play with Pee-pee?\", Raphael asked.\nJanosch promptly answered, \"No thank you\".\nJanosch Fossa had heard of these kind of things being common in isolated parts of the African mainland back when he and his family still lived in Madagascar...And because of it being a common norm back in the Meerkats Angolan homeland, Zhang and Annika never gave it any thought.\n\"Zhang. Annika. Can we go into another room? I have something I want to talk to you about\", said Janosch.\n\"Well, OK\", Zhang answered, still wondering what it was about.\nAnnika then invited Janosch and Sthella into the dining room for some tea. As little Raphael came into the dining room, with little Pee-pee still poking his head out of sheath, Sthella recommended that Raphael should go back to the bedroom and stay there until the conversation was done.\n\"India's not at war are we?\", Zhang asked.\n\"Raphael, go back in the bedroom\", Annika said to her son.\n\"Awww, Mom\", Raphael retorted.\n\"You heard your mom\", Zhang added.\nAfter Raphael returned to the bedroom, Janosch Fossa said, \"There is no war...The thing you were...uh...well...doing in the bedroom...\", then Janosch wondered where to really begin.\n\"Playing with little Raphael's peedee\", Sthella interjected.\n\"And...?\", Zhang asked, still puzzled as to what was up.\nJanosch then gathered his thoughts, and said, \"I realize parents playing with their cub's genitals might be a thing that is normally done where you are from...But we don't do that here in India...In fact, it's not a thing normally done in most of the world\".\nThat came as a surprise to Zhang and Annika. And it came as almost an equal surprise to Janosch and Sthella when Annika told them of how that went back for generations.\n\"My sisters and I had our bucetas (pussies) played with when we were cubs. And my brother Najja had his xi-xi (penis) played with as a cub...and I even played with Najja's xi-xi before\", Annika mentioned. \"And my mom and dad got their things played with as cubs by my grand parents\".\nZhang mentioned, \"My dad and mom played with me and my brothers that way when we were cubs. My mom and dad were played with that way when they were cubs. Even my grand parents. I was told my great grand dad Dominique had his xi-xi played with as a cub. So did my great grand mom Gloria have her buceta played with as a cub\".\n\"Well, Zhang. Annika\", said Janosch. \"This is not that isolated area of Angola you came from. It's different here\".\n\"That wasn't even done where we lived in Toamasina\", Sthella added. \nAfter about a half hour of enlightenment from Janosch and Sthella Fossa, Zhang and Annika finally came around to seeing that issue as the Fossas were explaining it to them.\nLittle Raphael was disapointed when his parents told him there won't be anymore \"Xi-xi's playtime\" sessions. But Zhang and Annika convinced Raphael, with support from Janosch and Sthella, that Raphael could do that himself...provided he doesn't spend all day getting carried away with it. \nAfter that matter was cleared up, Zhang, Annika and Raphael went with Janosch and Sthella on that trip to Karaikal they were invited to.\n\nThen there was the time in late November 2013, a couple of days after Raphael's 8th birthday, Raphael began feeling tired, and would occasionally cough up small amounts of thick flem.\nZhang and Annika at first thought that Raphael had simply caught a cold. But as a few more days went by, Raphael's symptoms only got worse, and late in the evening of the last day of November, Raphael complained to his parents of a \"buzzy feeling\" in his chest when he coughs.\nZhang and Annika knew by this time it was something more serious than a cold and decided they should take their son to see a doctor. It was already past sunset, and they knew their family physician would have already gone home for the day...That being so, they would have to take Raphael to the hospital emergency room. \n\"They're not gonna stick me with a needle, are they?\", Raphael asked, followed by a cough, as the family was getting into their Land Rover.\n\"I don't know, Babe. But if they do, it will be to help you get well\", Annika assured him.\n\"The worst thing you can do is be scared, Son. Remember, faith always triumphs over fear\", Zhang reminded Raphael just before cranking up the vehicle to leave for the hospital.\nAfter arriving to the hospital, Raphael still felt a little nervous with that sense of uncertainty over what is going to happen, as Zhang locked the doors to the Land Rover, and the family began that walk to the entrance of the admissions office.\nDuring Raphael's admission process, he would get even more nervous while the staff was checking his vital signs. But the triage nurse, a female white wolf, assured Raphael that everything was going to be OK.\nAfter the admission process was done, they had Raphael climb onto a gurney, then wheeled him to the emergency room where his parents waited there with him. \nThey didn't have to wait long before the doctor who was assigned to treat Raphael showed up. Raphael's parents sensed that something didn't feel right about this big, brown rat. They also noticed he was circumcised, which they didn't pay much mind to, because, among friends of their family, are two circumcised civets, and a circumcised fossa who's closest friends jokingly call him \"Ding Bell\", because his flared shape penis head (typical of male fossas) would shake around, looking like a ringing bell on the end of a barbed shank, when he walked.\n\"Hello, I'm Dr. Zander Iscelberg Rat\", he introduced himself. \"And I take it this is the little one we'll be checking this evening. What seems to be goin' on?\".\n\"He's has a rattle in his chest when he coughs. And he says he feels weak\", Raphael's mom, Annika, told Dr. Rat.\n\"What is that plastic thing?\", Zhang asked, noticing two items Dr. Rat was holding. \"And what's with the knife?\"\n\"Oh. This is a circumcision clamp.\" Dr. Zander Rat explained. \"Before we do anything else, that nasty skin cover needs to come off your son's penis. By the way, you yourself should also consider getting...\"\n\"QUE O INFERNO?! (WHO THE HELL?!)\" Zhang cut Dr. Rat off in mid sentence, as Raphael began freaking out, screaming and crying, scared half out of his wits...The last thing a little boy meerkat with pneumonia needs.\nThe acquaintance between the Meerkat family and Dr. Rat got real ugly real quick. Annika demanded a different doctor for Raphael as Raphael frantically cried, \"I DON'T WANT MY PEE-PEE CUT!\".\n\n[largethumb]548147[/largethumb]\n\nZander Rat simply argued, \"It's all about what I feel is best in my professional opinion\".\n\"BACK OFF! AND I MEAN NOW, RAT!\", Zhang shouted.\nBut Zhang could clearly see he was being ignored as he saw the creepy doctor set the scalpel on the gurney to have a paw free to retract Raphael's penis sheath, poking his little meerkat penis head and shank all the way out. Zhang and Annika were appalled beyond belief when they saw Dr. Rat trying to get the circi-clamp bell over Raphael's penis head as Raphael began kicking and fighting it.\n\"STOP THIS! NOW!\", Annika screamed.\nAs Raphael struggled, he kicked the scalpel Dr. Rat set on the gurney. Dr. Rat had to let loose of Raphael's penis, allowing it to sheath back in, so he can catch the flying scalpel.\nIt was at that point, Zhang Meerkat knew enough was enough. Zhang quickly came around the gurney and gave Dr. Zander Rat a hard shove away to protect Raphael, and almost knocking the doctor down, then slapping him around a few times and roughing him up.\n\"WHAT'S GOING ON OVER THERE?!\", Zhang could hear what appeared to be another doctor ask, followed by the reply, \"WE SHOULD HAVE KNOWN! DR. ICE BERG! WHO ELSE WOULD IT BE?!\".\nZhang Meerkat hollered at Zander Rat, \"STAY AWAY FROM MY SON OR I'LL KILL YOU, YOU CREEP! THIS IS YOUR ONLY WARNING!\", as Zhang began backing the creepy doctor away from Raphael.\n\n[largethumb]548147,2[/largethumb]\n\n\"They must be stopped!\", said a civet who appeared to be a nurse. \"Someone will be hurt!\"\n\"NO! Let him have at it.\", said another doctor who was a Wolf. \"I'd like to see that meerkat nail the living shit out of Zander Ice Berg\".\nZhang continued backing Dr. Rat away, telling him, \"Those things tougher than you even dream of being, I've laugh at, voce pedaco de merda (you piece of shit)!\"\nThen Zhang continued cussing out Dr. Zander Rat in an Angolan dialect of Portuguese, that being the language of Angola, Africa where Zhang and Annika were born and raised.\nAnnika was busy calming Raphael down. \"It's all right, meu bebe (my baby). It's all right\" Annika assured Raphael, as she was hugging and patting him. \"Papai e Mamae irao mante-lo seguro (Daddy and Mommy will keep you safe). It's OK. Daddy's taking care of him. Right now\".\nZhang Meerkat already had it settled in his mind that at this point, if Dr. Rat took a half step back toward Raphael's direction, or run his mouth one more time, Zhang would turn that creepy doctor into a corpse real quick. It had now escalated into a volatile situation as Zhang was ready to make the decision to hook up Dr. Rat with a ride in a hearse and a closed casket funeral.\nZhang Meerkat then stared Zander Rat down, with only two seconds away from going ballistic on him and killing him. The only thing that stopped it was that Annika had finally gotten Raphael calmed down, and came over and held paws with Zhang to calm him down. \nAnnika thought to herself, \"Thank God my husband didn't kill him\", as she was so grateful she held Zhang back from making a mistake he'd later regret. Annika, like any other wife, does not want her husband in prison (known as 'The Zoo') on a murder conviction.\nThen suddenly, Dr. Rat dropped his circi-clamp and scalpel, and went running off, hollering for hospital security, \"AHHHH! SECURITY! SECURITY! I'VE BEEN THREATENED! I'VE BEEN THREATENED!\". \nZhang, still holding paws with his wife, told the creepy doctor as he ran by, \"Why don't you just go to Hell?\".\n\n[largethumb]548147,3[/largethumb]\n\nThe last the family saw of Dr. Rat, for the time being, was when he dashed out through the double doors leading into the main hallway of the hospital. Even from in the ER, the family could hear Dr. Rat running, loudly slapping his feet down the hallway, and hollering for Security.\nZhang Meerkat could have easily delivered a reverse spin kick to Dr. Rat's chest, which would have caved his rib cage in like a cardboard box, instantly killing him.\nAlthough circumcision is practiced in parts of the meerkats former homeland of Angola, Zhang and Annika were from the Cunene Province of Angola (near Namibia), where, unlike other parts of the country, circumcision is not traditionally practiced. And they certainly did not want it for their son, Raphael...nor did Raphael. \nA different doctor was assigned to treat Raphael, Dr. Clyde Konar Wolf MD.\n\"Please don't cut my pee-pee\", Raphael timidly asked Dr. Wolf.\n\"I'm not like Dr. Rat\", Dr. Wolf assured Raphael. \"I can promise you, as long as you are in my care, nothing's going to happen to your little boy thing\". \nRaphael, as well as his parents were so relieved to hear that. Dr. Wolf and an attractive female fox nurse, Nurse Sheryl Fox, were very caring and friendly. Dr. Wolf alleviated Raphael's fear of doctors that Dr. Rat inflicted on him earlier that evening. Dr. Wolf and Nurse Fox, and the Meerkat Family got along well, and Raphael took a liking to Nurse Fox.\nAt one point Raphael told her, \"Nurse Sheryl. I like you. You're pretty\".\nSheryl Fox replied, \"Aww. That's the nicest thing anyone's said to me all evening. Thank you, Raphael\".\nAfter an examination, a couple of tests and an X-ray, Raphael's illness was diagnosed as pneumonia. Dr. Wolf even showed Raphael the X-ray and told him it was a picture of his lungs, and pointed out the spots representing the infection at the top of his right lung. Raphael was fascinated by it. Dr. Wolf administered an antibiotic shot to Raphael's haunch, which he didn't like very well, then prescribed medication for Raphael to take twice a day. Raphael was then released to go home later that night.\n\"That rat who first saw us. He has no business as a doctor. You are by far a better doctor\", Zhang told Dr. Wolf, as they were about to leave.\n\"Well, Thank you\", Dr. Wolf replied. \"And I apologize for what you all were put through with Dr. Rat. I'm giving the apology on behalf of the hospital because you'll never get one from him\".\n\"And you've been so kind...Obrigado\", Annika said to Dr. Wolf .\n\"Oh?\", Dr. Wolf pondered.\n\"In our former homeland, it means thank you\", Annika answered.\n\"You are most certainly welcome\", Dr. Wolf returned.\nThe Meerkat Family and Dr. Wolf then bid each other a good evening, before the family dropped by at the billing department to make payment arrangements to pay Dr. Wolf and to the hospital for services rendered.\n\"What about that Rat? We don't owe him anything, do we?\", Annika asked the billing clerk.\n\"I can assure you, you don't owe Dr. Rat so much as a paise\", The ferret behind the desk assured the family. \"If Dr. Rat sends you a bill, bring it here, and administration will deal with Dr. Rat over it\".\nHospital security did have a word with Zhang Meerkat just before the family left to go home, although they did not press assault or threat charges on Zhang, considering the circumstances. Zhang was let off with a warning instead. And he was lectured about a hospital being no place to be shouting and making loud noises.\nBack home, everything went very well. With the medication Dr. Wolf prescribed, Raphael Meerkat got over his pneumonia and felt good again within a few days. \nAnd that incident was only a week after Raphael's 8th birthday. What a screwed up 'belated birthday surprise' getting his penis sheath sliced off would have been.\n\n[largethumb]548147,10[/largethumb]\n\nWhen Zhang and Annika told Janosch and Sthella Fossa about it during a visit, Janosch said, \"If it had been any of our sons, Haja, Habbar or Mario, that rat would have either backed off, or he'd be dead by now.\".\n\"And my husband would not have given a second thought about killing him if it meant protecting any of our cubs\", Sthella Fossa assured.\n\"My husband almost did kill him\", said Annika.\n\"That's right\", Zhang added.\n\"Back in our homeland, that doctor you're telling me about would eventually find himself on a bonfire out on a beach one night\", Janosch said to Zhang and Annika as Sthella nodded in agreement.\n\"It's called Island Justice back our old homeland\", Sthella added. \"And as we would say in Madagascar, Fako no nanadio amin'ny afo, which is to say garbage is cleansed by fire\".\nRaphael's uncle, Cheesah, was now a 21 year old, strong, young adult meerkat, and had earlier learned martial arts from his older brother, Zhang. When Cheesah heard about the ordeal at the hospital, he wanted so badly to \"beat the rat shit\" out of the doctor who tried to circumcise his nephew. Some of the other family members wanted a piece of Dr. Rat's hide too. But Zhang and Annika insisted that the matter is already resolved.\nHowever, less than a month later, Cheesah came over from his duplex apartment in Salem to Yercaud to visit with Zhang, Annika and Raphael. Raphael had the Christmas 2013 and New Years Day 2014 holidays off from school, so Cheesah and Raphael went to see Habbar Fossa, now 22, so the three of them can go to the City of Salem for the day.\nCheesah and Habbar had some free time as well. Habbar has a job as a ship's officer aboard his Dad's freighter, and the Star of Antananarivo wasn't scheduled for another run until the end of January. Cheesah was hired on as a yard worker at the Salem Rail Junction and was to begin work the following week. Cheesah's older brother, Zhang, being an assistant train operator, put a good word in for his younger brother where Zhang himself use to work.\nOn their way into Salem, Habbar even took along a small \"boom box\" radio / CD player of his, and Cheesah brought some of his Angolan music CDs with him from his parents house in Karikal. Unlike the old folk songs, Cheesah's CD collection has the exciting stuff the young anthro-animals are crazy about and like to listen to.\nCheesah's dad and two older brothers would jokingly tell Cheesah, \"That sounds like the kind of music that comes out of Luanda\" (Angola's capitol).\nCheesah's dad and brothers never did make a big deal over it. The family had never been into narrow minded thinking, and they figure various animals like to listen to various styles of music.\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lmnqoc66hs&spfreload=10\nhttp://youtube.com/watch?v=EIlJRd9T7xQ \nhttp://youtube.com/watch?v=oAo1cKpxCcA \nHabbar would carry his boom box up on his shoulder, playing Cheesah's CDs, as he, Cheesah and Raphael would walk along having a good time and shuffling along like they were dancing. \nHabbar Fossa even bought along some Malagasy hit tunes, which they did more of a slow groove to.\nHabbar, like his older brother Haja, was a big fan of Dean Aimbe Mongoose, a rather lanky Malagasy ring tail mongoose musician who is very popular in the Madagascan homeland.\nhttp://youtube.com/watch?v=QeWIzYgISPw \nhttp://youtube.com/watch?v=P6olIgG6NGI \nhttp://youtube.com/watch?v=AbD3lh1PImI \nThe three of them noticed an ice cream parlor just down the sidewalk as they were getting down on it with a really good, Afro-Portuguese tune they had going https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lmdl73-yCaM , hopping, grooving, dancing and having them selves a blast. The fossa and the two meerkats were about to go in to get some ice cream, when who would be coming out of the ice cream parlor with a cone of pistachio ice cream, was a creepy old rat....As the song went into an electric guitar run, Raphael recognized the rat.\nhttps://youtu.be/Lmdl73-yCaM?t=250\nRaphael began pointing to the rat and frantically calling it to Cheesah's attention.\nHabbar, taking notice, turned the volume down on the boom box so Raphael can be heard.\n\"That's him!\", Raphael gasped. \"Uncle Cheesah! Uncle Cheesah, that's him!\"\n\"Who's him?\", Cheesah asked his nephew.\nIn a low voice, as not for the rat to hear him, Raphael pointed out the rat and told Cheesah, \"That's the rat who tried to cut the skin off that hides my pee-pee's head\".\n\"You thinking of doing what I'm thinking?\" Habbar asked Cheesah.\n\"Damn right. Let's follow him\", Cheesah replied as Habbar turned the boom box off completely so the rat couldn't hear that he was being followed ('The We and Us, spectacle' could always be listened to later).\nThe three youths followed the rat on foot to the parking lot of the nearby hospital.\nJust as the rat was about to get into an odd ball looking 1950s European sports car of his, Habbar Fossa set the boom box down and called out, \"Dr. Zander Rat\".\n\"Who called me?\", The rat casually asked as he turned around, still licking on his cone of pistachio ice cream.\n\"ELE SER ZANDER RATO!\" (He be Zander Rat!), Cheesah shouted as he came flying into Dr. Rat with a jump side kick, breaking two of the rat's ribs as his pistachio ice cream cone was sent flying, followed by a heel kick in the balls before Cheesah's feet ever touched back down onto the pavement, then followed by a few rapid jab punches and a front snap kick in the face and mouth while Dr. Rat was still collapsing on his way down to the pavement, all within a matter of seconds. Cheesah's speed, accuracy and co-ordination was like that of a zipping squirrel. Cheesah learned the arts very well from his older brother, Zhang...Bruce Lee would have been impressed had he been in the Furry World.\n\n[hugethumb]1130979,2[/hugethumb]\n\n[hugethumb]1130979,3[/hugethumb]\n\n[hugethumb]1130979,5[/hugethumb]\n \nDr. Rat laid on the parking lot, cold cocked lights out, with his face battered and bloody, his lower lip busted wide open, one crushed gonad, two broken ribs, jaw broken in two places, a dislocated neck, the cornea jarred loose from his right eye and eight of his teeth knocked out onto the pavement. When Dr. Rat woke up, moaning in excruciating pain, he recognized Raphael, and then knew what the beating he just received from Cheesah was all about.\nLoud enough to make sure Dr. Rat clearly heard it, Cheesah told Raphael, \"If that perverted rat ever comes near you, or even looks at you, you just let me know\".\n\"I sure will, Uncle Cheesah!\", Raphael exclaimed bright eyed and exuberantly.\nThen Cheesah told Dr. Rat, \"You're lucky, freak. I could have stopped your clock if I wanted to. You don't EVER mess with my family...OR with their sex parts, you perverted creep\".\nOf course, Raphael put his two paises worth in, telling Dr. Rat, \"When I grow up big and strong like my uncle, I'm gonna do it to ya too!\".\n\"You tell 'em, Raphael!\", Habbar added as Raphael looked up to him and smiled.\nZander Rat still laid helpless on the pavement, near his car, as he tried to roll side to side in a fetal position, gasping and moaning in a world of hurt. Habbar, Cheesah and Raphael stood around, staring down at Zander. Nearby was Habbar's boom box where he had set it down, along with eight of Zander's teeth scattered out on the pavement. Also nearby was Zander's cone of pistachio ice cream that had landed up side down on the warm pavement, with the brown sugar cone still standing pointy side up, after it went flying in a spin out of Zander's paw when Cheesah kicked him. \n\n[hugethumb]1130979,6[/hugethumb]\n\nNot so nearby was Zander's clip-on wallet (clips neatly to the underlying fur hairs). The wallet flew a long way when Cheesah kicked and broke Zander's ribs.\n\n[hugethumb]1130979,7[/hugethumb]\n\nWhen hospital security guards came out into the parking lot, Habbar snatched up the boom box and the three youths fled the scene, then a short while later, they went to the ice cream parlor.\nNot long after Habbar, Cheesah and Raphael were at the ice cream parlor, enjoying some ice cream, a hospital security guard, who was an otter, along with two law enforcement officers, a wolf and a bear, had Cheesah, Habbar and Raphael come outside from the ice cream parlor so they could talk with them about the assault and battery incident in the hospital parking lot.\nQuite naturally for an 8 year old, Raphael mentioned, \"Our ice cream's gonna melt\".\nOf course, it was Dr. Rat's word alone, written on paper before undergoing anesthesia in the O.R., against the three youths who denied they had anything to do with it. The otter, who was the security guard, finally admitted to the three youths that none of the security guards actually saw it happen, plus the parking lot security camera system was down from lightning striking it two days earlier, and there were no witnesses...Being there was no evidence, no charges were pressed. However, Cheesah, Habbar and Raphael were told about Dr. Rat's condition as they were let off with a warning, during which, the three of them were trying to hold back from giggling and grinning about it the best they could. After the security guard and police officers left, Cheesah, Habbar and Raphael had a good laugh, giving each other the \"high fives\" and the \"high tens\", once they were back to their table, finishing their ice cream. Needless to say, Cheesah, Raphael and Habbar never mentioned a word about beating up Dr. Rat to Zhang, Annika, Bron, Lacara, or to Janosch Fossa and his wife.\nAs bad as Cheesah beat up Dr. Zander Rat, it did not take rocket science for Cheesah Meerkat and Habbar Fossa to figure it out that the 'not so good doctor' will be laid up in a hospital bed for at least a few weeks or so...Even little Raphael Meerkat suspected that Dr. Rat will be out of commission for a good while.\n\nSeveral days after Dr. Rat was laid up in the hospital, Cheesah, Habbar and Raphael came back into Salem. They were curious if the top was still down on Dr. Rat's car during all that rain a few days ago, so they went by to check out. When they got to the hospital parking lot, they noticed the top was up, but busted out laughing as they could tell from all the condensation inside the windshield and windows, the car had been rained in...It was obvious the top WAS left down during a heavy monsoon they had over the last couple of days.\nHabbar took notice of the car's circular grill (1954 Lancia Aurelia PF 200), \nhttp://www.pinterest.com/pin/143904150563292120 \nThen Habbar said, \"That rat must have chose that car because the grill looks like a mouth getting ready to suck a dick\", followed by Cheesah, Raphael along with Habbar laughing at Dr. Rat's car.\n\"So that's a pee-pee sucker car!\", Raphael laughed as Cheesah and Habbar laughed even harder.\n As the three noticed there was a bad, afternoon thunderstorm approaching about 40 minutes away, Raphael said with a devious smile, \"Uncle Cheeeeesaaaah...You think we should put the top down? It needs to dry out?\"\n\"It don't hurt for it to dry out!\", Habbar Fossa quickly and gleefully replied as the three of them laughed.\nhttp://youtube.com/watch?v=RRDisKk9Z7Q .\nSo Cheesah and Habbar put the top down. And before they left, Cheesah gave the right quarter panel of Dr. Rat's sports car a good, hard Tae Kwon Do side kick, caving in a big dent just ahead of the rear wheel..\nTwenty five minutes later, as the storm got closer, a security guard, a lesser panda, noticed the top had been put down, so she put it back up.\nTen minutes after that, as the storm was just about to hit, Dr. Clyde Wolf, who did not like Dr. Rat at all, was coming on shift. Dr. Wolf took a minute to put the top back down, then went into work, thus, Dr. Rat's car got rained in again.\nhttp://youtube.com/watch?v=xbhMXSgiUi8\nA few days after Christmas, the boys returned with a can of magenta color, spray paint that Habbar had purchased from a hardware store. \n\"What's all that black fuzzy stuff?\", Raphael asked, pointing out the mildew in the windows and windshield.\n\"Now it's got mold!\", Cheesah laughed.\n\"To match his moldy personality\", Habbar added as they all laughed.\nCheesah, Raphael and Habbar got a good laugh as Habbar spray painted on the right front fender and on part of the driver's door of Zander's car, in magenta paint, the words, 'Zander is a weener'...misspelling 'wiener' of course. Before discarding the spray can, Habbar smacked a dent in a front wheel cover on Zander's car with the bottom end of the can.\nhttp://moyomongoose.deviantart.com/art/Zander-Rat-s-Car-Vandalized-556092130?ga_submit_new=10%253A1440501451\n \nCheesah, Habbar and Raphael knew about when Dr. Zander Rat recuperated from the hospital...That was sometime in January of 2014...How they knew is because they noticed Dr. Rat driving around the streets of Salem in his 1954 Lancia Aurelia PF 200 with the right rear quarter panel kicked in, the dent in the right front wheel cover going >round 'n' round 'n' round 'n' round<, and the big 'Zander is a weener' spray painted down the right side in bright magenta. \n\nAmong the good times in Raphael's life, are times Zhang would get permission, from his boss with the railway, to let Raphael come along on a run aboard the train...That is provided that Raphael's grades are good enough for him to take a couple of days off from school, or when school is on break. \nhttp://youtube.com/watch?v=VTXkYwfIGp0 . \nIt was made clear to Raphael that the controls aboard the locomotive are to be touched only by his dad, Zhang, and the chief locomotive operator, Benjamin Binturong. However, Raphael is allowed to sound the horn. Zhang would get Raphael up to the locomotive's control console so Raphael can reach the switch to blow the horn. And on the newer WAP-5 locomotives, it didn't take Raphael long to figure out how to get the low and high tones from the horn. There would be times Benjamin would allow Raphael to wave the green signal flag, from an open door of the locomotive, with Zhang holding Raphael's paw so he don't fall out (or Benjamin holding Raphael's paw when Zhang is at the controls), while pulling out of the crew relief point in Erode, and pulling out of Chennai on the return run the following morning. Raphael always gets a thrill when ever he can come along with his dad aboard the train. Then on Raphael's next day at school, he always tells stories to his fellow students, as they gather around to hear about the train run with his dad.\nRaphael once asked his dad, \"Dad, did they have trains in Angola?\"\n\"Yes we did\", Zhang answered his son. \"But they were not as nice. Not like the ones we have here in India\".\nZhang told Raphael of the two times he had been aboard a train as a cub in Angola. It was a narrow gauge railroad that still used steam locomotives that didn't go very fast. And for passenger cars, it was a homemade, wood frame and corrugated tin coach body, built on an old flatbed car chassis, with no glass in the windows and hard wooden benches to sit on. In some areas of the coach floor, you could barely see the tracks and train wheels below through the gaps between the floor planks.\n\"ALL the trains in Angola are like that?\", Raphael asked.\n\"The train that came through our province, it was\", Zhang answered his son. \"To the north though, they have nicer trains. Through Menongue there is a rail line. And further north through Huambo, a standard gauge line\". \nRaphael asked his dad, \"Have you ever seen those 'nicer' trains? What were they like?\" \nZhang reminded Raphael, \"I have never seen them. That is because I never been to Menongue or Humbo before...Many of us never traveled around much in the old homeland\". \nRaphael Meerkat still marvels that there was the time when some family members in the generation before him had never been more than 70 km (45 miles) from the place where they were born. \nRaphael has always had a fascination for trains, and has recently said he would like to be a locomotive operator when he grows up. Young ones have many things they say they want to be when they grow up...Only time will tell.\n\n\n[hugethumb]1184880[/hugethumb]\nZHANG AND ANNIKA like a lot of foreplay, and they get it every night and then some, except when Zhang is out on his job as an assistant locomotive operator for two days at a time. But when Zhang returns home when he has a few days off, he and Annika have sex like there's no tomorrow. And they really get it on good.\nAs for genital details, Annika's pussy is the wet and oily type, not too tight, but firm.\nZhang's penis head has more of a drawn out \"long taper\" look than what's average for a male meerkat...the way it also is on his younger brother Cheesah. The sheath is slightly long, and the scrotum is average. Zhang's penis has only a modest amount of oil and smegma production. In the sexual relationship, it is Annika's genital that brings most of the oil to the table.\n\nRAPHAEL is still just a boy meerkat, still in that stage of life being fascinated about \"little pee-pee\" he calls \"Little Pokey\". On occasion, Raphael would play with himself, like we all did when we were his age.\nRaphael's penis has a head like the head of the penis his oldest uncle, Moze, has. When it gets erect, the bottom of the head swells up a lot, causing the pee opening and point to get pushed upward, making Raphael's penis look like it's face is up level inline with it's dorsal plain, looking straight up. To put it another way, when Raphael's penis is hard, he can point his penis at something in front of him, but at the same time it looks like little pee-pee is looking up at the sky because it's face it turned up on top of itself. \n\nA drawing from @nelson88, drawn by Victor, shows Raphael's penis when it's that way. \n\n[largethumb]588946[/largethumb]\nIn the drawing, little pee-pee is pointed at the ceiling, but little pee-pee is looking at his owner's belly...The penis of his uncle Moze is the same way.\nAt times, Raphael does imagine, \"Poor stinky Pee-pee has his blank Pee-pee face (where the eyes are imagined to be if it had them) distort skyward when he gets hard, and looking up with only his little Pee-pee hole mouth pointing forward and spitting forward\"... But Raphael also figures, \"As long as Pee-pee is feeling good while Pee-pee is hard, and Pee-pee is having fun while Pee-pee is getting played with, then Pee-pee doesn't mind his little Pee-pee face momentarily becoming the top of his little Pee-pee head, and looking only upward while he's hard\". After-all, that's how nature blessed it.\n\n[largethumb]548147,11[/largethumb] [largethumb]882065[/largethumb]\n [largethumb]882260,5[/largethumb] \n [largethumb]882260,8[/largethumb]\nThe eyes are only something Raphael imagines when he's playing with it. Raphael's Pee-pee doesn't really have eyes.\nWhen it gets flaccid again, the point droops back down, and Raphael's little pee-pee can look at what's ahead of himself again...that is until he slips back into his sheath and gets covered up. \nThe head and sheath lining have a higher level of erotic sensitivity* than what most male meerkats have, inducing greater sexual pleasure* from rubbing, touching, massaging, etc. Raphael's penis, like his Uncle Cheesah's penis, also has a much higher than average oil and smegma production* (stinky little cheese / popcorn dick). It can be said, \"Nature has been good to Raphael\"*.\nDad and son are uncircumcised, with sheaths slightly long for a meerkat*.\n*Dr. Zander Rat would have mess up a really good penis, with what he was about to do to Raphael Meerkat on that November evening in 2013.\n\nDR. ZANDER ISCELBERG RAT MD has a typical rat / rodent penis. Like all other males in his family, Zander is circumcised...so short in fact, the head is longer than what is left to the rest of the penis. Zander's dried, katrinized surface is so built up, he just about has to take sandpaper to it to feel an orgy (Dead Dick Zander). Zander is a rat with a really messed up dick.\nDuring the time of Zander's dysfunctional marrage and live-in relationships, he never fathered any offspring (Thank God. They are better off never being conceived). Presently, Zander does not have much of a sex life, except to rarely see prostitutes, who pull away before Zander can climax (takes almost forever), then demand more money from him. Zander Rat's substitute for a sex life also includes cub porno sites, stalking cubs in the parks and on playgrounds when mom and dad aren't watching, hanging out down the street from elementry schools at 3:00 in the afternoon, loitering in public restrooms, and getting off on the dicks he does forced circumcisions on. Zander is one chronically sick rat...Someone you'ld like to throw under the bus...It's a wonder he's even still alive today.\n\nEND OF SEXUAL DESCRIPTIONS\n\n[hugethumb]1184983[/hugethumb]\n\nThe story, Zander the Bad Apple, is about the Rat Family's experience related to this story.\n[largethumb]956705[/largethumb]\n\n", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "
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 Introduction to the Meerkat Family

Most of the animal locals living in Cunene Province Angola, were financially poor. For many, if it only took a nickle to go around the world, they couldn't have gotten out of sight. Only by the help of God had many of them been able to get by.
The locals spoke an Angolan dialect of Portuguese, which is the language of Angola. But they, and many others they knew, could also speak English. Many of the locals would often speak Angolan Portuguese mixed with English.
During that time, Angola was ravaged by poverty. And an ongoing civil war, in which the UNITA movement, which branched off from the then already dismantled FNLA, always attempted to seize power from the present MPLA government, often erupting into paramilitary confrontations, was no help to the nation's economy either. The political unrest had existed since 1975 between separatist groups that fought in the 1961 to 1974 war for national independence from Portugal.

Of Zeth and Mylah Omossa Meerkat's son Amos, and two daughters Lacara and Beth, youngest daughter Lacara had always seemed to be the 'wild card' of the family, with a history of getting into mischief although nothing really serious...Probably about the worse thing Lacara had done was when she was age 13, when her and several friends her age sneeked into Kagiso Genet's liquor store one evening and shoplifted a fifth of Congolese rum...Needless to say, Lacara was among three other young teenage meerkats, a young teenage genet and two young teenage mongooses who all had hang-overs the following day.
While still an adolescent meerkat, Lacara became close friends with an adolescent male, Bron Bandogo Meerkat. Bron was not from the local community, but was living in with friends of his family in the village, away from home, in an attempt to find work in the village. However, a bad economy, Bron Meerkat being under age, and having hip dysplasia made the prospect even more dim of finding work.
 Like his female friend, Lacara, Bron was also a 'wild card' adolescent...something Bron and Lacara had in common. Occasionally, Bron would go into the local grocery store in the village, which was owned by a Portuguese Estrela mountain dog couple, Angelo and Erica D'Cruz Hound. At times, Bron would ask Angelo and Erica if there was work available...Other times, Bron would come in to shoplift a pack of cigarettes. Not finding work, Bron had no money buy them, plus Angelo and Erica would not have sold cigarettes to under age animals anyway.  
There were days Bron would leave the village to go visit Lacara at her mom and dad's rural home...Because of Bron having hip dysplasia, and not owning a car, he always relied on getting the five kilometer ride with someone who had transportation. Lacarra's grand parents on Mom's side of the family, Dominique and Gloria, owned an old 1954 Opal Record Olympia station wagon, and at the end of the day would offer Bron the return ride to the cafe' back at the village...From the cafe' it was a short walk to where Bron was staying with friends of his family. There were days Lacarra, knowing where Bron was staying, made the 5 kilometer walk to the village to visit Bron. However, those visits were not "just visits" as everyone had thought all along...Bron and Lacara would sneak off to some private spot, such as some forest brush or a palm tree grove, to go have sex together...And they had been having sex together for quite some time. There were times Bron would bring a pack of cigarettes and some matches he shoplifted from Angelo and Erica Hound's store, which he carried in a pouch on a belt he would wear so Lacara's parents would not see them. While the adolescent meerkats were going out to find a place to have sex, Bron would share some of those cigarettes with Lacara. There was another time Bron managed to shoplift a pint of brandy from Kagiso Genet's liquor store while Kagiso was busy with a customer. On the way to Lacara's parent's house, the bottle of brandy would not fit concealed into the belt worn pouch, so Bron stashed it in a palmetto grove where he later returned with Lacara. At the palmetto grove, Lacara was delighted over the booty prize her male friend Bron had sneaked out of Kagiso Genet's liquor store. This time, the two adolescent meerkats could get a good buzz to go along with having sex in the palmetto grove...After all, older sister Beth has a three month old cub, Obert Okonjo Meerkat Jr., fathered by Obert Okonjo Meerkat Sr. And brother Amos has been going steady with his female friend, Lubya...However, the catch 22 is; Beth, who had just turned 20, and Obert Sr. are married adults with a son. Amos, age 18, and Lubya are adults engaged to be married.  
Neither Lacara's parents, Bron's parents or friends of Bron's family he was staying with knew about Bron and Lacara's under age, intimate relationship until shortly before Christmas Day of 1978, when Lacara found out she was pregnant with her's and Bron's cub...*Merry Christmas*. The news of it really didn't come as all that big of a surprise to Zeth and Mylah knowing the path of life their daughter Lacara had been going down. However, Bron and Lacara's relationship was not purely a matter of lust. They've been with each other long enough to have developed a bond of love between them, and agreed to get married.

On the Friday morning of January 12th, 1979, just a few weeks after it was known Lacara was pregnant, Lacara's grand parents on Dad's side of the family, Dominique and Gloria, dropped by to offer Lacara a ride to the village to get Bron and go see Pastor Sy Aardwolf. Riding with Dominique and Gloria were Beth and Obert Sr, with their son Obert Jr. As well as Amos and Lubya...At that time, Grand Dad Dominique owned the only car the family had, a 1954 Opal Rekord Olympia Station wagon.
   https://www.sofurry.com/view/933111
Lacara sat on the front seat between grand parents Dominique and Gloria. Parents Zeth and Mylah, and brother Amos and sister-in-law to be Lubya sat cramped on the back seat, almost partially standing on the floorboard. Sister Beth and brother-in-law Obert Sr. sat in the cargo floor area of the station wagon behind the rear seat with their son, nephew Obert Jr. A 1954 Rekord wagon is not all that big of a car, but there was barely enough room for all to ride. At the village, Lacara's parents and grand parents didn't know where Bron was staying with family friends, thus Lacara gave directions where to go get Bron.
Upon arrival to where Bron was staying was the first time the Omossa Meerkat Family actually got aquainted with the friends of Bron's family. After the brief visit, Bron found room in the back with Beth, Obert Sr. and Obert Jr. to get into the car with his soon to be wife and in-laws, and they all rode over to Sy Aardwolf's automotive shop and junkyard on the west side of the village. Sy was already expecting the meerkats, who upon their arrival, Bron was acquainted with Sy Aardwolf, his wife Zella, their six year old daughter Deja, and four month old son Hiraldo. Then it was off to the community church, where Sy Aardwolf had been ordained as pastor by retiring Pastor Kosoko Leopard only two days earlier. With two days into the ministry, this was to be the first marriage Sy Aardwolf would conduct. Being there was no room for Sy Aardwolf to ride in Dominique and Gloria's already crowded station wagon, Sy took his work truck. To make more room for everyone in the car, Sy had Bron and Lacara ride with him on the front seat of the truck. Sy then led the way in his truck to the church north of the east end of town. On the way over, Sy discussed some things about marriage and responsibility with Bron and Lacara.
The village community worship center (the church) was an unpainted, concrete block building, with stone slab floor and slate shingle roof, which was on the outskirts of the north end of the village, just off of a narrow dirt lane highway leading north out of the village which ran along side the narrow gauge railroad.
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Once everyone arrived to the church, and as retired Pastor Kosoko Leopard mentored Sy Aardwolf in this matter, marriage is usually for those of adult age, however as Kosoko further mentioned, considering that Lacara is already pregnant, the marriage would be the right thing for the young meerkat couple. With that said, Sy Aardwolf conducted the marriage, thus, it was the late part of that morning of January 12th, 1979, Bron Bandogo Meerkat and his long time female friend, Lacara Omossa Meerkat, who were still in their late adolescent age, were married. Lacara, now married to Bron, took on the name, Lacara Bandogo Meerkat. Of course, there were no gold wedding rings...Bron and Lacara could not afford them. There were no jewelry stores around anyway...A jewelry store would quickly go out of business in an area where no one wore jewelry because they can not afford it.  And because of the community being in such a remote and underdeveloped part of the province, birth, death and marriage certificates were nonexistent...Land deeds and titles to motor vehicles were the only certificates anyone knew of. But it being a small community, everyone knows who is born, dies, or is married.  
Although the newly wed, adolescent, meerkat couple were concern that their cub will be born in a country experiencing civil war, Bron and Lacara always kept that out of mind the best they could and went on with their everyday lives. Concern also weighed on the minds of Lacara's parents Zeth and Mylah, as well as grand parents Dominique and Gloria over daughter Lacara and Son-in-Law Bron living in a way that would become a train wreck down life's road eventually...especially with a cub now on the way. Both parents and grand parents had tried unsuccessfully at times to get Lacara to attend church with them...But with unwavering perseverance, they finally succeeded it getting both Lacara and Bron to come along with them to church on Sunday mornings.  

Being that Bron had developed hip dysplasia when he was a cub, thus rendering him unable to work most jobs, Bron and Lacara regularly received what help and charity both sides of the family could spare. Lacara's mom and dad, Zeth and Mylah, as well as older siblings Amos and Beth, would help the family the best they could, including helping Bron and Lacara getting a house built beginning that January, with the ambition of completing it two months away by April...The spot the house was to be built on was a parcel of extra land that Zeth's dad, Dominique, had three kilometers east of the village which Dominique had donated.
Some help would also come from Bron's side of the family as well, though Bron was not from the local area, therefore his family wasn't nearby. And because friends of the family, as well as other locals, felt compassion for Bron having hip dysplasia, they too helped with building the house.
Most of the help however, came from efforts Sy Aardwolf and the church congregation was able to muster up, and with the help of Kosoko Leopard as well as from others in the community. That was the most prominent factor in getting that house built.

At the church one Sunday morning, about a month after Bron and Lacara were married, Pastor Sy Aardwolf preached about standing blameless on Judgement Day being a pardon paid for with a great sacrifice, and not a reward earned by those in this life. During that sermon, Sy said things that invoked that sense of conviction. Lacara feeling uneasy with her life's track record, finally came down to the alter. That wild card way of living didn't seem so important anymore...And not long after Lacara came forward, she then noticed someone else kneeling beside her...her husband Bron, who had also been thinking things over that Sy Aardwolf had preached.  This was Sy's frist time, as a new pastor, being at the alter to accompany the spiritual wayward seeking salation. For both Bron and Lacara, it was as though a rush of wind blowing through the trees for lack of a better way to explain it, and there were no longer fears about what would await them beyond the end of life's road. And for Zeth and Mylah, a long time burden of concern over their oldest daughter's ways, and over Bron as well, that was finally lifted and gone...Grand Parents Dominique and Gloria also felt a long awaited sense of relief for their grand daughter and grand son-in-law. After the service was concluded, everyone else in the congregation gave Bron and Lacara greetings and hugs, assuring the adolescent husband and wife meerkat couple a sense of friendship and feeling welcome. As the owners of the village grocery store, Angelo and Erica Hound, came over to greet and hug Bron and Lacara, Bron admitted to Angelo that he had been stealing cigarettes and matches from him over a course of time, and was willing to make what reoperation he could...This was the first time the Portuguese Estrela mountain dog couple knew anything about this...Angelo and Erica agreed to dismiss the matter and asked Bron and Lacara to simply put that all behind them.
On the following Monday, Bron and Lacara stopped in at Kagiso Genet's liquor store, not as two adolesents looking to make a purchase as Kagiso had first suspected, but to admit to shoplifting a pint of brandy several months earlier, and to offer to make reimbursement when Bron had the money to do so...However, Kagiso, being more of a "worldly genet", was not the understanding or forgiving type Angelo and Erica Hound are. Kagiso stood near the counter in his store, becoming increasingly annoyed and angry as Bron and Lacara explained to him of their experience at the church a day earlier...Church was a mute issue as far as Kagiso was concerned. Kagiso Genet finally ran Bron and Lacara out of his store, and threatened that if they ever came back again, he was going to go see Constable Orlander Aardwolf and have them arrested...However, being that Constable Orlander Aardwolf is Pastor Sy Aardwolf's brother, prosecuting Bron and Lacara, considering the intent and circumstances, would not go as far as Kagiso Genet would think.
And luck would have it, there was a matter of bad timing as Bron and Lacara were leaving the liquor store...An elderly female linsang and an elderly female civet, who were the village gosipers, saw Bron and Lacara leaving the liquor store. Needless to say, the elderly females soon played their usual role as "village tabloid" in starting a rumor to the effect of; those wild card adolescent meerkats got religion at the church yesterday, and they are getting booze at the liquor store today. However, in spite of what the two elderly gossipers had to say, it had become apparent, as any animal in the village can testify to, Bron and Lacara were no longer "those two, adolescent, wild card, mischief makers" they had always been.

Only a few weeks after construction of Bron and Lacara's house began, it was on February 21st, 1979, on an old blanket, on the dirt floor of the only bedroom of Bron and Lacara's then partly built house, Lacara gave birth to the first cub of the family, a male, who Bron and Lacara named Moze. Thus Bron became a dad less than a month after he turned 17, and Lacara became a mom less than a month before her 17th birthday. Those who were helping to build the house at that time counted it a joy to stop construction long enough to witness Bron and Lacara's new family member, Moze Bandogo Meerkat, come into the world...Then it was back to getting the house completed...There's a little cub now who's going to need shelter.

The Bandogo Meerkat Family's home eventually came to completion within the few months as expected, and because so many animals had contributed to helping build Bron and Lacara's house, by the time the house was completed three months later in April of 1979, it was among the best of the homes in the rural part of the local community...There were some homes though that were better homes, but those were a few that were in the village.


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Bron and Lacara's home, like other homes typical of that area, was a dirt floor, tin roof, clay wall, bungalow style house in the Angolan countryside in the southern province of Cunene, not far from the Cuando-Cubango Province.
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The house had no glass in the windows..There were curtains instead, as well as curtains in place of doors.
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There were no utilities in the part of Cunene where they lived, thus the house, like other homes, had no phone, electricity or piped in water.
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The timing was just right on getting a wood stove for cooking meals....The cafe' in the village three kilometers away was at that time replacing their old wood stove with an LP gas stove. The cafe' owners agreed to sell the old stove to Bron and Lacara on credit. A friend of the family who owned a truck hauled it to the house for them, and it was installed under a low walled porch overhang on the west side of the house. However humble it was, it was home, it provided shelter, and it was a fairly quaint and nice house for the kind of house it was, and for the area of countryside it was in. After-all, Bron and Lacara knew some neighbors in the community who had less of a house than they had to call home.

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A genet family, who were long time friends with Lacara's Granddad Dominique and Grandma Gloria, also helped the Meerkat Family, including having helped with the building of Bron and Lacara's home. Dominique Omossa Meerkat, his son Zeth and Sanchez Komz Genet use to work together on the sugar cane plantations back during the old, colonial era, forced labour days before Angola's war for independence from Portugal began back in 1961.
Of all members of the Meerkat Family at that time, Granddad Dominique (now a great granddad) and his wife Gloria were the only family members who owned a car, although Dominique had given the car to his son and daughter-in-law, Zeth and Myla, to use being that they were still raising Amos and Beth. The car was a then 25 year old, 1954, Opal, Rekord, Olympia station wagon Dominique and Gloria had owned since 1961.

...How it looked in 1961;
https://www.sofurry.com/view/933121

...How it looked in 1980;
https://www.sofurry.com/view/933111

In the following year, 1980, Bron, with the help of Sanchez Genet, built a nifty, little, tin roof, storage shed which was an "A" frame structure supported from two trees, walled at the back end and half walled in front.  

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And being that Bron and Lacara, who were by now adults, didn't own a car at that time, the car Sanchez Genet and his wife, Naomi, had, an old, 1950s, Wartburg Kombi, front wheel drive station wagon, was very useful for hauling scrap lumber and other materials that went into building the shed. That old rusty Wartburg, with it's three cylinder, two stroke engine, would idle and pop sounding the way dirt bikes do.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QG6Y4w8M3Ws&spfrelo...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtMfeh6-AR4&spfrelo...

http://moyomongoose.deviantart.com/art/Sanchez-Genet-s...

Sanchez's car also came in useful when Bron and Lacara's house was built a year earlier, which Dominique Meerkat also used his Opal wagon to haul materials for the house as well.  
Of course, the day the shed was built, there was conversation between Bron and Sanchez about Angola's ongoing civil war. At that time, UNITA rebel forces had been seizing parts of the Cunene Province, although nowhere near the part of the province where the families of Bron and Sanchez lived. One of UNITA's allies, a unit of the army of then apartheid South Africa, still held the city of Lubango. However, Lubango was still a long distance to the west from the area of their homes.

Ever since Moze was a year and a half old, he always looked forward to having Granddad Zeth and grandma Mylah drop by for a visit...that is when ever they had money to put gas in the car. The grand parents were fond of their little grandson Moze. And for Moze, being that Lacara's parents had the family's only car, that usually meant a trip into the village (about 3 km away), which was a real treat. There were times Zeth would take pictures of Moze and the family with an old, 1930, Leitz, 35 mm lens camera that his dad Dominique had given him. Back in the 1950s, the camera was given to Dominique by his dad and mom, Mojil and Galia. Originally, Mojil and Galia Meerkat acquired the camera from Sanchez's dad and mom, Ajamu and Kubria when the camera was brand new back in 1930. But how Ajamu and Kubria Genet acquired the camera is another story, in where Ajamu and Kubria were not well pleased by the actions of two of their cubs, Sanchez and Obi, at that time. You could say the camera was free, except for the spankings it cost two genet cubs 50 years earlier.  
The nearest place to get the film developed was in Ondjiva, 70 miles to the south. Pictures taken at about this time, during 1980 and the following year, would be the last though. In the following year, the shutter on the camera wore out, and no parts were ever available to get it fixed. The family had never had another camera since.
There were times Moze's Great Granddad Dominique and Great Grandma Gloria would use the car and drop by to visit Bron, Lacara and Moze. There was also a narrow gauge branch of the CFB railway that ran through the village, which still at that time used steam locomotives. Many times when the grand parents or great grand parents would take the family into the village, they would wait at the train depot a while so Moze can watch a train go by.

When Moze was a year and a half old, his little penis poked out of sheath for the first time during a visit from the great grandparents.
Mose came running out of the bedroom and past the old ragged bureau in the living room, pointing to his erect penis that was poking all the way out with it's little head and point flexed upward, proudly proclaiming, "Mamae Mamae! Olha o que eu tenho!...Papai Papai! Olha o que eu tenho!"(Mamma Mamma! Look what I got!...Daddy Daddy! Look what I got!).
Bron and Lacara, upon noticing their son's little discovery, looked at each other and giggled.
As Dominique and Gloria came from the kitchen into the living room, Moze climbed up onto the old blue striped sofa, sat with his legs spread out with his little penis pointing upward.
"Grande Papai Grand! Grande Mamae Grand! Olha o que eu tenho! Olha o que eu tenho!"(Great Granddad! Great Grandma! Look what I got! Look what I got!), Moze called out as he pointed to his penis, still erect and poking out.
"Amigo ao longo da vida do nosso grande filho grand. Ele descobriu isso" (Lifelong friend of our great grand son. He has discovered that), Dominique laughed to Gloria.
"Ah, isso ser tao bonitinha" (Awww, that be so cute), Gloria giggled.
That was Moze Meerkat's first introduction to his little pee-pee.
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There were also those times Bron's side of the family would come and visit, although not as often due to the travel distance and transportation not always being available.  

When Moze was three, that was in the year 1982, when UNITA was pushing major guerrilla offenses into parts of the Cunene Province. Although the initial homeland hadn't seen any of that action, the local animals felt safer carrying guns with them where ever they went, in case of the unforeseeable event they would encounter UNITA rebels, or if the worse nightmare scenario ever happened of coming under fire from South African Army forces.
Whenever Bron, Lacara and Moze went to the village with the grand parents or great grandparents, there would always be loaded guns in the car...just in case.
Moze was always told, "Filho. As armas, voce deixeo seu patas off-las. (Son. The guns, you leave your paws off them)".
On a trip to the village, little Moze Meerkat asked, "Por que temos as armas? (Why the guns?)"
How do you explain to a three year old meerkat cub why you carry guns everywhere you travel?
But it was agreed by everyone to explain the truth to Moze as to why. They figured with a civil war going on, Moze would mostly likely sooner than later see enough to figure out what is going on.
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In September of that year of 1982...unbeknown to family, friends and locals...in a far away land...this was also going on;
https://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=868676
https://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=868676&p...
Earned a front page spot on an Egyptian newspaper too;
https://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=1090064
But that's another story involving animals who they didn't yet know.
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Anyway...getting back to Angola...by 1983, much of the UNITA offensive had been driven out of Cunene by MPLA government troops, thus making life in the homeland once again a little safer. And that was a Godsend for Bron and Lacara. Because not only was there a concern for the safety of their son Moze, then age four, this was also the time a younger brother came into the family. On March 3rd, 1983, Jorad was born on an old blanket, in the very same dirt floor bedroom where older brother Moze was born four years earlier.
Watching his younger brother being born was certainly an amazing experience for Moze, which during Jorad's birth, Moze asked, "TODOS os filhotes vem fora de uma buceta?!" (Do ALL cubs come out of a pussy?!)".
Among the animals in the homeland, someone being born wasn't really anything that was hidden from the cubs. And with the house having only one bedroom, Moze had many times seen his mom and dad having sex together.
As time went on, Moze and Jorad always enjoyed each other's companionship as they would play and do a lot of things together. And there were many times Jorad would tag along with his brother Moze when he went out collecting wild greens and grass hoppers for Lacara to cook up with some rice for dinner.

Shortly before sundown on the evening of June 23rd, 1984, Great Grand Dad Dominique and Great Grand Ma Gloria stopped by at Bron and Lacara's house for a trip into the village. The evening June 23rd each year was a special evening... It was Véspera de Santo John (Eve of Saint John - or - St. John's Eve), and it was always celebrated each year with festivities at the village beginning around sundown.
Although much of the family had taken part in the Véspera de Santo John celebration at the village each year, this would be the first time in a few years Brom and Lacara would attend.
"Desde que estamos para uma vespera de Santo John, foi ha alguns anos" (Since we been to an Eve of Saint John, it was a few years), Lacara mentioned to her grand parents.
 "Parentalidade o filhotes. De encontrar bumbar. Nós raramente tem tempo para a apreciação" (Parenting the cubs. To find work. We rarely have time for enjoyment), Bron added, implying that much of their attention over the past five years had been occupied with getting started out on their own, making a living and raising the cubs.
And although Moze, then age 5, and Jorad, then age 1, didn't understand what Véspera de Santo John was all about, the two cub brothers were thrilled about going to the village celebration when their parents and great grand parents told them about it. Lacara's grand parents did remind her and Bron to bring some lanterns with them...Those who attend the Véspera de Santo John celebration, and can bring lanterns, always bring their lanterns.
"Uau! Existem  biscoitos!" (Wow! There are cookies!), Moze proclaimed as everyone loaded into that old 1954 Opal Rekord Olympia station wagon.
"Doceeeees!" (Candeeee!), little one year old Jorad exclaimed, still at an age of calling anything sweet, doces...candy.
In the cargo area of the station wagon was a big bag of rice flower molasses cookies that Great Grand Ma Gloria had baked.
 "Esses são para a celebração" (These are for the celebration), Gloria Meerkat mentioned.
"Moze. Jorad. Você mantenha seu patas longe os biscoitos" (Moze. Jorad. You keep your paws off the cookies), Lacara told her two cubs.
 Once everyone was in the car, they were on their way to the village, with Dominique driving, Gloria riding up front, Bron and Lacara riding on the back seat, and with Moze and Jorad riding in the rear cargo area...and making sure they left the cookies alone as their mom had told them. On the way to the village, Dominique and Gloria had mentioned of earlier dropping off Zeth, Mylah and the other relatives at the village before coming by to pick up Bron, Lacara and the cubs.
About seven minutes later, the meerkats had completed the three kilometer ride along the stretch of dirt road from the house to the village. And upon arrival, they noticed there were many animals who showed up for the Vespera de Santo John. It was just at sundown and all the lanterns that other animals had brought along were being placed around and lit. Dominique, Gloria, Bron and Lacara lit their lanterns as well and placed them around...There is no electrical grid for many kilometers around, so it is the lanterns the animals bring that provide light for the celebration.
The cafe' had put out a large spread of food, coffee and iced tea like they do each year, which the cafe' didn't charge a price for. All the linsang couple who owned the cafe' asked was for anyone who was able to give donations to do so, thus the cafe' can provide the same service the following year. The ice for the tea was provided by the metal fabrication shop on the east end of the village...The shop had an industrial generator that was powered by a twin cylinder steam engine to run their equipment, thus they were able to run an ice maker. Some food was also brought in by those who attended, such as the cookies that Gloria Meerkat had baked. Some animals also brought some jars and bottles of homemade muscadine and mango wine, and also homemade pineapple wine sweetened with brown sugar and seasoned with cinnamon.  
Before long, there was also music and dancing out on the dirt street. Bron and Lacara, while dancing, met up with Lacara's parents, Zeth and Mylah who were also dancing. Some of the music were old African dance songs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoYbpo-6uHY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kzykxXsBQM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcYNt0BDDs8
And because Vespera de Santo John was a tradition carried over from the Portuguese colonial era, there was also some Portuguese Fado music there as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYgwCZdxa1g
The parents and grand parents also got a good chuckle from seeing Moze and Jorad, as well as seeing some other cubs, bobbing and jumping around on the street to the music. As for motor vehicles passing through the village, they came through very slow. The drivers of the cars would even stop, wave and briefly converse with those attending the celebration before driving on...There was no risk of a car striking anyone...Some drivers would even park their cars and stay around a while. After all, there was more than enough food to go around, and everyone was having a good time...Who driving through could resist? Along with the food offered were the rice flower molasses cookies Gloria had baked, which Moze and Jorad finally had some of...They were kind of like coconut macaroons in a way. In fact, they were a poor animal's version of coconut macaroons.
After a couple of hours of the festivities had past, old dried twigs and tree branches were place on the dirt street into a small pile about two feet high...still leaving plenty of room for passing cars of course. On the center of the pile, a tall stick was stuck upright with a three foot figurine tied at the top which was fashioned out of straw and old rags to look like a devil dragon (representing evil). As was customary with the Vespera de Santo John, this pile of wood was to become a small bonfire at 10:00 o'clock that night...which that hour was by now drawing close.
At 10:00 pm sharp, a pile of dry leaves placed at the base of the wood pile was lit, and before long, the two foot high pile was blazing good. After the evil devil dragon was burnt up in effigy, there was another custom, all be it a little crazy, where a special song would play as couples would get a running start and jump over the bonfire together.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mteq8blDCyE
Couples would take that leap of faith over the flames, including Zeth and Mylah. Bron and Lacara could not take part in that though because of Bron having hip dyspepsia...That rendered Bron as not much of a jumper, thus he would have gotten burnt trying it. Dominique and Gloria also could not because of their age. However, Jorad saw some of the uncles and aunts hopping through the bonfire, and, thinking the way a one year old thinks, thought he'd like to try it too.
"Jorad! Nao nao!" (Jorad! No no!) , Lacara exclaimed as she grabbed Jorad just in time to stop him.
Lacara then explained to Jorad that jumping the bonfire was not a thing a one year old cub could do, and that he would have to wait until he was much older.
At one point, a mongoose couple hopped through...but not quite fast enough...The male quickly discovered the fur on the tip of his tail had caught on fire.
Fortunately, for the mongoose, as he and his wife were trying to extinguish the flame on the tip of his tail, a linsang sacrificed his large glass of ice tea by dumping it on the tip of the mongoose's tail, thus putting out the flame.
"Abrigato" (Thank you), the male mongoose and his wife told the linsang.
It was only the fur hairs on the tip of his tail that burnt...and it would grow back.
Then the male mongoose commented, "Minha cauda. Parece que eu tenho uma dica QUENTE" (My tail. It looks like I got a HOT tip)
"Você deve pular mais rápido, meu amigo" (You should jump more quickly, my friend), the linsang replied as they all laughed.
It was getting around midnight, and what few animals who could afford fireworks had earlier brought them to the celebration...After all, what festive celebration would be complete without fireworks? None of it was the real big stuff...just bottle rockets and strings of firecrackers. Those animals who had the fireworks shared them with other animals who wanted some of them.
All around you could hear firecrackers >POP BANG POW BANG<. as well as bottle rockets launched out of things ranging from tin cans, to old bottles, to hollow bamboo sticks stuck into the side of the dirt street...>swissshhh - POP---swisshh swisshh - POP POP...< One launcher was even an old automobile wheel rim, with the rockets launched from the lug holes.
Moze said he wanted to light some firecrackers someone had given him. But first, Bron and Lacara instructed Moze to lite them down on the street, not lite them and throw them. After the brief period of instruction, Moze was having himself a good time lighting a fire cracker one at a time with a burning twig lit from the bonfire...>sizzle - BANG<.
Jorad, seeing older brother Moze lighting firecrackers, also wanted to lite some firecrackers. So Lacara figured out a way to give a one year old cub a go at it. Lacara got a hyena to give her some firecrackers, then asked Bron to light a stick off the bonfire. Lacara then placed a firecracker on the dirt street and picked up Jorad. She then gave Jorad the burning stick, then lowered him to where he can reach the firecracker with the burning stick. When Jorad got the fuse sizzling, Lacara then quickly raised Jorad away from the lit firecracker...>BANG<...Jorad got such a thril out of that...Setting off the bang-bangs like big bro is doing...And there were several more times Lacara let Jorad lite a firecracker in the same way.
Meanwhile, Moze saw some of the other cubs lighting firecrackers while holding them, then throwing them...>POW<.
Then Moze started doing as the other cubs were doing, lighting then throwing them...That seemed so cool.
Lacara got onto Moze for it, "Moze, não segure os fogos de artifício com o pata" (Moze, do not hold the fireworks with the paw).
"Sim, Mamae" (Yes Mamma), Moze acknowledged.
Moze then went back to lighting them the way Lacara had instructed him, but it wasn't long befor he went back to lighting then throwing. And neither was it long before Moze lit a firecracker that had a quick fuse...While holding it with his paw, >zit BANG<, the firecracker went off between Moze's thumb and index finger. Moze went crying to Mamma.
"Você descobrir o que eu te disse?" (You find out what I told you?), Lacara asked Moze.
"Sim" (Yes), Moze cried.
Fortunately, being only small firecrackers, they were not powerful enough to blow off fingers. Plus the fact Moze was holding it by one end when it went off...The ends of those kind of firecrackers usually stay intact. It only left slight burn marks where Moze was holding it...nothing serious.
"Você está bem?" (Are you OK?), Lacara asked Moze.
"Eu acho" (I guess), Moze answered as he finished crying.
 As for the rest of the firecrackers Moze lit that night, he lit them as his mom had told him... "Não segure os fogos de artifício com o pata" (Do not hold the fireworks with the paw).
Moze and Jorad also had the opportunity to light off a few bottle rockets >swissshh - POP<, and shortly after midnight, those who had firecrackers left over, all at the same time, tossed them onto the bonfire...some of which were still attached in long strings, >POP BANG POW POP POP POP BANG POW BANG RAP BAP POP-POW-BANG-RAP-POW-BANG...<. Those who still had bottle rockets lit them all off >swisshh-swisshh--swish-swish-swish-swish POP-POP-POW-swish-swish-POP-swish-POP-POW-POP...<
Afterwards, everyone had a time of relaxation and fellowship as the bonfire on the dirt street was allowed to burn itself out at about two hours after midnight.
Before everyone returned home, they helped the owners of the cafe' with the clean up, as they always do each year.
  
In December of 1984, there was also that moment of self discovery for Jorad at three months away from turning two years old. Bron was out riding with Sanchez Jenet looking for work that day.
Lacara and Moze heard Jorad  in the living room, saying, "Ele e bonitiiiinnnnha" (He is cuuuuute).
Moze and his mom found Jorad sitting on the living room dirt floor, against the table, with his little penis erect and poking way out of sheath, and got a laugh when Jorad looked up while pointing at his penis and said, "Olha!...Ele e meu peu-peu!" (Look! He's my pee-pee!)...It didn't take Jorad Meerkat rocket science to figure out what it is.
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And it did have fun getting played with by it's owner, which was no different than what any other young meerkat would do.
Other joyous occasions during the year of 1984 was Lacara's brother Amos getting married, and only a few months later, becoming the dad to a son and a daughter who were born at the same time.
Also, Bron's relatives had sent a letter announcing that one of his sisters had a daughter.
  
In 1985, there was one visit when Dominique purchased a used toy car from an emporium store in the village for Moze, then age 6, and Jorad, then age 2. It was one of those old Japanese made, toy cars made from stamped tin, with a body style like the old, big, fastback cars of the early 1950s. It was about 25 centimeters (10 inches) in length with real hard rubber wheels. Moze and Jorad were really delighted about the toy car their great grand dad bought for them. Dominique had purchased a few toys in the past for Moze and Jorad, but this one would be the last...Later that year Dominique had succumb to pancreatic cancer that he had been unaware of. By the time Dominique saw the doctor at the village hospital, which was not much more than a substandard clinic, which was a one story, adobe wall, tin roof, wood floor building, the cancer was already too far advanced to do anything for him. Dominique requested to be at home to pass away, and within a week, Dominique Meerkat died at home, with his relatives by his side, and leaving Gloria to be a widowed meerkat. Everyone in the family, including the two great grand sons, took it hard over Dominique's death.
There is a community worship center in the village that has it's own cemetery, and that is where funeral services were conducted by Pastor Sy Aardwolf before Dominique Meerkat was laid to rest.            
As for the car (the car who it really belonged to), it had to be registered and re-tagged in Zeth and Mylah's names. After all, a car can not be registered in the name of a deceased meerkat.

Early in 1986, it had been rumored that hostilities were ramping up again between UNITA rebels and the MPLA government. Some local animals had been talking about carrying guns for protection again, but so far, it had not come to that.
It was also the year Moze, going on age 7, would be of school age, but Moze would not be attending school. Moze would be helping with the family income. Although Bron did occasionally find some work he could do in spite of his hip dysplasia putting him at a great disadvantage, Moze still had to help his dad bring in family income whenever he and his dad could get a ride into the village and find what ever work they can get. Where they lived, programs like welfare, disability, Social Security and food stamps were non-existent...there were no social safety nets.

In early February of 1986, Moze Meerkat was only a couple of weeks from turning seven years of age. It was during that early part of February that Moze and a mongoose friend about his same age got into a bit of mischief, although no harm was intended. It was late in the afternoon after Bron and Moze with a few others had finished a temporary job for the metal fabrication shop prepping a production run of railing stanchions to be painted. While Bron and Moze were awaiting for Sanchez Genet to get off from work to give them a ride home, Moze and the mongoose cub who was working with them that day wandered over to between Kagiso Genet's liquor store and the narrow gauge railway tracks.  
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Moze and his mongoose friend balance walked on the rails of the tracks for a short while before noticing some empty half pint and single shot booze bottles that some of Kagiso Genet's customers, upon consuming the contents, had tossed in the grass beside the liquor store.
"Moze. As garrafas. ?O que um trem faria com eles?" (Moze. The bottles. What would a train do to them?), the mongoose cub asked,
"Podemos descobrir, eu sei"  (We can find out, I know), Moze replied with a smile as he and the mongoose cub began to gather up the bottles out of the grass.
It wasn't long before the two cubs were lining up the empty bottles along the tops of the track rails in hopes that a train will soon come along so they can witness the bottles getting crushed beneath the train's wheels...But it also wasn't long before an arriving customer, a male linsang, took notice of what was going on and informed Kagiso of what the cubs were up to around side of the store.
"Obrigado por me dizer essa coisa"  (Thank you for telling me this thing), Kagiso thanked the linsang, and after making the sale of the linsang's choice of rum, then went outside to address the situation.
"Soh! Soh! Vocês filhotes. Fora das trilhas com aquelas garrafas. Você não faz essa coisa"  (Yo! Yo! You cubs. Off the tracks with those bottles. You do not do this thing), Kagiso Genet reprimanded the cubs, then seen to it they cleared all the bottles off the rails, off the railroad right-of-way and back into the grass where they found them.
Kagiso then told Moze and his mongoose friend, "Depois que um trem quebra as garrafas, há o vidro quebrado. Em seguida, é pisado. E os pés do animal estão cortados ... Agora corra, e não faça novamente essa coisa"  (After a train breaks the bottles, there is the broken glass. Then it is stepped on. And animal's feet are cut...Now run along, and do not again do this thing).
Unbeknown to Kagiso, the customer and the cubs, Valdez Mongoose who is the station master of the passenger depot saw the whole thing from across the street. The Valdez Mongoose knew where Moze's dad and the mongoose cub's dad were working that day and immediately made his way over to the metal fabrication shop.
Moze Meerkat and the mongoose cub arrived back to the metal fabrication shop when the Station Master Valdez Mongoose was still explaining to Bron Meerkat and the mongoose cub's dad what the cubs had done...Bron Meerkat and the mongoose cub's dad were not very happy dads at that time to say the least.
"Um pedaço de vidro. Em uma mangueira no trem aquele poderia voar e fazer danos ... E vidro poderia voar para os filhotes e machucá-los"  (A piece of glass. Into a hose on the train that could fly and do damage...And glass could fly at the cubs and hurt them), Valdez Mongoose had mentioned.
"Essa coisa que eu ouvi. ?Você fez isso?"  (This thing I heard of. Have you done that?), Bron asked his son.
Moze pondered a moment.
"O mestre da estação. Ele viu tudo o que ele diz"  (The master of the station. He saw everything he says), Bron added.
After seeing his mongoose friend admit to placing glass bottles on the tracks, Moze also admitted to doing so as well.
The dads of the cubs apologized to Valdez for their cub's actions and both Bron and the Mongoose cub's dad headed straight to a small tree which was near the shop to break a switch from it...Then both Moze and his mongoose friend got their legs lit up good with a switch in the presents of everyone.
During Bron and Moze's ride with Sanchez Genet back home, Moze was still trying to rub out the stinging in his legs...Same was also so with the mongoose cub as he and his dad walked home to where they live in the village.

It was on the 21st of February of 1986, Moze celebrated his 7th birthday. It was not the typical birthday party how much of the world knows it, with the cake, candles, ice cream, chips, soda (Moze and Jorad had never even tasted soda before), balloons, horns, party poppers, gifts and so on...For that kind of party, it takes more money than those living in a poverty stricken community have. The celebration consisted of Zeth and Mylah taking everyone to the village, having some shared meals at the cafe' and having pastry or pie, among of which is their well known, homemade persimmon pie. The cafe' never had soda, but the cubs did like iced tea. Although there was no electrical grid in the homeland to run an ice maker, the metal fabrication shop on the edge of the village had an industrial generator that was run off of a twin cylinder steam engine to power their tools and equipment. An agreement had existed between the cafe' and the shop that the shop would freeze ice for the cafe', and the cafe' would always give 30% off on meal prices for the employees of the shop. And among the birthday festivities, playing hide and seek was always fun with other cub friends and cub relatives who attended. For the family, spending money to eat out at a cafe' was a luxury which was something the family seldom ever did, thus when they did, it was a really big treat.
About a week and a half later, March the 3rd, Jorad celebrated his 3rd birthday...celebrated at the village in much the same way.
About the time of Jorad's 3rd birthday was also the time Lacara was beginning to notice she was pregnant with her third cub.
It was just a few days shy of two months later, on May 1st, 1986, Moze and Jorad witnessed their, then youngest, brother being born on an old blanket in the same dirt floor bedroom Moze and Jorad had been born in. Bron and Lacara decided on the name 'Zhang' for the newest member of the family. Being that Jorad was still nursing at three years old, which is normal for many 3rd world societies, Lacara would let 3 year old Jorad and new born Zhang nurse together until Jorad was eventually weened from the teats.
As the rest of that year continued, Moze and Jorad would play with their brother Zhang and keep him entertained. When Moze was with Dad at the village, or at some other location where he and Dad were able to find work, it was Jorad, Zhang and Mom who were at the house. This was about the time Jorad was also weening from Mom's teats, to leave Zhang to nurse from Mom alone.

In the following year of 1987, Angola's MPLA government launched a crackdown campaign against UNITA. It was looking like the rebel movement would finally be crushed once and for all, thus putting an end to Angola's many years long civil conflict.
May 1st of that year of 1987 was Zhang's first birthday, in which grand parents Zeth and Mylah, with Great Grandma Gloria, took the family into the village to celebrate Zhang's birthday at the cafe'.
In the weeks to follow, Bron and then 8 year old Moze had been getting a ride to the village with Sanchez Genet where Sanchez, Bron and Moze found a temporary job lasting for several weeks. It was spraying weeds along the narrow gauge rail line for the CFB railway, including trimming tree limbs from out the way of the trains and helping to replace rotted ties, and it paid pretty well too. Because of Bron's hip dysplasia, he was assigned most of the weed spraying which was done from a motorized rail buggy. A family not having a car would usually miss out on a work opportunity like this one, which is why it is such a blessing to know someone who does have a car...Although Sanchez Genet's old, ragged, Wartberg Kombi station wagon was at that time holding up fair at best and quite often needed some work from time to time to keep it running, at least it was transportation.
And Sanchez Genet was grateful to be able to offer transportation for the family and other friends. Sanchez had also been without a car himself for five years until he bought that old, 1950s, Wartburg wagon in 1978 from a Hyena friend. Sanchez Genet at one time owned an old 1914 Model T Ford he had acquired in 1950. Even back in 1950, that Model T was a 36 year old car that was given to him by a friend of his family. Before he got it, the front fenders were rusted off of it, there were boards and blankets for seats, and the hood was gone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYi20X2FB6U
https://beta.furrynetwork.com/artwork/625092/sanchez-ge...
https://www.sofurry.com/view/931837
https://www.sofurry.com/view/931840
During the time Sanchez drove that old Model T, a tin roof had to be built on it, a board was installed to support the radiator, and it's only headlight stopped working. One year before the end of Angola's war for independence from Portugal, Sanchez Genet had owned that old Model T for 23 years. July of the year 1973 was the day Sanchez's old Model T ran it's last mile...A stray, anti armored vehicle round, which was fired from Portuguese occupying forces, found it's way to Sanchez Genet's car and busted a big chunk out of the left side of the motor. At the time, everyone was thankful it was the car, and not someone.
Sy Aardwolf didn't have a motor in his junkyard that would fit Sanchez Genet's car, so it was decided the car would be abandoned as junk. To this day, that old Model T rests among palm trees and palmettos, as a rusty pile of metal, overgrown with vines, bushes and weeds.  
 
Although still living a life of poverty, life had been getting better for the locals, as well as for the Meerkat Family.
A month after turning one year old, Zhang had his moment of his own sexual discovery. Bron and Moze were out with the maintenance crew for the railway that day. At home, Lacara and Jorad, then age 4, heard Zhang in the bedroom giggling and laughing. When they went into the bedroom to see what Zhang was giggling about, they saw Zhang with his little penis sticking erect way out of it's sheath. Zhang was pushing and wiggling the head of his penis around with his paws, giggling, laughing and having himself a good time. Zhang's penis would frequently spring up from having the head stimulated, then bob back down. When Zhang noticed his mom and older brother watching him, he looked up and grinned as Lacara and Jorad chuckled.
That was the day Mom and next older brother Jorad found out that Zhang's penis has a longer tapered shape to it's head than what an average male meerkat has. Zhang Meerkat's little pee-pee head HAS now been seen.
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Almost two months later, around the end of June of 1987, Bron, Lacara and the sons had gotten a ride with some linsang friends into the village. While in the village, the family went into a hardware store so Bron can get some nails to nail some loose ceiling planks back into place at the house, and Lacara wanted to get some seeds to grow some cantaloupes.
Upon entering the hardware store, they noticed a gathering of various animals...mongooses, civets, genets, a hyena, and a serval, who were engaging in a discussion with the cheetah who owned the store. When Bron inquired to what it was about, the other animals said that there had been speculation going around that there was a large build up of South African Army forces in the area of Rundu, Nambia near the Angolan border.
"Algumas delas sao preparacoes for airstrikes, eles dizem" (Some of it is preparations for airstrikes, they say), the cheetah said.
"Ataque de aeronaves?!" (Attack by aircraft?!), a civet asked.
"UAU!", the serval exclaimed.  
"Definitivament nao e bom" (Definitely not good), Bron mentioned, as everyone knew South Africa had been an ally of UNITA.
"A counteroffensive at the crackdown on Unita. Todo mundo sabe disso" (...Everyone knows that), the cheetah replied.
"A guerra civil. No mes de Maio, we thought it was over with" (The civil war. In the month of May...), the hyena added.
"Sim. Will it ever be?" (Yes...), Lacara asked, as though she already knew the answer.
A mongoose had noted that Rundu was far to the east, thus meaning their prime objective would have to be somewhere far east of the local homeland...That was about the only good news to that situation.
"Mavinga...Jamba", a linsang mentioned the Angolan towns far to the east that would be north of Rundu.
"Sim", the mongoose replied.
The linsangs who the meerkats got the ride into the village with heard about the military build up in Rundu while they were in the cafe'.
Needless to say, there was a somber mood during the trip back to the house.
A little more than a month later, on August 4th, 1987, South African forces invaded across the border from Rundu. Fortunately for the local community, the invasion was far away, in the cities of Mavinga and Jamba in the southeast corner of the country as the animals at the hardware store had figured it would be about a month ago. It was a few days later by the time Bron and Moze heard news of the South African invasion...They heard about the invasion from Sanchez Genet while getting a ride to the village to work a temporary job prepping custom shelving for painting that the metal fabrication shop had made.
During the rest of 1987, the Meerkat Family and other locals would get news of what was to be known as 'the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale' over car radios, and by word of mouth from other animals who regularly travel everyday, such as truck drivers, and train operators of the trains that would stop in the village. For the next few months, they would hear about the MPLA 21st Brigade being driven back, the South African Army running low on ammunition at one point, air strikes, an important bridge being destroyed, and the heavy losses suffered by their country's military forces. There wasn't much the local animals could do about it, except to be thankful they were not living in the southeast part of the country where it was going on.
However, there was a short while that small number of UNITA rebels did come within 30 km (20 miles) of the local community. It was believed by the locals that they were sent out as recons. Many of the locals who had access to transportation grabbed up guns and ammo and set out to hunt them down. Among those who went out on those patrols were Zeth Meerkat, Bron Meerkat (you don't need two good hip joints to fire a gun), Amos Meerkat and Sanchez Genet and his brother and nephew.
As a result of the overwhelming participation of the locals, a few UNITA rebels had been taken out, and what few of the rest who strayed near the community were driven back east.
Bron and Sanchez noticed a type of rifle they've never seen before that was taken from one of the fallen rebels. A serval, who was very familiar with firearms, had identified it as an M-16.
"O armas. Partir da nacao poderosa? De atravessar o oceano a oeste?" (The gun. From the powerful nation? Across the ocean to the west?) a civet, who was somewhat familiar with firearms, asked.
"O grande nacao corporativa?" (The big corporate nation?) Sanchez Genet added.
"Sim", the serval answered.
"O armas e Americano", Sanchez replied.
"Sim sim. Fabricado em Americana", the serval affirmed.
It was only a few days later that two other rifles that were taken from fallen rebels were also confirmed as being M-16s.
From that point on, the animals in the local community suspected that big corporate country across the ocean to the west as aiding UNITA.  
Then, in the middle of December, when Bron, Lacara and the sons went to the village with Zeth and Mylah, they couldn't help to notice that everyone seemed to have a sense of relief and was in a happy mood. At first the Meerkat Family didn't know why, as the radio in the old Rekord wagon had quit working a month earlier. But from those in the village, they had heard that it was a week ago that a large Caribbean island country across the big ocean to the west had sent military help to Angola. The locals later learned that the leader of that country was an eccentric coatimundi, with a long chin haired beard, and would often be smoking a cigar. They were now hearing news stories about the UNITA offensive being stopped. And in the following month, January 1988, everyone heard about the attacks launched by the UNITA that had failed, and the South African Army running out of supplies. For the local animals, what had been a feeling of despair was now replaced by a feeling of optimism and national pride.
When the family celebrated Moze's 9th birthday at the cafe' in the village on February 21st 1988, there was some conversation that came up among the adults about the war, while the cubs enjoyed the sweets, treats and festivities. It was a rainy day that Moze turned nine years old, so everyone remained in the cafe' as several adults at one table were talking about how UNITA and South African forces were still getting their asses kicked by the Cuban forces that came to the aid of their country. Kwasi Civet made mention that he and Jumanne Mongoose had been out to the southeast part of the country, and at a distance from one of the UNITA held areas, they were able to spy on them with a pair of binoculars.
"Voce tem sorte, que eles nao viu voce" (You have luck they did not see you), Bron said to Kwasi.
"Isso que eu sei" (This I know), Kwasi replied. "No entanto, o que vimos, eu vou direi" (However. What we saw, I will tell).
Kwasi Civet then told how he and Jumanne Mongoose, while taking turns with the binoculars, saw two raccoons and a possum who seemed to be in a position of coordinating everything.
"Especie de animais en Americana", Zeth promptly replied as Mylah nodded in agreement.
"O marsupial e guaxinins. Parece que eles eram agentes de inteligencia. Certamente da uma nacao diferente" (The marsupial and the raccoons. It seems that they were intelligence agents. Certainly from a different nation), Jumanne Mongoose said.
Then Kwasi Civet noted, "E ouvir isso. O marsupial e um gauxinim. Eles foram circuncidado...O que ISSO te diz" (And listen to this. The marsupial and one raccoon. They were circumcised...What does THAT say to you?).
"Voce acredita que eles sao animais Muculmanos da Libya ou Somalia?" (You believe they were Muslim animals from Libya or Somalia?), Lacara asked, as she is vaguely familiar with the customs of north African countries.
"Nao nao nao. Americanos", Sanchez Genet replied seemingly on que.
"Eles eram especie de animais em Americana. Eles nao sao especie animais de Africana como nos samos" (They are species of animals in America. They are not animal species of Africa as we are), Zeth informed Lacara.
"Eles eram Americanos", Sanchez Genet affirmed.
Then Kwasi Civet laugh and volunteered a detail, "Ha ha...O um guaxinim. O cabeca dele penis. Lo ganchos con uma curva" (Ha ha...The one raccoon. The head of his penis. It hooked with a curve).
Everyone, especially the females, got a good chuckle out of hearing that bit of information.
"Ah sim...Eles eram Americanos", Sanchez reiterated as he also remarked, "Ianque tanque seppos".
"Ha ha ha. Sim. Ambos cheio de merda" (Ha ha ha. Yes. Both full of shit), Kwasi Civet added to Sanchez Genet's slang remark meaning, Yankee septic tanks.
"Nao so de Americano", Jumanne Mongoose mentioned. "China ajuda a Unita tambem" (Not only America. China helps Unita also).
"Sim", Kwasi replied. "Unita tem armas chinesas, eles dizem nos" (Unita has Chinese guns, they tell us).
Zeth Meerkat gathered his thoughts for couple of seconds, then made the somber statement, "Ha mais envolvido nesta guerra do que sabemos" (There is more involved in this war than what we know).

By the time Jorad was celebrating his 5th birthday on March 3rd of that same year, everyone would hear news reports and conversation about the war taking a toll on UNITA.
And two months later on May 1st, when Zhang celebrated his 2nd birthday, it had been reported that UNITA had suffered heavy losses, and the South African Army's supplies in their Angolan campaign had been exhausted
By the end of August, UNITA had been stopped, although they still had their stronghold areas. The South African Army pulled out of Angola, and the Cuban troops who were aiding Angola also pulled out once everyone was confident that things would be peaceful for the time being.
Later that year Bron and Moze found a wooden South African Army ammo crate, with a hinged lid, which made a good storage chest to keep tools in.

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\r\n\t\t\t\tMeerkats Hard Way of Life in Angola [Page 9] by moyomongoose
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Early in December of 1988, Sanchez Genet heard of a worship center in a village 37 miles away where services there are lots of fun to attend. So early one Sunday morning, Sanchez, along with some of his family members, got into the old Wartberg station wagon and drove down there to check it out.
Later that afternoon, when the Genet Family members returned from those services, Bron Meerkat and other members of the Meerkat Family asked how those services were. Sanchez explained that what they attended was called a 'Rastafarian' church. Sanchez went on to explain how during the services, the congregation played and sung Reggae music and smoked Marijuana. Sanchez's son, Sefu, mentioned that everywhere you looked, there were pictures of the former Lion King of Ethiopia. Other Genet Family members who went along and attended said that at times those services got a bit wild.
When asked if they were going back next Sunday, Sanchez simply told them, "Nao" (No).
Sefu then told everyone that the family decided to continue to attend the worship services in their own nearby village with Pastor Sy Arrdwolf like they've always had done before.    

It was in the year 1989, Jorad had turned 6 years of age, and was getting old enough to go out with his dad Bron and his older brother Moze to help bring in family income. Like his brother Moze, there would not be the day Jorad would see the inside of a schoolhouse.
When ever there was a ride available into town, Bron would go with one or both of the older sons to look for work. When no ride was available, Bron would have to stay home with Lacara and Zhang while Moze and Jorad woke up at dawn to walk to the village. Having hip dysplasia, Bron could not walk the three kilometers on the way to the village, but he always did remind his sons to ask around for a ride into the village for the next day so Bron could get a chance to find work.

On an early summer weekend in December of 1989 (December through March is summer in the southern hemisphere), the Meerkat Family got a ride with Sanchez Genet and his family out to a pangolin couple who owned a mango grove. Sanchez Genet's old, 1950s model, rusted out, Wartburg Kombi station wagon was crowded with all who was riding along.
http://moyomongoose.deviantart.com/art/Sanchez-Genet-s...
The mango grove had produced a good crop, and at a stand the pangolins had set up at their place, they had plenty of mangoes they were selling for cheap. The genets and meerkats stopped by and got enough mangoes to fill a few wood crates they had bought along...and those were really nice mangoes too.
On the way back to drop the Meerkat Family off at their home, Sanchez Genet found a swinging South African tune on the radio of that old Wartburg Kombi wagon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ey_nmfP-ezE&list=PL...  

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\r\n\t\t\t\tMoyomongoose in Presentation Pose [Page 2] by moyomongoose
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During the trip on the way back, as that song still played, Zhang, then age 3, and Sanchez Genet's grandson, Ojo, then age 4, were riding on the cargo floor behind the rear seat where the boxes of mangoes were. As the car went bumping along the dirt road, Zhang and Ojo complained that the floor felt like it was springing up and down, as everyone else in the car was wondering what they meant by that. It quickly became obvious what was going on. The entire rear cargo floor suddenly began to drop out of the bottom of the car. Zhang and Ojo cried half scared out of their wits. Moze quickly grabbed Zhang over into the rear seat. Jorad and Ojo's dad quickly grabbed Ojo into the rear seat. Sanchez realized what was going on and slammed on the brakes. With the car still in motion, the entire rear cargo floor tore away and mangled up under the rear bumper, along with the crates of mangoes. Zhang and Ojo were pulled out of harm's way without a second to spare. By the time Sanchez got the car stopped, the car had no bottom from behind the rear seat to where the back cargo door is. Everyone scrambled out of the car because it had filled up with road dust due to the cargo floor dropping out, mangling and dragging against the dirt road before it had rolled and crumpled out from under the rear bumper.    
The adults and older cubs comforted and calmed Zhang and Ojo as the dust cleared away, just before everyone surveyed what happened to the car. The meerkats and genets could clearly see that the floor of Sanchez Genet's Wartburg wagon now ended just behind the rear seat with only a rim of rust around the inside of the body where the rear cargo floor use to attach inside the car...The cargo floor was now a mangled wad of rusty sheet metal laying on the dirt road 30 meters behind the car, along with mashed mangoes and splintered crates scattered everywhere. The gas tank did stay with the car though, still attached and dragged along the road inside the car by the filler tube.
Even though a Wartburg has a full separate frame, the rear of the frame ends between the rear wheels and does not extend back past the rear suspension. Wartburgs were made so the back of the body overhangs beyond past the frame...So there wasn't even a frame where the cargo floor fell out.

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\r\n\t\t\t\tThe Cargo Floor Fell Out of Sanchez Genet's Car by moyomongoose\r\n\t\t\t
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{This link shows Wartburg car frames at the factory (later models than Sanchez Genet's car), from footage 3:57 through 5:05}
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIUVEYmUB-A

{Older style, 1950s frame with cross leaf springs, like Sanchez Genet's car had, shown in this link, but it does not show rear of frame.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tusiqptP9o

Anything behind the back seat after the cargo floor fell out, would be resting directly on the road, even if still inside the car...like a 'Flintstone car' from behind the rear seat back.
The Meerkats and Genets were not really worried about the mangoes. They were just thankful no one was hurt, and were thankful the gas tank didn't blow up in the car when it was dragging along the road inside the car. The gas tank of a Wartburg is normally located above the rear suspension, but Sanchez Genet's car had an old, used gas tank, not made for that car, that was held in place with steel banding, bolted to the underside of what was the cargo floor.
In fact, Sanchez Genet mentioned, "O tanque de gasolina. Damos gracas a Deus ele nao explodiu" (The gas tank. We thank God it didn't explode).
Lacara replied, "Aw, Sanchez. Eu nao quero pensar NISSO" (Aw Sanchez. I don't want to think of THAT).
Moze got chuckles and laughs from everyone when he commented, "Parece que o boter perdeu a sua bunda na estrada" (Seems the car lost it's ass on the road).
But there was still yet to be another scarey close call. Where the problem with the car happened was on curve in the road. And while the meerkats and genets were figuring out how to secure the gas tank up off the road so they could get the car home, a hyena driving an old International Harvester pick up with no front brakes came around the curve approaching from behind. The hyena locked up the rear brakes, which worked off the parking brake cable. He steered away and barely missed Sanchez Genet's car as Sanchez dashed back into the car and slammed the door just in time to avoid being struck by the truck or getting the driver's door torn off. The hyena's truck did a 180 degree spin out on the dirt road as it came to a stop beyond Sanchez's car, facing the opposite way from which it came.
After everyone calmed down and the hyena was assured everyone was OK, the hyena offered to tow the car for them with a chain he had in the truck. The gas tank was removed from the car and placed in the bed of the hyena's truck. Then it was agreed to tow the car to Bron and Lacara's place, because they had some board planks stored up in a porch loft that another cargo floor can be made from.
Bron and Lacara rode in the cab of the truck with the hyena while everyone else rode in the bed, and Sanchez rode in his car to steer it as it was being towed with the chain.
It was late in the day, so the Genet Family slept over that night with the Meerkats.
The following morning, Sanchez Genet's car was fixed, starting out with two lengths of large size bamboo set apart for two cargo floor support runners. One end of each of the two bamboo supports were secured through holes that were made in the inner surface of the threshold structure under the rear cargo door, which the threshold was still in solid shape. A hammer and a chisel held in a pair of vice grips were used to knock the holes through. The ends of the bamboo that went through the holes in the body under the rear door were pushed against the inside of the outer surface of the threshold. The other ends of the bamboo were wedged over the rear body mount above where the frame ended at the rear suspension, and under the sheet metal floor where it tore off behind the rear seat. That made sort of a rear frame extension constructed out of bamboo that the car didn't originally have. The gas tank was fastened onto the bamboo supports with hemp rope and bailing wire. It was also noticed there were two pinholes in the tank, from the mishap, that had to be repaired with sheet metal screws and teflon tape.  Then the animals were ready to set in the new cargo floor. Some of the board planks, that Bron had stored, were then cut to size and nailed across the bamboo support runners to make the new cargo floor out of wood...being careful not to nail into the gas tank. Then the edges of the new, wooden, cargo floor were sealed with duct tape. Then tar was applied over the duct tape and overlapping the wood floor and the rusty inner body walls of the car...But it was sealed with tar only from the underside of the car so no one riding behind the back seat gets tar wads stuck in their fur. The duct tape on the topside of the floor was to prevent tar from oozing up inside the car. The new cargo floor wasn't level though. It had to be run at a slight incline, higher near the rear seat, and tilting down toward the rear door. After all, it wasn't like the animals could shape bamboo to match the contour of the original car floor. Although it wasn't exactly a typical car floor, it worked, and Sanchez Genet was delighted with it. The muffler had also sustained a small amount of damage when the old floor fell out, and the tailpipe had to be straightened back out. But although the car was a bit noisier than usual after it was repaired, the noise level wasn't really all that bad.

Throughout the year 1990, Bron and Lacara, like many others they knew, were really relieved about the positive developments that everyone had been hearing about regarding the war. To start with, it didn't seem like South Africa was going to be involved in anymore fighting in Angola. The local animals had been hearing about South Africa having a different leader, Tilson Menelsa Aardwolf, and of a movement that had started in that country to end it's apartheid rule. And by 1991, the development that everyone felt so thankful for, was that UNITA was now making moves to abandon being a rebel militia, and began talks with the MPLA to become a political party within the government. That certainly was something Bron and Lacara considered a Godsend...especially being concerned for the safety for their eleven year old, seven year old and four year old cubs.

Early one summer morning, on a Saturday, in January of 1992 (southern hemisphere, Angola), a young adult, male, meerkat who was not from around the area was panhandling for money around the cafe'. The linsang couple who owned the cafe' didn't consider it a problem until the meerkat stranger began pestering customers for a paw-out at the front door of the cafe'. When the male linsang, one of the owners of the cafe', asked the meerkat to move on to some other part of the village, he noticed the meerkat replied in English with some Afrikaan, but didn't seem to understand Portuguese.
The cafe' owner then told the meerkat in English, "Me customers you run off. Please, down the street. There, you can you do what you do?".
"Oh. Yea. Sure", the meerkat timidly replied, then made his way diagonally across the street to the CFB Railway passenger station.
That branch of the CFB Railway is two and a half foot, narrow gauge rail line, with most trains pulled by Garrett, articulating locomotives;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itJBnRAJrW8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjd3I9CY8ZU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCyOfvWwqSk
When the meerkat entered the station, a mongoose came to the ticket counter and asked in the usual curtious way, "Que eu possa ser útil para você?" (May I be helpful to you?).
"I don't know what it is you say", the meerkat replied.
"Oh. How can I be of help for you? Where is it you wish to travel?", The mongoose restated his question.
"I am trying to get to Tanzania so I can locate my uncle", the meerkat replied.
"Our trains. They do not go to Tanzania. The nearest to Tanzania you can ride will be Kuvango. From there, you will need to make other travel arrangements", the mongoose informed the meerkat.
The meerkat then mentioned, "For the moment, I have no money...How can you help me?".
The mongoose then rememered something, even though it was a Saturday, then offered a solution, "The freight depot, just across the tracks. They are inventorying shipments today and helpers they still need...And they will pay you, with cash".
The meerkat could clearly see from the passenger station, animals in the freight depot, across the tracks, who were busy checking and moving packages and crates...some freight parcels which were earlier received, and some in preparation to be loaded aboard boxcars on the siding to await a train to pick them up.
"I can not do that", the meerkat replied.
"A passenger train, going northbound. It will be here at twenty minutes after eleven. Now it is twenty five before eight. To earn money for a ticket, you have plenty of time", the mongoose insisted, and also noticed the meerkat had five toes each foot instead of the normal four...but that was not important.
"It just looks so hard", the meerkat retorted.
"You see here, young meerkat", the mongoose protested. "You will not ride a train for free. I try to help you. The freight depot, helpers they still need".
"But...but...I have bad luck right now. You can not help me?" the meerkat asked.
"Young meerkat, I must ask you to leave", the mongoose finally said. "I try to help you. You do nothing".
"But but but", the meerkat began.
"You must leave. There is no buts. A but here is a bunta that is you ass. Go. Leave now", the mongoose told the meerkat.

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\r\n\t\t\t\tVillage in the Meerkat Family Homeland by moyomongoose
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The meerkat then left the passenger station and made his way to the west end of the village. There, he went to the metal fabrication shop, but not in the lobby area where customers normally go...He wandered into the shop floor area where the animals there were busy, working that Saturday, catching up on an overdue order.
A jackal approached him and asked, "Você está procurando trabalho hoje?" (You are searching for work today?).
"What you are saying, I do not understand you", the meerkat replied.
The jackal didn't know English very well, so a civet came and spoke with the meerkat.
"Is it a job you try to find here today?", the civet asked.
"Oh no", the meerkat answered. "I just need some money".
Those animals who overheard and knew English busted out laughing. And when those animals who didn't know English heard it explained in Portuguese, and they too busted out laughing.
"If in the case you mom never tell you, and you dad never tell you, you work for you money. I will tell you, you do", the civet told the meerkat.
"Sim. He be right. The way you think it be, it be not", a genet further told the meerkat.
Sanchez Genet, who was also working there that day, told the the meerkat, "We work, so can you. The freight warehouse, they need workers today. Some of my friends, they are working there now".
Then the business owner, a caracal cat, came over and asked, "O suricato. O que é que ele quer?" (The meerkat. What does he want?)
Sanchez Genet, along with the civet and the other genet told their boss what the meerkat had just said to them.
"Ele fala inglês. Nao português" (He speaks English. Not Portuguese), the civet further added.
"What is your name, meerkat?", the caracal cat asked in a more refined manner of English.
"Pancho, Sir", the meerkat answered.
Then the caracal cat told the meerkat, "Alright, Pancho sir. We don't paw out money for nothing around here. If you get money here, you earn it here. Understand?...I'm asking you now to leave this property and don't come back...If I see you back, I will have the constable here, and you can spend a night in the zoo".
Pancho Meerkat got the message very clearly and left, then walked across the wide, dirt street to the gas station...in which he was promptly run off from when he began panhandling from some of their customers there.
Pancho then crossed the side street to Sy Aardwolf's automotive shop and junkyard.
Like the other animals Pancho encountered in the village, Sy greeted him in Angolan dialect Portuguese, beginning with a cheerful, "Ola...",  then heard Pancho respond in English that he didn't understand him.
"Hello. What is it that you need today?", Sy then asked Pancho in English.
"Some money for a train ticket if you have it to spare", Pancho answered.
Sy thought a moment, then invited Pancho, "My office, come on in, please. Let us talk".
"I guess so", Pancho answered as he took Sy up on his offer.
Upon entering the office, which had automotive parts laying about on it's dirt stained concrete floor, Sy requested to Pancho, "Don't mess with anything on the desk", referring to a spread of tools laid out on a shop towel on the desk.

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\r\n\t\t\t\tPanhandling Meerkat [Page 32] by moyomongoose
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In Sy Aardwolf's office, Sy sat at his old, ragged, solid wood desk (the one with the tools on it) which was mostly bare of it's varnish and it's green linoleum top laminate separating on the edges. Pancho took a seat on an old, metal, fold-up chair that had it's share of dings in it and a few worn coats of different colour paint.
After they introduced their selves, Sy opened the conversation, "So it is somewhere you must travel...When money I give, it is for those in need, not for everyone who extends the paw".
"I need to go north to see my uncle. And I have no money to ride the train", Pancho replied.
"Have not you seeked any work for today?", Sy asked.
Pancho paused a moment, then answered, "I have not found work".
Sy mentioned, "The train that will take you north, it will be here at twenty past eleven. It is now - uh", looking up at a clock, "fifteen past eight".
"That is a few hours from now", Pancho replied.
Sy then concluded, "To find someone in this village by now who is in need of a worker today, then to earn enough to board the train, it will push it close".
Sy Aardwolf and Pancho Meerkat conversed in the office a while longer. Through the conversation, Sy learned that Pancho was from Namibia, and had grown up in a meerkat colony...Sy had before heard about those partial subterranean, communal colonies being 'sort of a meerkat thing' in Namibia. Sy had also learned that Pancho had been banished from the colony where he was born and raised, and was now traveling north to look up one of his uncles who was also banished as an outcast from the colony a few years earlier, and had since then went to Tanzania.
"Did you walk here? Ride?", Sy asked Pancho.
"Yesterday in the evening, after I crossed the border, I sneaked a ride in an open boxcar aboard a northbound freight train in Cuangar", Pancho answered. "And the train got me here last night".

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"The railroad company. With that they would not be very happy", Sy replied. "The train crews do not like it either when animals hop the rides on the freights".
On through the conversation, Pancho told of letters his family recieved from his uncle, telling of a warthog friend his uncle met in Tanzania.
Sy Aardwolf, also being the pastor of the Community Worship Center, spoke with Pancho for a while also about spiritual matters...what many would call religion.
"Oh Sy. Você tem um cliente, eu vejo" (Oh Sy. You have a customer, I see), a female aardwolf mentioned at the doorway of the office.
"Está tudo bem. Entra, Zella. Esta é Pancho Suricato" (It is all right. Come in, Zella. This is Pancho Meerkat), Sy Aardwolf said to her, then said to Pancho, "This is Zella, my wife".
"Ola. Estou feliz em conhecê voce" (Hello. I am happy to know you), Zella greeted Pancho.
"Oh, Zella. Português ele não fala. Pancho veio de Namíbia" (Oh, Zella. Portuguese he does not speak. Pancho came from Namibia), Sy told Zella.
"Oh oh. Happy I am to get to know you, Pancho", Zella then said to Pancho.
"The pleasure is mine likewise", Pancho replied.
"Our cubs, Deja and Hiraldo. Them I wish you could meet", Zella said to Pancho.
"Então é. Deja. Ela é casada. Ela é um adulto. Eu não diria que ela ainda é um filhote" (So is. Deja. She is married. She is an adult. I would not say she is still a cub), Sy said to Zella.
"Sim sim. Eu sei disso. Mas Deja ainda é nosso filhote" (Yes Yes. I know that. But Deja is still our cub), Zella insisted.
"Tudo bem, tudo bem" (Okay, okay), Sy conceded to Zella.
"Deja is our wonderful daughter", Sy told Pancho. "She is nineteen in the years. She is out from the house, and to a wonderful son-in-law she be married".
"Our son, Hiraldo, he is away getting parts now. He will be the age of fourteen in two months", Zella said to Pancho.
"So he's still a cub...Thirteen", Pancho mentioned.
"Pancho, to meet him, you would like very much", Zella added.
"Sim. No entanto, o trem estará aqui antes Hiraldo retorna de Pocolo" (Yes. However, the train will be here before Hiraldo returns from Pocolo), Sy reminded Zella.
Sy then told Pancho, "Hiraldo had to drive the truck to go to Pocolo. He has to get a tire, also parts we need here. It will be in a few hours before he returns. By then, you will be along your way and aboard the train".
'A cub as young as thirteen taking a truck out to make a parts run...to a town hours away via mountain roads', Pancho thought to himself...That wasn't a common occurrence where Pancho was from.
Well, anyway, Pancho did get to know Sy and Zella.
Zella hearing her husband mention about a train, she asked Sy, "Pancho está deixando a bordo do trem esta manhã?" (Pancho is leaving aboard the train this morning?).
Sy promptly replied to Zella, "Oh. Eu mencionei sobre o trem. Sim" (Oh. I mentioned about the train. Yes).  
Sy then briefly gave an explanation to Zella, in Portuguese, which Pancho was able to pick up on that it was about Pancho's situation. Then Sy and Zella talked it over for a minute or two, which Pancho didn't comprehend as the conversation was still in Portuguese. Zella then asked Pancho, in their slightly broken English, a few questions about his situation...after which Sy and Zella assured Pancho they would help him with some cash and with getting him a train ticket.
"Eu coloquei a jarra de café na área de reparo. E colocado sobre a mesa de ferramenta" (I put the coffee pot in the repair area. It is placed on the tool table), Zella informed Sy.
"Tudo bem. Obrigado" (OK. Thank you), Sy replied.  
"We all hope everything goes good for you", Zella said to Pancho as she started on her way back to the house, which is next door to the shop.
"Well...Thank you", Pancho replied.
Sy and Pancho talked until it was about nine o'clock, which at that time Sy was preparing to give Pancho that amount of cash he and Zella agreed on.
"The last time you have eaten, when was that", Sy asked Pancho.
"Yesterday in the evening. Back in Cuangar. A monkey pawed me some money to get something a while before I hopped a ride aboard the freight train", Pancho answered.
Sy mentioned that he himself did not take the time to have breakfast that morning before opening the shop, then offered to take Pancho to the cafe' to get something to eat. After Pancho thanked Sy and accepted his offer, Sy took a small amount of money from a metal cash box in a draw of his desk and gave Pancho the amount of cash he and Zella had agreed on. Sy then put the rest in his wallet...the kind that clips onto the underlying fur hairs.

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\r\n\t\t\t\tClip On Wallet [Page 3] by moyomongoose
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Just before they were to leave the office, Sy noticed Pancho still holding the money Sy had given him in his paw.
"Have you a clip wallet?", Sy asked.
"No I do not", Pancho replied.
"Something here I have. I will give it to you", Sy said as he pulled an old belt and pouch from a shelf and gave it to Pancho.

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\r\n\t\t\t\tSy Aardwolf's Shop [Page 2] by moyomongoose
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"It is yours now. It came out of a junked car here", Sy said as he pawed it over to Pancho.
"Thank you very much", Pancho said to Sy as he fastened the belt around his waist and placed his money in the pouch.

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\r\n\t\t\t\tPanhandling Meerkat by moyomongoose
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However, there was an issue caused by the belt and pouch...It sat so low around Pancho's waist, it was close enough to his penis to tease it. The feeling of the belt being so close over 'little pee-pee' resulted in it getting erect...and as is the case with the meerkat species, as pee-pee got hard, pee-pee poked out...then all the way out...With some species of male animals, the penis is designed to do that way.

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\r\n\t\t\t\tPanhandling Meerkat [Page 5] by moyomongoose
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And when it occurred to Pancho how close pee-pee was to rubbing it's head against the fuzzy felt pouch, pee-pee then got really hard as it began bobbing  up and down.

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\r\n\t\t\t\tPanhandling Meerkat [Page 10] by moyomongoose
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In the meantime, Sy was in a backroom of the office looking for an owner's manual that came from one of the junked cars. A customer's car Fusko Mongoose was changing out a distributor on didn't have the manual it came with. The manual Sy was looking for was from the same make and model but only two years difference. Sy figured he'd have Fusko give it to the female genet who owns the car.
Upon finally knowing he couldn't find that manual, Sy called back to Pancho, "We have time for the cafe' before the train gets here...The pouch belt, it fits good?".
Pancho answered, "Well Sy...That belt you gave me got me stimulated".

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\r\n\t\t\t\tPanhandling Meerkat [Page 16] by moyomongoose
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Sy came back from out of the backroom and asked Pancho, "What do you mean?".
Then Sy knew what Pancho meant...Pancho's penis was hot hard and boinging it's head up against the utility belt the pouch was attached to...Pee-pee had gotten a really good bobbing up-n-down motion going by this time.

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\r\n\t\t\t\tPanhandling Meerkat [Page 14] by moyomongoose
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Sy let out with a "UAU" (WOW), then laughed, then said to Pancho, "Ah sim. I see what you mean. That we need to fix. You can not go into the cafe with your xi-xi doing THAT".

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Sy adjusted the pouch belt so it was a bit higher on Pancho and away from his genital area. There were a few other adjustments made on the belt until it was just right. Sy didn't want to have the belt too loose to where it would slip back down to where Pancho's penis would be out and hard again...especially in the cafe'.

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Sy Aardwolf's penis also poked out momentarily when he knelt down to fix the belt he gave to Pancho, but that was because Sy's penis usually pokes out when he kneels or squats...It's in the same manner as a male dogs penis pokes out when he sits.

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But anyway, that was the first look Pancho ever had of an Aardwolf penis...Until then, Pancho had always thought that an aardwolf penis and a dog penis pretty much looked alike.

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As soon as Sy got up and stood back on his feet again, his penis slipped back into sheath.

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\r\n\t\t\t\tSy Aardwolf's Penis Sticks Out [Page 5] by moyomongoose
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Eventually, the erection Pancho's penis was having subsided, and it finally went back into sheath...Now Pancho and Sy can make their way over to the cafe.

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Sy then had Fusko, an Angolan slender mongoose who works for him, tend the shop until he got back, then Sy and Pancho headed over to the cafe'...Although the village is somewhat spread out, it isn't very big, so Sy and Pancho walked down the dirt street to where they had to go.
Upon their arrival to the cafe' a waitress, Rosie Hippo, remembered seeing Pancho earlier that morning, then went and told the linsang couple who owns the cafe'. Within moments, the male linsang approached Sy and Pancho, as his wife watched.
"This morning, Me ask you to go away. Me need to get the constable here?", the male linsang retorted to Pancho.
"É bom. O suricato é com eu ... Se é bom com você" (It is good. The meerkat is with me...If it is good with you), Sy told the linsang.
"Bom então. Se ele comporte" (Good then. If he behaves), the linsang agreed.
"Ele ira comporte" (He will behave), Sy affirmed.
Then the linsang said to Pancho, "You good here then. But you do not beg for money here...That is good?".
"That's good", Pancho agreed.
Sy and Pancho soon placed their order, then enjoyed a late breakfast (after 9:00 am) and relaxed over a few coffee refills...However, what the qurrel was that one of the cafe' owners earlier had with Pancho, Sy didn't bother to make it any of his business....The comment from the male linsang 'but you do not beg for money here' probably told Sy enough.
 It was well past ten o'clock when Sy paid the tab, left a tip for Rosie, and he and Pancho went over to the CFB Railway passenger station to purchase the train ticket...It would be about an hour when the northbound train arrives.
Upon entering the passenger station, the mongoose in charge there told Pancho, "Go away. No one rides a train for free. I try to help you and you do nothing".
"Ele está comigo" (He is with me), Sy told the mongoose.
"Sy. Ele tem nao dinheiro. Ele quer passeio a bordo de um trem de graça" (Sy. He has no money. He wants to ride aboard a train for free), the mongoose retorted.
"Ele tem dinheiro que eu dei a ele" (He has money I gave to him), Sy assured the mongoose.
"Ele poderia ter bumbar para que o dinheiro. Eu disse a ele onde" (He could have worked for the money. I told him where), the mongoose further retorted.
"Ele me disse que não consegue encontrar trabalho hoje" (He told me he can not find work today), Sy replied.
"Ha ha", the mongoose laughed, then told Sy, "Ele disse uma mentira para você. O armazém. Eles precisavam de ajuda toda a manhã. Eu disse isso a ele. E ele diga que o trabalho parece muito difícil" (He told a lie to you. The warehouse. They needed help all morning. I told him that. And he says that the work seems too difficult).
Even though Pancho didn't know Portuguese, he had some idea what Sy and the mongoose were discussing.
And it was begining to become clear to Sy Aardwolf why Pancho Meerkat may have been outcasted from that meerkat colony where he was from in Namibia...And probably that his uncle was outcasted for the same reasons.
"Agradeço-lhe por me dizer essa coisa. Obrigado" (Thank you for telling me this thing. Thank you), Sy told the mongoose.
Sy then questioned Pancho, and  upon getting the truth from him, took Pancho aside and gave him a good, stern lecture about laziness, freeloading, slothfulness, and lying...And it was not a fluffy, little, 'feel good' sermon either.
When Sy was done lecturing Pancho, he and Pancho went to the counter and purchased a train ticket to Kuvango, which the mongoose said would be the closest point that branch line ran to the direction of Pancho Meerkat's intended destination.
At eleven o'clock, the animals who were working that morning at the freight warehouse were given a twenty minute break. Among them were Bron Meerkat and his two older sons Moze, then going on age 13, and Jorad, then going on age 9. They had gotten a ride that morning with Sanchez Genet on his way to the metal fabrication shop. During the break, Bron, Moze and Jorad noticed Sy Aardwolf at passenger station across the tracks and came over to see him.
Upon seeing Bron and his sons, Sy Aardwolf pointed Bron out to Pancho and said to him, "See that meerkat who walks with a limp? I know him. His family is in my congregation where I am pastor. He has bad hips, but any work he can do he still trys to find...And his sons, they too help their family...You should have been working with them this morning".
 Sy introduced Pancho to Bron, Moze and Jorad, then explained how he was helping Pancho with his situation he was in. Once everyone and Pancho got acquainted, Sy and the other animals got to conversing about various things while waiting to see Pancho off aboard the train...which was now due to arrive in about ten minutes.
It wasn't long before Moze saw Pancho heading across the street.
"Pai, olha onde Pancho esta indo" (Dad, look where Pancho is going), Moze told his dad.
"Sy", Bron called out, then pointed Pancho out to him.
Pancho was headed straight for a store which was beside the tracks directly across the street from the passenger station...The sign on the store read 'Perto o Trilhos - Licor e Vinho' (Near the Tracks - Liquor and Wine).

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\r\n\t\t\t\tRevision of Perto O Trilhos Licore e Vinho by moyomongoose
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"Nao nao nao", Sy retorted as he headed out of the passenger station and across the street after Pancho.
Pancho figured with the money he had left over after the purchase of the train ticket, he could get a little something to sip on aboard the train along the way. Before Sy caught up with Pancho, Pancho entered the liquor store.
"Uh, you speak English?" Pancho asked the genet behind the counter.
"Sim. English I do speak", the genet replied. "Your pleasure, what will it be?".
Pancho looked over the selection which was behind the counter along the wall.
"That Kwilu", Pancho said as he chose a half pint of Congolese, Kwilu rum.
https://images.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;_ylt=A0LEV7s...
Sy walked in as the genet placed Pancho's choice on the counter.
"Pregador Sy Aardwolf? Você? Dentro aqui?" (Preacher Sy Aardwolf? You? In here?), the genet asked, knowing Sy does not drink booze.
"Kagiso. O dinheiro que ele tem, isto foi dado a ele. E não para ser gasto dessa forma" (Kagiso. The money he has, it was given to him. And not to be spent this way), Sy Aardwolf exclaimed to the genet, then explained the situation.
"This. It is not for you", Kagiso Genet told Pancho as he promptly took the small bottle of rum back and placed it back on the shelf.
"The money I help you with, I do not give for you to spend in a cuca shop. It was not earned by you. You do not spend it that way", Sy reprimanded Pancho on the way back out of the liquor store to return to the passenger station.
By the time Sy and Pancho got back to the station, the distant approach of the train could already be heard.

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It was also by that time, Bron, Moze and Jorad had already crossed back over the tracks to the freight warehouse as their break time was over and it was time for them, and the other animals they were working with that day, to get back to work.
The whistle of the narrow gauge, Garret, articulating locomotive sounded and the bell clanged as it approached the street crossing. Within moments, the Garret locomotive pulled it's passenger coaches to a stop at the station. Each of the four coaches were a home made, wood frame, coach body with corrugated tin roof, built on an old flatbed car chassis. Two of the coaches had clapboard exterior, and two had corrugated tin exterior. One clapboard body coach had inward opening, wood shutters in place of glass in the windows...And the other three had wood framed, glass, slider windows. All coaches were painted tan with a dark brown, wide stripe along each side.
Sy Aardwolf instructed the mongoose in charge of the station, "Este suricato. Certifique-se de que ele chega em Kuvango. Ele não está a deixar o trem até que esta chega a Kuvango. Depois que ele chega a Kuvango, ele vai para onde ele quer." (This meerkat. Make sure that he arrives in Kuvango. He is not to leave the train until it reaches Kuvango. After he reaches Kuvango, he goes where he wants.).
As Pancho boarded the train, the mongoose passed the same instructions on to a bat eared fox who was the train's conductor. After the conductor acknowledged understanding the instructions, he led Pancho from the corrugated tin body coach where he had boarded the train, and into the following clapboarded coach with the glass slider windows...There were no diaphragms between the coaches. Going from coach to coach, you stepped along overlapping footplates. And there were two levels of slack chain on each side, fastened between the coaches to serve as safety grab rails while going between coaches.  
Not long after Pancho took a seat on one of the coach's non-upholstered wood benches, near an open slider window, the conductor called to the locomotive operator, "Todos estão a bordo" (All are on board).
The operator, a bonobo, sounded the whistle, released the brakes and applied the throttle of the locomotive as the firebox attendant, a pangolin, clanged the bell...The train was now pulling away from the station on it's way north with Pancho Meerkat further on his way to his destination where he planed to locate his uncle and warthog friend.
The last Sy Aardwolf heard of the departing train was the distant sound of the whistle as the train approached the two road crossings on it's way up the mountain grade to the highlands going north away from the village.
Sy Aardwolf then returned to his shop and junkyard to conduct the rest of his business day.
A late night a severe thunderstorm was expected to come through that night moving from the west...The storm was still a long way off when Hiraldo returned from Pocolo with the tire and car parts, although static crackles from the distant lightning were already being heard occasionally coming over the car radio that played off a deep cycle battery in Sy's shop. Hiraldo had mentioned to his dad that he heard some static crackle on the truck's radio on his way back from Pocolo.
Late that night, by the time the storm finally arrived, Sy, Zella, and their son Hiraldo were already at the house and snuggled in for the night.
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During the approach of the storm, a severe weather warning comes over an old Philco car radio that Sy has wired to a deep cycle battery in the shop near a metal fold-up chair the radio is grounded to for an antenna...Sy left the radio playing for the night when the family went to the house. That is so the battery will discharge and can be charged from a charger in the truck in the morning.
During the broadcast, there was some radio static, as well as >crackles< and >pops< when the lightning would flash up.

The severe weather warning;
"Se você estiver em ou próximo Embunda e Namene, procurar abrigo agora. Ficar em sua casa.
Esta é uma tempestade muito perigosa.
Esta tempestade tem relâmpago graves e ventos poderoso.                                      >crackle POP<
 -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -
A tempestade está se movendo para fora do oeste, a vinte quilômetros por hora.       >static<
-   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -
Citamos novamente, Esta é uma tempestade muito perigosa.                                         >POP POP<
Cuidado, há granizo com esta tempestade. Alguns do tamanho de bolas de golfe.
Se você estiver perto de um riacho, ou perto de um rio, há o perigo de graves inundações.   >static<
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A tempestade está se movendo para fora do oeste, a vinte quilômetros por hora.             >static<
-   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -
Se você estiver em ou próximo Embunda e Namene, procurar abrigo agora....."            >POP<
                                                                                                                                      >static<
@ What it would be translated as English;
(If you are in or near Embunda and Namene, seek shelter now. Stay in your home.
This is a very dangerous storm.
This storm has severe lightning and powerful winds.
-   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -
The storm is moving out of the west, twenty kilometers per hour.
-   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -
We quote again. This is a very dangerous storm.
Beware, there is hail with this storm. Some the size of golf balls.
If you are near a stream or near a river, there is the danger of serious flooding
-   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -
The storm is moving out of the west, twenty kilometers per hour.
-   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -
If you are in or near Embunda and Namene, seek shelter now.....)
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During that storm, a bolt of lightning struck right behind the shop, about 10 meters (30 feet) ahead of an old  junked Renault...The house Sy and his family live in is next door to the shop, so the Aardwolf Family heard the BANG from it pretty loud.
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The smaller village to the north where the cotton plantation, fabric mill and sawmill are got hit with golf ball size hail during that storm.

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It was in the year of 1992, the local animals had been hearing about the nation's constitution being revised. Everyone, including the Meerkat Family had concerns whether those revisions contained good changes or bad changes. Eventually, the animals who operated the railway depot in the village managed to get a copy of the revised constitution sent from the nation's capitol in Luanda. As soon as it arrived by train, it was promptly posted where it can be read, which everyone was well pleased with.  

Two weeks before Moze's 13th birthday, Lacara found out she was pregnant her forth cub. It was a month later on March 29th, 1992, on an old blanket, on the dirt floor of the one and only bedroom of their home, Lacara gave birth to a forth male cub with her husband and three other sons by her. It was agreed that the newest member of the family would be named Cheesah.
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Unbeknown to anyone here, far away in Salem, India,
a creepy rat, less than a year out of med school, operates
a 'quack' medical practice in an old ratty strip mall.
Nearly 22 years later, little newborn Cheesah Meerkat
will be Dr. Rat's worse nightmare.
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That was the year Jorad turned 9 years of age, and Zhang turning 6. And it was the year Zhang began to go out at times with one or both of his older brothers, or with his dad, into the village to find work. Most jobs for a 6 year old cub were not very heavy jobs. Jobs that consist of harder work are for those who are older.
And when Bron and the older sons were at home with Lacara and Cheesah, Cheesah would always get love, attention and playing from the other members of the family. He being the cub of the family, always enjoyed being the center of attention.
Zhang, still being a young cub, would still be at home most of the time with Mom and younger cub brother Cheesah. Dad and older brothers Moze and Jorad were still the ones going out most times to seek work.

The 29th and 30th of September of 1992 was the first government election in which there were UNITA party candidates. The voting precinct for the part of the Cunene Provence where the Meerkat Family and friends lived was set up at the CFB railway passenger depot in the village.
On the 29th, the Meerkat Family showed up with everyone else at the railway station to vote, with Lacara holding Cheesah who turned six months of age that day.  There were more local animals in the community who did not own a car (such as was the case with Bron and Lacara) than those who did. But that majority of animals who did not own a car, did get rides from the animals who were fortunate to have a car. Those living near or in the village walked to the voting precinct at the railway station...Everyone was determined to come to the railway station and vote. In fact, the cafe', which was diagonally across the main dirt street from the railway depot, had a big paper sign on the front window posting Article 18, #1 and #2 of the fundamental rights and duties of the Angolan constitution;

"1. Todos os cidadãos são iguais perante a lei e gozam dos mesmos direitos e estão sujeitos aos
os mesmos deveres, sem distinção de cor de pele, espécie, subespécie, grupo étnico, sexo, local de nascimento,
religião, ideologia, grau de instrução, condição económica ou social.
2. Todos os actos que visem prejudicar a harmonia social ou criar discriminações e privilégios
com base nesses fatores devem ser severamente punida por lei. "

Translated in English:
(1.   All citizens shall be equal under the law and shall enjoy the same rights and be subject to
the same duties, without distinction as to fur color, species, subspecies, ethnic group, sex, place of birth,
religion, ideology, level of education or economic or social status.
2.  All acts aimed at jeopardizing social harmony or creating discrimination or privileges
based on those factors shall be severely punishable by law.)

The big paper sign was in a sense a reminder posted by the owner of the cafe' to vote MPLA.
However, due to the relatively high illiteracy rate among the animals in the community, there were many of the locals who were unable to read what the paper sign posted on the cafe' said. But those who knew how to read would take the time to read and explain the sign bearing the words of Article 18 to those who were among the illiterate animals of the community.
A special concession also had to be made for those animals who were illiterate, therefor not being able to read the election ballot, which included quite a few of them...Two peel-off china markers, a black one and a red one, were borrowed from the freight depot warehouse just across the tracks. And on the ballots to be cast by those who were illiterate, an black mark was made next to the names of the MPLA candidates, and a red mark made next to the names of the UNITA candidates. That way, for those who did not know how to read the ballot, they at least had a way of knowing what party they were voting for...They just had to remember, if the vote is for an MPLA candidate, check a blank near a black mark...and for a UNITA candidate, check a blank near a red mark.
And needless to say, Bron, Lacara, and everyone else they knew, voted straight down the ballot MPLA. No one voted UNITA, knowing that party did not firmly stand against apartheid. Old timers such as Grand dad Zeth Meerkat, Grandma Mylah Meerkat, Great Grandma Gloria Meerkat, Sanchez Genet, Naomi Genet, Obi Genet, Sanchez and Obi's mom Kubria who was by then going on age 101, as well as others from that generation remembered very well about apartheid during the old days of Portuguese colonial occupation.
 
On the morning following the election, a radio station played the Angolan National Anthem...Sanchez Genet and his son, Sefu, heard it playing on the radio of their old Wartburg station wagon while riding along the old dirt road on their way to work at the metal fabrication shop in the village.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgppoKTseoE
Angola's National Anthem always had reminded Sanchez of the time 26 years earlier, when his dad, Ajamu, died at age 71 while fighting in the Colonial War for Angola's independence from Portugal...And of how close he came to also loosing his older brother, Obi, who almost died at age 50 in that war.  

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The election however, did produce a disastrous result...MPLA did win the seats of government, but it wasn't long before accusations began between MPLA and UNITA, which ranged with everything from election fraud to UNITA accusing MPLA of not holding to promises they have made. Before the end of the year, UNITA resumed the civil war against the government as they had been fighting before.
By the end of 1992, there were the reports of the civil war going on, just like it had always been before.

There was a period of time, in February and March of 1993, that the family members had been unsuccessful finding work. Food and what little money the family had was running low, although, there are still eatable plants, nuts and berries that grow wild, and bugs are always a part of the diet for meerkats as well. However, although there are nuts, berries and bugs during those times when there isn't any food or money in the house, there are also seasons when nuts and berries are not in bloom. During such times when food was scarce, the cubs were allowed to eat before the adults did. The cubs need to grow...the adults are already grown. Day after day, Moze and Jorad, who were then ages 10 and 14, would walk to the village before dawn only to find there was no work to be had each day. There were days Bron would go to the village with Moze and Jorad when they got a ride with Sanchez Genet and one of his sons, Sefu, on their way to work. By that time, Sanchez Genet and his son, Sefu, were working a permanent job at the metal fabrication shop, although not five day workweeks, so the ride was not available each day. But still, each day, it was the same thing for the meerkats - no work.  On one of those days when Bron and his two older sons got a ride with Sanchez and Sefu to the village and still found no work, Angelo and Erica D'Cruz Hound, the Portuguese Estrela dog couple who owns the grocery store, gave Bron a few boxes of non-perishable goods to bring back home so the family can have something to eat. Sanchez Genet helped out the best he could considering he and Sefu were working only two to three days per week at that time...Eventually however, a donation of food and cash being used up by a family of two adults and four cubs day after day after day can only last but so long...With no opportunity to find work, it was only a matter of time before there would be no food in the house again...Lacara had Zhang, then going on age 7, try to catch some fish from the creek with a string and sharpened bent nail with a bug on it attached to a stick, but it seemed no fish would bite...Social Security did not exist, thus older relatives were also having it rough, and were not in much of a position to help...As for welfare and food stamps, that too was non-existent and unheard of to any of the locals...Fortunately for one year old Cheesah, he was still nursing from Mom's teats.  
One morning, the stretch of bad luck finally broke and the opportunity to find work finally did pick up again, and none too soon either. Moze and Jorad, who like the rest of the family, haven't eaten anything since the past two days, walked to the village that morning and noticed the serval who was in charge of the CFB railway warehouse needed some temporary help unloading two boxcars that a freight train dropped off on a siding during the night. There was already an adult mongoose and an adolescent genet working that job, but the serval told Moze and Jorad that he could use two more helpers. So the meerkat brothers received instruction from the serval in charge of the warehouse, and went to work following the lead of the adult mongoose. Fortunately for the adolescent cubs Moze and Jorad, who had to work like adults with nothing to eat going on a 2nd day, the job wasn't really all that hard. The boxcars were along side a loading platform up even with the floors of the boxcars, and the platform was under a roof that provided shade from the hot sun. And the two pallet jacks belonging to the freight warehouse, although very old and beat up and half worn out, were still at least in working order which made the job much easier. Among the freight to be unloaded were material, paint and other supplies for the metal fabrication shop, as well as machine parts and fabric dye for the cotton plantation and fabric mill in the village to the north. There was some inventory ordered by the local hardware store also, along with a few crates of groceries Angelo and Erica D'Cruz Hound ordered for the grocery store...Breaking into one of those grocery crates was a temptation for two hungry meerkat cubs going on a 2nd day with nothing to eat, but Moze and Jorad knew better, and realized that once they were paid there would be the means again of acquiring food the right way.
When the job was done, they were paid well, and in cash...Working for the railway always pays better. And Moze and Jorad were also able to get a ride home with Sanchez Genet and his son Sefu. It was at the end of the work day for Moze and Jorad when Sanchez and Sefu were getting off from the metal shop, thus they were able to give Moze and Jorad a ride back home.
On the way home, Sanchez Genet's old Wartburg wagon reminded Moze and Jorad how close they came to loosing their brother Zhang, and Zhang's friend Ojo, that time the cargo floor fell out of it a few years earlier, which bought up a conversation of how well that wood plank floor in the back of that old Wartburg was still holding up. Mose and Jorad even looked back at the floor...and yup...the rear cargo floor still looked like the floor of a boxcar, or the wood plank floor of the cafe' in the village.
Once they got home, and Sanchez and Sefu Genet were droping Moze and Jorad off in front of the house, Bron and Lacara were so happy that their sons were able to find work...and good paying work for the railway warehouse at that. But Moze and Jorad didn't keep any of the money they earned that day. There hadn't been any food at the house for the past two days, and a family of six meerkats does have to eat. Lacara collected that day's earnings from her sons and asked Sanchez Genet if Sefu could take her to the village. At the village, Lacara bought food for the family, including three, 100 pound bags of whole grain rice.
In 1st world major countries with the high standard of living the meerkats had never known, most cubs would have a fit, a cow, a rage and shit a brick over Mamma taking THEIR money THEY wanna spend on a video game or the latest music CD or something. But with the Meerkat Family living in the 3rd world, Moze and Jorad never did complain. The brothers knew all too well how poor the family was, and that a family survives when all it's members pull together. After all, while most cubs in prosperous countries wondered when they'll see the next releases of Nintendo, Sega and Game Boy, many animals in the local homeland had known what it was to wonder when they'd see their next meal...Thus, Moze and Jorad were just thankful they had the opportunity to earn some money that day so Mamma could get some food in the house for everyone.

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\r\n\t\t\t\tMeerkats Hard Way of Life in Angola by moyomongoose
+31
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The night of June 23rd is Véspera de Santo John (Eve of Saint John - or - St. John's Eve) The following Sunday was four days after the night of festivities in the village. That Sunday Bron, Lacara and the cubs got a ride to the community worship center with Sanchez and his family in Sanchez's old Wartburg station. The riding accommodations were a bit crowded but it was better than walking...especially being in that year of 1993, Cheesah was only a year old and would have had to been carried if the meerkats had to walk to the village.
There was a sizeable attendance that Sunday morning, and the sermon Pastor Sy Aardwolf preached was on how cubs should obey their parents, and also on the Bible teachings of the right way how parents should raise their cubs. After the end of the service, Jorad, then age 10, and Zhang, then age 7, wanted to hang out around the village a while. Bron and Lacara agreed that would be OK, but made it clear to Jorad and Zhang they would have to walk home, which the the cubs agreed to. So Bron, Lacara, Moze, then age 14, and Cheesah, then one year old, rode home with Sanchez Genet and family while Jorad and Zhang remained in the village.
Jorad and Zhang socialized and played with some of their cub friends who's families lived in the village while they were there. In the early afternoon, the cubs watched a southbound freight train come through the village on the narrow gauge railroad. At Kagiso Genet's liquor store, one of the cubs who Jorad and Zhang were with got up the nerve to ask Kagiso why cubs can never have a sip of booze...Kagiso, as he always does in such a situation, ran the cubs off away from his store.
Eventually, as Jorad, Zhang and a civet cub friend were milling around outside the railway freight warehouse, Zhang found a left over Roman candle from the Eve of Saint John celebration four days earlier...and it had not yet been lit...UAU! What a find. The cubs were wondering how they were going to go about lighting the Roman candle being that they didn't have access to any matches. However, it wasn't long before a hyena pulled up to Kagiso Genet's liquor store in an old, ragged, chalky black, 1955, Opel Kapitan which had small amounts of hail damage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ix5zhJAxYNU
The civet cub got the idea of placing the Roman candle on the exhaust manifold of the hyena's car as an auto-fooler as Jorad and Zhang got a good laugh thinking how funny that would be. So when the hyena grabbed some cash from the glove box, got out of his car and went in to the liquor store to make a purchase, Jorad raised the hood of that old 1955 Opel Kapitan. With Zhang's help, the civet tucked the Roman candle between the cylinder head and exhaust manifold of the hyena's car with the fuse touching the manifold.  
The hyena, who knew the families of Jorad and Zhang and of the civet cub, came out of the store with a 5th of gin he had purchased as Jorad was still closing the hood of his car.
"Jorad! Meu boter. ?O que você está fazendo?" (Jorad! My car. What are you doing?), the hyena asked.
"Oh ... Uh ... Só olhando" (Oh...Uh...Only looking), Jorad replied as Zhang and the civet cub nodded in agreement.
"Não é com as patas que você olha. Seus olhos que você tem para isso ... ?Você entende?" (It is not with the paws you look. Your eyes you have for that...You understand?), the hyena said as he placed his bottle of gin in his car, placed his monetary change in the glove box, then pushed the hood down to make it latch shut.
Jorad, Zhang and the civet cub waved with smiles as the hyena started his car and began to leave...Then the three cubs snickered and giggled as the hyena proceeded west, driving down the wide dirt street which became the dirt highway leading west out of the village.
Shortly after the hyena left the village, he turned right onto the road going north. The hyena hadn't gone very far down the north road to the small village where he lives, where the cotton plantation, fabric mill and sawmill are, when the exhaust manifold got hot enough to lite the fuse of the Roman candle. The hyena was cruising along that narrow dirt road with his 5th of gin on the front seat...Then suddenly >WHEEEEEEEEE POP - POP - POP - POP...WHEEEEEEEE POP - POP - POP - POP...WHEEEEEEEE....<. There were small, bright, fire balls in an array of bright colours bouncing out everywhere from under the front of the car. Immediately, the hynea stopped the car, scurried out, and hurriedly raised the hood. >WHEEEEEEE POP - POP - POP - POP...< the Roman candle continued as the hyena had to leap back out of the way of brightly coloured fire balls ricocheting off the underside of the hood...Finally, the Roman candle burned itself out, emitting a >WHEEeeee - whooost<.
It didn't take a rocket scientist to put 2 + 2 together...Cubs messing with the car back at the liquor store + this = cubs being the culprits.
The hyena retrieved the Roman candle, got back into the car, turned the car around and proceeded to drive back toward the village...The hyena knew where to contact Bron and Lacara.
As the cubs decided to call it a day, just before Jorad and Zhang began the three kilometer (two mile) eastward walk back home, they noticed the hyena in that old, ragged Opel Kapitan cruising by as he drove on through the village and headed down the road going east.
During the hour it took Jorad and Zhang to walk home, they had many good laughs talking about that Roman candle in the hyena's car...But the laughter stopped when the two cubs arrived home. Parked in front of the house was that old, ragged, chalky black, Opel Kapitan. Mom Meerkat holding one year old Cheesah, and Dad Meerkat were out front talking with the hyena, and they didn't look very happy...Daddy Bron Meerkat was holding the spent Roman candle.
At that point, Moze was told by Lacara to go into the house.
"Seu pai quer falar com você" (Your dad wants to speak with you), Lacara told Jorad and Zhang as Bron approached their two younger cubs with his usual limp due to his bad hip joints.
"Jorad. Zhang. Este" (Jorad. Zhang. This), Bron said as he held the Roman candle up, "?É familiar para você?" (Is it familiar to you?).
Needless to say, Jorad and Zhang didn't have anything to say in their defense, thus when questioned, admitted to their roles in sabotaging the hyena's car...Bron and Lacara even got Jorad and Zhang to tell of their civet cub friend's part in it too...The hyena would pay the civet cub's parents a visit later as well. There was already a broken off switch from a nearby tree waiting in the house. Jorad and Zhang were marched straight into the house and had their legs lit up good-n-proper. After the switchin' was done, Bron and Lacara came back out and again apologized to the hyena for the actions of their two cubs, in which the hyena thanked Bron and Lacara before he drove off.
Jorad and Zhang were two cubs who would now think twice about messing with someone's car again.
Come Monday morning, the hyena paid the civet cub's parents at the village a visit too...Thus Civet Jr. got his ass lit up good by Daddy Civet as well.  

There was one night in July (winter in the Southern Hemisphere) of 1993, it got a little bit chilly...not really a severe cold night...Southern Angola has mostly a warm climate, but it was definitely a cool night.
That night, the Meerkat Family moved the ragged old blue bureau into the kitchen, and moved that rustic living room table and their old sofa out under the overhang roof port. Firewood was gathered into a small pile on the dirt floor of the living room, and a small fire was lit to provide warmth. Curtains on the downwind side of the house were opened to let the smoke out. Then the family brought the blankets into the living room to sleep on around the fire. Members of the family would take turns getting up to put a piece or two of wood on the fire when it would go down, so it wouldn't get cold in the house.
In the morning, after sun rise, it got warm again. The ashes were raked up and put outside around the muscadine vines, the blankets were put back into the bedroom, and the living room furniture was put back in place.
This method of staying warm on a cool night was common among those animals who lived in homes with dirt floors.    

Early one morning in August of 1993, Moze and Jorad had gotten a ride with Sanchez Genet into the village to look for work. It being the Southern Hemisphere, August is around the end of winter, although winter in Angola is not the harsh winters other parts of the world know.

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\r\n\t\t\t\tVillage in the Meerkat Family Homeland by moyomongoose
+4
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"Na loja de metal. Para vocês dois. Eu vou mencionar uma palavra boa. (In the metal shop. For both of you. I will mention a good word)", Sanchez told the meerkat brothers as he droped them off at the village cafe'.
Moze and Jorad had always thought how nice it would be if they could get hired onto a steady job with the metal fabrication shop where Sanchez Genet and his son Sefu work. In fact, Sefu Genet had by this time been able to get his own car...something Moze and Jorad would like to see the family have.
"Aqui. Para você. Pegar algo para comer. (Here. For you. Get something to eat)", Sanchez said as he gave Moze and Jorad some money to get some breakfast with.
"Obrigado. (Thank you)", said Jorad.
"Muito Obrigado. (Thank you much)", Moze added.
As Sanchez drove to the metal shop to go to work, Moze and Jorad ordered some breakfast at the cafe', and keeped an ear open for anyone needing help that day. Rosie Hippo, a waitress at the cafe' who is a long time friend of the Meerkat Family, promised Moze and Jorad she would inquire around to the other customers that they were looking for work. Rosie also, like she has always done, gave Moze and Jorad their hot tea and a pastry for free.
As the meerkat brothers were finishing breakfast, Rosie came to their table with some good news.
"Moze. Jo-ad. Dois fotógafos de uma editowa. O equipamentos de câmera, Elees precisam de ajuda pa ca-egah. Um tabalho, voce pode teh hoje" (Moze. Jorad. Two photographers from a publisher. The camera equipment, they need help to carry. A job, you can have today), Rosie told them in her usual non-rhotic dialect.
"Onde eles estão agora?" (Where they are now?), Moze asked Rosie.
"Eesa doninhas e lonta, um cliente deesse pawa mim" (That weasel and otter, a customer told to me), Rosie replied as she pointed out to Moze and Jorad, a weasel and an otter that a customer had told her about.
Moze and Jorad thanked Rosie as the weasel and the otter approached their table.
The otter made an attempt to introduce himself in Portuguese, saying, "Hello, Uh, I mean ola. Ola...Me, uh, Oliver Otter. Voce suricatos...uh...Voce tem algum traballo? Mucho, uh, muito, uh uh, mucho salario".
Oh well, Oliver Otter did attempt to ask Moze and Jorad if they were looking for work with good pay?
The weasel made some progress when he corrected Oliver, telling him, "Bloody 'ell anyway. It is not 'tem algum'. To say, search for work', it's said as, 'procura de trabalho...And it's 'trabalho', not 'traballo'...Now observe, Oliver. I'll show you how it's done".
Then the weasel attempted his introduction to Moze and Jorad, "Soyou...uh...Sou Eu...uh uh uh...Eu Sou Vince Weasel. Por favor Eu...know...voce", attempting to say 'pleased to know you' to Moze and Jorad, but it came over being understood as 'please, I in you'.
For a brief moment, Moze and Jorad looked at Vince Weasel and Oliver Otter like they were a couple of nuts.
 Then Moze said to the photographers, "If English you can speak, so can we. Our Portuguese, I see you do not speak it well", as Rosie Hippo giggled.
"Oh great! We are from the U.K.", Vince Weasel affirmed. "Yes. We do speak English".
"Deh Englese, me too con speak", Rosie informed Vince Weasel with a smile. "You shoot of told to meh so".
Vince Weasel and Oliver Otter introduced themselves as free lance photographers on assignment for a British magazine publisher (but this time in English). They said they would need help carrying photo equipment, and they were willing to pay very well. Vince Weasel even offered to treat Moze and Jorad to supper at the cafe' when they return to the village after work that evening.
Moze and Jorad wasted no time accepting that offer as they paid their tab and were on their way.
Moze and Jorad were really impressed by the brand new Mercedes T1 utility van the photographers had. It is very seldom the local animals ever see such a nice vehicle where they live, much less ever get the opportunity to actually ride in one. The van rode so quiet and smoothly, and had that new car smell, and had air conditioning that actually worked.
"Uau! This van. It makes cold air inside?", Moze asked.
"It's what we call air conditioning", Vince Weasel, who was driving, informed the meerkat brothers.
"Bloody 'ell anyway...Bet they never seen A/C before", Oliver Otter said to Vince in a muffled tone.
"Such a thing we never knew before", said Moze, after overhearing Oliver.
Jorad mentioned, "The controls. The steering wheel. It is on the wrong side like some boters we see".
Vince chuckled and said, "We brought this van with us from the UK. All motor cars, lorries, coaches where we are from are this way, because everyone drives on the left side of the road there".
Oliver then asked Jorad, "I'm a bit curious if you don't mind my askin', but you mentioned boter. What is that?".
"It is a car", Jorad answered.
Moze added, "What you call the automobile, we call boter in our country".
"Ohhhh", Oliver replied.
The professional grade photo equipment was also something like the meerkats had never seen before. At the time, the last camera the Meerkat Family owned was a 1930 Lietz, 35 mm, that was brand new when Sanchez Genet and his brother, Obi, had stolen it when they were cubs 63 years ago (and were spanked good by their parents for it too). It had been nine years since the shutter wore out on that camera and quit working. On the way to the job site, a song played on the van's radio. And even though Vince had the radio turned down low so everyone could hold conversation, Moze and Jorad were really impressed with the van's quadraphonic sound system...The Meerkat brothers, like many other locals, have only heard radios with one mono speaker in the dash, like in the old cars they know that do have a working radio, much less quadraphonic.  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxP2b3FuwV8
"We're doing some shots of some of the majestic countryside you all have sixteen kilometers west of here", Vince Weasel, who was driving, informed the meerkat brothers as they left the village heading west.
"All we need is help carrying our equipment up and down mountainsides", Oliver Otter added. "I'll tell you ahead of time, some of it is going to be really steep".
"Where you are talking about, I know of", said Moze.
"Moze, you seem to still be an adolescent...and Jorad...you're what...eleven, twelve?", Vince Weasel began to ask.
"I am age ten", Jorad answered.
"You can see our photo equipment", Vince mentioned as the van continued to carry them down the narrow dirt road to their destination. "Are you two sure you're up to it to be lugging this stuff?"
"Many hard jobs we've done, and mountains we always walk up and down", Jorad assured Vince. "We are use to it".
"This will certainly be an experience you can tell the other cubs about when school starts again", Oliver Otter suggested.
"Nao. School, we do not go to", Moze replied.
"Blimey! You don't go to school?", Oliver asked in astonishment.
"Our dad. He has bad hips. For our dad to find work, it is difficult", Moze answered.
"To help our family, it is up to us", Jorad added.
"A cub not going to school in the UK where we are from would be absolutely absurd", Vince Weasel added. "Hasn't you're family applied for assistance...you know...welfare or something of that sort?".
"Huh?", Jorad responded.
"Well-fair? What is that?", Moze asked.
Vince Weasel and Oliver Otter then explained to the meerkat brothers how social assistance programs work in developed countries such as the UK where they are from.
"That, they actually do?! Uau!", Jorad asked surprisingly, still hardly believing what Vince and Oliver had just told them.
"Money, they give away? That, they really do? What you say to us, we do not have here", Moze affirmed.
"Such a thing like that, I never heard of...NO one has", Jorad added.
Vince Weasel and Oliver Otter had before heard of cubs in the workforce in 3rd world countries, and of cubs growing up to be illiterate. But actually witnessing it seemed to bring it to another level of reality. It was like an awakening to the phrase, 'welcome to the real world'.
So as they continued their ride, Vince and Oliver and the Meerkat Brothers exchanged stories of their experiences in the countries they live in, which both photographers and meerkats found to be intriguing.  
At one point during the ride to the job site, Vince Weasel mentioned, "I hear you all have been having trouble with the bloody rebel militias in this country. Is that something we need to keep an eye out for where we're going?".
"Vince and I were concerned about that when we accepted this assignment", Oliver Otter added.
"Here, for now, it has been peaceful.", Moze assured Vince and Oliver. "But in the southeast of the country, there you do not want to go. It is dangerous there".
"East of here, there is much fighting with Unita", Jorad added.
"Unita?", Oliver asked.
"Unita guerrillas. They are the rebels", Moze explained.
"And from Unita, there would be apartheid, our mom and dad said", Jorad further added.
"Well...Thanks for the heads up about the southeast part of your country", Vince told Moze and Jorad.  
After about 40 minutes of navigating along rural, winding, mountain, dirt road, they finally arrived to the job site.
"Here we are", Vince Weasel said as he slowed down and steered the van off the road and across a large meadow which had a rocky creek.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Lj-oKUG8Po
Before long, the photo equipment was set up and Vince and Oliver were getting photos of the meadow, distant mountains, exotic flowers, cliffs, and of bird's eye views from the cliff tops. Where they went, Moze and Jorad would carry their heavy, cumbersome equipment for them, and at times help them set it up in various locations, then take it back down to move to another spot. There were a few locations on the tops of cliffs where a 3+ meter (10 foot) pivotal boom assembly was set up to place a remote controlled camera on. The base of the boom was weighted down with sandbags, then the boom mounted camera was extended out beyond the cliff to obtain a view like you were in an aircraft. There was definitely some work involved in setting up that boom assembly, then dismantling it to move to another spot.  
Then they would go down the mountain side to get pictures of a creek with it's waterfalls that flowed over boulders covered with moss and ferns among the palm trees and palmettos.
Going back up the mountain, Vince Weasel and Oliver Otter would get worn out, But it didn't slow down Moze and Jorad that much. The meerkat brothers were use to walking up and down mountains.
By evening, Vince and Oliver got the photos they came to get, then it was time to pack up the van, see about getting Moze and Jorad paid, and go. And there was also that supper at the cafe' that Vince and Oliver had earlier promised Moze and Jorad once the job was done.
"We seem to have dropped an adapter somewhere", Vince Weasel said as the last of the equipment was loaded into the van.
"We had it with us coming up the mountainside", said Oliver Otter.
"Then it's somewhere here in the meadow. We all need to split up and look for it", Vince Weasel announced.
Shortly after everyone began walking around the meadow in search for the adapter, Vince Weasel said to Oliver Otter, "Oliver, go look in the van. It may have been misplaced in the van".
After Oliver got into the van, he called to Vince Weasel, "Blimey, Vince, you need to come see this".
"Keep looking for that adapter. We need to find the bloody thing", Vince said to Moze and Jorad as he went to the van, and the meerkats continued looking in the meadow for the adapter.
>Rur-rur-rur VERRROOOOOMMM<, the van sounded off, and Vince Weasel and Oliver Otter speed off in the van across the meadow then speed away down the dirt road heading west, without Moze and Jorad being paid for their day's labor.
It was then, Moze and Jorad figured out there was no missing adapter. They both knew then they were played for a couple of suckers.
"Cabeças de merda! Eles planejaram isso desta forma! SO!" (Shitheads! They planned it this way! {'SO' being a dynamic expression}), Jorad retorted.
"Nós nunca vê-los novamente, eles fariam bem em esperança" (We never see them again, they would do good to hope), Moze said as the sound of the departing van can be heard fading in the distance.

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The only thing left to do was to begin the 16 kilometer walk back east to the village...And they were nowhere near home. Home was east, not west, of the village.
It was already nightfall by the time Moze and Jorad reached the village. Sanchez Genet had been waiting up for Moze and Jorad since he got off from work at the metal shop.
Moze and Jorad were relieved to see Sanchez still sitting in his car parked in front of the cafe', which had closed for the night a short while earlier. Before Moze and Jorad discovered that Sanchez had waited up for them, they were beginning to think they were going to have yet another hour of walking before they were to get home that night.
When Moze and Jorad told Sanchez what the photographers had pulled on them, Sanchez told them, "O que eles fazem contra você, para eles essa coisa vai acontecer também. Se uma semente ruim que você planta, uma coisa ruim voce vou colhe" (What they do to you, for them this thing will happen too. If a bad seed you plant, a bad thing you will reap.).
During the ride to take Moze and Jorad back home, Sanchez told the brothers of how that had once happened to him before he got a permanent job at the metal fabrication shop. Sanchez also told Moze and Jorad of how their Great Granddad Dominique Meerkat had been cheated out of a days pay on two occasions when he was younger. It's like when it happens, what can you do?
Sanchez also advised the brothers that it is good when ever local businesses need help, such as the railway depot, the cafe' the thrift stores, the clinic, the car parts yard, or the metal fabrication shop. He told them that they will not cheat someone out of their pay like outsiders passing through could do.
Back at the house, Bron and Lacara were a bit agitated over two swindling scoundrels cheating two of their sons, ages 10 and 14, out of a hard earned day's pay...especially being as poor as the family is. The only thing they could do was assure Moze and Jorad that it does happen, but fortunately it doesn't happen often.
Days later, when Waitress Rosie Hippo at the village cafe' heard about what the two photographers pulled on Moze and Jorad, she swore that if they were ever in the cafe' again, she would know an otter and a weasel who will get hot coffee..."accidentally"...spilled in their laps and all over their genitalia.
"O que eles fazem contra os meus amigos, eles também fazem isso para Rosie" (What they do against my friends, they also do it to Rosie), Rosie Hippo said.

It was also in that year of 1993 that Sanchez and Obi Genet's mom, Kubria, passed away in her sleep during the night of October 3rd...two days after she celebrated her 102nd birthday.

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\r\n\t\t\t\tParents of Obi and Sanchez Genet by moyomongoose
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Although Sanchez and Obi, then ages 74 and 76, took their mom's death pretty hard, they did realize how old she was...And at age 102, how much longer could Mom have lived?
Kubria's body was taken aboard her younger son's old Wartburg station wagon to the cummunity worship center on the north edge of the village, where funeral services were to be conducted by Pastor Sy Aardwolf...With Sanchez Genet's wife Naomi riding on the front seat beside him, it was the most sorrowful drive along that old dirt road Sanchez had ever taken in that old car of his.
There was no big, long, gloss black, shiny, Cadillac herse...There was no marticulously ornate funeral parlor...There was no embalming...There was no undertaker...There was no autopsy...The casket was home made...Overnight was at home with the family for the last time, instead of in a morgue...There was no death certificate...There had not even been a birth certificate issued back in 1891...In that part of Angola, those things did not exist...In fact, many animals in that part of the country would not have known what those things were even if you tried to explain it to them.
In that homeland, when you are born, and when you die, everyone knows who you are anyway, so no one worries about "certificates"...And when you die, your family and church sees to the needs of your funeral arangements.
After Sy Aardwolf concluded the funeral service, the body of Kabria Genet was laid to rest in the cematery adjacent to the community worship center.  Kubria's late husband, Ajamu, had not been burried there though. At the time Ajamu died in 1966 fighting in Angola's colonial war for independence against Portugal, the Genet Family lived near Menongue far to the north, thus that is where Ajamu Genet was burried.

Toward the end of 1993, when Cheesah was a year and a half old, he had his moment of seeing "Piu-piu Pequeno" (Little Pee-pee) stick his head out for the first time. It was in the evening when everyone was at home. It was just before nightfall, and the coal oil lamps and lanterns located around the house had already been lit. Mom had a pan of water on the wood stove under the porch overhang to make tea for everyone. Bron and Moze had a homemade checkerboard, that was marked out on an old piece of cardboard, on the old, ragged, living room table, and had a game of checkers going with 12 nuts and 12 washers for game pieces. Cheesah came walking in from the bedroom, hiding his genitalia with both paws.
Moze asked, "Cheesah, o que voce esta querendo?" (Cheesah, what are you up to?).
"PIU-PIU VER VOCE!" (Pee-pee sees you!), Cheesah loudly proclaimed as he suddenly moved his paws away, and his hard little penis went >BOING<, and stuck it's head up so proudly.
Bron and Moze laughed as Cheesah laughed along with his little penis poking it's head out.
Then there was that buttered popcorn smell, typical of the genitalia sex scent of those kind of animals. But on Cheesah, it is very pungently strong.
"Ah. Piu-piu fedido" (Oh. Stinky pee-pee), Moze made the observation as he and Dad laughed.
Cheesah thrusted his pelvic out forward with little meerkat pee-pee extended way out there, and said, "Piu-piu diz Ola" (Pee-pee says Hello), as everyone laughed.
"Eu sei que ele diz" (I know he says), Moze laughed, "Por ele fedor" (By his stink).
"Meu piu-piu fedido?" (My pee-pee stinky?), Cheesah asked.
"Natureza abencoada seu piu-piu, meu filho" (Nature has blessed your pee-pee, my son), Bron assured Cheesah.
With that said, Cheesah joyfully trotted out to the carport like, porch area where Jorad and Zhang were playing with the toy car their late great granddad Dominique had bought for the cubs 8 years ago.
When Cheesah, again hiding his penis with his paws, got the attention of Jorad and Zhang, he suddenly reveled his penis, and exuberantly proclaimed, "PIU-PIU VER VOCE!".
The brothers thought it was so cute and funny, they rolled laughing.
"Ele e piu-piu FEDIDO" (He's a STINKY pee-pee), Jorad said as he could smell Cheesah's strong sex scent.
They could also hear Moze and Dad laughing from the living room, and Mom asking from the kitchen what the laughter was all about.
Then Jorad's big headed, meerkat penis poked out with an erection.
"Meu piu-piu ver SEU piu-piu" (My pee-pee sees YOUR pee-pee), Cheesah giggled to his brother Jorad as both of their penises were sticking out.
"Sim. Ele fazer" (Yes. He does), Jorad chuckled back to Cheesah.
"Meu piu-piu tambem" (My pee-pee too), Zhang added as his penis was also poking out erect, making it three meerkat cub penises sticking their heads out of sheath as though the penises were having a pee-pee convention.
Cheesah then joyfully scampered back indoors, and through the living room, past Bron and Moze, and into the kitchen to go show it to Momma...with his penis still poking it's head out, as though little pee-pee was leading the way where ever Cheesah ran through the house.
As Lacara was filling a tea infuser with tea leaves, Cheesah called out, "Mamae! Mamae!", as he stood on the dirt, kitchen floor, with his paws hiding his penis.
When Lacara turned and looked, she got a laugh as Cheesah dragged his paws downward, his penis springing up, >BOING<, from behind the paws, and Cheesah proclaiming, "PIU-PIU VER VOCE!"
Then Lacara pretended to talk to Cheesah's penis to amuse Cheesah, saying, "Veso que voce tambem. Voce o piu-piu bonitinha" (I see you too. You're a cute pee-pee).
After Cheesah finished giggling, he pointed to Mom's pussy, and asked, "As femeas tem um piu-piu?" (Do females have a pee-pee?).
Cheesah had many times noticed pussies on females before.
"Nossa buceta E o piu-piu" (Our pussy IS the pee-pee), Lacara assured her son Cheesah.
"UAAAAAU" (WOOOOOW), Cheesah expressed with amazement as his little pee-pee was still sticking his head way out erect.
Then Cheesah told his mom, "Mamae...Piu-piu diz Ola a buceta de mamae" (Momma...Pee-pee says Hello to momma's pussy).
Lacara laughed, and replied to her son, "Buceta tambem diz Ola a Piu-piu de meu filho" (Pussy also says Hello to Pee-pee of my son).
Cheesah then went into the living room and took a seat on the sofa next to Moze and Dad playing checkers. And Mom brought in some hot tea from the kitchen for everyone as Jorad and Zhang came in to also have tea.
Cheesah's little pee-pee was still sticking it's head out, and upward, and proud as he sat on the sofa with his cup of tea.
Bron advised Cheesah to be careful not to spill any hot tea on that newely discovered penis of his.
Because Cheesah's penis permeated the living room with his strong, pungent sex scent, the curtains in the windows were pulled aside to air out the house (Windows have no glass. The curtains are the windows).
At bedtime, the lamps and lanterns are extinguished, except for a lantern that hangs from the bedroom ceiling, and a coal oil lamp on the living room bureau. And they are both turned down low.
And being that the only dirt floor bedroom the house has is shared by all family members, everyone could tell by the smell when Cheesah's little stinker pee-pee stuck it's head out...After all, because this was the first night Cheesah's pee-pee stuck his head out to have a look at the world, little pee-pee was often wide awake all night that night.
Cheesah's penis looks about identical to the penis his older brother Zhang has.
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It was New Year's Day of 1994, and there was the usual gathering at Perto O Trilhos Licore e Vinho (Near the Tracks Liquor and Wine)...Many of the local males who did partake of 'strong drink' would chip in on a bottle or two of rum from Kagiso Genet to pass around among themselves...The more who showed up at the gathering meant the sale of more rum. And although the locals for the most part were financially poor, it has been said, 'When times are either prosperous or poor, booze will always sell'.
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However, not everyone celebrated New Year's Day in that way...especially those with families. On New Years Day of 1994, Lacar's mom and dad, Zeth and Mylah invited family and friends over to their place for a get-together. Zeth and Mylah were the only family members who had a car, so they provided the transportation. The meerkat cub's Aunt Beth and their Uncle Amos and his wife Aunt Lubaya were also there, with cousins Sengo (M), Jatoo (M) and Nantale (F). Great Grandma Gloria was there minding other cubs for friends of the family. And Sanchez Genet with some of his relatives were also invited as close friends of the family, among of who were Zhang's friend Ojo Genet, his sister Janina and cousin Shemsa.
There was cold tea, cooled in a creek spring not far from the house, bugs with rice, fish, nuts and berries, and Mylah had baked a cake. Most of the cubs who were there, including Moze, Jorad, Zhang and Cheeash, had never seen a cake before, and they had thought Mylah was baking some bread. But once the icing was on the cake, and it was served, the cubs really liked it.
Most of the cubs went outside to have a cricket game, those of which being Jorad, Zhang, Ojo, Janina, Shemsa, Jatoo, Nantale and several of the recently introduced cubs Gloria was minding. An old board made a good cricket paddle, and a mango pit was used for a cricket ball, and the cubs had a great time.
There was one slight mishap however. It was when Jorad pitched the mango pit cricket ball to Ojo who was up at bat. Ojo smacked the mango pit - or rather, cricket ball good and hard and really sent it flying...right into the driver's side vent glass of that old Rekord Olympia wagon owned by Granddad Zeth and Grandma Mylah, that Dominique left to them years ago. The vent glass was broken, but because cars were not equipped with tempered glass when that car was built, the glass cracked into larger pieces and did not fall out.
Those cubs who were involved in the game were called into the house to sit an hour of time out. Then they were given a good lecture and told the next time it happens, the cricket paddle will be use for a paddle, but not as a cricket paddle. When the cubs resumed their cricket game, this time it was further from the house and cars.
The vent glass was repaired with some duct tape on both sides, so the pieces of glass would never fall out.
Zeth and Mylah didn't have any duct tape at their house, but Sanchez Genet was able to spare some duct tape that was used to seal up the edges of that wooden cargo floor that was built in his old Wartburg station wagon.

There would be times Moze, Jorad and Zhang would tease Cheesah about the way his penis gave off that pungent sex scent. Early in 1994, the older brothers invented a nick named a phrase for Cheesah that went, "Cheesah esta besta de pipoca" (Cheesah is beast of popcorn). The sex scent of those kind of animals smells like buttered popcorn, and when it is said in Portuguese, it does have a jingle to it.
Cheesah would always get mad at his brothers for it, and would retort, Nao rir de meu piu-piu!" (Don't laugh at my pee-pee!).
There were times Bron and Lacara would get onto the older sons about it, but occasionally, Cheesah would still be teased about that.
Sometimes Cheesah would think he was being teased, then accuse one of the older brothers of it. Like the time the potty shanty needed to be re-roofed. Bron, Moze and Zhang were in the village getting what work they could get for that day, so that left Jorad, then age 11 to re-roof the potty shanty, with Cheesah, then 2 years old, to assist him. The potty shanty was a small "A" frame structure roofed with palm and palmetto fronds, which were tied to the stick framing with vines...It's where the family members go to poop and pee.
Jorad could not reach the top of the shanty, so Cheesah would stand on Jorad's shoulders and tie in the upper roofing fronds as Jorad would instruct him.
While Cheesah was standing on Jorad's shoulders, tying the upper fronds in place, Cheesah's little pee-pee got a hard-on and stuck all the way out of sheath, just over brother Jorad's head, and - WOW - little Cheesah Meerkat pee-pee was really stinky like buttered popcorn that day.
"AHHH! Cheesah! Get seu Piu-piu back in sheath! E fedido!" (...Is stinky!), Jorad complained to Cheesah as he was looking up at the bottom of his cub brother's hard penis.
"Esta rindo meu piu-piu? SO!" (Are you laughing at my pee-pee?) Cheesah scorned.
'SO!' is a dynamic expression used in Angola.
"Nao. Eu sou aquele que e cheira-lo" (No. I am the one who smells it), Jorad protested.
The situation was soon remedied by Jorad and Cheesah walking around in the cool creek for a few minutes where the water came up to Cheesah's waist...A penis in cold water calms down and goes back in, and a meerkat male's penis is no exception. Once Cheesah's little stinky penis was flaccid and back in sheath, he and his older brother finished the re-roofing job on the potty shanty.

 Shortly after nightfall one warm evening in the month of March in 1994, there was a thunderstorm approaching from the west. The storm was about a half hour away as the family was sitting at the kitchen table, having nuts and berries and hot tea. And looking out from the doorway that leads outside to the porch overhang where the cooking stove is, clouds can be seen flashing with lightning above the horizon in the night sky, although thunder could not yet be heard. However, the night breezes had already began blowing that usually herald the approach of a big storm.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7ifNaY8N2s
By the time the family bedded down for the night, the storm was close enough for thunder to be heard as the smell of fresh rain was already in the air. The coal oil lamps and lanterns were extinguished, except for the lantern that hangs from the bedroom ceiling, and the coal oil lamp on the living room bureau. The family usually sleeps cuddled up together on a spread of blankets on the dirt floor of the bedroom (There is no bed like the developed countries know. The blankets on the floor is the bed), but on this night, the cubs bedded down on a separate spread of blankets, away from Mom and Dad. That was because Bron and Lacara were wanting to have sex, thus the cubs would sleep where they are out of the way. It was no big tabu for the cubs to be in the same room when Mom and Dad are having sex. There is only one bedroom in the house for everyone to share, and the cubs have seen Mom and Dad having sex many times before.
By the time the storm had hit and was raging outside with lightning, thunder, hard wind and pounding rain, Bron and Lacara were at it having sex, really loving on each other and feeling so good...By now Bron's meerkat penis was really deep into Lacara's meerkat pussy, as they were hugging, kissing and telling each other, "Hmm...Amo-te" (Hmm...I love you).
As the storm raged outside, and Mom and Dad continued having sex, the brothers were cuddled up in a huddle in the other side of the bedroom. As they laid on their spread of blankets, they would occasionally peek back at Mom and Dad, then smile and whisper funny things to each other like they sometimes do.
The brothers giggled as Moze whispered to them, "Este, será um irmão ou uma irma?" (This, be a brother or a sister?)
About that time a 'hot cell' of lightning activity in the storm passed overhead with lots of lightning and thunder-bangs, striking really close, and lighting up the windows bright blue as though it were day time. There would be a bright flash - boom. A closer bright flash - bang. A distant bright flash - - boom rumble. Then a close one - BANG.....A REALLY CLOSE ONE - B A N G. That one struck 50 meters from the house. The cubs were so frightened, they jumped up and piled in with Mom and Dad.
"Estamos seguros em ó casa" (We are safe in the house), Lacara assured the cubs as Bron Meerkat pulled his penis out of his wife's pussy.  
Then again, BRIGHT BLUE FLASH - BANG. Then the cubs snuggled even closer to their Mom and Dad.
"Nossos suricatos são gatos assustados" (Our meerkats are scaredy cats),  Bron said as he and Lacara laughed while Bron's penis went back flaccid and slipped back into sheath.
During the storm, the cubs felt more secure snuggled up to Mom and Dad. There were always other nights Bron and Lacara could have sex, so the family slept cuddled together on that stormy night.

During the following month of April, there was big fish, probably about 10 pounds or so, that would occasionally come into a wide pool in the creek in the wooded area behind the house. That time of the year was when they got the heaviest rains, thus the creek and pool were swollen, which meant that big fish would be around a while...So for weeks, the brothers had been trying to catch it with a stick and a length of builder's twine for a pole and line, with a homemade hook fashioned from a small nail, and grass hoppers for bait...all of which was to no avail as they never could catch that fish.
One day, while Bron and Moze were working in the village, Jorad, Zhang and Cheesah were at home, out in the woods collecting bugs to be cooked up with some rice for dinner that evening. Near the creek, the brothers saw that the fish had returned to the creek pool. Zhang made the suggestion of getting their homemade fishing rig from the house and have another go at catching that fish. Jorad agreed on the idea, so Jarod picked up the box of bugs, and he and Zhang headed back to the house with little Cheesah tagging behind.
"O peixe é aqui! O peixe é aqui!" (The fish is here! The fish is here!), Jorad announced to Lacara as he placed the bug box on the kitchen counter, and as Zhang started toward the tree supported shed to get the fishing rig.
Lacara called Zhang back from the shed, then told her sons, "Hoje teremos peixe" (Today, we will have fish).
Then she had them follow her into the living room. In the top draw of that old, light blue, ragged, living room bureau is where the guns are kept...Even though Angola has no constitutional guarantee of the freedom to own firearms, there were no laws prohibiting anyone from having them...or at least no one was aware any such laws existed.
"With this, we will get the fish. This will not fail", Lacara told her sons as she got out the old, G3A3 Portuguese war rifle that her dad, Zeth had given her, then loaded three rounds...more than one in case there was a miss.
"Esto armas. Nao dar ista a Zhang ou Cheesah. Isto nao e um brinquedo. VOCE usa-lo" (This gun. Do not give this to Zhang or Cheesah. This is not a toy. YOU use it), Lacara instructed Jorad being the oldest of the three as she pawed the loaded rifle over to him.
Lacara also reminded Jorad to always be careful how he carries a gun, and where where he points it. And she also instructed Zhang and Cheesah to stay behind their brother until they are sure he is not going to fire anymore rounds, reminding her sons, "O gatilho, quando você puxa-lo, a municao você não pode parar." (The trigger, when you pull it, the bullet you can not stop).
As Lacara sent the cubs to go get the fish, she told Jorad, "O peixe. Não atire no meio do peixe. Que é a carne. O cabeça voce atire" (The fish. Do not shoot the middle of the fish. That is the meat. The head you shoot).
Seven minutes later, Lacara heard >POW<. Then a 2nd >POW<, this time followed by the cubs cheering...she knew then, they finally got the fish. An sure enough, several minutes later, the cubs returned to the house, Jorad carrying the rifle, Zhang carrying the fish with most of it's head blown off, and Cheesah tagging along behind.
"Esta noite nos comer peixe. Estou muito orgulhoso dos meus filhos" (This night, we eat fish. I am very proud of my cubs), Lacara praised her sons as she took the fish to the kitchen to begin to prepare it. Then she instructed Cheesah to turn the bugs loose so they don't die and spoil, then instructed the cubs what was not going to be cooked of the fish that day was to be cured so it would keep for other meals.
As Jorad and Zhang cleaned the rifle to be put back away, they enjoyed the aroma of the cooking fish, as they were ever so anxious for it to be ready. When Bron and Moze returned home from the village that evening, they too, expressed their pride in the younger cubs for getting that fish. During the family get-together almost three months earlier was the last time the family had fish to eat, but that night, the family had fish for dinner.

Early in May of 1994 (only a few days after Zhang's 8th birthday), the creek was still cloudy from the heavy April rains the month before. Because of past rain run-off, the only drinking water the family had access to, which was the creek, was at that time clouded with wash-off sediments. As a result of drinking the cloudy water, Cheesah had contacted an intestinal parasite. This was evident from Cheesah experiencing unexplained abdominal cramps and abdominal swelling. Bron and Lacara pretty well knew what it was, being that other animals getting those kind of parasites in sediment stirred drinking water was fairly common in that part of the country.
Early the following morning, Bron and Lacara sent the two oldest sons Moze and Jorad to walk to Sanchez Genet's house to explain Cheesah's situation, and that they needed a ride to the medical clinic in the village.
A couple of hours after Moze and Jorad set out to Sanchez Genet's house, Bron and Lacara, as well as Cheesah and Zhang, could the that unmistakable, two stroke engine sound of Sanchez Genet's, old, Wartburg station wagon approaching along the dirt road. And within a minute or so, Sanchez, Moze and Jorad were riding up to the house. It was then, Bron, Lacara and Cheesah got into the car for Sanchez to take Cheesah and them to the clinic...Moze, Jorad and Zhang stayed at the house as seven animals in that old Wartburg wagon would have made quite a crowd.
At the clinic, it didn't take long for Dr. Kanye Civet to identify what kind of intestinal parasites Cheesah had. Dr. Civet then issued some Flumoxal for Cheesah to take, which would disable the parasites ability to resist being digested, thus Cheesah's digestive system can destroy the parasites...There were no pharmacies in that part of the country. Medication was always issued directly by the doctor.
Within a week, Cheesah's parasites were cleared up and gone, and by June the abdominal swelling had gone back down to normal...And coincidentally, the heavy rains were over by June and the water was clear and safe to drink again.
          
Later in 1994, Great Grandma Gloria had passed away in her sleep during the night. At the time, she had been living in with her Son, Zeth, and her daughter-in-law, Mylah.
It was Mylah who found Gloria passed away shortly after dawn. Being it was a natural death, no autopsy was performed. However, autopsies are almost unheard of anyway, and considering that Gloria Meerkat had a recent history of symptoms associated with heart problems, the doctor at the village hospital concluded that she may have passed away from a heart seizure.
Gloria was missed by the family and by friends very much. She was laid to rest beside the grave of her late husband, Dominique, in the cemetery of the community worship center in the village.

Christmas and New Year's Day is in the summer in Angola because of being in the Southern Hemisphere.
On a warm summer day, about a week before Christmas of 1994, Jorad Meerkat, then age 11, and his female meerkat friend, Kelila, then age 12, had met in the village. Both had walked from their homes, Jorad two miles from the East Road to look for temporary work, and Kelila a mile and a half from the South Road with a burlap sac to purchase a few staple items for her parents.
But the two young meerkats delayed their plans they originally had for coming the village. Jorad and Kalila were just about entering adolescence, and already been having certain feelings for each other for some time. And Jorad and Kalila being from households with only one bedroom shared by their families, they've both seen their parents having sex many times before...Jorad and Kalila had been wanting to try what they see Mom and Dad do...find out what it's like...experience that wonderful thing called "sexo" (sex). Even though Bron and Lacara had advised Jorad to be patient until he is a bit older, and Kalila's parents had advised her the same, that "urge to merge" can get pretty strong.
"Eu sie de um lugar" (I know of a place), Jorad told Kalila. "Uma mancha de grama. Longe da aldeia e fora da estrada" (A patch of grass. Away from the village and off the road).
So Jorad and Kalila decided to walk down one of the dirt streets leading out of the village until it becomes the rural, dirt road that Jorad had mentioned.
Upon Jorad and Kalila arriving to a wooded area back off the road where the grassy spot is, the two young meerkats hugged each other, and it didn't take long for Jorad's penis to get fully hard and poke all the way out. Jorad was the brother out of the four brothers who had the pee-pee with the big, squeezy head which possessed a big corona, which Kalila was always 'turned on' by it, and found to be so cute.
Just before they stepped out of view of the dirt road and into the thickly wooded area, Kalila reached over and gave that big headed pee-pee of Jorad's a gentle head squeeze.
"Aww, bonitinho xi-xi. Sua grande cabeca, eu amo. Muito sensual", Kalila said as she squeezed Jorad Meerkat's pee-pee's big head. (Aww, cute pee-pee. Your big head, I love. Very sexy).
Jorad let out a giggle as his penis quickly 'boinged' upward, popping it's big head out from Kalila's paw.
"Sim. Ele gosta disso" (Yes. He likes that), said Jorad.
Jorad promptly returned the favor by rubbing his paw into the clef of Kalila's pussy and squishing the outer halves of her pussy around.
"OOOOO, SIM!" (OOOOO, YEA!), Kalila let out in a rush of sexual excitement.
But the foreplay didn't last all that long. Jorad and Kalila soon found their way further into the woods and brush, where it didn't take them long to find that grassy spot Jorad told Kalila about, then began getting down to it. They went timidly to begin with, as the nose point of Jorad's penis was nuzzling up and down along the clef of Kalila's pussy, it being their first time. But it wasn't long before Jorad's penis got it's big head parting the halves of Kalila's pussy aside from each other, followed by Pee-pee's big corona disappearing into that pussy, then Pee-pee's shank shoving it's big head deeper in. That's when Jorad gave it a thrust, shoving Pee-pee's big head in as far as it can go, then the two young meerkats went at having sex like they were long time married pros at it.
Even though Jorad was still too young to discharge cum, and Kalila was still too young to emit a vaginal discharge, the experience for the both of them was nothing less than incredibly awesome. This was something like they NEVER had before.
After they were done, Jorad asked Kalila, "Se voce esta gravida agora. nossos pais. O que vamos dizer a eles?" (If you are pregnant now. Our parents. What do we say to them?) ...like after already having sex is the time to be thinking about that.
But Kalila assured Jorad, "Para que isso aconteca, nos somos muito jovens" (For that to happen, we are too young) telling Jorad about her her parents once told her that cubs their age are still to young to conceive cubs.
When Kalila returned to the village to pick up some items for her mom, and Jorad returned to the village to find work for that day, Jorad and Kalila were two very happy meerkat, adolescent cubs.
There were days Jorad and Kalila would meet again at that grassy spot to have sex together. On a few occasions, the two young meerkats spent about 20 minutes in the '69' position, examining and playing with each others genitalia before having sex. There was one time while Jorad and Kalila were having sex, that it felt like Jorad's penis wanted to puke cum in Kalila's vagina. But at Jorad's young age, his penis could only do a dry heave instead of spewing forth cum...But it still felt sooooo erotically wonderful.
Jorad and Kalila's affair had always been their little secret until one morning late in January 1995, older brother Moze, then about to turn age 16, was walking to the village to find work. Shortly before Moze was to arrive to the village, he heard something in the bushes, then walked off the road to go check it out. That's when Moze Meerkat saw younger brother Jorad fucking on Kalila as they were both were having a grand time.
"Meu irmao jovem. Voce e muito feliz." (My young brother. You are very happy), Moze announced, seeming like he suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
When Jorad and Kalila noticed Moze looking and chuckling at them, it seemed it was going to be "cat's out of the bag now".
"Oh! Uh!", Jorad exclaimed as he quickly pulled his hard, big headed penis out of Kalila's pussy.
If dicks could talk, Jorad's penis, still sticking all the way out and proudly displaying it's big, pointy nose head with it's big corona, would probably say, "Nos fomos pegos" (We got caught).
Kalila didn't have anything to say.
But Moze, being two months away from turning 16, admitted to Jorad and Kalila that he himself had also been getting intimate with his female friend, Leia....Apple don't fall far from the tree, does it?
"Se eu apontar um dedo para você, três ponto de volta para mim" (If I point a finger at you, three point back to me), Moze told his younger brother, as Kalila and the brothers chuckled.
The parable of the three fingers pointing back was something Moze and Jorad remembered Sy Aardwolf preaching on about a year earlier, in a sermon titled, 'Quando você é rápido para apontar para os outros, três dedos estão apontando para você' (When you are quick to point to others, three fingers are pointing at you)...It was about gossiping on, condemning and judging others.
Moze then promised his younger brother, "Se voce nao dizer, Eu nao vou dizer" (If you do not say, I will not say)...which was a big relief to Jorad and Kalila.

About three and a half months later, on a Sunday morning in April of 1995, Pastor Sy Aardwolf preached a sermon titled, "Se alguém pode vender-lhe o mundo e tudo nele. E isso só custa a sua alma. Você faria o acordo?" (If someone can sell you the world and everything in it. And it only costs your soul. Would you make the deal?).
Sy Aardwolf's sermon was grinding on little 12 year old Jorad so bad he couldn't stand it...and after several years of Bron and Lacara, and older brother Moze, occasionally trying to persuade Jorad to get that Eternity matter settled, Jorad, in tears, finally got up off his chair and went down to the alter. After Sy Aardwolf led Jorad in prayer, Bron and Lacara asked if Zhang go on down with his brother...Sy noticing that, even tried to encourage Zhang to come down. But Zhang, just going on age 9 at the time, seemed too shy to do so, so never yet made that decision...As for Cheesah, he was still not yet at that 'age of accountability' to where he would understand what it was all about.
In the days to follow, it would seem like that relationship Jorad had with Kalila would not continue as it was...But sometimes the desires of the flesh can be a strong thing, and there were a few times temptation would get Jorad and Kalila to give in to it.
By the following Sunday, Jorad and Kalila hit on an seemingly good solution for their little love affair...It involved Kalila coming to church with Jorad and his family, although Kalila's family didn't care to come along. During the services Jorad now felt that feeling of being in good keeping, instead of any longer being spooked when Sy preached about lost souls and Eternity. After the Sunday morning service was over, Jorad said to his parents he wanted to stay around the village a while, and he'd go ahead and walk home. So after Bron, Lacara, Moze, Zhang and Cheesah rode back home with Zeth and Mylah, it was time to put that wonderful plan of solution into action...As Sy Aardwolf was about to get into his work truck with his wife and son, Jorad and Kalila approached Sy.
"Pregador Sy" (Pastor Sy), Jorad called out.
"O que você precisa, Jorad?" (What do you need, Jorad?), Sy asked.
"Eu e Kalila. Queremos nos casar" (Me and Kalila. We want to get married), Jorad answered.
"Sim. Por favor" (Yes. Please), Kalila added.
The two meerkat youths had thought along the lines of, Wow...This way, the relationship would be okay.
In the truck, Sy and Zella's son, Hilraldo, began to chuckle.
"Não. Não" ( No. No.), Zella told Hilraldo, telling him not to be laughing.
"Não. Eu não posso. Isso não vou fazer. Ambos de voce são apenas filhotes" (No. I can not. I will not do that. Both of you are only cubs), Sy adamantly affirmed.
Jorad and Kalila still pleaded with Sy to get them married, but at their age, the answer was still, "Não".
Sy then asked, "Kalila ... Estou correto?", (Kalila...Am I correct?)
Kalila acknowledged.
"Qual a sua idade?" (What is your age?), Sy asked Kalila.
"Treze, Senhor" (Thirteen, Sir), Kalila answered.
Sy, already knowing Jorad's age, explained, it would be only six years before they would both be adults, and in six years, he would be more than happy to conduct a marriage service for them.
As Sy got in the truck to leave, he suspected what had been going on between Jorad and Kalila, and that they were trying to find a justified way to keep their cub sex relationship going.
As for Jorad and Kilila, it was like...Oh well. They tried.

Also during about that time, animals in the village, especially at the cafe', were still talking about the peace treaty UNITA and MPLA had agreed to, the Lusaka Protocol Peace Accord. The first members of the family to hear about it were Moze and Jorad, on one of the days they had gone to the village looking for work. When the rest of the family heard about the peace accord from Moze and Jorad, upon them returning home the evening they heard of it, the family was optimistic that this could finally mean the end of the civil war that had been going off and on for what had been then 19 years. But the hope for the end of the war wasn't long lived. Many of the local animals had already been for some time hearing about tensions again arising between UNITA and MPLA, and rumors of a collapse of the peace agreement.
In the following year, 1995, those rumors had proved true of a collapse of the Lusaka Peace Accord. And it wasn't long after that, UNITA was again at war against the nation's government.
  
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\r\n\t\t\t\tChapter Marker 2 by moyomongoose\r\n\t\t\t
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The War

One winter morning, late in the month of June of 1995 (Southern Hemisphere, but still near the Equator), when Zhang was age 9, the homeland was invaded by UNITA guerrilla fighters from a region of the country in the mountains to the north, as well as some from the southeast corner of the country which was still mostly UNITA controlled. The invaders consisted of various civet species, colobus monkeys, galagos, and miscellaneous other species including pangolins, and they were leaving no survivors in their wake. Months earlier, there had been a peace accord (the Lusaka Protocol) agreed to among several separatist movements who fought against Portugal for Angola's independence, but that peace accord had collapsed. Since Angola's independence in 1974-75, there had been 20 years of power struggle, which had been an ongoing series of civil war fighting waged against the MPLA government by those loyal to UNITA. That movement was fully intent on seizing control of the country, and it wasn't long before the invaders were joined by forces from Cabinda, a small country to the north that was not at that time recognized by the UN as a legitimate country. As it already was, the UNITA had in years past, with the help of what had been apartheid South Africa, controlled territory far to the east around Mavinga and Jamba. However, the UNITA invaders could no longer rely on South Africa as the ally they had in past years, as that country had pulled out of Namibia years earlier and had issues of their own abolishing their apartheid rule.  
But in spite of South African troops being out of the picture, the rebel insurgency still had the homeland in the Province of Cunene where the Meerkat Family lived badly outnumbered and desperately needing everyone, regardless of gender, health condition or age, who can hold and fire a weapon. And no one in the that part of the country could rely on much protection from the country's military...The military was doing all it can do to defend the rest of the country. So the need for those who can fight meant owners of businesses had to cut back on business hours, including some closing up shop for days at a time, to go fight. And cubs who were going to school had to pull out of school, along with their teachers and school masters, to go fight in the war. Even the leaders and law enforcement officers of towns, leaders of provinces as well as the leaders of the country along with other elected officials picked up weapons to go fight. "Everyone who can hold and fire a weapon" meant "everyone who can hold and fire a weapon", with only few special exceptions.

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\r\n\t\t\t\tCub Soldier by moyomongoose
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The animals of the community were determined that UNITA's attempt at separatism and dismemberment of the territory of the homeland would be vigorously combated.
Even the few animals in the village who were descendants of several generations of Portuguese colonialists pledged to help fight against the UNITA rebels...Among them were Angelo and Erica D'Cruz Hound who were the Portuguese Estrela mountain dog couple who owned the local grocery store.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estrela_Mountain_Dog#/med...
And another being Jordao Soarez Wolf who was a Portuguese Iberian wolf who was the manager of the bank location there in the village.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iberian_wolf#/media/File:...
The parents of both Angelo and Erica Hound had supported the struggle for Angola's independence during the colonial war back in 1960s and early 1970s. Jordao Wolf's parents had actually taken part in the fighting for Angola's independence in that war.  
This was also about the time when the 23rd of the month came around, and needless to say, the Vespera de Santo John celebration was not held at the village due to the war. Having such an event would be very risky with a guerilla war going on, especially at night when the celebration is normally held, thus it had to be cancelled for that year.  
While the UNITA invaders had only a limited amount of assault vehicles and other military equipment, the anthro-animals of the southern part of the country had less than that. All they had for military weapons, for the most part, were old civilian firearms that had been in their families for generations. They did have some Portuguese G3A3 assault rifles and old ammo that had been taken from fallen Portuguese during Angola's War for Independence years earlier, along with a few M-16s and Chinese rifles taken from fallen UNITA fighters in more recent years. What they had for grenades were homemade explosives and dynamite with the fuses trimmed down to only a few seconds, which was often surrounded by old nails, sharp stones and broken glass wrapped in duct tape...Some of the dynamite was old and unstable.
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\r\n\t\t\t\tDynamite Grenades used by MPLA Loyalists by moyomongoose\r\n\t\t\t
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Their military transport were their own personal vehicles, nearly all of which were in ragged shape, and many in poor mechanical condition.
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\r\n\t\t\t\tOld Ragged Truck by moyomongoose
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Sy Aardwolf and his son Hiraldo did manage to resurrect a few junked cars out of the junkyard at the shop to where they would run well enough to get by.
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\r\n\t\t\t\tSy Aardwolf's Junkyard by moyomongoose\r\n\t\t\t
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Of course it was obvious why those cars were in Sy Aardwolf's junkyard to begin with...One of them was a unibody car with collision damage so bad the wheels could not be aligned, plus it had to get a push from another car to be started because there was no starter available to fit it. Another car ran on only three or it's four cylinders due to a cracked piston, and it too being a unibody car, the body was rusted out extremely bad. Among them was also a four cylinder with automatic transmission that had a cracked engine head (fortunately the crack did not involve the cooling system) and the transmission had only 1st gear...plus the part of the floorboard where the rear seat use to be was completely rusted away, and the only means of applying the brakes was to pull the parking brake lever. One of the cars, that had barely enough compression to start up and run, was missing the driver's door, and it had no reverse. The rest of the cars that were able to be resurrected from the junkyard were not in much better shape either. Some of them, Sy had to set the idles at a higher RPM so they would not keep stalling out. Most of the tires they ran on, which were mixed sizes and had little or no tread, had to be pumped back up several times each day. And batteries for all of them were what ever Sy Aardwolf could scrounge from around the shop that would at least somewhat hold a charge. But regardless of how poorly those old resurrected junkyard cars ran, they did run, and everyone was in dire need of any transport vehicles they could get their paws on, and were grateful to have them.
The populations of many parts of the country's southern provinces were basically a rag tag, civilian army with an unwavering loyalty to the country's non-apartheid Labour Party presently in power, the 'Movimento Popular de Libertacao de Angola' (MPLA). And there was no option of surrender or negotiation which no one wanted anyway...That was because the UNITA invasion was a genocidal one as was evident when those who had cars with radios that worked had already heard reports of extermination campaigns being carried out in a few of their northern villages, and knew their only two choices were prevail or be killed...and the 2nd choice was certainly not a viable option.
Members of the family who were called upon to help defend the homeland were Zhang's dad, armed with a Portuguese G3A3, in what ever way he could serve with his hip joints being bad, and Zhang's two older brothers and Zhang himself. Cheesah was only 3, and Lacara, the mom, had to stay home to care for him. Zhang, like his friends and older brothers, found himself helping to defend the homeland in a guerrilla combat war, as a 9 year old cub soldier. At his young age, Zhang, was issued the 4/10 gauge shotgun belonging to the family, and given rifled slugs for ammo.
Zhang, like his older brothers Moze and Jorad, got the experience of firing on other living beings, and at age 9, it wasn't long before Zhang had two kills to his credit...This is at an age where cubs in 1st world, developed, "nanny state" countries know war only from their favorite video games fought from the comfort of a sofa...But this was not a video game...This is where it got real...This is where a cub really learns to grow up, and learns to grow up fast. Maybe even too fast...It's also where death has no discretion as to who is a cub and who is an adult. And at a time or two, Zhang had a close scrape with death himself from enemy gunfire.
Moze, Jorad and Zhang, as well as others, were well instructed in martial arts when there was time for it, because there wasn't the guarantee of a firearm, or ammo, being available. In some parts of the country, there was a shortage weapons, and more so a shortage of ammo. Some meerkats and other animals in the southern provinces were fighting with weapons, ammo and grenades (the real grenades) that were taken from fallen enemy fighters. Occasionally a rifle taken from a fallen enemy fighter would be identified as an M16-A1...which was evident that UNITA was being supplied with American weapons.
Not long into the war, it was realized that pangolins, civets and various other species who are MPLA loyal citizens from distant parts of the southern provinces were mistaken for UNITA fighters, and as a result, came under friendly fire...Because they were not from the local area, the locals did not know who they were. This was soon remedied by issuing strips of cloth for themselves and their allies to wear either as a bandana or as a band tied around an arm to identify who they are. Sometimes the cloth wasn't easy to come by, but strips of cloth were always available torn from furniture or old blankets. Sometimes cloth was taken from the upholstery of their old ragged cars if no other source was available.
The UNITA forces began trying to confuse the civilian fighters in Cunene by having some of their own civets and pangolins wear bandanas and arm cloths so they couldn't be identified as an enemy by the local fighters. But that idea proved to be a folly, and it wasn't long before the UNITA leaders abandoned it. Because it was a guerrilla war, their own fighters wearing the cloth strips caused them to come under friendly fire from their own forces.    
One hot July afternoon, only a few weeks into the war, Zhang saw his next oldest brother, Jorad, take a sniper shot in the chest. Zhang immediately dropped his weapon and ran over crying to Jorad, who was still conscious, but laid dying. Immediately, the adult meerkat who was with Jorad and Zhang threw himself to the ground to shield the cubs from further gunfire with his own body, as he frantically tried to locate the sniper.  
As Jorad was moaning, "Estou a sangrar...Estou ferido gravemente (I'm bleeding...I'm hurt badly.)" another round barely got past the adult meerkat and ricocheted near the cubs, followed by the distant sounds of muzzle fire and projectile crack, as Zhang laid with his brother, Jorad, hugging him.
The adult meerkat finally spotted the pangolin sniper and took him out with a fatal 30.06 shot to the forehead. The adult meerkat knew the pangolin was a UNITA fighter by him having no bandana or arm cloth...and from the obvious fact the pangolin had just shot Jorad who was clearly wearing a bandana.
Jorad gave his last farewell to Zhang. Then said to Zhang in a weak voice, "Zhang, I love you. And mom and dad. And our brothers. Say good bye for me to them. Tell them I love them."
Then Jorad passed away. Zhang cried bitterly, embracing his deceased brother for a while before he and the adult meerkat picked up the weapons and ammo from the bodies of Jorad and the pangolin sniper and moved on. Jorad's body was picked up for burial that evening.
Jorad's funeral was held the following morning at the village community worship center, which is an unpainted, concrete-cinder block building, with stone slab floor and slate shingle roof, and with it's cemetery beyond it's north side. It was on the outskirts of the north end of the village, just off of a narrow dirt lane highway leading north out of the village which ran along side the narrow gauge railroad. For a hearse, Jorad's body arrived in back of Granddad Zeth's old '54 Rekord station wagon...There was no hearse...No one in that part of the Cunene Province had ever even seen a real hearse before. There were no funeral homes or embalming either, as those things were totally unheard of. As customary for the locals, Jorad's body spent the night at home before Granddad Zeth stopped by at dawn with his car so the family can take the body to the village worship center that morning for the funeral.
Sy Aardwolf, who was the proprietor of the automotive garage and junkyard in the village, and was also the pastor of the worship center, was the one who conducted Jorad's funeral. Sy's family and son-in-law were also present, including his son, Hiraldo, who is a close friend of Moze, being only a year older in age.
Preaching a funeral is a grim task to begin with, but for Sy Aardwolf, there is something about preaching a funeral for a cub that has a way of being a harder thing to do.
The worship center had no piano and organ, but they did have an old harmonium (portable pump style organ).
https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A0LE...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAiELn2Intk
After Sy finished preaching the funeral, the animals who were in attendance moved chairs aside to provide an isle way for the pallbearers and casket. Then as those animals chosen to be Jorad's pallbearers carried out the homemade, aleppo pine, crate casket, adorned with wildflowers, containing his body, a very beautiful a song was played on that old harmonium for Jorad's farewell.
https://youtu.be/lBXiRX4yaaA?t=52
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\r\n\t\t\t\tZhang, Annika and the Rest of the Meerkat Family - Zhang, Annika e O Resto da Família de Suricato [Page 31] by moyomongoose
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The six pallbearers who shoulder carried Jorad's casket were Jorad's dad Bron, his granddad Zeth (who never dreamed he'd someday help carry his grandson's casket), older brother Moze, friend of the family Sanchez Genet, Sanchez's son Sefu, and Jorad's Uncle Amos from his mom's side of the family.
When Jorad's casket was being lowered into the grave, several gunshots could be heard in a far off distance to the northwest...That meant fighting somewhere going on. It was hoped that during Jorad's burial that everyone would not have to run to the cars and grab up their guns, but fortunately, no further gunshots were heard and no UNITA rebels had showed up.  
Along with the family members and friends attending Jorad's funeral was also, then 13 year old, Jorad's female meerkat friend, Kalila, in as much mourning as the family was. Most of the family, including Kalila's family, never really caught on to it, but Bron and Lacara had for some time speculated, as well as Moze already knowing, that Kalila and their late son Jorad may have been a bit closer than "just friends"...Sy Aardwolf pretty well figured that out, being a pastor, and having had dealt with situations involving adolesent sex affairs and underage pregnancies ...There are a lot of things someone misses out on in this life when someone dies as a 12 year old cub. But for Jorad, at least the experience of having sex was not one missed out on in his life of only 12 years, thus Jorad's parents held no feelings of disrespect for Kalila, considering...After all, Bron and Lacara remembered 16 years earlier that they themselves were adolescents who were not yet married at the time they were expecting their first cub, Moze.  
During the remainder of that war, Zhang also saw two cousins die...thus two more funerals at the worship center. One cousin was his Uncle Amos' oldest son Sengo, he saw actually get shot, the way he saw his brother die.
As for Sy Aardwolf, doing a funeral has never been an easy task...But a funeral service for a cub or an adolescent is especially a hard thing to have to do.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLS2QoATpiM
And the other cousin was on his dad's side of the family who he came up on as she laid unconscious and dying... Her death too resulted in the grim task of Sy having to conducting a funeral for another adolescent cub.  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QveFFI0yQfQ&feature...
Later during the war, Zhang was blazed in the thigh while helping a wounded fellow meerkat to safety, which he would later be awarded a medal of honour for.
In the months that followed, UNITA also began to resort to using cubs as soldiers. During a conversation in the village, Valdez Mongoose who tends the railway passenger depot told Bron Meerkat and two of his three surviving sons Moze and Zhang about a patrol he was on only a few days earlier. Valdez Mongoose told of how his patrol encountered an adult bear of colonial Portuguese descent who was accompanied by a young jackal cub...Both were UNITA loyalists as was obvious by the absents of a cloth band and that the adult bear and jackal cub opened fire on the patrol, one of them blazing the left arm of Kagiso Genet who was with the patrol that day, although the arm wound was not serious. According to Valdez Mongoose, it was unclear who's gunfire actually killed the adult bear, leaving the jackal cub firing back at the patrol by himself. But Valdez knew for sure it was a shot from his own rifle that went through the chest of the jackal cub instantly killing him. Valdez Mongoose also told of how badly he felt having to shoot a cub to death, something he will have to live with for the rest of his life...And that the cub was from a UNITA loyal jackal family who a few of the locals personally knew 70 kilometers (45 miles) east of the village...But as everyone knows, failure to take down an enemy soldier, regardless of how young or old, could result in your own death or the deaths of those fighting along beside you.
Bron Meerkat and others were later told the weapons retrieved from the bodies of both the bear and jackal cub were U.S. made, M-16-A1 rifles.
Families of the deceased bear, and of the deceased jackal cub were able to claim the bodies and provide their own burial arrangements for their fallen beloved... Had Sy Aardwolf been called upon to conduct funeral services for either of them, there would have been a temporary truce agreed between their families and the locals loyal to MPLA. As far as for the jackal cub, Sy had mentioned that for the time being he could not bear conducting a funeral service for another cub.

September 12th of that year was a cool spring day. Mid morning that day, Bron and the surviving older sons Moze and Zhang, were already out with patrol details for the day. Lacara was at home minding Cheesah, and at the time had some water heating up for tea on the old wood stove under the roof overhang adjacent to the kitchen. The morning was going uneventful until Lacara heard the sound of animals walking through the jungle some distance behind the house, after which, Lacara stepped inside through the side kitchen doorway. Lacara peered from inside the kitchen around the doorway curtain, and within moments saw two male hyenas and a female jackal, all three with rifles slung behind them and wearing web belts with grenades and ammo. One of the male hyenas even had a shoulder fired missile launcher slung behind him...And none of them had a cloth bandana or arm band...That meant only one thing...UNITA militia rebels. Lacara slipped back away from the doorway, allowing the curtain to slowly draw back closed, then went into the living room where Cheesah was napping on the old sofa.
"Cheesah, Acordar" (Cheesah. Wake up), Lacara softly told Cheesah.
"Huh", Cheesah said as he awoke.
Lacara then, in a low tone, told Cheesah about the UNITA rebels, and instructed him not to say anything as she opened the top draw of that ragged, light blue beureu that their Angolan flag hangs on the wall above...That's where the guns are kept.
Lacara could hear one of the male hyenas outside saying, "Quando eu tenho a mãe, em seguida, você pode ter ela, meu amigo" (When I have the mother, then you can have her, my friend), followed by laughter from the two male hyenas.
The female jackel promptly added, "O filhote macho. Não o mate ainda. Ele vai ser meu brinquedo para um tempo " (The male cub. Do not kill him yet. He will be my toy for a while).
From that, Lacara knew they had before been spying on the house...But when, there was no way to know...Could have been that morning...Could have been days ago.
Lacara wasted no time loading a Ruger 22 caliber rifle with 10 round magazine, then had Cheesah climb the ladder from the large roof port area up into the attic loft.
Lacara then pawed  the rifle up to Cheesah, with the first CCI Stinger round already chambered and the safety off, and told him, "Se você ver Unita. Matá-los. E não pare de atirar" (If you see Unita. Kill them. And do not stop shooting).
Then Lacara quickly grabbed the family's loaded Colt 45 pistol on her way through the living room back to the kitchen. As Lacara got to the kitchen doorway, one of the male hyenas was approaching the side opening of the one meter (3 foot) high wall surrounding the area just outside the kitchen.
With the translucently sheer curtain still drawn closed, Lacara took aim on the hyena as he came through the wall opening. >BANG-kalphelup< The hyena fell dead like a sack of potatoes. Lacara quickly threw the curtain aside and dashed out.
"LARGUEM AS ARMAS! LARGUE TUDO O QUE VOCÊ TEM" (DROP YOUR GUNS! DROP EVERYTHING YOU HAVE!), Lacara shouted at the jackal and remaining hyena.
"O que aconteceu, mamãe?" (What happened, Mamma?), Lacara could hear Cheesah call from the attic loft of the house.
"É bem. Fique quieto" (It's OK. Be quiet), Lacara called back to her son.
The UNITA rebels were caught completely off guard. They still had their rifles slung over their backs, and Lacara had a bead drawn on them with that 45.
The one hyena who recently thought he was about to have a good time raping Lacara, now laid dead in a pool of his own blood near Lacara's feet. As well as there was now a bullet hole in the curtain and a 45 cal shell casing on the kitchen dirt floor.
"ARMAS! MUNIÇÃO! GRANADAS! AGORA! " (GUNS! AMMO! GRENADES! NOW!), Lacara demanded.
"Nós... Hum... Ficaremos sem nossas armas. Na zona de combate" (We...Uh...We will be without our guns. In a combat zone), the female jackal timidly retorted.
"Sem suas armas, você pode deixar. E sem suas armas e sem sua vida, voce pode deixar. Qual você escolhe?... Para ser como o seu amigo e?" (Without your guns, you can leave. And without your guns and without your life, you can leave. Which do you choose?...As your friend is?), Lacara gave the ultimatum.
The hyena slipped his 'bullpup' assault rifle with it's rope sling off his shoulder and dropped it to the ground. Then he dropped his missile launcher and his belt with grenades and ammo. The female jackal did the same with her rifle and her grenade and ammo belt. Lacara didn't have to tell the two surviving UNITA rebels to leave...They took off, first walking fast, then ran away into the jungle and kept going.
Lacara then came back to where Cheesah was up in the attic loft, got the rifle back from him, and had him climb back down. Lacara and Cheesah then went through the living room, through the kitchen then back outside to collect up the UNITA guns, ammo and grenades...That's when Cheesah had his first look at the dead hyena, the hole in the curtain and the spent shell casing on the kitchen floor.
"Ele está morto?" (Is he dead?), Cheesah asked.
"Sim. Ele e" (Yes. He is), Lacara answered her son.
Lacara collected the rifles, including the open frame stock assault rifle from the dead hyena, then removed the magazines and cocked the breaches open, then had Cheesah take them to the table in the living room. Lacara herself took the belts with the grenades and ammo to the living room table and laid them over the rifles...Lacara wasn't about to allow a three year cub to hold and carry grenades...Then the missile and launcher was propped up against the bureau.
Lacara had thoughts if she should have taken down the other two UNITA rebels as well, not being sure if they might later return. However, Lacara felt some assurance that after the two remaining rebels watched their comrade being taken down, then being disarmed of their weapons, they most likely were not coming back.
Cheesah was pretty scared over the ordeal, but Lacara sat with him on the sofa and comforted him a while...Lacara still left the loaded guns out in case the two UNITA rebels were to return. As the hours went by, it got more obvious the two remaining rebels had no intention of returning. The thought of how tragic the ordeal would have turned out if Bron and Lacara Meerkat had no guns in the house never entered Lacara's mind, as the thought of being without guns for protection in a civil war torn country was unthinkable to begin with. Everyone in the community knew all to well that Angola was no place for the anti-gun sentiment often espoused in developed 1st world countries.  
That evening, when Bron, Moze and Zhang returned to the house, getting a ride home with Sanchez Genet, they were startled by what Lacara had told them what happened that day. Everyone had a look at the body of the dead hyena that was still laying where Lacara had dropped him...And by now, this was not the first corps that Moze at age 16, and Zhang at age 9, had seen.
Little, three year old Cheesah exclaimed, "Mamae atirou nele!  Mamae atirou nele!" (Mamma shot him! Mamma shot him!).
Lacara and Bron then explained to their youngest son Cheesah that when things like this have to be done, it's not a thing to boast about.
The real suprise came when Lacara directed Bron, Moze, Zhang and Sanchez into the living room and showed them the weapons and ammo piled on the table in front of the sofa.
Everyone couldn't help but to laugh when Cheesah, upon taking a seat on the sofa, proclaimed, "Olha o que TEMOS!" (Look what WE got!), referring to the pile of military hardware on the living room table.
""Este ranzinza será útil" (This surely will be useful), Bron said.
"Uau! Precisamos granadas" (Wow! We need grenades), Moze mentioned.
"Um foguete!" (A rocket!), Zhang exclaimed, seeing the missile and launcher propped against the bureau.
"Contra a Unita pode ser usada agora. E não contra nós" (Against Unita it can be used now. And not against us), Sanchez added.
"Cinco dias a partir de hoje é o dia do heróis nacional. E um herói que você é hoje" (Five days from today is the day of national heroes. And a hero you are today), Bron said to his wife, Lacara, followed with a kiss...referring to September 17th being Angolan National Heroes Day.
Sanchez also mentioned that he believed two of the rifles looked to be Chinese made, one of which had an appearance that was weird  and stubby...although the origin of the rifles could be confirmed by other animals come morning. Sanchez and the others were sure the rest of the weapons and ammo appeared to be domestic...either taken from fallen Angolan MPLA soldiers, or perhaps stolen from a military arsenal.
After the ordeal with the UNITA rebels showing up at the house, a decission was agreed on to have Moze go out with night patrols so an older male can always be at the house with Lacara and Cheesah. Bron and Zhang would be at the house during the night, and Moze would be at the house in the daytime.
As for the dead hyena UNITA rebel, it didn't seem likely that any of his family would know where to come to claim his body...And no one certainly knew where he was from. So early that following morning, the body was taken to the village worship center to have Sy Aardwolf conduct a brief funeral service for him. Moze and Zhang helped Sanchez and their parents load the deceased hyena, who was wrapped up in a couple of old ragged blankets, into the back of Sanchez's station wagon. As Zhang and Moze were in the back of the station wagon, helping to pull in the deceased hyena, Zhang seemed a bit spooked by a blood soaked spot on the blankets.
"O sangue. Não tenha medo" (The blood. Do not be afraid), Lacara told Zhang as they got the hyena all the way into the car.
The two UNITA rifles were also loaded into the car to be confirmed if they were Chinese made or not. Then Sanchez closed the cargo door, then he and Bron left with the body to go meet up with Sy Aardwolf at the village.
As Sanchez Genet and Bron Meerkat rode the three kilometers of the dirt road from the Meerkat Family's home to the village worship center with the dead hyena in the back of Sanchez's old Wartburg station wagon, a South African came over the car's radio which was turned down low.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P62a5a348TU
Although the song was in English, Bron and Sanchez understood the lyrics. Sanchez was aware of the title of that song, and as they rode along the dirt road to the village, he mentioned it to Bron the title being 'No More War'.
Bron replied, "Quando não temos mais guerra, uma coisa boa que seria" (When we have no more war, a good thing that would be).
Sanchez and Bron met up with Sy Aardwolf at his automotive shop on the west edge of the village. Also at Sy Aardwolf's shop were Galvin Hyena and Kagiso Genet...Being that the deceased hyena was an outsider, and there were not going to be many animals attending the funeral, Sy Aardwolf managed to find two volunteers to serve as two of the pallbearers. One was the owner of one of the thrift stores, Galvin Hyena, who's wife, Ayoko, plays the harmonium for the church. The other volunteer was Kagiso Genet who owns the liquor store near the railway tracks. Kagiso had never attended church, and tended to be spooked by preaching, Eternity and funerals, and was hesitant at first to volunteer. But Kagiso finally agreed to close up the store long enough to go render service as a pallbearer.
From the shop they went to the community worship center with Sy leading the way in his old flat bed truck with Galvin and Kagiso riding along, and with Sanchez and Bron following behind in the old Wartburg wagon carrying the hyena's body. Upon Sy, Sanchez and Bron arriving to the worship center with the dead hyena, Grand Dad Zeth Meerkat and Grand Ma Mylah also arrived in their old Rekord station wagon with Lacara, Moze, Zhang and Cheesah riding with them...Zeth, Sanchez, Bron, Moze, Kagiso Genet and Galvin Hyena served as pallbearers, each grabbing the very bottom blanket with both paws to carry the hyena's body into the church house.
After Mylah and Lacara gathered some wild flowers to lay at the alter near the body, Lacara mentioned to Sy, "Eu tive que matá-lo. Foi ele ou Cheesah e eu" (I had to kill him. It was him or Cheesah and me).
"Não matar a hiena teria sido mal" ( Not killing the hyena would have been bad), Sy said to Lacara, then continued, "Na escritura, à vista de Deus, está escrito, se você não providencia a sua família, e se você não protege sua família, você é pior do que um infiel" (In scripture, in the sight of God, it is written, if you do not provide for your family, and if you do not protect your family, you are worse than an infidel).
 "Você fez a coisa certa" (You did the right thing), Sy assured Lacara, then added, "Dele funeral eu prefiro que seja, em vez de pregar funerais para você e Cheesah hoje" (Of his funeral I rather it be, instead of preaching funerals for you and Cheesah today).
Ayoko Hyena played a hymnal on that old harmonium for the deceased hyena;
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4DeGnbg2jM
After Sy Aardwolf conducted the funeral service for the dead hyena, the body wasn't buried in the cemetery though...Instead the hyena's body was carried to the palm tree and palmetto grove out behind the worship center and buried there, halfway between the church house and where the narrow gauge railway runs by beyond the grove.
As the grave was being backfilled, Kagiso Genet was spooked by a question that Moze asked Sy Aardwolf about the deceased hyena, "Pregador Sy. Você acredita que ele está no Inferno?" (Pastor Sy. Do you believe he is in Hell?).
"Preciso voltar para a loja" (I need to get back to the store), Kagiso said, not wanting to hear about Hell, as he hastily left to go back and reopen the liquor store.
Sy Aardwolf then answered as they continued backfilling the grave, "Moze. Não é nosso lugar julgar as almas dos outros. Dele testemunho, não era bom, só posso dizer. Mas julgar a alma não é para nós" (Moze. It is not our place to judge the souls of others. Of his testimony, it was not good I can only say. But to pass judgement on the soul is not for us).  
After the the deceased hyena was laid to rest, Sy Aardwolf and a few other animals who were familiar with military firearms confirmed two of the UNITA rifles as both being of Chinese origin...Both Norinco 86S 'bullpup' assault rifles.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norinco_Type_86S#/media/F...
And the one Lacara took from the body of the hyena she shot the day before, a  Kalashnikov designed 81-1 assault rifle...the kind with the open frame stock, also a Chinese made rifle.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_81_assault_rifle#/me...

At the end the following month, late Halloween night to be exact, Kagiso Genet returned to the village from being out with an evening patrol. Not long after Kagiso returned, he had discovered that his liquor store had been broken into through the side window that was on the opposite side of the building from the railroad tracks. Fortunately for Kagiso, the inventory was not cleaned out...All there was missing was several bottles of whiskey and a case of Congolese rum. Constable Orlander Aardwolf had been leading a patrol that evening on the outskirts of the village, and they had sighted UNITA rebels in the area a while after sundown...It was believed it was a band of UNITA rebels who gained entry into Kagiso's liquor store by means of prying open the window, hastily picking out what they wanted, then made off with their 'despojos de guerra' (spoils of war)...
...Of course the belief that it was UNITA rebels was confirmed when they noticed tire tracks on the dirt street made by a military vehicle near Kagiso's store. There were also the footprints of the animals who left then returned to the military vehicle that lead toward the pried open window. Everyone knew there was no presents of the Angolan military in this part of the Cunene Province due to being overwhelmed defending other parts of the country. And none of the locals loyal to defending the country had military vehicles. But some of the UNITA rebels did have possession of a few stolen military vehicles.      
Orlander Aardwolf concluded that if reselling the booze for money was the motive, most likely a vehicle would have been driven up to the opened window of the store and loaded with everything it could haul...plus there was money still in the cash drawer that was not touched.

In November of that same year, which is shortly before summer in the Southern Hemisphere, the UNITA rebels were well on their way to being defeated. It was then, Zeth Meerkat, who is Grandpa on the four brother's mom's side of the family, was killed while helping to drive the last of the invaders back to where they came from. It happened when a jackal fighting for UNITA broke from his fleeing comrades, ran into the jungle, circled up from behind the patrol Zeth was with, then shot Zeth in the back. Immediately a mongoose in Zeth's patrol quickly whirled around and shot and killed the jackal...The rifle picked up from the fallen jackal was no other than a forward assist equipped M-16A1.  
Only four months after laying Jorad to rest, the funeral for Granddad Zeth was held at the village worship center, with Pastor Sy Aardwolf presiding over the service. Zeth Meerkat's body had arrived from home early that morning aboard Sanchez Genet's old Wartburg station wagon. Being that a large area had been blown from Zeth Meerkat's chest as the result of an M-16 exit wound, the family had an old blanket placed over the chest of Zeth's body. And like as it was with Jorad's funeral, with chairs being moved aside to provide an isle way, then the homemade, wood casket containing Granddad Zeth Meerkat's body was being carried out of the church building to the adjacent cemetery, a farewell song was also played for him on that old harmonium.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hgZllyxzBE
As Zeth was laid to rest beside the graves of his parents Dominique and Gloria, family members and friends still listened out for the sound of gunshots and were watchful for any rebels that might show up, being ready to grab their guns at any time if they had to. Beside Zeth's grave, a burial plot was reserved for when the day comes his wife Mylah should pass away. Granddad Zeth had an older brother, Rudo, who had died back in 1963 fighting in the war for independence from Portugal. However, Rudo had not been buried in that cemetery. Back in that day and time, Lacara's side of the family was living near Menongue which was in a province to the north.
Of course, as with the death of her 2nd son Jorad, Lacara along with the rest of the family also took the death of her dad very hard.
No certificates of death were ever filed either...They never are...Same goes for births and marriages as well. That part of the country is not densely populated. When someone is born (always at home), everyone knows who was born. When someone dies, everyone knows who died. When a happy couple gets married, everyone knows who they are. And most animals in that part of the country were never aware that such certificates exist anyway.
Within a week of Lacara's dad's death, the civilian fighters in Cunene finally prevailed, and the UNITA fighters were drove back north into their mountain homelands and back to other places they had came from.
During this most recent flash point in the ongoing civil war, the animals Zhang and his family knew had only encountered UNITA forces. It was fortunate the better trained and well equipped South African army had no longer been involved in the war. Had that been the case, the outcome for the untrained, poorly equipped locals would have been a really disastrous situation.
Once the UNITA rebels were driven away, the locals did not continue to pursue them. Doing so would have only meant more guerrilla fighting and bloodshed by going after them. Besides that, the rebel animals took such a loss of life among them during the later part this round of the war, and another invasion would be a mistake they weren't about to repeat anytime soon.
Then it was only a couple of months later, in January of 1996, which is summer in the Southern Hemisphere, the MPLA government had defeated the remaining UNITA forces further north.
One of their first priorities was to conduct a campaign of locating and disbanding the rebel guerrilla militias so they would no longer be a threat to any other animals again. Former rebel leaders who were captured were either executed or imprisoned for their roles in the attempted insurrection, and also for the genocide campaigns and other war crimes committed against the citizens of the country. There were a few of the former rebel leaders who had fled the country and never were found. And many rebel leaders had fled back to the southeast corner of the country around Mavinga and Jamba which were still in UNITA control. However, the government did offer large bounties for their capture. As for their militia compounds throughout the country, they were burned and bulldozed under, and their abandoned war equipment was seized and placed into service in the Angolan military. However, UNITA still had it's stronghold of control in the southeast corner of the country which still remained a challenge for Angola to contend with. But in spite of a state of civil war since 1974 that still continued to exist, everything was at least under control...for now.

Like all others who died fighting against the UNITA rebels, Grand Dad Zeth, Jorad, and the two cousins who died, even though as civilian fighters, were posthumously awarded the gold grade, Medalah Merito Militar (Medal of Military Merit) by military representatives from Luanda for their sacrifice in the war.
Zhang, like all others who were wounded, but lived, received the bronze grade, Medalha Merito Militar.
The award ceremony was conducted at the cafe' in the village by the two genets and the mongoose who were the military representatives...Needless to say, it was with a large crowd inside the cafe' as well as outside around the front door.
Because those who helped protect the country were civilians, thus there being no military records on anyone there, the representatives had to rely on the testimonies given by the locals at the cafe' as to who was eligible to receive a medal of honour. There was nothing to have prevented anyone from giving a false testimony in collaboration for a friend to receive a medal they did not deserve...And because that part of the province never issues birth or death certificates, it would have been easy enough for someone to pull off receiving a gold grade medal posthumously in behalf for someone who never existed...However, none of that kind of stuff ever happen...The locals of that community had better integrity than to try to pull off something that dishonourable. All testimony by all animals there was straight, forthwith and truthful. Only those who were entitled to a medal of honour were the ones who received one, and that was the way the locals wanted it to remain.
After the award ceremony was completed, a gathering of locals who had brought along a collection of horns, drums and other musical instruments assembled on the edge of the dirt street in front of the cafe' and played the Angolan National Anthem for everyone who took part in defending the homeland. The instruments were a bit ragged, but the animals who played them did a beautiful job at it...A professional band probably could not have been able to do it any better.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwDAWytUrX8  
Even in the cafe', those animals who were seated at tables and booths stood to their feet as everyone placed their right paw over their heart, and the military representatives saluted, for the playing of the Anthem.  
  
 As for Moze and Zhang, along with others they were growing up with, they'll never be required for future military service upon becoming adults...Like their deceased brother Jorad, they've already fulfilled that obligation as cubs.  

BTW, work had become available for the locals, as well as those who lived in or near other villages along the narrow gauge railway line. CFB Railway needed temporary labourers to assist in repair of tracks and phone line...During the fighting with UNITA rebels, rebels had dismantled sections of railway. And those among the rebels who were climbing animals, such as genets, civets and various primates, climbed poles to cut down sections of phone line. The repair efforts kept many of the local animals profitably employed, and with the good wages typically paid by the railway, for a good while.          

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\r\n\t\t\t\tChapter Marker 3 by moyomongoose\r\n\t\t\t
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Life Goes On

Zhang stayed with his martial arts training well after the encounter the locals had with UNITA rebels, and Zhang eventually achieved 2nd degree black belt. As a young teen, Zhang made progress in controlling a lifelong temper he always had with the help from his parents and from the martial arts instructor who Zhang had been received his training from.

Three years after the local community had to fight off rebel forces, the year now being 1998, Zhang's family was beginning to fare more prosperously. The country still had ongoing trouble from UNITA forces from time to time in parts of the country as Angola's civil war still lingered on.  Although the country continued to have it's problems, the way of life had been getting better as oil drilling and diamond mining had improved the country's economy.
Moze, then 19, and Zhang, then 12, had never in their lives been in a school classroom, but it was decided by Bron and Lacara that Cheesah, then 6, would get the schooling they themselves and the older brothers never had. School was about 16 kilometers (10 miles) to the north, and with the family being without a car, it was a good walk along those substandard dirt roads where they lived. Cheesah would have to walk three hours each way to school and back every day, leaving for school before dawn while it is still dark, and getting back home late in the afternoon, except for the times friends and family who did have cars could give him a ride. And a ride aboard a school bus was not an available option either...The 'luxury' of school buses did not exist in that part of the country.  Along Cheesah's route to school and back were the residences of a family of mongooses and of a Jackal couple, but a ride from any of them was not available, as like in the case of Bron and Lacara, none of them owned a motor vehicle either.
Had Sy and Zella Aardwolf's son, Hiraldo, still been going to school, Cheesah could have at least gotten a ride to the village after school everyday with the aardwolves...but Hiraldo had already graduated the year before, thus had already completed his schooling.
On those school days of rainy weather, Cheesah would take a large palmetto frond along to use as an umbrella to keep most of the rain off himself and off his homework assignments.

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\r\n\t\t\t\tSatellite View of Meerkat Family Homeland by moyomongoose
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Five kilometers (three miles) from the school, there is about a two kilometer stretch of dirt road (a little over a mile) that runs side by side with a narrow gauge branch of the C.F.B. Railway through a mountain pass. For about 130 meters of that pass (400 feet), is where it gets the name the locals call "Passagem do Anjo da Morte" (Death Angel's Pass), and for a good reason. It's where the road cut in the mountainside becomes so narrow, the road narrows down to only one lane, and the narrow gauge railroad tracks and road share a 3 meter (9 to 10 foot) wide road cut together in the side of the mountain.

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\r\n\t\t\t\t"Passagem do Anjo da Morte" (Death Angel's Pass) by moyomongoose
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Where both road and tracks overlap together, the pass is hardly wider than an average parking spot in a parking lot. On one shoulder of the tracks and roadway overlap is a sheer rock face wall going straight up...And on the other shoulder, 3 meters over to the other side, is a sheer drop off going down more than a hundred meters (a few hundred feet) with no railing or guardrail to stop anything from going over the edge...plus it's on a curve with the distance viewed ahead limited by the rock face wall. It's the kind of stretch of road where if you make one mistake, you would die. The speed limit on that 130 meter long stretch shared by both automobiles and trains is 10 km/h (6 MPH)...and for a very good reason...It's so in case a train and a car met on that 3 meter wide road / railway cut, they can both stop in time to avoid a head on collision (trains don't exactly stop in an instant). And also, so any pedestrians would have plenty of time to stand against the rock face to stay out of the way of a train passing by.
Walking home from school, Cheesah would get to where the tracks ran along with the road at about 1:15 pm. That was about the same time a southbound freight train would pass that way, going toward the village on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays. If it was a cool or rainy day - provided it was one of the days the train ran - the aardwolf who was the engineer of the train would feel sorry for the little, six year old, meerkat cub walking in the rain out in the middle of nowhere, then stop the train and offer Cheesah a ride to the village. That would always cut a lot of walking distance off of Cheesah's journey home from school. That narrow part of the mountain pass was 11 kilometers (6 1/2 miles) from home...From the village where the engineer stopped the train to let Cheesah off, the walk to home was only a 3 kilometer walk (2 miles). Cheesah would ride in the cab of the locomotive (being a freight, the only other place to ride was in the caboose), which was a narrow gauge version of the Garrett, articulating, steam locomotive with the two sets of drive wheels under the tender and water tank sections, and the boiler and cab being the mid section...which was a real treat for a six year old meerkat cub.
A narrow gauge Garrett is shown:
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\r\n\t\t\t\tNarrow Gauge Locomotive [Page 2] by moyomongoose
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 http://youtube.com/watch?v=h2hRMpMX3KM .
 http://youtube.com/watch?v=OfyLBmA-NHY .
And the heat from the engine's firebox always felt so good after getting wet on a cold, rainy day...Plus Cheesah made good friends with the aardwolf who was the engineer, and with the baboon who was the firebox attendant.
While still on that very narrow pass before the tracks and dirt road separated from each other, you could look out the left window of the locomotive and see the rock face close enough to reach out from the train and touch it with your paw. And from the right window, a bird's eye view of what is out beyond the sheer drop off, giving the illusion like the train was up in the air with nothing under it unless you looked out through one of the locomotive's windshield panes at the tracks ahead of the train. The engineer maintained the train at 10 km/h, and tooting the whistle every 10 seconds while the firebox attendant rang the bell to warn automobiles and trucks not to venture onto the 3 meter narrow portion of mountain cut shared by the road and tracks in the way of the approaching train. Once they were past that 130 meter long stretch of narrow road / railway cut, the train would run at speeds between 50 and 65 km/h (30 to 40 MPH) on the way to the village....There were even several days when Cheesah was allowed to sit on the driver's seat of the locomotive...UAU! What a special treat THAT was!...However, it was made very clear to Cheesah not to touch any of the locomotive's controls, but he was allowed to blow the whistle.
During one of those train rides to the village on a rainy day, while Cheesah was sitting near the locomotive's firebox to shed off the chill of the cold rain, his little penis poked out of sheath...It wasn't long before the inside of the locomotive's cab began to bare that strong, buttered popcorn like, meerkat smegma, sex scent Cheesah's penis has always had. Unbeknown to Cheesah, upon the baboon firebox attendant smelling that strong, meerkat, sex scent, saw Cheesah's penis poking out. The baboon reached over, and with a grin, tapped the aardwolf train driver on the shoulder, then held his nose and made a 'pee-yoooo' facial expression as he pointed to Cheesah. The aardwolf, already figuring what that smell was, laughed when he saw Cheesah's little penis proudly showing itself... The aardwolf and baboon then smiled to each other about Cheesah being one of those animals who is "blessed" with that strong, overwhelming, sex scent. Cheesah was unaware of the attention his stinky little penis had drawn, and after a few minutes of Cheesah's penis poking out as though it was having a look around at everything, it finally went back down flaccid and slid back into it's sheath...Needless to say, the aardwolf and baboon opened a couple of the locomotive's windows to let the scent air out.        
There were two times in particular that Cheesah missed that train ride after school on a cold, rainy day. One rainy day, a Thursday, was when Cheesah and a linsang cub got 45 minutes detention after school for talking while the teacher was trying to teach the class. School normally dismisses shortly after noontime around 12:05. But on that day, Cheesah, like his linsang classmate, was dismissed from school around 12:50 pm. Trying to make time through the pouring rain, there was no way Cheesah could run the 5 km (3 miles) to the mountain pass in 25 minutes, thus he had gotten to the mountain pass well after the train had already gone by.
On another rainy day, a Monday, on Cheesah's way home from school, the train was running an hour late that day. And by the time the train arrived at the pass Cheesah had already walked half way home in the rain, and was already down the 9 km (5 - 1/2 mile) stretch of road that forked off southeast toward the road between home and the village, which ran nowhere near the railroad tracks.
And there were a few cold, rainy Tuesdays and Wednesdays which were days the train was not scheduled to run.

December 10th, 1998 was the 2nd Thursday of December, and two weeks plus a day before Christmas. The summer break from school beginning Christmas and New Year's Day had not yet begun, so it was a school day for Cheesah Meerkat...After school, Cheesah Meerkat, then age 6, got that ride he often gets from the crew of the southbound freight train from where they pick him up at Passagem do Anjo da Morte (Death Angel's Pass) to the village, which is a blessing considering Cheesah's parents had no car, and the Cunene Province could not afford school buses...Except on that day, Cheesah did not have to walk the 3 kilometer (2 mile) walk from the village to home...Cheesah got that ride compliments of Constable Olander Rikuso Aardwolf (Sy Rikuso Aardwolf's younger brother).
Constable Orlander Aardwolf  arrived to the the Meerkat Family's house in the white, 4x4, patrol truck, with Cheesah riding on the passenger's side seat, then pulled up to the front door of the house.
"Saia do caminhăo, Cheesah. Sua mãe e pai com quem conversaremos" (Step out the truck, Cheesah. Your mom and dad we will talk with), Constable Aardwolf said to Cheesah.
Lacara came outside, seeing her youngest son stepping out of a constable's truck, looking like he had been crying, and asked, "Orlander. Este. ?Sobre o que é isso?" (Orlander. This. What is it about?).
"Seu filho. Ele roubou uma vara de hortelã-pimenta do supermercado" (Your son. He has stolen a stick of peppermint from the grocery store), Constable Aardwolf informed Lacara.
Bron overheard Constable Orlander Aardwolf as he limped, due to bad hip joints, out of the house, and reprimanded Cheesah, "Um ladrão que não criamos, Cheesah. ?Por que você fez isso?" (We did not raise a thief, Cheesah. Why did you do this?).
"Eu ... eu queria o doce" (I...I wanted the candy), Cheesah timidly answered, already knowing he will most likely get a switchin'...A while ago, Cheesah was scared he was going to go to jail (known as the zoo).
Constable Orlander Aardwolf explained to Bron and Lacara that after Cheesah stepped off the train that he usually gets a ride on his way from school on, he met up with a pangolin cub friend in the village. Cheesah and the pangolin cub went into the grocery store, and the pangolin cub stole a snack cake. Then Cheesah wanted a peppermint stick, and his little pangolin friend dared him to steal it.
By this time, Bron and Lacara were not very happy.
Orlander Aardwolf went on to explain that Cheesah and the pangolin cub were caught by the grocery store owner's wife, Erica D'Cruz Hound, a Portuguese Estrela mountain dog, as they tried to leave the store with the stolen booty.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estrela_Mountain_Dog#/med...
Orlander Aardwolf also told Bron and Lacara that Angelo and Erica D'Cruz Hound, the Portuguese Estrela dog couple who owns the grocery store, were willing not to pursue juvenile criminal charges on the cubs...However, like as went for the pangolin cub, Cheesah was not to be allowed in the grocery store unless he was accompanied with a parent...And that stipulation would be for the next three years... The way the Portuguese Estrela dog couple figured it, by the time Cheesah turns 9 years of age, he will certainly know better by then than to be stealing.
At that point, Bron walked over to a tree, broke off a switch, and lit Cheesah's legs up a good one.
"Urso de Santa pode ter a boa noção de trazer nada para você para o Natal" (Santa Bear has the good notion to bring nothing to you for Christmas), Lacara called to Cheesah as Cheesah went into the house crying from the switchin' he had just received from Daddy Meerkat.
Just before Constable Orlander Aardwolf left to return to the village, Bron and Lacara apologized for the actions of their youngest son.
As added punishment, and a valuable lesson for Cheesah, Bron did not let Cheesah have the upcoming weekend off to do what he wants...For the weekend of the 12th and 13th of that December, Cheesah had chores to do to earn that peppermint stick. And if there were no chores to do, Daddy Meerkat invented chores to do to keep Cheesah busy that weekend...Plus, Cheesah did not get that peppermint stick anyway as Bron and Lacara felt delinquent behavior should not be rewarded.
Days later when Moze, then 19, dropped by with his mate, Leia, for a visit with the family, they heard about the little snack cake and peppermint stick caper that his youngest brother Cheesah with his pangolin friend tried to pull off.
Moze had a decent income going by then, and said to Cheesah, "Se algum doce você quiser, deixe-me comprá-lo para você. Você não precisa roubá-lo. Roubar é errado" (If any candy you want, let me buy it for you. You do not have to steal it. Stealing is wrong).
At age 6, Cheesah had learned a good lesson about stealing.

Shortly before Christmas that same year of 1998, Bron and Lacara for the first time had finally gotten an automobile. Lacara's mom, Mylah, had recently given Lacara and Bron her old station wagon upon Mylah moving in with her son Amos, and his wife. Lacara's dad had died in the war three years earlier, and her mom could no longer continue the upkeep on the car. At that time, that old, 1954 Rekord Olympia wagon had been passed down through the family for the past 37 years...This would be the third generation of the family to own that car since Great Granddad Dominique Meerkat acquired it back in 1961.
Mylah had considered giving the car to Lacara's sister, Beth, or to brother Amos and his wife. But Mylah felt a place in her heart for the fact her son-in-law, Bron, has hip dysplasia, so she gave the car to Bron and Lacara.
"Uau. O boter velho que pertenciam ao Grand Dad Zeth" (Wow. The old car that belonged to Grand Dad Zeth), Moze said, looking over the car.
Lacara told her oldest son, Moze, "Quando meu pai era um adolescente, seu great grand dad Dominique had este boter" (When my dad was an adolescent, your great grand dad Dominique had this car).
Lacara's mom, Mylah, then proceeded to tell Moze, Zhang and Cheesah about the time when their great grand dad acquired the car.
"Quando o pai do Zeth...seu grande pai grand...compru este boter, o boter was only sete years of age" (When the dad of Zeth...your great grand dad...bought this car, the car was only seven years of age), Mylah began.
"Great Grand Dad had muito dinheiro naquela epoca?!", Zhang interrupted with enthusiasm.
"Uau! Grande Pai Grand era rico?!" (Wow! Great Grand Dad was rich?!), Cheesah added.
"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha", Bron laughed, then told his sons, "Nao nao nao. Uma raposa de Portugal precisava vende lo rapido. He sold it para barato" (No no no. A fox from Portugal needed to sell it quick. He sold it for cheap).
Then Mylah told the three brothers, "Escutem, and I will tell you" (Listen, and I will tell you).
Mylah told her grandsons, Moze, Zhang and Cheesah, about the war for Angola's independence from Portugal that started in 1961. She told them of how the fox who owned the car was among those of the Portuguese plantation field bosses who quickly fled the country back to Portugal when the violence started to sweep through Angola. Great Grand Dad Dominique and Grand Dad Zeth were taking part in a protest march in the city of Menongue against Portuguese occupation when they noticed the fox, who was desperate for money for a plane ticket out of the country, going around the Menongue Airport announcing that his car was for sale really cheap.
Mylah continued telling the brothers the story as she had heard it from her late husband and in-laws, how their Great Grand Dad Dominique and Grand Dad Zeth had saved some money from working for a sugar plantation under the recently abolished, forced labour law.  
She told them, "Seu grande pai grand ligou para a raposa. Ele disse, 'Eu vou compra o boter. Vou compra lo. Aqui, Eu tenho dinheiro'" (Your great grand dad called to the fox. He said, 'I will buy the car. Will buy it. Here, I have money').
The story goes that Dominique Meerkat didn't have...or wasn't willing to give...near as much as the fox was asking for the car. But what Dominique would give for the car would be just enough for the fox to buy a plane ticket back to Portugal, so the fox accepted what Dominique offered for the car, then the fox gave Dominique the keys. The fox already had the title in the glove compartment with his signature on it. Great Grand Dad Dominique got a, then seven year old, 1954 Rekord Olympia station wagon for really really really cheap, that was then in immaculate condition. And the fox was able to board a plane bound for Portugal.
https://www.sofurry.com/view/933113
Mylah finished the story with telling the brothers how surprised the family was when Dominique and Zeth arrived to the house with such a nice car like the ones the plantation bosses can afford.
Mylah went on to tell her three grandsons, "Um boter tão bom. O seu grande mãe Grande Gloria não podia acreditar ... E seu tio grande Rudo e sua esposa Tywia, não podiam acreditar" (A car so nice. Your Great Grandmother Gloria could not believe...And your Great Uncle Rudo and his wife Tywia, they could not believe".
The story Mylah continued to tell to Moze, Zhang and Cheesah has it that Great Grandma Gloria, had at first thought perhaps Great Grand Dad Dominique had stolen the car, until her husband Dominique and her younger son Zeth explained how they got such a nice car for cheap, assuring Gloria that the car was legitimately acquired. And a real signature (not Xs, scribbles or loops) where the fox had sign-off on the title was proof that the car was not stolen, because Dominique Meerkat and his son Zeth were illiterate and could not have possibly forged an actual written signature. Thus, Gloria Meerkat, older son Rudo and daughter-in-law Tywia were then so delighted that Dominique and younger son Zeth were able to bring back a car for the family...and getting a very good deal on a very nice car at that time too.  
That was the first time the brothers heard that story, and they enjoyed the way Grandma Mylah told it quite well.

BTW: In the Angolan dialect of Portuguese, a car is often called a 'boter' in place of the use of the Portuguese word 'carro'.

After 37 years, the car was nowhere near being in the pristine condition it was in when Dominique Meerkat first got it in the year 1961.
https://www.sofurry.com/view/933179
The first few months after Lacara's mom gave Bron and Lacara the car, it required a lot of work to keep it running. The car didn't even have it's rear seat...The upholstery from the rear seat was needed for arm bands and bandanas to identify friendly forces during the war three years earlier. When ever the family went somewhere together, the brothers, Moze, Zhang and Cheesah would sit on the floorboard which no longer had it's carpeting or rubber mat (whichever the car was originally equipped with). The car just had a bare metal floor with a lot of it's paint worn away and a couple of small rust holes you could see the road through. The ignition switch was turned on and off with a screwdriver, the driver's window was rolled up and down with a pair of vice grips, the radio was missing, and the passenger's door had to be pulled just the right way to get it to latch shut all the way. The car still had it's original, teal color, factory paint which was pitted and chalky with surface rust showing through, some of the chrome trim was gone, all hubcaps except for one were gone, and the doors showed signs of rusting out down at the bottoms.
https://www.sofurry.com/view/933180
There was a branched out crack on the passenger's side of the windshield.
https://www.sofurry.com/view/933182
The right taillight lens was broken, and the left taillight had a wiring problem and did not work. The turn signal switch assembly in the steering column was broken and did not work, and the vent glass on the driver's door was still broken and held together with duct tape on both sides from that time Ojo Genet batted a mango pit into it at a family reunion four years earlier.
https://www.sofurry.com/view/933181
There was a little bit of lifter tap in the motor, and the transmission would keep a loud drivetrain howling noise going up a mountain on those old dirt roads, or during acceleration.
(This Bedford bus video has that drivetrain howling noise...  
... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=303hSQqGnIw )
However, the car was good on gas, didn't burn oil, tires held air OK although badly worn, and was fairly reliable once the family got the bugs worked out of it.
As for air conditioning, the car never was equipped with it...Not many new cars were equipped with A/C back in 1954.
That old car was a blessing to have, and the family was very thankful to have it. Having a car also made finding work for Bron and the older sons less difficult...that was when work was available. And being without a car use to be especially a hardship on Bron due to him having hip dysplasia.
Needless to say, Cheesah was also very thankful the family finally got a car...which meant no more of those long three hour walks to school everyday once school resumes after the summer break.
The speedometer didn't work in that old car either. But with the dirt roads being the way they are, you couldn't drive fast enough on them to really need a speedometer anyway...In many places, you're lucky if you can get up to 50 Km/H (30 MPH).
Lacara's younger brother Amos, and a few friends of the family had proposed the idea of some of the adult males taking the car to north of Menoque to get some work at the sugarcane plantation during the harvest season. The rumor had been going around that a wealthy rat family in Egypt who for years owned 80% of the sugarcane plantation had finally bought out the remaining 20% from the other shareholders who use to disapprove against any wage increases for the workers.
Amos Meerkat and the family friends told Bron and Lacara that "O velho rato pai" ('The old papa rat', as they referred to the plantation's owner), "He now pays the workers good wages since he now owns the plantation outright".
But Bron and Lacara did not agree to lone out the car. Menoque was a long drive from home, and that would deprive Cheesah transportation to and from school while the car was away. And Bron could not easily do without the car with his hips the way they are.  
There were times, however, although it was seldom it ever happened, Bron and Lacara wouldn't have money for gas for the car until Bron or one of the older sons could get some work. During those situations, Cheesah would still have to walk to and from school until there was gas in the car again. But in spite of those hardships, at least someone in the family would go to school and have a chance at a decent education the other family members never had.
Zhang, like his parents and his older surviving brother, had no formal education, and Zhang was completely illiterate until age 12, and his older brother, Moze, wasn't literate by much. But friends of the family who had a knowledge of literacy began teaching Zhang how to read and write, as well as improving on Moze's literary knowledge.
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Still late in that year of 1998...unbeknown to family, friends and locals...in a far away land...this was also going on;
https://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=872539
But that's another story involving an arrogant, college educated, creepy rat from a wealthy Egyptian family, whom the Meerkat Family and their friends, living in 3rd world poverty, didn't yet know.
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Anyway...getting back to Angola...in the following year of 1999, the country had still experienced some occasional military intervention due to the collapse of the Lusaka Protocol Peace Accord several years earlier. However, those issues were mostly going on in the major cities, thus leaving many of the rural areas of the country largely unaffected.

 Less than a week into 1999, Moze and Leia, who had been going together for a little more than four years, made the decision to get married. It was only a few days earlier that Moze proposed and Leia accepted. They planned it to be on Sunday, January 10th, 1999, two days before the 20th anniversary of Bron and Lacara's marriage...which was 20 years to the day since Sy Aardwolf had been ordained a pastor.
On that Sunday morning of January 10th, before Pastor Sy Aardwolf began the service, he announced to the congregation it was 20 years to the day that Kosoko Leopard ordained him as a pastor, and that in two days it will be Bron and Lacara's 20th wedding anniversary, it being the first marriage he had conducted. After the congratulations from the congregation, Sy commenced with the service, in which hymns were sang and kept in key with the harmonium, which was then followed by the preaching of a sermon.
At the end of the service Moze and Liea came forward, Moze calling out, "Pregador Sy".
Then Moze and Leia informed Sy Aardwolf that they wanted to be married right-a-way.
As everyone was preparing to leave, Sy announced to the congregation, "Todos esperar. Aguarde. Posso ter sua atenção?" (Everyone wait. Hold up. May I have your attention?).
As everyone stopped, Sy then announced to the congregation, much to their surprise and delight, that Moze and Leia had just came forward requesting to be married.
Everyone in the congregation was so happy to witness Sy Aardwolf begin the marriage service, and asking Moze and Liea the wedding vows...which was answered from both Moze and Lacara, "Sim. Eu faço" (Yes. I do). 
 Pastor Sy Ardwolf then said to Moze and Leia those sacred words, "Com os poderes conferidos em mim, eu declaro você, Moze Bandogo Meerkat e Leia Okoro Meerkat, marido e mulher ... Que Deus o abençoe com um casamento longo e feliz" (With the powers conferred on me, I declare you, Moze Bandogo Meerkat and Leia Okoro Meerkat, husband and wife ... May God bless you with a long and happy marriage).
Thus Leia Okoro Meerkat took on the name Leia Bandogo Meerkat.
Before leaving the church, everyone greeted and shook paws with Moze and Leia, and wished them a happy marriage.

Also in the year of 1999, Moze (then age 20 and married to Leia Meerkat) had been working for an oil company seismic crew, searching out possible drilling sites around the areas of Caiundo and Capico, which was northeast of home. One job site was within 40 kilometers of the city of Menongue, where Mom's side of the family is from. Moze and others on the crew never did go into Menongue though. Due to the military intervention going on at that time against UNITA and the remaining remnants of FNLA, it was safer to stay out of the large cities if you didn't have to be there.  
As a result of Moze working for the oil company, this was the first time any of the family members had a good, steady paying income going, which was a blessing to Moze and his wife, Leia...Oil companies do tend to pay  pretty well. Moze was also able to get fairly nice car that was in much better condition than his mom and dad's old Olympia. But it was still an old car with a few issues. It was a 1970 Opal Rekord Station Wagon.
http://moyomongoose.deviantart.com/art/Moze-Meerkat-ge...
The car had no rust to speak of, and some dings here and there that could be noticed only if you were up close to the car. It's factory original, black paint wasn't chalky or bleeding rust, but it did have little discoloration due to age. The brakes had to be pumped to stop the car, and like the car his parents had, it too had worn tires. The car also had two bullet holes, one at the bottom of the driver's door, and the other one in the left fender behind the front wheel.
Moze and Leia found out from the Linsang they bought the car from that the bullet holes were a little souvenir the car received from the civil war when the homeland was invaded four years earlier. For Moze, the bullet holes in the car reminded him of younger brother Jorad, Grand Dad Zeth, and two cousins the family had lost in that war.
Moze's parents and two brothers were really impressed by how much nicer Moze and Leia's 1970 Opal Wagon looked when they showed up with it at their place. After everyone talked a while and admired the car, they all went out for a ride in it, with Moze driving, Leia riding up front, Bron and Lacara riding on the back seat, and Zhang (then 13) and Cheesah (then 7) riding in the very back. Zhang and Cheesah would refer to their older brother's car as 'the new car'...even though at the time, it was a 29 year old car.  

In following year of 2000, during the month of February, Moze's wife, Leia, found out she was pregnant. Two months later on the morning of April 19th, in the bedroom of a modest bungalow in the village where Moze and Leia were now residing, Leia gave birth to a female cub whom Leia and Moze named Dora...And Dora wasn't born on a dirt floor either like her older relatives were...Moze and Leia's bungalow had a wooden floor, and Dora was born on a halfway decent bed, although still on ragged blankets.
Needless to say, the members of the rest of the family were delighted to see Moze and Leia's daughter. Mylah was now a great grandmother, Bron and Lacara were now grand parents, Moze and Leia were now a dad and mom, and Zhang, Cheesah, as well as Jorad posthumously, were now uncles.
It was barely more than a week after the birth of Dora, and only a few days before Zhang turned 14, Lacara had a heart attack. Being that their part of the province had no ambulance service or phone service, the family took Lacara by car to the only hospital the community had available, which was a substandard medical clinic in the nearby village, not much better equipped than a field hospital. But it was better than staying at home to die. However, Doctor Naru Linsang, who was at the clinic that day is very competent in the medical profession, thus Lacara was in good paws. The nearest, really decent, modern hospitals were in Ondjiva, which was the capitol of Cunene, being the only real city in that province, and the other being in Menongue, in neighboring Cuando-Cubango Province. Both cities were in average of 160 kilometers (100 miles) away, which would have been more than a three hour drive on the dirt roads. Many members of the Meerkat Family had never in their lives traveled that far from home before, thus had never even seen those cities. Moze had once been within 40 kilometers (25 miles) of Menongue while on the oil company seismic crew. Moze never actually been in the city, but from high ground with a pair of binoculars could barely see some of the city's taller structures and see planes approaching and leaving the Menongue Airport from far away on the horizon. However, the medical clinic in the nearby village, although as basic as it was, did provide Lacara with the best care they had available.  
Even though Moze and his wife, Leia, had their ten day old daughter, Dora, to care for, they still donated everything they can to go to pay Lacara's medical bills. Zhang had recently gotten a job as a metal worker apprentice at the metal fabrication shop in the village, through a vocational program that Sanchez Genet helped him get into. Zhang kept none of his pay from his job. He gave it all toward paying for Mom's medical treatment. Dad helped the best he could, being disabled. Younger brother Cheesah, then age 8, offered to drop out of school and try to find work so he can help. But Mom and Dad wouldn't allow it. No one in the family had a formal education. And if Cheesah could complete his schooling, at least one member of the family will have a decent education.
A few days after Lacara had her heart attack, it didn't look like she was going to make it. Her husband, Bron and her three sons, Moze, Zhang and Cheesah were at her bedside. So was her mom, Mylah and her brother, Amos and sister, Beth. Lacara told them that if the worse came, she'll be in a better place with her 2nd oldest son, Jorad, and her Dad, Zeth. Fortunately however, it would be many years yet before Lacara was to be reunited with Jorad and Zeth. A few days later, and with medical treatment provided from the clinic, Lacara's condition improved and she finally made a full recovery. Within a couple of days, Lacara was released from the clinic with some heart medication to go back home.
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Also in the year of 2000...unbeknown to family, friends and locals...in a far away land...this was also going on;
https://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=891479
https://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=891479&p...
https://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=891479&p...
https://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=891479&p...
More good can be said for Dr. Naru Linsang than for that quack of a rat.
But that's another story involving a Hell bent, creepy, quack doctor rat who was a continent away from where the Meerkat Family and friends were living at the time.
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Zhang Meets a Female

Anyway...getting back to Angola...it was two years later, 2002, Zhang noticed an artwork wall mural being painted by an attractive, female meerkat, who was commissioned to paint it. The smooth, stucco walled building was painted to make it look like the wall was part of the stone laid sidewalk with jungle scenery beyond it. Zhang and the female artist, Annika, became acquainted after Zhang stopped to admire the painting. In the weeks to follow, Zhang, then 16, and Annika, then 23, became close friends. Zhang showed an interest in art, and asked Annika if she teach him some about it. So during the following year or so, Annika would occasionally let Zhang come over for art lessons to her studio in the nearby village where she lived.
Annika had more work opportunities, painting murals and doing portraits, in Ondjiva, which was a 140 kilometer (85 mile) drive to get there. The anthro animals in Ondjiva had the money that many of the animals in the nearby village didn't have for those services...and by then, the cities were not such dangerous places to visit anymore.
One day, Annika invited Zhang to ride with her to Ondjiva in the old, ragged, Russian made, 1967 Moskvitch she had.
"Zhang, before you get in, hold this over the carburador for a couple of minutos", Annika said as she got a small piece of cardboard out of the glove compartment and pawed it to him.
After Zhang opened the hood and got the top off of the air cleaner housing, he noticed the choke plate was missing from the carburetor.
"Entao este. It's the choke", Zhang chucked as he briefly held the piece of cardboard up.
"Sim (yes). Since my family had the boter, it was never there", Annika replied as she started the car.
After a couple of minutes of holding the cardboard over the carburetor while the motor idled, it was warmed up and ready to drive. After Zhang got the air cleaner back together, closed the hood, got in and put the cardboard back into the glove compartment, Zhang and Annika were on their way to Ondjiva.
Zhang and Annika had a lot of conversation on their way to Ondjiva, as well as this experience for Zhang being the furthest so far he had ever in his life traveled from home. The radio in Annika's Moskvitch even worked, although it was from out of a different car, thus they had some music on their way there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzt5t_zZNFM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHD57wpXE_c&list=RD...
Occasionally between songs, Zhang and Annika would hear commentary and follow up reports over the car's radio of the recent shooting death of UNITA's top leader in the Moxico Province...which was a big news story throughout the country at that time. Like the rest of the family, Zhang felt a sense of justice in UNITA's leader being assassinated, being that it was UNITA rebels who killed his older brother Jorad, two cousins and Grand Dad Zeth.
At one point along the way to Ondjiva, Zhang commented how smooth he thought the car rode.
Annika then pointed out that it might seem to ride smoother because as they got closer to Ondjiva, the road was in better condition.
When Zhang talked about the station wagon his grandma gave his parents, Annika told Zhang that her Moskvitch automobile was driven by her parents for years, then given to her when her parents got an old Volvo station wagon which has more room.
http://moyomongoose.deviantart.com/art/Meerkats-Riding...
A short while before they arrived to Ondjiva, the dirt road left off where substandard paved road began. This was the first time in Zhang Meerkat's life he had ever seen a paved road...Zhang Meerkat was very much enjoying the ride to Ondjiva with his female friend Annika...and riding on a hard surface road for the first time...looking forward to seeing a 'real city'...and listening to the music on the car radio along the way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfFva_v7FTU&list=RD...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FP9EIjJQU8&index=4...
Once they arrived in Ondjiva, Zhang was amazed seeing a town that was larger and more modern than their nearby village.
"Voce parecia surpreso" (You look surprised), Annika said to Zhang as they continued riding into town.
"In Ondjiva, this is my first time", said Zhang. "Other than our village, a town like this, Eu nunca vi antes" (...I've never seen before).
Annika gave thought to how it was no surprise to her, as she was aware of many others in their community who have never traveled more than 80 kilometers (50 miles) or so away from home in their entire life.
"Longe de casa (away from home), this far I have never been", Zhang mentioned.
With that said, Annika offered to ride around and show Zhang the town a while.
Later, at a cafe', Annika had several customers who had her draw portraits of them as Zhang watched her. Annika's work was very good, and she was paid well for the portraits she did too.
Before Zhang and Annika headed back home, they had dinner at the cafe' in Ondjiva. Normally, it's the male who buys dinner for the female. But Annika knew Zhang didn't have any money, and Zhang was only 16 then, so Annika paid the bill...which Zhang thanked her very much for, "Obrigato, Muito, Annika".
For Zhang, that day was quite an experience, and he could hardly wait to tell Mom, Dad and his brothers about his trip with a friend into Ondjiva.
There were times that followed that Annika had Zhang come along with her to Ondjive, which each time, Zhang considered it a special treat.

By the time Zhang was 18, and Annika 25, they were dating, and there was now a strong love bond between them. Zhang would still come over for art lessons, and by this time, they would spend some quality time together.
One evening, in mid April, after Annika had just turned 26, and Zhang was a couple of weeks from turning 19, the two of them were laying on a large, roll out mat, on the stone slab floor of the porch atrium that adjoined Annika'a home / studio which was on the outskirts of the village. As they were sipping on Merlot wine and watching the stars come out, Annika snuggled up to Zhang as they were both laying on their backs. Zhang put a paw around her. Then Annika rested her paw on Zhang close to his genital. Zhang reached his paw he had around Annika far enough to reach her pussy, as Zhang's penis started poking his head out, and popping out further and further in timing with Zhang's heart beat. Zhang was rubbing at the edge of Annika's pussy, a little timid to go the rest of the way over onto her.
"It's OK Zhang", Annika softly told him. "Your paw. Bring it over more. Va em frente (Go for it)".
Now Zhang was gently rubbing the right side of Annika's pussy as his penis was just about completely extended out and hard, but still going at it a little timid.
"Talvez isso ajude (Maybe this will help)", Annika said, as she began passionately massaging Zhang's penis head.
Zhang's penis immediately stood out straight, hard and as far out as it can go. Zhang felt good all over from the erotic tingle he felt all around it's little head. His knees wobbled in and out, his feet jittered and he felt those butterflies in his lower ventral area. At one point, Zhang thrusted his pelvis up and down in a motion like he was having sex, while Annika continued giving little penis his head massage. Zhang massaged Annika's pussy, squishing it around, rubbing his paw deep in the clef, pulling it open, then pushing the labial halves firm against each other bulging the middle of Annika's pussy outward, and then tickling the entrance to Annika's vagina until Zhang could feel Annika's pussy puking oil out onto his paw. Zhang wasn't timid by then, and Annika was lovin' every second of it. So was Zhang.
Then Annika turned on her side with her ventral facing Zhang. No one had to tell Zhang what next to do. Zhang turned facing Annika, embraced her up against him, pushing his hard penis into Annika's pussy, as Annika also embraced Zhang. Zhang's penis didn't find Annika's vagina right away. Zhang moved his penis head up and down inside Annika's pussy clef, frantically trying to find the vagina. Then Zhang felt it...The penis found it. Then Zhang went in as deep as his penis can go, as both Zhang and Annika were having sex like there was going to be no tomorrow, and feeling like they were in Sex Heaven if there were such a place.
At climax, Zhang rejoicefully called out to Annika, "Amo-te! Amo-te! Amo-te! Amo-te! Ohhhh! Annika minha garina! OUUUU! Amo-te! Amo-te! (I love you! I love you! I love you! I love you! Ohhhh! Annika my girl! OUUUU! I love you! I love you!)", then Annika kissed Zhang all over his face, neck and chest, then tightly embraced him.
This was Zhang's first time at having sex. For Zhang a whole new world had just opened up to him...A whole new beautiful world.
With the coal oil lamps dimmed way down low, Zhang and Annika had sex off and on through out the rest of the night, until dawn. At one point during the night, Zhang and Annika fell asleep while they were still copulated together, with Zhang softly telling Annika in his sleep, "Sim. Amo-te. Sim. Amo-te. (Yes. I love you. Yes. I love you)", and slept copulated for more than an hour, then being awakened after Zhang's penis went flaccid, slipped out of Annika's pussy and back into Zhang's sheath.

In the days to follow, Zhang and Annika would get together again to have sex. Then came the time they were doing it almost every night...sometimes out in the atrim, and sometimes in the main part of the house, on blankets on one of the wood floors which had a metal patch or two in them.

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On May 2nd, 2005, one day after Zhang's 19th birthday, Zhang proposed to Annika, Annika accepted, and on that same day, the two happy meerkats went to seek someone to conduct the ceremony to get them married. The justice of the peace for the village and local countryside was Orlander Aardwolf, who was also the constable...However Orlander was away from the office at the time. So Zhang and Annika went to see Olander's brother, Pastor Sy Rikuso Aardwolf, who owned the old car parts yard and repair shop across the main dirt road from the metal fabrication shop on the west end of the village.
"Ola, Annika. Ola, Zhang" (Hello, Annika. Hello, Zhang), Sy Aardwolf greeted them upon their arrival, thinking at first that Annika needed a part for the Moskvitch she drives.
Sy Arrdwolf was then delighted when Zhang and Annika explained to him that they wish to be married. An automotive junkyard is hardly a place to conduct a marriage ceremony...So Sy had a mongoose who worked for him mind the store while Sy, Zhang and Annika set out walking to the Community worship center where Sy is also the pastor of. It doesn't take long to walk anywhere in the village to it's metal shop, car parts yard, cafe', bank, other businesses, medical clinic, railway station, and various residences. The village is fairly small, being not quite big enough to have it's own city charter.
Before long, the three of them arrived on foot to the worship center, which is an unpainted, concrete block building, with stone slab floor and slate shingle roof, and with it's cemetery beyond it's north side. It was on the north end of the village, just off of a narrow dirt lane leading north out of the village which ran along side the narrow gauge railroad.
In that unpainted, concrete block worship center building, nestled back in among the palm trees, palmettos and other jungle growth, with no one else present but the Spirit of God Almighty Himself, Sy Arrdwolf conducted the marriage ceremony of Zhang Bandogo Meerkat and Annika Nzoa Meerkat. Annika took on the name, Annika Bandogo Meerkat, and from that day on, Zhang and Annika Meerkat are husband and wife, with a love bond you couldn't tear apart if you tried.
That evening as Zhang and Annika arrived in Annika's car to Zhang's parent's place (3 km {2 miles} east of the village), Bron and Lacara noticed their son, Zhang, riding in an old Moskvitch being driven by a female they've never seen before as they pulled up to the house from the driveway.
Zhang's family was unexpectedly, but pleasantly, surprised when Zhang introduced Annika to them and announced they've become husband and wife. That would now leave Cheesah being the only brother still living at home with Mom and Dad.
Like was in the case when Bron and Lacara were married, there was no jewelry store around to buy a pair of weddings from...and no one could afford gold rings had there been a place to buy them. So Bron eventually carved out a pair of beautiful wooden rings from a mopane tree for his son and daughter-and-law. Mopane trees, common in Angola, yield a very hard, durable, termite resistant wood...They may not have been gold, but they were Zhang and Annika's wedding rings.  
Annika's husband now lives with Annika, instead of with his parents Bron and Lacara and younger brother Cheesah.
In spite of Zhang having had a hard life growing up, or maybe because of it, Zhang is an achiever and a go getter with a strong sense of ambition.
With Zhang out from under Mom and Dad's roof, that left Bron, in spite of his having hip dysplasia, being the only wage earner of the household...that is whenever he could find work he was capable of doing. And because of the fact that Bron was now having to at times use a walking cane, it didn't make finding work any easier. With Moze and Zhang being "out of the nest", Cheesah going to school, and Jorad being had died in the war of 1995, that left only Bron (partially disabled), Lacara and Cheesah (then 10 years old) residing at the household. However, Moze, Zhang and other relatives did help out whenever they could.
Another source of assistance the local inhabitants began to receive was from United Way humanitarian workers who would occasionally come by, giving food and other help to those who needed it. They were usually a female wolverine, a male stoat, and a young male fox who had recently joined United Way. Although the wolverine and the stoat were longtime veterans of doing humanitarian work, the young fox was still getting some of his first paw looks at what life in the third world is really like. The young fox also found it almost incomprehensible that many of the locals had never been to school a day in their lives, and couldn't even read or write their own names.
Bron, Lacara and other family members considered the assistance from United Way a Godsend, as it relieved a great burden of concern over the family's welfare. The 4 wheel drive SUV with the United Way logos on the doors was always a welcome sight when ever it showed up.
The young fox, who's native language was Dutch, had mastered English well, but he still had difficulty speaking in Portuguese, and the Angolan dialect threw him off even more. However, being that Bron and Lacara could also speak English fluently, and Cheesah's English at that time was fair, and the wolverine spoke English and Portuguese fluently, and the stoat spoke Norwegian, English and Portuguese fluently, it was agreed that the conversations among them could be spoken in English.    
There were also friends of the family who, like Bron, Lacara and Cheesah, received the much appreciated assistance in the way of food, fuel vouchers for those who had cars, offering assistance with home repairs, and other help where needed.
Grandma Mylah Meerkat also received food assistance from United Way which she was very thankful for. Since her husband, Grand-dad Zeth Meerkat, was killed in the 1995 war, it had been a hardship on Mylah. And the workers did take time out to offer Mylah transportation assistance. Mylah greatly appreciated that, being that she had gotten too old to drive and had given her car to her daughter Lacara and son-in-law Bron.
The young fox who had recently joined United Way was totally overwhelmed that the local animals who lived in the area never had electrical service, phone service or municipal water, and that some had never owned a car before...Not to mention none of the locals knew what a cellular phone or a personal computer even was (there weren't the towers around for internet and phone service anyway). Of course there was always radio to listen to if you were lucky enough to have a car with a radio that worked. All this was a difficult thought for the young fox to wrap his mind around being that, in his country, he had grown up with those luxuries and had always been use to taking them for granted.
As for the Meerkat Family and other local animals in Cunene, the quality of life had been getting better than it had been in years past.

Also in that year of 2005, Cheesah was beginning to understand English well enough to speak it as a 2nd language like his other family members can. Cheesah had recently gotten up to middle school level where there was the opportunity to take elective courses, and Cheesah had taken English as a foreign language elective course (English being an elective in Afro-Portuguese speaking Angola).
Cheesah, being use to the Angolan dialect, still applied the dialect to the English he had learned, as well as did the other students in his English class. However, the teacher who taught the course did make an attempt to try to get the students to drop the dialect. But that's not an easy thing to do when you grew up speaking that way all your life. The emphatic "SO!" occasionally used on the end of a strongly stated, commanding, phrase was another part of the dialect Cheesah's English teacher had to deal with...It's commonly used in parts of rural Angola.

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Introduction to Annika's Family

ANNIKA MEERKAT, female, born in nearby Cuando-Cubango Province of Angola (Africa) on April 17th, 1979, age 34, is Raphael's mom.
Annika came from a lower middle income family, born to her dad, Banga, and to her mom, Murua, having two older sisters, Nafula, the oldest, then Abina. And later, a younger brother, Najja, was born.
Annika was 2 years old when younger brother Najja was born. Because Najja was the only male sibling among three sisters, and the youngest, Annika and her two older sisters use to tease Najja when they were all at cub age, except Nafula didn't tease Najja very much. She was becoming an adolescent about the time Najja was getting old enough to be teased. Abina and Annika were the ones who did most of the teasing...that is until their parents, Banga and Murua, put a stop to it with a paddle.

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Annika's Experience of the War

There were times Zhang and Annika would exchange war stories from that time it got real bad in their homeland back in 1995. Annika told of her experience of that June morning of 1995, when the northern rebels invaded the homeland, Annika was 16. Although the part of the country Annika help to defend didn't see as much action as Zhang had seen.
Annika once told Zhang of the time about half way through the war, when Annika, and another female meerkat her age, Zella, was up on a bluff that overlooked a small jungle area and an open plain beyond. Annika and Zella were sitting on a boulder that was on top the bluff when a chunk of rock popped only inches from Annika's paw, accompanied by a ricochet noise, and followed by the close sounds of muzzle fire, and projectile crack. As the two meerkats scurried behind the boulder, another chunk of rock blew out of the boulder near Zella's head, with the sounds of ricochet, muzzle fire and projectile crack. Annika, then Zella, saw them...a colobus monkey and a galago crouched behind a mound. A brief exchange of gun fire took place with Annika blasting the galago through the chest with her 20 gauge shotgun. The colobus monkey immediately turned tail and ran away, disappearing into the patch of jungle. Minutes later, Annika spotted the fleeing monkey out on the open plain. He was almost a half mile away, and Annika's 20 gauge wouldn't reach him. Zella's weapon would. She had an AK-47. Zella fired several times before she and Annika finally saw the colobus monkey fall with his chest blown out.
The AK-47 had been taken from the dead body of one of the invaders. She was using it until she could no longer get ammo for it. Then she would go back to using her 32 caliber rifle.
In November of that same year, after the northern provinces were defeated and the fighters driven back to where they came from, Annika and her brother Najja, then 14, received honorable mentions for outstanding service.
Annika also received martial arts training during the war, and stayed with it after the war until she achieved green belt.

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How Annika Fared After the War

Annika, like quite a few other school age meerkats and other animals, didn't go back to school after the war. Because the war went well into November of 1995, and almost every animal from age 7 through 77 was called upon to fight, it was too late for schools to conduct the 1995 - 1996 school year. During that year, many school age animals got jobs and didn't bother returning to school during the 1996 - 1997 year.
The last grade Annika attended before the war was 10th grade. Instead of going back to school, she pursued being a free lance artist instead. Annika made a good living being commissioned to do wall murals, portraits and other art work. For many buildings in the nearby town, or what could be called a town, the murals were a vast improvement. Many of those buildings had walls made of stacked stone, or wood frame from raw timber with corrugated tin walls. Some of the better buildings were stucco or clay wall, but still looked rather shabby.
However, most of Annika's work opportunities were in Ondjiva, which was 110 kilometers (70 miles) away. Luckily Annika did have a car. It was an old ragged Moskvitch, but it always did make it to Ondjiva and back OK.  
In Ondjiva, Annika got to be well known for her exceptional work doing portraits of the wealthy and somewhat wealthy anthro animals who were living in the Cunene Province. Annika would be paid well for portraits and novelty paintings she'd do for them.
It was when Annika was doing a wall mural for a cafe' in the nearby village, a cute, 16 year old, male meerkat, Zhang, stopped by to admire her work. That's when they became acquainted, later became friends, at even a later time fell in love, and when Annika was 26, and Zhang turning 19, they got sexually involved with each other, and shortly thereafter got married.
The tail end of Chapter 4 of Zhang's history tells that story.

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The Country Experiences Political Troubles

It was well into June of 2005, Zhang and Annika had been married for over a month.
There had been a trend toward their homeland of Angola becoming politically unstable over the past month, and it wasn't getting any better. Large numbers of other species of anthro animals had immigrated to Angola, from areas north of Cabinda that were experiencing political corruption and other problems. The immigrants who came to Angola wanted a share of control of the country the governing anthro animals wouldn't let them have. Zhang and Annika's families had been hearing about riots in a few major cities far to the north because of the situation. But fortunately, those riots were nowhere near the Cunene or Cuando-Cubango Provinces where they lived. The animals in those provinces just wanted to go about their lives and be left alone.
However, there were some immigrant animals who had settled into Cunene and Cuando-Cubango, and had brought their problems to Cunene and Cuando-Cubango with them. Throughout the rest of the summer, whenever Zhang and Annika went into the village, they would often encounter a genet, mongoose, civet or some other of those immigrant animals who would try to make an issue with them about "how certain animals are trying to hold all the power in Angola".
During a visit Zhang and Annika took to Ondjiva, Zhang thought he was going to have to fight off a palm civet who was talking that way and blaming meerkats and mongooses for the country's problems, when Zhang told him, "Why can't you get a life?".
It was good for the palm civet he didn't try anything.  Had he did, Zhang having cubhood war experiences, could have easily snapped and went ballistic on the palm civet. And with Zhang being 2nd degree black belt, and still having a temper issue, Zhang could have easily messed up that palm civet really bad.
Both Zhang's and Annika's families would have similar stories to tell of their encounters during their trips to the village, or to Ondjiva, about an occasional disgruntled immigrant who would openly blame meerkats and various other species of animals for the country's problems.
It was worse further north. Train crews with the narrow gauge railroad, and route truck drivers, including Annika's brother Najja, would bring back stories of how bad it had gotten in the major cities in the northern provinces. They would tell of how the 'blame game' in those cities was so bad, there would be animals of one species who would get blamed for all the trouble going on, who in turn would blame animals of other species for all the trouble.
As for the agitating animals who immigrated to Angola, those of which who settled into the area where Zhang and Annika's families lived, their numbers were few, the locals knew who they were, and the locals began to make it clear to them,  "Uma atitude con voce, voce trazer aqui? Norte voce melhor leva lo...Extremo norte longe deste lugar" (An attitude with you, you bring here? North you better take it...Far north away from this place).
The Angolan dialect Portuguese may have sounded awkward to them, but they did get the picture from the locals quite clear. Those of the immigrant animals who decided to stay in the local area eventually mellowed down quite a bit...Those who did not, headed back north to where they came from as the locals had suggested. After all, there were things in those major cities to the north that simply did not fly in Cunene or Cuando-Cubango.

Early in the month of September, Annika found out she was pregnant with Zhang's cub. Zhang and Anika felt like this was the best blessing they've ever had, and both of their families were thrilled to hear news of it.
When Bron, Lacara, Cheesah, Annika and Zhang was visiting with Annika's family, Lacara asked, "O filhote (The cub). Have you thought of some names?"
Members of both families began offering suggested names.
Zhang told everyone, "Whether the cub is male or female. Of course, we don't know yet".
"Voce sabe, Zhang?" (You know, Zhang?), said Annika. "I somehow feel like its a boy".
Bron asked Zhang, "Son, when is the cub due? Voce e Annika sabe?" (Do Annika and you know?)
"Nao fazemos, Pai" (No we don't, Dad), Zhang answered. "Annika and I have been together each night. Just when it conceived, we nao know".
"We figure Novembro, is what Zhang and I are guessing", Annika added.
"Setenta e cinco dias for us meerkats" (75 days...), said Murua, Annika's mom. "Novembro. That would be about correto".
Two days after the visit with the relatives, riots began flaring up in many cities over the power struggle between the animals who were native to Angola and those who had recently immigrated into the country. Then a new problem for the country also appeared. A pangolin, who called himself, "Sar Al Binar" had mustered huge cult following in the far western part of the country near the Atlantic coast, and was threatening to wage a holy war on the country. Most of the country had for generations adhered to Christian and family values, and Pangolin Sar Al Binar had made public statements that his agenda is to destroy that whole way of life. However, it didn't appear like he had anywhere near enough followers to even begin to think of pulling it off.
Zhang and Annika, along with everyone they knew, were keeping up with news reports on where the country was headed. As a nation, the country was literally falling apart. But then came the worse news of all. Out of the northern provinces had once again formed a large paramilitary revolution from the old FNLA and UNITA movements.  In a matter of days, they had taken over some northern provinces, and the rebel leaders issued a declaration claiming the territory they've taken to be the sovereign state of the Republic of North Angola. And they had also began make preparations to conduct another invasion into the Southern homeland provinces, and a much bigger invasion, with more allies than the one 10 years earlier.
During another family get together, the families discussed moving to a different country. Annika even mentioned concern for her unborn cub .
"If things get muito ruim (...really bad). The chances of our filhote (cub) surviving. What would they be?", Annika asked.
"The way this country is getting. It will nao longer be a safe place to live", Banga, Annika's dad, said.
"It's already gotten that way", said Bron", "You can see that. Just look around".
"What does this mean? There will be another war?", Cheesah, then age 13, asked, remembering the war when he was age 3, and remembering his older brother Jorad and his grandfather Zeth being laid into their graves.
"Ia, filho. Parece assim. Nao e bom" (Yes, son. Seems like it. It's not good), Bron answered his youngest son.
It was then decided by both families, that research should be started right away as to looking for another country to immigrate to.
After days of research, Southern India is what the meerkats decided on to be the most ideal of those countries that were willing to take animals fleeing Angola as being in refugee status. And although the meerkats, being Angolan, spoke Portuguese, they were also able to hold a conversation in fluent English. And English is a common language spoken in India, therefore, there wouldn't be a language barrier when they arrived there. It would mean leaving jobs, leaving those cars behind that could not make a long trip, possessions and homes. Not to mention Zhang's younger brother, Cheesah, will have to pull out of school five years early. School was to start next month, the Angolan school year running from October to July. That would leave Cheesah with only a 7th grade education, unless he can get into India's school system. But all those things were on their way to being gone anyway with the way events were going. The main concern at this point was to get out of the country while they still can.

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Fleeing the Country

By the time conditions within the country began to rapidly deteriorate, the families already had the passports they needed, being that they filed application early on when the first signs of the country's recent troubles began.  Over a period of several days, the families packed what their vehicles could carry, and had been making travel arrangements. Being that the nearest phone service was in the nearby village, making those arrangements would not have been possible had it not been for the generosity of long time linsang friends who owned the cafe' who let them use their business phone to make the necessary calls and inquiries. And there was a long wait to use the phone on each of the days the family made the three kilometer trip to the cafe'...Other families who resided where there was no phone service were also using the phone at the cafe' to make arrangements to leave Angola. The CFB railway station and the metal fabrication shop also had phones which they allowed the local animals to use.
Even the linsangs who own the cafe' were trying to get passports to leave the country, but the last time they could get to Ondjiva, they were told there was a moratorium on issuing passports...Even though, it would mean walking away from a business they've built up over the years. Waitress Rosie Hippo had earlier gotten a ride into Ondjive to get a passport and was already preparing to try to get what rides she could get to return to her family back in Kenya.
The arrangements the meerkats were finally able to make were to drive out to the sea port town of Port of Beira in Mozambique, on the Indian Ocean coast. Once there, they were to contact a freighter Captain, Janosch Fossa (pronounced as Yonnis Fossa). The meerkat families would travel aboard Janosch Fossa's vessel, an India bound freighter. The able bodied males would work aboard the freighter while the able bodied females and older cubs would help with cooking and cleaning as payment for the ride over.
When they sold their homes for what they could get out of them, they didn't get a whole lot. It wasn't like the homes could stay on the market for months. Plus hardly anyone was buying real estate because of the turmoil the country was in. If anything, lots of other animals were also selling their homes in order to leave the country. The family, along with just about everyone else they knew, had to settle for selling to investors who came from the cities of Menongue and Ondjiva. Those were investors who were buying up what land and homes they could, trying to put their money into tangible assets in fear that the Angolan currency might become worthless.
Once the homes were sold, and those vehicles that could make it to Port of Beira were packed, there was one thing not left overlooked. The family did take a short while to visit the graves of their deceased loved ones for the last time.
After the grave visits, the last thing left was to close out their bank accounts, make currency exchanges for Indian currency and currency exchange for travel expense going through Zambia and Mozambique on their way to the east coast. Upon entering the bank, which was their last visit to the nearby village, members of the meerkat families noticed the bank's employes and customers seemed to be in a somber mood, and quiet enough to clearly hear the building's well worn, wooden floor creak as it was being walked on.
"Everyone so gloomy? Why?", Chessah asked.
"In provinces north of here, animals from North Angola crossed over. Our southern provinces. They are now under attack. It started only a while ago" , a meerkat at a teller desk answered.
"A lot of our fellow creatures. They are leaving the country", a loan officer who knew Annika's family told them. "You all are doing the right thing by leaving. I'm about ready to get my family. And we too will leave".
"It's horrible", said Murua.
"The country getting like this. We never thought we'd see it", Banga replied.
"No one ever thought it would", The loan officer added.
Other customers in the bank began talking about their experiences, and that they were also leaving the country.
There wasn't a lot of foreign currency left at the bank, but Zhang, Annika and their families were able to make exchange for some of the Zambian and Mozambique currency needed to get them across the continent. However, the bank had no Indian currency to exchange for them. And in their small town, that was the only bank within an hour's drive.
"When you do get to India, exchange your Angolan currency for Indian currency soon as you can", another bank employee friend of Annika's family said. "This country could fall any time. Then Angolan currency will be worthless".
As the families left, they bid "Adeus" and thanked them for everything, then they got into their cars, and they were on their way down the dirt street, headed for the highway going east out of the country. For many members of the Meerkat Family, this would be the first time in their lives they would travel more than 80 kilometers (50 miles) from their place of birth. On their way out of town, it became evident that others had the same idea of leaving, as they saw other vehicles loaded with belongings headed east like they were. There would still be about 480 kilometers (300 miles) of driving through neighboring Cuando-Cubango Province before they would reach the Zambian border.
For much of the family, this was quite an experience in itself to have traveled so far from the place where they were born and had called home.
Traveling accommodations were a bit crowded because of personal belongings that were also packed inside the cars.
The only place in Moze and Leia's Opal wagon for their daughter to sit was on Mom's lap...There was stuff also on the front seat.
Najja's truck was so loaded, there was also stuff packed on the passenger's seat and on the passenger's side floorboard.
Bron and Lacara's wagon was packed so full of stuff, Cheesah had to ride on the front seat squeezed in between Mom and Dad...and a 1954 Rekord Olympia is not a very wide car.
Zhang, Annika and her sister Abina was also riding with a car full of belongings in Annika's car.
So was Banga and Murua's old Volvo wagon full of stuff.
And Yousaf and Nafula's Renault 4, van body car was packed full as well.
Two of the station wagons in the convoy, Moze and Leia's Opal and Banga and Murua's Volvo, had roof racks, and they were loaded with everything that can be loaded on them.
There was to be yet another family group traveling with their vehicles loaded the same way, including relatives from Yousaf and Leia's families. They would be making the trip a day behind.
After hours of driving, the Meerkats didn't have many kilometers left to travel before reaching the border into Zambia. At this point in their journey, the road out of Angola had become incredibly crowded. They've never seen this many vehicles on the highways before: cars, trucks, vans, buses, bicycles, taxi scooters and even a few wagons drawn by non-antrho beasts of burden. There was even an old Land Rover that was so packed and crowded, two linsangs had to sit on the edges the window openings of the back doors with their legs inside the vehicle as they rode mostly outside while holding onto the roof rack. Animals of about every species the family knew of were in that exodus on the way out of the country. And the dust was terrible as the highway leaving Angola, like many others, was a dirt and gravel roadway. As the meerkat family's convoy of cars neared the eastern border, heading out of Angola, they noticed the side of the highway going east out of country was crowded with the exodus of fleeing vehicles, including their own. And at times, they would see vehicles on the shoulder of the highway that had broken down. The side of the highway coming in from the east, going back west into Angola, didn't have a single vehicle on it. After a while, the meerkat families finally made it to the Zambian border, and at least getting out of Angola was a welcome sight. They've now gotten that far. The eastbound side of the highway was backed up with so many vehicles leaving the country, a hyena and a cheetah at the check point, going into the next country, just waved them on through as long as a vehicle didn't look suspicious to them.
 This was the Meerkat Family's first time out of the country, except for Annika's brother, Najja, who had before made deliveries for customers in and out of Namibia with his truck. Once in Zambia, they found out that driving in that country was done on the left side of the road, unlike in Angola where traffic travels on the right, which did take some getting use to. The highway past the Zambian border was a better roadway than the dirt and gravel road back in Angola. At least it was substandard asphalt paved, although unmarked, barely wider than one lane and with occasional potholes anyone driving on it would have to watch out for. It was a very good road compared to the dirt, rocky and mud roads the meerkats have known all their lives.

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The Road Trip.

As the family continued on their way east, there were fewer vehicles on the road with them due to many refugees traveling off to different destinations. Many of those fleeing Angola either had different destinations to other countries within Africa, or to different sea ports to board different ships to different continents.
At the end of each day, the family would keep their cars going through the night. During the trip, they would take turns driving while others slept along the way so they could keep going until they reached Port of Beria.
Yousaf and Nafula's Renault was always the last car, and Moze and Leia's '70 Opal wagon running as lead car. That was because they were the only two cars that had properly working lights...the '70 Opal and the Renault.
Najja's old Thames truck had only one taillight with no brake light.
The left taillight on Bron and Lacara's '54 Opal wagon had a wiring problem, leaving only the right taillight, with it's broken lens, working.
Banga and Murua's Volvo wagon had either a bad light switch or bad ground where the taillights would stay lit only half the time.
And the taillights on Annika's Moskvitch never had worked even during the years as far back as when her parents had owned the car.  
Moze and Leia's Opal wagon had to be the lead car also because of the problem with the brakes, so that left the Renault being the tail car.
And even at that, because of a wiring problem no one could ever track down, the lights on Yousaf and Nafua's Renault were turned on and off by attaching and removing a wire with an alligator clamp directly to the hot lead of the battery...They had to open the hood each time to turn the lights on and off.
During the 2nd day of the road trip, on the way through Zambia, the meerkat families stopped at a few banks along the way and tried to exchange their Angolan currency for Indian currency, or for any country's currency that will still be accepted for exchange in the event Angola was taken over. But none of the banks would exchange it. It was beginning to look as though the family was not going to be able dump the currency everyone knew was becoming worthless.
At one bank, a genet teller got her manager, a serval, to see what he can do for them.
"I'm really sorry", the serval told them. "No financial institution in their right mind will accept Angolan currency with that country about to collapse".
Some of the family members explained their situation to the serval, and expressed concerns about arriving to a new country, being broke.
The serval told them, "Here's what I can do. We don't have Indian currency. But I can exchange to you Zambian currency, allowing 20% of what your Angolan currency is now worth. It's the best I can do. Any bank in India will exchange our currency. I'll just dump off the Angolan currency into an investment, but I'm still taking a financial risk".
"We're really going to take a big loss on that deal", Zhang noted.
"Son, it's all we got", replied Bron. "Part of something is better than all of nothing".
So it was decided by the meerkats to take the serval up on his offer. Zhang, Annika and their families would not be going to India rich. But at least they would not be broke.
Bron, being poor all his life like the rest of the family, never owned a motor vehicle before the Rekord wagon his mother-in-law gave to him and his wife. But the 51 years of wear on the car became obvious while still coming through Zambia, about an hour's drive before they got to the Zimbabwean border. The engine in that old, beat up Rekord station wagon developed a sharp clacking sound.
Cheesah, who was  sitting on the front seat, squeezed in between his parents, asked, "Esse barulho vindo de o boter. What is it?" (That noise coming from the car. What is it?).
"A connecting rod bearing in the engine. I think it's gone out, Son", Bron told Cheesah as he flashed the headlights to get Najja's attention to pull his truck over and stop.
"Bron, voce certeza?" (Bron, are you sure?), Lacara asked, hoping Bron was wrong.
"Estou certeza. Soa como uma haste" (I am sure. Sounds like a rod), Bron replied as he prepared to pull the car off the road behind Najja's truck.
As Najja pulled over, he flashed his lights for Moze, who was driving the lead car with his wife Leia and daughter Dora, to pull over. Then the other three remaining cars with Zhang, Annika, Abina, Banga, Murua, Nafula and Yousaf pulled over to the shoulder of the road behind Bron and Lacara's car.
"Qual e o problema?, Banga asked Bron as he walked up to Bron's car, still idling and engine clacking. "Oh nao. That don't sound good".
"Sounds like a connecting rod. I think it's getting ready to go. .", said Bron as other family members came walking up.
"Bron, If seu boter doesn't make it, Lacara, Cheesah, and you can ride with us", Banga offered. "It might be a little crowded".
"At least seu boter does have a back seat", Lacara jokingly said to Banga as others laughed.
"Cheesah could ride with Annika, Abina and I", Zhang said as Annika nodded in agreement.
"I could make room on my flat bed for your belongings", Annika's younger brother, Najja, told Bron. The truck was already pretty well loaded.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ajn6sZmvTWw .
"Well, let's see how far este velho boter will make it", said Bron.
It was decided to let Bron drive up ahead of Moze and Leia's car, so if his car had anymore trouble, the others would know to stop. Moze and Liea's Opal wagon was to follow behind Bron and Lacara's car, but maintaining a good distance because of a bad master cylinder that required pumping the brakes to get the car stopped.  
Everyone got back into their vehicles and continued their journey.
As the family drove on, the clacking in Bron's station wagon got progressively louder.
"How far will it go, Dad", Cheesah asked Bron.
"Nao Eu sabe, Son. There's no way to tell", Bron answered. "It can go anytime. And I've seen them run for months that way".
About a half an hour later, the meerkats got the answer to Cheesah's question of how far will it go. That's when the rapid clacking gave way to a loud "BOOMP". The rear wheels locked up (rear wheel drive). Bron pressed the clutch petal, disengaging the rest of the drive train from the locked up engine and allowing the rear wheels to turn again. The meerkats in the the other vehicles could see steam coming from Bron's car, and knew to pull over. Bron's car had finally quit running.
"Para este boter. O fim da estrada" (For this car. The end of the road)  Bron said as the car coasted to a stop off the side of the road.
When Bron got out and raised the hood of his car, he could clearly see a connecting rod driven out through the side of the engine, and steam and coolant blowing out.
"Looks like it's gone it's last kilometer, Dad", said Zhang after he walked up and had a look at the engine.
"Nao Eu posso queixar. Tem sido um boter bom" (I can't complain, Son. It's been a good car), Bron told Zhang. "I just wish it had not picked now. Nao a time like this to quit on me".
"A good boter it has been", Lacara added. "Tres geracoes, it has been with our family" (three generations...).
The arrangements that were discussed earlier, when Bron's car was first showing signs of trouble, were carried through with. And a note was put on the car to let the grand parents and parent's siblings know every thing was OK. They were traveling in a different group, about half a day behind, and everyone knew they would recognize Bron's car and be concerned. Along with transferring belongings from Bron's car, they also collected the gasoline from the fuel tank for the other vehicles. They had nothing for a siphon hose, so a hole was made in the bottom of the tank with a hammer and a screwdriver held in a pair of vice grips (metal tank), then wallowing the hole out bigger with the screwdriver. Then a beat up, old gas can that Najja had in his truck was placed under to catch the stream of gasoline. When the can would fill up, a rag was held tightly on the hole while the can was being emptied into other vehicles.
"Pai. Leia e Eu tenho um pode agua com um bico" (Dad. Leia and I have a water can with a spout), Moze called out to Bron as Leia held the can up so Bron could see it.
"Traze lo aqui" (Bring it here), said Bron.
Both cans were alternately placed back under the tank of Bron's disabled car and the process was repeated until the tank had emptied out. A moment was also taken to collect the marker light bulbs and headlights to change out on the other 6 volt vehicles that needed them. Being that their vehicles had the old style, round, sealed beam, glass headlights, they were interchangeable.
And the battery in Yousaf and Nafula's Renault 4 had not been holding a charge very well lately. That became more so obvious when Yousaf couldn't get the car to crank anymore. When Yousaf turned the key, the solenoid would make a rapid clicking sound.
"Being that my boter nao runs anymore, the battery we can put in seu boter", Bron offered to Yousaf.
"My boter. It has a seis volt system", Yousaf mentioned. "Obrigato a mesmo" (Thank you the same).
"My Rekord is seis volt also", Bron replied, that being a sigh of relief to Yousaf and Nafula.
Fortunately, the electrical system in Bron and Lacara's disabled Rekord wagon was a 6 volt system like in Yousaf and Nafula's Renault 4, so the batteries were able to be swapped out. They had to set the battery from the Rekord so it sat crooked in the Renault in order to get one of the cables to reach, but once the battery was changed out, Yousaf and Nafula's car was able to start.    
The last of the belongings in Bron's car were loaded onto Najja's, already loaded, 1962 Thames K series flatbed, and some belongings into Moze and Leia's car, with 5 year old daughter, Dora, riding on Mom's lap. Their Opel station wagon didn't have room to take on any more luggage.
After everything was tended to, Cheesah wanted to see the blown engine in his dad's car. Thirteen year olds have a way of being curious.
"We don't have time for that, Cheesah", Bron told him. "Get over there with your brother and Annika. You're riding with them".
"Cheesah! Anda SO." (Cheesah. Come on-SO), Zhang called with Angolan dialect emphasis 'SO' to his younger brother, motioning him over with his paw. "Get over here."
Cheesah got in with with Zhang and Annka. And Bron and Lacara got in with Annika's parents, Banga and Murua. Annika's sister Abina, got in with Zhang and Annika to make room in her parent's car for Bron and Lacara.
Just before they got back on their way, Annika's oldest sister Nafula and her husband Yousaf, asked everyone to travel at a slower pace, because they've also been having problems for the past 30 kilometers with their Renault trying to overheat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghtZ9TYVvr8
The meerkats continued their journey, on their way to Port of Beira, abandoning Bron's old station wagon on the shoulder of the highway. A note for the other group of relatives had been placed on the windshield, and the old battery from Yousaf and Nafula's car was left on the passenger's side floor board. The key to the doors, and the screw driver used to turn the ignition switch was left on the dash. And the title was placed on the driver's seat with Bron and Lacara's signature signing the car off to whoever wants an old, beat up, 1954, Rekord Olympia station wagon with a blown engine.
Moze and Liea's Opal wagon was always the lead car because of the problem it had of having to pump the brakes to stop the car. The meerkats figured a car with bad brakes shouldn't be behind the other vehicles. The next vehicle to follow was Najja's old Thames truck
 http://youtube.com/watch?v=wunPE65r3dE
Behind Najja's truck was Annika's 1967 Moskvitch.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=cjA5bxm1dng  
The next vehicle was Banga and Murua's 1961 Volvo Duett wagon with the vibration in the front wheel
http://moyomongoose.deviantart.com/art/Meerkats-Riding...
And the last vehicle, Yousaf and Nafula's Renault 4 which had developed the engine temperature issue.  
As the journey continued, Bron and Lacara noticed that Banga and Murua's car wasn't doing much better. The clutch was showing signs of wear, there was an intermittent vibration from one of the front wheels.
"Your car. I hope it holds up better than mine did", Bron said to Banga.
"Well, the clutch slips a bit. That's been going on three months", said Banga. "But it's the wheel. I'm worried about THAT. It only started since we began this trip. And it's gotten worse".
In other parts of the world, those old cars the meerkats were driving would be valuable to antique car collectors. But where they had come from in Southern Angola, they were just old, beat up cars that had been around almost forever, and far from being in pristine condition.
A part of the Meerkat Family's road trip to Port of Beira took them through a Northern part of Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia), and through some mountainous terrain. Like in Zambia, traffic there also travels on the left side of the road. From there on, their trip went pretty much without vehicles breaking down. And by this time, they were driving on roads, such as Route A3 toward Mutare, that were far better than the roads they knew back in Angola, which were dirt, and what few that were paved were full of pot holes.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=E1dKQCPY6Ok
http://youtube.com/watch?v=dfBjbpRGR_U
These were well built asphalt roads, smooth and with no potholes.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=zL6Atzgnquo
 Although the roads had no pavement markings, they were plenty wide enough for vehicles to navigate with lots of room...except for on the bridges. When the meerkats arrived into the city of Mutare, they were impressed with how much more modern and beautiful it is than the poverty plagued towns and villages they knew back in their old homeland. And it wasn't very far before they would be crossing the border into Mozambique.
This was also the first time some of the family members had ever seen traffic lights, or even knew what they meant, which presented a bit of a problem. At a red light, Moze thought you were suppose to treat a red light like a stop sign, and when the traffic was clear on the adjacent street, he drove on through. Najja, being a truck driver, had been to big cities before and knew not to proceed until the light was green.  
"It looks like Najja is have problems with his truck", Zhang said as he stepped out of Annika's car to ask Najja what was wrong with the truck.
"Look up there", Cheesah said, pointing ahead as a City of Mature police officer, an aardwolf, pulled Moze over just beyond the intersection.
"Zhang. Cheesah. Your brother ran a red light", Annika said...From her past trips to Ondjiva, Annika knew.
Banga then pulled his Volvo wagon around to Najja's truck as Yousaf blew the horn in his Renault to stop Banga from running the light...Yousaf also knew because he grew up in a big city.
"What's wrong?", Banga called from the driver's window back to Yousaf .
"You go through while that light is red, you get a ticket. That's why that officer pulled Moze over", Yousaf answered, calling from his driver's window up to Banga.
"Even if it is clear to go?", Banga asked with surprise, calling from the driver's window back to Yousaf.
"Even if it is clear", Yousaf affirmed. calling from his driver's window up to Banga.
"Dad, that red light means do not go", Najja called from his truck to Banga.
About that time the light turned green, and the rest of the family proceeded through the intersection and over to where Moze, Leia and Dora were pulled over.
"What is this?...May I help you all?", the aardwolf police officer asked after the four other vehicles pulled up.
"We are traveling with them", Najja called from his truck to the police officer.
About that time, another police officer drove up...a rather short, jovial, happy-go-lucky bonobo.
"You pull ALL these over? Ho ho", the bonobo laughed to the aardwolf as he stepped out of his patrol car.
"Just the black station wagon. This meerkat ran a light", the aardwolf replied.
Moze and some of the other family members explained that where they were from, they have never seen traffic lights before.
"Them gonna put us in o jail?", Dora, then age five, began to cry.
"Ohhh, he he. No we're not, little cub", the bonobo assured Dora, then added, "...Long as you not a little bandit who robbed a candy store".
"Uau! Nao!...Eu nao do esta", Dora replied as everyone got a laugh.
The bonobo's charismatic, bubbly personality laid aside any fears Dora had that the aardwolf was going to arrest everyone.  
During the conversations, the meerkats mentioned they were refugees from Angola, which the officers already figured from the tags on the vehicles.
"Is there one among you with a valid license who can drive this car the rest of the way to where ever it is you're going?", the aardwolf asked the meerkats, being that Moze or Leia didn't have a driver's license.
Among all the family members traveling, the only ones with valid driver's licenses were Najja, his brother-in-law Yousaf, his dad Banga, and his youngest sister Annika...Moze, Leia, Zhang, Cheesah and both of Annika's older sisters had never had driver's licenses. And Bron, Lacara, and Annika's mom Murua had licenses that were expired...The tags on the vehicles however were still valid.
The aardwolf was inclined to start writing up tickets, but the bonobo mentioned that with the meerkats being refugees, they would most likely not show up to pay the fines anyway.
The aardwolf and the bonobo debated the matter between each other for a few minutes longer, with the bonobo putting an emphasis the fact the meerkats have been through a lot being refugees, and the fact they are on their way out of Zimbabwe anyway. The two officers finally agreed to let the meerkats off with warnings, and give a brief pep talk to them about what the different colours of a traffic light mean, and that you don't treat a red light like a stop sign. After that, the meerkats were allowed to continue on their way.
While in Mutare, the meerkats stopped at a petrol station and fueled up their vehicles. As the rest of the meerkats were fueling their vehicles, Bron had noticed that Moze had the hood up on his car a lot longer than it would take to check the oil.
"Is everything OK, Son?", Bron asked as he noticed Moze was tending to something with cap off the car's distributor.
"It will be, Dad", Moze answered as he was rubbing a small piece of emery cloth between the points. "It's these old points. Trying to get more life out of them. They should have been replaced a long time ago".
"We did hear your boter backfire a few times. It was as we slowed down to pull in here", Bron added as Cheesah came over to check it out.
"This time, it looks like I'll have to re-adjust the dwell. I'll need something for a feeler gauge", said Moze.
"Cheesah, go to the attendant. Ask for a book of matches", Bron told his youngest son.
"Uma pacote de fosforos? (A packet of matches?)", Cheesah questioned.
"Just do as I'm telling you. You'll learn something in a few minutes", Bron told him. "Ir busca la SO. Ir, ir."(Go get it-SO. Go, go).
So Cheesah went and got the matches as he was told, and after a minute, came back and pawed the matchbook over to his dad.
"This is the universal feeler gauge", Moze told younger brother Cheesah as Bron pawed them over to Moze.
As Moze adjusted the dwell with an allen wrench from his tool box, and with the matchbook cover as a feeler gauge, Bron and Moze explained the procedure to Cheesah.
Before long, Moze had everything put back together and ready to go. Moze didn't do anything with the timing. The meerkats have always timed their cars by ear anyway. If it was close, it was good enough to drive down the road.
There was also the matter of the left tie rod end on Annika's Moskvitch being held together with bailing wire. Due to the many kilometers of driving since they left Angola, Annika had Zhang check it for her, and so far it had been holding together OK.
As the family went in to get some things to eat along the way, they had noticed the prices for food items, as well as the price of the petrol they got for the cars, were very high.
"Everything here. In your store. You charge so high. Why is that so?", Bron asked the store owner in English.
The store's owner, a linsang who spoke Chishona better than the broken English he could speak, replied, "No no no. No me store only. This way...it for all place. This place, that place, an' more place".
"So the high prices. It is like this in Mutare everywhere?", Lacara asked.
"Ohhh, no Mutare only", the linsang answered. "All Zimbabwe this way. You see, economy...it no good".
"How pretty Mutare looks, one would not guess that", Moze commented.
"Mutare, she beautiful city, yes. Zimbabwe no look bad way when you see city, but it bad", the linsang said, then continued, "But economy, it bad thing. Price for this an' that go crazy it bad thing. For Zimbabwe, price for this an' that, they again go up, an' again go up. It no stop an' this day an' that day it no stop. And for buy this thing, an' that thing, an' for buy food for family, more an' more money we need. It crazy".
With what the store's owner had explained, the Meerkats understood that Zimbabwe was obviously ravaged with rampant inflation. That being the case, you could only agree with the high prices and go ahead and pay them.      
In the store, Cheesah was still amazed by the electric lights, like the ones he had been noticing in the buildings they stopped at along their journey. Although Bron, Lacara, the grandparents and some of Annika's family had seen electric lights in the more developed parts of their old homeland, the rest of the family members had never seen them in buildings until they began the trip. What little bit of lighting that worked on their motor vehicles was the only electric lighting most of them had been familiar with. Zhang had seen electrical service in the metal fabrication shop where he got his apprentice training. And he had used power tools and equipment and worked by electric lighting.  But the shop had their own industrial size generator to run large machinery with. And a 220 volt, 50 cycle, step down transformer was also wired to the generator for paw held power tools. All of which was powered up by a large, twin cylinder, double stroke, steam engine that had one of those old type, riveted boilers with a wood burning fire box. However, Zhang's younger brother Cheesah had never known that electrical service or electric lights even existed in buildings. Where the family was from in the Cunene Province of Angola, a power grid did not exist. It had always been sunlight by day, and coal oil lamps, candles or moonlight by night, except for motor vehicle lights and onsite generated power for industrial purposes.
Once the meerkats were on their way again, it wasn't long before they got onto the Beira Road just out of Mutare, which took them onto Route EN6 into Mozambique. Like it was, traveling through Zambia and Zimbabwe, they were to continue driving on the left side of the highway, which had been proving difficult because that put the driver's side of their vehicles away from the center of the road, with the exception of Najja's old Thames flat bed. It was built with the driver's side on the right.  Now, most of their road trip was behind them. That part of Mozambique is not very far of a drive between it's west border and Port of Beira. The meerkats were happy to find that Route EN6 going through Mozambique was also a well built road like A3 and the Beira Road were, when they came through Zimbabwe. Some time later, the asphalt pavement left off where concrete highway began. Although the concrete portion of the road was one of the country's older stretches of highway that had occasional patch repairs now and then, it was still fairly smooth, and decent to drive on. It was originally built to the old 3rd world country standards, barely wide enough for two lanes with no markings on it, and no place to pull off except into knee high weeds and jungle growth. Palm trees leaning over the highway from the groves and jungle cast shadows of their palm fronds down onto the concrete surface making the highway appear to have palm frond pattern all over it. And the sound of driving over the expansion joints making that steady rapid >clip clop clip clop clip clop< rhythm, that in combination with the rickety hum of the four cylinder engines their old, ragged cars were equipped with, was soothing to those who were not driving to fall asleep by.
A few hours before sunset, local thunderstorms began moving through. There was a really big storm the family drove right into, with lots of rain, hard winds and lightning, and some of the lightning striking pretty close.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=RsucJ5NA5m4 .
Najja's truck didn't have windshield wipers, so everyone had to pull off onto the shoulder the highway in a spot near those knee high weeds and stop for a couple of hours until the storm passed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiAdq26XOqU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvXG9Lws_-4
Because of the amount of time Annika's car was turned off waiting out the storm, the engine would have to warm up again before they could continue on their way. Ever since Annika owned her ragged, old, 1967 Moskvitch,  the choke plate had been missing off of the carburetor. A small piece of cardboard was always kept in the glove compartment to use as a temporary choke. After the storm had left, Zhang had to raise the hood and take the top off the air filter housing, and hold that piece of cardboard over the throat of the carburetor while Annika idled the engine until it warmed up. ( http://youtube.com/watch?v=2_vd70JwbyE shows a rickety sounding 1968 Moskvich engine idling. Annika's car doesn't look as nice as the one in the video though.) Once the engine was able to run without the cardboard being held over the carburetor, Zhang put the air filter housing back together, closed the hood, got back into the car, put the piece of cardboard back into the glove compartment, and everyone continued on their way.      
Shortly after nightfall, as Annika was driving, Zhang had gotten the radio in her old car to work. Sometimes the radio would play, and sometimes it would not. Annika's car, being older than both Zhang and Anika, had a radio from a different car that was one of those old push button kind. When Zhang tuned it onto an old Angolan jazz song, Annika asked him to leave it tuned there, but reminded him not to turn the volume too high because Cheesah and Abina were asleep on the back seat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mv5ql2h7K8
"It's one of my favorite songs. Back in the homeland, we use to listen to it", said Annika. "But I know it can't be coming from Angola".
"We're to far away to pick up a signal from Angola by now", replied Zhang. "Besides that, in Angola, there may not be anymore radio stations left. Those that are, would still conducting emergency broadcasting tonight".
"Those who did not make it out of the country. I really feel for them", Annika added.
As the song played, Zhang and Annika thought about how peaceful it was, the family riding through the warm night in those old vehicles of theirs with the windows down, averaging about 70 kph (45 mph) on that old, narrow, concrete highway that was still wet from freshly fallen rain along some stretches, as they saw the night sky occasionally being lit up by distant thunderstorms, with the car radio making a short crackle from the static of each distant lightning strike. Quite a contrast from what they knew had to be going on back in Angola.  
Zhang and Annika heard Cheesah's voice from the back seat, so Zhang looked back to check on his younger brother when he said in his sleep, "Mmph. Eu quero foda voce. Amo-te".
Annika's sister, Abina, was awaken by what Cheesah had said and thought it was she, Cheesah was laying the love lines on, until she noticed he was still asleep. Zhang and Abina noticed Cheesah, was evidently having one of those sexy dreams. That was obvious by Cheesah's penis poking all the way out of his sheath, erect and occasionally bobbing upward then dropping back down again.
"Hey, Cheesah", Zhang, almost laughing, called to his brother as Abina chuckled, "In that dream of yours. Who you having sex with?".
Cheesah responded, while still half asleep, with, "Uhm...Sim...Hmmm", then dozed back off to sleep to the song on the car radio and to the rhythm of the car traveling over the highway expansion joints.
"I thought the love he wanted to make, he wanted to make to ME", Abina said with a smile, then observed as she giggled, "Ooo! Cheesah piu-piu pequeno esta pulando novamente! (Ooo! Cheesah's little pee-pee is hopping up again!)".
"I can well imagine Cheesah's dream. Must be a GOOD one", Zhang laughed.
Annika turned the interior light on and took her eyes off the road only long enough to glance back at her young brother in law.
"Aww, let him sleep, Zhang", Annika said with a chuckle. "I know it must be a really sweet dream he's having".
"I guess you're right", Zhang agreed with his wife as they both smiled to each other. After all, no one was really concerned about Cheesah having a wet dream all over the back seat of Annika's car and on Abina. At age 13, Cheesah was a couple of years away from that yet.
"Mmm, your brother's sex scent. It is strong", Annika said to Zhang as Cheesah's smegma had put an odor in the car, smelling like popcorn butter and epoxy.
"Cheesah's little xixi menino, among us four brothers. His scent has always been the strongest", Zhang replied with a smile as he rolled the window on his side the rest of the way down.
"Moze, Jorad and I use to tease Cheesah about that. We had a nickname for him.", Zhang told Annika.
"That is?", Annika asked as she rolled her window down more.
Zhang whispered in Annika's ear, "Cheesah esta besta de pipoca", as Annika lit up with a smile.
"Aw, that's cute", Annika said, then giggled. "I bet he did not like it".
"Oh, he would get mad at us for it", Zhang replied.
"What did they call him?", Abina asked her sister.
"I'll wait and tell you later. When we leave the car", Annika answered Abina. "So Cheesah don't wake up and hear it".
"Good idea", Zhang added.
In English, that nickname is, "Cheesah this popcorn beast"...or, "Cheesah this beast of popcorn" (genital smell of meerkats).  
Zhang and Annika continued to watch the distant thunderstorms light up the night sky, with the radio picking up the lightning static, as they continued riding along that long stretch of old concrete highway. The other family member's vehicles were also holding up so far without any more mechanical problems. Then Zhang began to doze off to sleep to an old, 1974, South African ambient tune on the car radio.
https://youtu.be/BIHNXGRy4ag?t=685
The Mozambique radio station they were within signal range of seemed to have been playing a lot of Angolan songs that night. The old car being equipped with a column mounted gear shift and a front bench seat made it easy for Zhang to cuddle up beside Annika with no console or floor mounted lever in the way. As Zhang finally fell asleep and laid his head on Annika's side, Annika then put a paw around her husband and continued driving with the other paw on the steering wheel.

There was yet one more issue with the vehicles to take place before the road trip portion of the journey was to be completed.
It was still in the predawn hours, with about an hour's drive before they were to reach Port of Beira. Zhang had by then taken over driving so Annika could get some sleep. The next vehicle ahead of Annika's car was Najja's truck, which Bron was driving so Najja could get some sleep riding with Banga, Murura and Lacara.
The stretch of highway they were traveling on still continued as that narrow, unmarked, concrete roadway with the expansion joints that made that >clip clop clip clop clip clop< sound as the wheels of the vehicles ran over them.
Zhang had the radio playing, but softly as not to keep Annika, Abina and Cheesah awake.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7VkQYwKMSQ
Suddenly, there was the loud noise of an unmuffled four cylinder engine from Moze and Liea's car, which was the lead car in the group. Najja's truck swerved to the right side of the highway (the oncoming lane in Mozambique), then Zhang saw a muffler tumbling down the highway, making a spread of sparks in the night each time it hit the pavement. Zhang was barely able to swerve to miss it with the car's tires squealing.
"O que e esso, Zhang?!" (What is it, Zhang?!), Annika said as she was awakened.
"O QUE ESTA ACONTECENDO?!" (WHAT'S GOING ON?!), Cheesah exclaimed as he awoke.
Abina immediately looked out the back window as she awakened and saw the muffler get knocked into the weeds off of the bumper of Banga's car.
"PAI BATER EM ALGUMA COISA!" (DAD HIT SOMETHING!), Abina exclaimed as Annika looked back to see what was happening.
"O silenciador para o boter de Moze. Seu boter perdeu o silenciador" (The muffler of Moze's car. His car lost the muffler), Zhang said as everyone could hear the loud engine noise emitting from Moze and Liea's Opal station wagon up ahead.
When Yousaf and Nafula rode past in their Renault, the muffler had already come to rest in the weeds off of the highway.
The family pulled over and stopped long enough to see if everyone was OK, and swapped their experiences of the incident.  
Besides mentioning how fortunate it was no one got hurt, Moze bought up the point that it was good it wasn't another car that quit running...especially that Banga's car has a vibrating wheel, and Yousaf's car has been running hot.
Bron stated he was thankful he didn't turn Najja's truck over swerving around the muffler Moze's car had lost...Bron not being use to driving Najja's truck.
Banga admitted he was about to fall asleep at the wheel, and it was striking the muffler with his car that got him wide awake.
In spite of how tired Banga was, he was going to continue to drive. But with some pleading from his daughters, Nafula, Abina and Annika, as well as from his wife Murura, his son Najja and his in-law Lacara, who were riding with him, he decided to let Murua take over driving before continuing on their way.
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During those ten minutes or so, still before dawn,
while the Meerkats were conversing while pulled
over to the side of the highway in Mozambique,
the dad of a creepy rat doctor in India drew his
last breath on a hospital bed in El-Minya, Egypt.  
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Needless to say, for the rest of the way to Port of Beira, Moze and Liea's Opal wagon was the loudest car in the group, sounding off like and old World War I bi-wing airplane as it went down the road, still lead vehicle ahead of the rest of the vehicles.
In another hour or so, the meerkats are to reach Porto da Beira (Port of Beira).      
    
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Arrival into Port of Beira

After days on the road, it was shortly after dawn when the Meerkat Families arrived to Port of Beira, Yousaf and Nafula's Renault 4 barely made it with it's sewing machine like sounding engine running hot, and it's radiator beginning to boil over. Moze and Liea's car came through town sounding off without a muffler, giving the locals an early wake up call that they didn't care for. And that vibration in the front wheel of Banga's Volvo wagon had by now became consistent and had gotten worse.
With the directions the meerkats had, they were able to find the Sea Port OK, as well as where they were to meet up with Janosch Fossa (pronounced Yonnis Fossa).
"Trenger du hjalp?"(do you need help?), a small black bear asked as he approached the meerkats on the dock.
"Nos nao falamos sua lingua" (we do not speak your language), Lacara replied.
"Jeg kan ikke forsta du" (I can not understand you), said the bear.
"Nos falamos Portugues. And we speak English", Bron, shrugging his shoulders, told the bear.
"Oh. I am Norwegian. But I can also speak English", said the bear. "I had asked if you needed assistance".
"We sure do", said Bron. "We're suppose to meet Captain Janosch Fossa. He is at this sea port, we are told".
"Star of Antananarivo. Janosch Fossa", the bear affirmed with a smile.
"I am Audin Bear", the bear then introduced himself to the meerkats.
After the meerkats introduced themselves to Audin Bear, Bron told him, "I take it you know Captain Fossa".
"EVERYONE knows him. He is quite a character, but you'll like him", Audin told the meerkats.
"His freighter is moored not far from here". Audin continued as he gave further directions where to find Janosch Fossa's freighter, the Star of Antananarivo.
"Well, I have to return to my ship", Audin Bear told the meerkats as they thanked him for the information.
Once the meerkats further inquired around for Janosch Fossa, it was obvious that just about everyone knew him, as Audin Bear had told them. The meerkats could see that Captian Janosch Fossa had quite a reputation with shore workers and seafarers. It seemed that everyone they asked, including a mongoose shore worker they talked with for a while, told them, if you are on Janosch Fossa's bad side, he's your worst night mare. But if you are on his good side, he's your best friend, and will do just about anything for you.
Cheesah, forgetting the language difference, told the mongoose, in Portuguese, about how he will try to stay on Yannis's good side.
"I don't speak Portuguese", The mongoose replied, recognizing what language it was.
"Oh, sorry. I sometimes forget", said Cheesah. "I think I'll try to stay on his good side".
"That must be Yannas coming this way now", Moze told the families, as he pointed out a fairly well built, male fossa who was approaching them.
"He's one of Janosch's crew", the mongoose told them as he headed back to his work area.
The fossa overheard Moze Meerkat. " I'm not Janosch. I'm Joel Fossa", he said introducing himself. "I'm first mate on Janosch Fossa's crew...And I take it you all are the refugees from Angola we are to take to India?"
"Yes we are", Bron answered. "We also have others. By morning, they should be here".
"Your captain. We heard a lot about him since we arrived here", Annika added.
"He's a very likable Fossa", Joel replied. "Provided you're honest with him, and don't try to take advantage of him".
As Joel Fossa took the meerkats to see Captain Janosch Fossa, the families told of their road trip and how their country of Angola had become politically unstable, and of the paramilitary invasion going on there.
"We've been hearing about that", said Joel. "I'm glad you were all able to get out when you did".
"Believe me. You're not the only one who is glad of that", replied Banga.  
"Well, there it is", said Joel. "Star of Antananarivo. That's our vessel."
There, was moored an 80 year old freighter, that looked like it had seen some years and a lot of sea voyages. But it appeared to be well kept up. The ship had a good coat of paint, the hull being black, white and red, with the upper structure painted in white, and was in fairly immaculate condition for the aged old sea going vessel that it was. It was a ship like the old 'crater-class' kind still left in service, and was very similar in size, type and appearance to the Norwegian freighter S.S. Corvus, built during the same time era.  
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Corvus#/media/File:SS_...
The Star of Antananarivo hauled things like large machinery and other cargo in wooden crates down in it's hull with a limited amount of items secured on deck...It was NOT the kind of freighter that carries it's cargo in those modern, steel, cargo containers that trucks and trains also carry.
Joel pointed out the Indian flag on the freighter's stern. "She use to be registered in Madagascar. Hence why she's named after Madagascar's capitol city." said Joel. "Two years ago, the ship's corporate owners had our ship operate out of India, and registered it as an Indian Vessel".
"Why would they do that?", Cheesah asked out of a thirteen year old's curiosity.
"Corporate?...Who can figure them?", Joel replied. "We had an all fossa crew until then. The best crew this ship's ever had. Captain Janosch and his family, and I, took up residence in India to keep our jobs aboard the Star of Antananarivo".
"I take it your old crew did not", said Moze.
"They chose to stay in Madagascar and look for different jobs", Joel answered. "The rest of our crew we now have are native resident of India who hired on after the registration change. At times, Janosch and I have to get after some of them for one thing or another".
As everyone climbed up the gangway to the deck of the freighter, a feeling of excitement mounted. Although the meerkats have been in small river vessels before back in Angola, this was their first time aboard a large, sea going vessel.
"You must be the refugees", a large, burly built, male fossa called out as he greeted the meerkats out on the deck. "I'm Janosch Rakoto Fossa".
(Janosch is pronounced as "Yonnis")
Then the meerkats introduced themselves, and Janosch and Joel introduced the meerkats to the rest of the crew.
"THERE is a crew member for you. You can be friends with him on the way over", Lacara said to Cheesah as she pointed out a young fossa about Cheesah's age, and as some of the crew chuckled.
"Oh, he's not a crew member", Janosch said to Lacara. "He's one of my sons, Habbar. He wanted to come along with me on a voyage".
It was getting into the hot part of the day, so Janosch invited everyone to the ship's galley where everyone got better acquainted...A tour of the ship can be later in the cool of the evening. Janosch had some food ordered up, and got out couple of cases of THB (Three Horses Beer) for who ever wanted some.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Horses_Beer#/media/...
"We enjoy a drink now and then while at port", said Janosch Fossa. "But when we're out at sea, this stuff stays locked up".
The meerkats had stories to tell of their road trip, Angola's national troubles, and of the war with UNITA ten years earlier. Janosch and Joel had stories to tell of their experiences out at sea, and ports they've been to around the world. Janosch Fossa had some things to say about how the corporate owners of the ship had never been aboard a sea going vessel in their lives, and how they know nothing about navigating one.
"Those corporate know-it-alls would get lost on a pond in a row boat", said Janosch.
"Investors is all they are. Grabbing a rupee, an ariary-ariary, a pound or a dollar every chance they get is all they know", Boatswain Roy Fox added as Janosch Fossa nodded in agreement.
Moze, Zhang and Janosch had a lot in common, being the tough types. And Janosch, like Bron's sons and family, also came from a dirt poor family where he had a hard life growing up near Toamasina, in Madagascar. Zhang, Moze and Janosch had lots to talk about. They were about like drinking buddies from the get go. However, it didn't take much beer to get Janosch and his crew, or the meerkats in a festive mood as it was only on occasion any of them drank alcohol beverages. The captain and crew of the Star of Antananarivo never had alcohol while out at sea...a rule Captain Janosch Fossa strictly enforced. And because the meerkats had always been so poor back in Angola, they seldom had enough money to spare for things like the luxury of alcohol beverages.
After they had a couple of drinks, Janosch would occasionally say something in Malagasy or French, and a merkats would remind him, "We don't speak French", or just simply say, "Nao compreendo". And a meerkat would occasionally tell Janosch something in Portuguese, and Janosch would reply, "I don't speak Portuguese" or "Tsy azoko" (I don't understand). But they all did speak English.
It was a festive atmosphere as they were playing some Malagasy folklore music from some CDs that Janosch Fossa had aboard the ship.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=7rVLPBqCH3w -
 http://youtube.com/watch?v=6L7u3pvqXaE to mention just a couple.
Some of the tables and chairs were moved aside to make an improvised dance floor, and everyone had a good time.  Zhang and Annika danced to some slower songs Janosch had chose for them, out of concern for the unborn cub Annika was pregnant with.  
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ajlVbrqjbx8 -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSE1B3qwNnA&nohtml5...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIhNGxODaTA&nohtml5...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVIfvEnIXCM&index=1... .
Janosch' son, Habbar Fossa, got out a checker board, and he and Cheesah enjoyed several games of checkers.
Moze noticed a book on one of the galley's tables, titled, 'Ny Baiboly'.
"Ne Baboly?", Moze asked, looking through the pages written in Malagasy.
"It's a Malagasy edition of the Bible", Janosch Fossa answered. "It's been in here since I became captain of this ship".
Janosch then went on to explain that back when the Star of Antananarivo was still registered in Madagascar, and when the ship still had it's all fossa crew, many of the crew members had a belief in a religion common to Madagascar in which God is worshiped through deceased ancestors.
"On me, THAT'S a new one", Bron mentioned.
"It goes back many generations", Janosch Fossa added. "It's believed the dead protect the living...At the time, that's when I finally decided to keep a Bible in here. Some of my crew members would pick it up and read it. I think it did some of them some good".
"They needed a Bible from you have told us", said Lacara.
Janosch Fossa then went on to say, "Did you know in the south of Madagascar, they even take their deceased relatives out from their tombs every seven years...".
"EEEWOOO!", Cheesah exclaimed as he dropped a checker game piece he was about to move.
"They believe it's so the spirits of the dead ancestors don't feel forgotten", Janosch's son, Habbar, told Cheesah.
"That is louco", Lacara retorted.
Janosch then continued, "I know...It is...My wife and I never taught our cubs any of that", as he picked up the copy of Ny Baiboly from where Moze had set it down, then said, "What we've taught our cubs comes from here".
Kaamil Civet, the ship's assistant engineer, mentioned, "I have an aunt and uncle who are Hindu. I've been trying to get them to get out of that for a long time".
"Sometimes that's not easy", Janosch replied.
"If that way they were raised for all their life, it IS not easy", Bron added.
For the the following 20 minutes or so, Captain Janosch Fossa, the Meerkat Family and the ship's crew members had a pretty interesting conversation about religion, church and spiritual matters.
As Habbar and Cheesah began another game of checkers, Janosch had Second Mate Nandoh Orangutan go bring the camera from the ship's bridge.  
A few photos were taken of the occasion such as of Zhang, Moze and Janosch. And of Cheesah and Habbar standing side by side with paws around each others shoulders, and various candid shots of the others...with Janosch Fossa's camera. The meerkats never owned a camera, except for an old, stolen, 35mm Leitz which had been in the family for three generations which the shutter wore out on 20 years earlier. So Janosch did promise to later send the meerkats some prints.
Later when it was getting to be evening as the day got cooler, Janosch Fossa gave the meerkats a tour of the ship, after which it came time to discuss business. Captain Janosch Fossa informed everyone that the Star of Antananarivo was to set out to sea for India the morning after tomorrow. That would allow plenty of time to get the meerkat's vehicles loaded aboard the following day, and for the rest of the relatives to arrive in a few hours. Janosch also mentioned, that in the morning, he'll have jobs assigned to the able bodied members of the family as their means to earn the family's passage on their way to India. Janosch also mentioned that on the way there, there will be a stop in Madagascar.
Later that evening, First Mate Joel Fossa showed the meerkats their sleeping quarters and a place to bathe. It had been the first time they've had a bath and a place where they can sleep comfortably since they've left Angola. They've been sleeping in their cars while others took turns driving on the way over.
Later, it was getting to be bedtime, and for some of the family, it was the first time in their lives they actually slept on a real bed instead of old, ragged blankets spread onto a dirt floor...In fact, Cheesah began laying a blanket onto the floor before Joel Fossa recommended to Cheesah that a bed would be more comfortable.
After Cheesah took Joel's advice and picked the blanket back up off the floor then crawled onto the bed, he said, "Like you said, Joel. This IS nice".
"Is this your first time on a bed like this?", Joel asked Cheesah.
"Blankets on a dirt floor. That has always been our bed", Cheesah's dad, Bron, said to Joel.
"Something this good, I never slept on before", Cheesah answered.
This was the first time in Cheesah's life he had ever known what it was to lay on a bed.
Joel then thought of an aunt, uncle and cousins of his own family who use to always sleep on old blankets on the floor of their home in Toamasina, that was until the family was able to help them do better...but a DIRT floor...At least Joel Fossa's aunt, uncle and cousins had a wooden plank floor to sleep on before they had beds.
Joel Fossa and the meerkats talked for a little while more before everyone finally dozed off to sleep.

At about 5:30 in the morning, other vehicles were arriving. It was the rest of the family members. Those were the siblings and surviving parents of Banga, Murua and Bron, Lacara, as well as Yousaf and Leia's relatives.  The rest of the family got out of bed and went out to greet them, and the arriving family members were introduced to Janosch Fossa and crew.
"That's what I call a big crew", First mate Joel Fossa said as he noticed how many meerkat family members had just arrived.
"Well. We have a full house sailing with us now", Captain Janosch Fossa laughed.
Lacara's mom, Mylah, told her son-in-law, Bron, how worried everyone was when they saw Bron's broken down, abandoned, Opal station wagon on the roadside in Zambia, until they got out and read the note on the car explaining everything. Mylah added that she was so happy that everyone was OK.
"That old, one ton truck of yours. I thought you were going to drive it here", Bron told his brother-in-law, Amos.
"I started the trip with it", said Amos. "We lost it on the way. About 300 kilometers before we saw your car. One of the axle shafts came out of the rear end. It's sitting on three wheels as we speak. On the side of the road, back there in Zambia".
"We thought a tire would go flat on us", Yousaf's mom, Zoe, mentioned as Yousaf's dad, Oswald, pointed to the right front tire on their Opal Kapitan, which had a strip of rubber hanging from it.
"Just as we got into town, it started slapping the road, Oswald said.
"We should be thankful though. These old vehicles we still have. They did make it here.", said Banga.
"That reminds me," Yousaf added. "About one of the tie rod ends on my car. It needs to be rewired back together. But for now, I have to get this running hot problem fixed".
"A wired tie rod end. You car too?", Zhang replied to Yousaf.
"I have one like it on MY car. It's the same way", Annika added as Zhang and Yousaf chuckled.
"Stay on top of that you should. Never let a tie rod fall apart on you", Oswald reminded them.
"Janosch", Joel called to him.
"What is it?", Janosch asked.
"I hope those meerkats find a better way of life in India than they had in Angola", said Joel.
"I hope so too, Joel", replied Janosch. "I hope so".

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The Voyage

At dawn, everyone had a good breakfast, then Janosch Fossa assigned the males their work assignments for the duration of the trip. Part of Cheesah's area of responsibility was cleaning the restrooms. He didn't like it, but someone has to do it. Some of the females shared in kitchen work and other domestic type work. And Janosch reminded his son, Habbar, to get some of his school work done that day. Being that Janosch's sons like to come along aboard the ship at times, Janosch's cubs are home schooled.  
At about noon, Janosch Fossa set some time aside to get the Meerkat's vehicles loaded into the deck of the freighter. A car was driven into a cage like structure, then lifted onto the ship with one of it's cranes. The car was then driven onto the deck. Then the same was done for the next vehicle. When Banga began to drive his old Volvo Duett station wagon over to the ship, the car lost it's front right wheel. Banga's car, now on three remaining wheels, skidded to a stop on it's front spindle and control arm where the front wheel came off. As Banga was sitting in the driver's seat, saying, "Perdeu uma roda! Uma porcaria! (Lost a wheel! Crap!)", the wheel rolled off the edge of the dock and >SPLASH< in into the water.
"That's another vehicle on three wheels", said Amos Meerkat.
"The vibration in the wheel on the way here. I think that's what it was all about", Bron said to Banga.
"Blown wheel bearings", said Banga. "Irritated over it I am. But at least the car got us here".
"I just thank God it fell off HERE, and not while we were coming down the road", Murua added.
It was decided that Banga Meerkat's old Volvo, being that it also had a slipping transmission, wasn't worth taking along. So it was left for Port Authority to dispose of it how they saw fit. Janosch Fossa arranged for a wood shipping crate for the contents from Banga's car. It was like pulling whales teeth to get a crate, but Janosch did manage to get one.

On the following morning, the Star of Antananarivo was pulling out of port.
"For an old ship, it sure runs quiet", said Cheesah.
"We're being pulled out by tug boats right now", replied Cheesah's new found friend, Habbar Fossa. "Our ship isn't running yet. When we get away from everything, we'll drop the tow lines, then the ship will run on it's own."
After the the ship was towed away from dock, and the tug lines released, the Star of Antananarivo's twin diesel engines were revved up, then the ship was on it's own heading to open waters.
"The motor that must be, isn't it", Cheesah said to Habbar.
"Engines. Diesel engines. Two of them", Habbar corrected Cheesah. "We're running on our way now".  
Once out in the open water they were on their way. A few of the meerkats, at the ship's stern, looked back to watch the African Continent slip out of sight. Bron came to the stern of the ship and reminded those looking back of the Biblical principal of 'looking ahead while at the plow'.
"We should look ahead, not back", Bron said. "There's a better way of life where we are going".

A while later, Habbar took Cheesah to show him the engine room way down in a lower level of the the ship's hull below.
Upon entering the engine room Cheesah beheld the ship's two, old, very early model, diesel engines, with their mint green paint badly worn through age, labouring along, keeping the ship going.
"UAU. Engines this big, I never saw before", Cheesah said over the sound of the engines running with their various other mechanical sounds due to their age.
The ship's engineer, Natoo Linsang, advised the two cubs not to get too near the engines.
Cheesah was amazed almost beyond belief when Habbar told him, "Those modern ships that carry those stacks of truck trailer containers have even bigger engines than these are".
The engineer's assistant, Kaamil Civet, who had recently came on shift, mentioned to Cheesah, "Some of those modern ships are even too big to get through the Panama Canal".
"Panama Canal?...What is that?", Cheesah asked, followed by Kaamil Civet briefly explaining to Cheesah what the Panama Canal is, and where it is at.  
Cheesah then told Habbar, Kaamil and Natoo about the twin cylinder steam engine that use to run the generator for the metal fabrication shop back in the village of the old homeland.
"Many years ago, all ships were either steamer or sail...and some had both", Natoo Linsang said.
"Were you ever on one?", Cheesah asked Natoo Linsang as Habbar laughed.
"Ha ha", Natoo laughed, "No. That was way before my time. My great uncle served aboard one though".
"My dad said this is one of the first ships to have diesel engines instead of steam engines", Habbar told Cheesah.
"This ship, she was completed in 1923...Shipyard laid the keel in 1920", Natoo added. "This old ship has sailed a many waters. And she has seen a lot of years".
"My dad's Uncle Antwan served as a boatswain aboard this ship a long time ago", Habbar told Cheesah.
"And quite the Hell raiser too during port liberty, I've heard", Natoo Linsang said.
"That's what I've also heard Captain Fossa tell", Kaamil Civet added as they all chuckled.
Natoo Linsang then told Cheesah, "Antwan Fossa...It was he who also helped his nephew Janosch get hired aboard this vessel as a watchstander's apprentice...Eventually, Janosch earned his shipmate's license. As old shipmates retired and new apprentices hired on, Janosch Fossa earned his way up through the ranks. Before Captain Mongoose took retirement from Indian Oceanic Shipping Corporation, Janosch was his first mate then, and had the credentials he needed to certify for his captain's license...Also, when Janosch Fossa became captain, Joel Fossa became first mate".
"Uau" (wow), Cheesah pondered. "Joel, what is his relation?".
"You mean family?", Kaamil Civet asked.
"Joel's not an uncle or cousin or brother or anyone like that", Habbar Fossa added.
"First Mate Joel Fossa, he's not related to the captain's family", Natoo Linsang affirmed.  
After Natoo, Kaamil, Habbar and Cheesah talked a while longer, the two cubs went back topside to resume their chores. Natoo Linsang and his two engine operators went back to tending to the needs of the ship's engines. And Kaamil Civet went to get some rest so he and his two operators can relieve Natoo Linsang's engine room crew eight hours later.

Once out on the open sea, and far away from the continental land mass, the meerkats noticed how clear and deep blue the ocean was...so clear, any marine life as far as about 100 meters down (several hundred feet) can be easily seen from the deck of the ship, like you were looking down through glass. This was something none of the family members had ever witnessed before. However, for Janosch Fossa, his son Habbar, and the crew, seeing this was nothing new...them being seafarers.

Early in the voyage, the Star of Antananarivo made it's stop at Madagascar's chief seaport in Toamasina to drop off a delivery of infrastructure supplies. The voyage was certainly an experience for the meerkats, and it was the first time they've ever seen Madagascar, although the meerkats were not allowed to leave the ship, as their travel arrangements didn't include setting foot in that country. But they did enjoy seeing the country's beauty that could be seen from the deck of the ship, including the view of the seaport and the City of Toamasina.
The City of Toamasina use to be Captain Janosch Fossa's hometown where he grew up...actually in a poverty stricken neighborhood on the outskirts of town. It was also where he and his wife Sthella and their cubs resided when they still lived in Madagascar. Toamasina was also where First Mate Joel Fossa had grown up as a cub. So Janosch and Joel phoned their parents and siblings to tell them they were in port in Toamasina. They then made arrangements to have the relatives get together with them, Janosch bringing Habbar along, for an evening out at a nearby, old time, seafood restaurant that wasn't far from the dock where the ship was moored. Second Mate / Navigator Nandoh Orangutan, assisted by Boatswain Roy Fox, was placed in charge of the Star of Antananarivo until Janosch, Habbar and Joel returned later that evening.
For Janosch, his son Habbar, and Joel Fossa, it was nice to have the evening out with relatives they haven't seen in a while. And Janosch Fossa's parents were delighted their grandson Habbar came along with them also.
The seafood restaurant was high class and pricey, with it's dim lighting, high quality bamboo style tables and chairs and dark red table cloths, and catering to a large tourist clientele. And it was well known mostly for it's giant size shrimp, and for the fact they get their seafood, including lobster, fresh each day only from local fishers who have long earned their trust...and they do pile on the onion rings which some animals swear are the best in all of Madagascar. They also played some nice music to dine by, such as;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBRR2SmZpuA&index=3...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDP4q2E72i4&index=2...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mO12cVjX7IE&list=RD...

Several tables were placed together to accommodate the large family group, and the two Malagasy civets who were the waiters already knew this one was going mean a very large sum of tips between them.
Joel's and Janosch's parents needed no introduction as they had been long time acquaintances. Among the many relatives present, Janosch's Uncle Antwan was also there...although now not as wild and crazy as he was in his younger years.
During the conversations among the family, Antwan mentioned to Janosch, "Nikarakara tsara ny sambo,  Zana-drahalahiny (Take good care of the ship, Nephew). Members of our family have faithfully served aboard her".
"I always do, Dadatoa Antwan (Uncle Antwan)", Janosch Fossa assured his uncle with a smile, acknowledging that the Star of Antananarivo has sentimental meaning to the family.
Also present was a cousin who use to serve aboard the Star of Antananarivo as the ship's assistant engineer under Janosch Fossa's command as captain...That was before the ship's port of origin was reassigned out of India.
Also present was a great uncle on Janosch' mom's side of the family who was a retired ferry captain.
Much of Joel Fossa's family also held various officer's and watchstander's positions aboard sea going and local vessels...including three members, among those present at the restaurant, two dock workers, and a 'mule tractor' operator (moving and yarding containers) for the Port of Toamasina.
Janosch's older brother Kairu, with his wife, and their two adolescent male cubs had joined them at the restaurant a bit later...And the cubs were thrilled to see Uncle Janosch and cousin Habbar.
Kairu Fossa is a tug boat captain for the Port of Toamasina. Captain Kairu Fossa and his crew and tug had finished running a long shift that day and had gotten off only a few hours ago.
And an uncle on Janosch's dad's side of the family is a first mate aboard a channel dredger, and a cousin who is a boatswain aboard a cargo container freighter, although neither were there at the restaurant. Janosch's uncle was offshore with his ship and crew at the time. and the cousin was out at sea on a voyage.
Janosch Fossa, who is paid well as a ship's captain, treated mom and dad to their meals being that he and Kairu's parents had always been poor...Janosch and Kairu Fossa's dad had been unable to work due to leg injuries since before Janosch was even born...Older brother Kairu agreed to take care of Mom and Dad's part of the tip.
As well as there were old time family stories recalled among the families of Janosch and Joel that evening at the restaurant, there was also the sharing old sea stories...Seafarers are quite common in Janosch Fossa's family, and there are a few in Joel's family as well.
The total amount of all the tips left by the family members came to about 600,000 ariary...not as much as it would sound like, but still what would be equivalent to almost $200 in U.S. dollars. Between the 27 members of Janosch and Joel's families who attended, the combined amount of the bills were in ariarys equal to around $1,000 U.S. dollars, give or take...It is a pricey place to eat but well worth the money.  
That evening, while Janosch, Habbar and Joel were still away from the ship, there were a few times that Cheesah's parents, Bron and Lacara, had to get on to Cheesah for blinking lights on and off aboard the ship...Cheesah being fascinated by the electric lights going on-n-off at the push of the buttons...The lighting system of the Star of Antananarivo was still equipped with those old push button switches that were common in houses during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, where the top button turns on the lights, and the bottom button turns them off.
"Captain Fossa and his crew, they might have something to say about that, Son", Bron would remind Cheesah.
But it wasn't long before Cheesah was back to blinking the lights again.  During the times Cheesah had been playing with the lights aboard the ship, two shore workers, a Malagasy civet and a ring tailed mongoose, who were standing on the dock had been noticing some of the ship's portholes (a ship's window) lighting up and blinking back out.
"Quelqu'un à bord du navire clignote lumières" (Someone on the ship flashing lights), the Malagasy civet said to the ring tailed mongoose. "Savez-vous ce qu'il en est?" (Do you know what it is?).
"Fantatro fa sambo" (I know that ship), the mongoose replied to the civet. "Je ne pense pas vieux Capitaine Janosch Fosse embauche animaux déjantés sur son équipage" (I do not think old Captain Janosch Fossa is hiring crazy animals on his crew).
"Oui. Je ne pense pas...INDRAY! IZY NATAONY MANAO IZANY!" (Yea. I do not think so...AGAIN! THEY DID IT!), said the civet about the time Cheesah blinked another light.
 After Janosch Fossa and his son Habbar with Joel Fossa returned from their evening visit with their relatives, Janosch also got after Cheesah for blinking the lights.
"Cheesah", Janosch Fossa reprimanded. "You blinking those lights got two shore workers out there thinking we're all nuts or something...Besides, you'll blow the bulbs playing with the lights like that. So let's not have any more of that...OK?".
"Oh...OK", Cheesah agreed.
But they didn't go hard on Cheesah for it. Because of the fact the old homeland never had electrical service, they realized how fascinated Cheesah was with clicking buttons on a wall, and a room would light up, then get dark again.  

At dawn the following morning, the Star of Antananarivo pulled out of the port of Toamasina to continue on it's northeast course to India. On the way out of port, Captain Janosch Fossa noticed his brother Kairu's tug boat coming back the other way...Kairu and his crew had just began their shift. Janosch had the watchstander at the helm blow the ship's whistle as Kairu tooted the tug boat whistle...>RHOOOOO< ....>TOOOOT<.
From the ship's bridge, Janosch waved to his brother, as Kairu waved back from the tug boat's wheel house as the two vessels met each other.
A few hours later that morning, the Star of Antananarivo was again far enough out at sea where the deep blue waters were clear as glass 100 meters or so down...As was with Madagascar's eastern oceanic shelf, they had left that behind a long time ago...They were by now on the deep water...Madagascar's eastern oceanic shelf does not go out from land very many naughts.  

Since the voyage began, the meerkats always noticed a shoulder held missile launcher hanging on a wall in the galley. The meerkats knew what it was because they've seen war in their former homeland of Angola.
That evening of the same day they left the Port of Toamasina, when everyone was sitting down to dinner, Moze Meerkat asked Janosch,"What's the missile launcher for?"
"I'm surprised you knew what it was", Janosch replied.
"We've seen our country war torn before", said Moze. "That's not the first one of those I've seen".
"It's to deal with pirates...", Janosch Fossa answered.
"Ocean robbers?!", Nafula gasped.
"If you prefer to call them that", said Janosch. "Joel and I, and two of my other ship's officers know how to use it. If we're attacked by pirates, that's what's waiting for them".
"Along with the rest of our arsenal as well", Joel Fossa added.
"We have several assault rifles", said Janosch. "One AA-52, four AK-74s, two Daewoo K-2s, and one Uzi. We also have two sniper rifles, a Serbian made M-92 and a Turkish AMR. The sniper rifles and the missile launcher would be used against their mother ship if we're attacked".
"I just hope we don't run into any ocean robbers...or uh, pirates", said Annika. "After we left Angola, we had our share of adventure".
"And at times, MORE than our share. And while we were still living there too", Zhang added.
"Do you think we'll see any!?" Cheesah asked.
"I've never seen pirates in these waters", Janosch answered. "But if you ever get up around off the coast of Somalia, those waters are infested with Somali pirates. And it seems like the baboon and jackal pirates are the worst out of all of them".
"Somalia is in REAL rough shape. One of the poorest countries in the world. A collapsed banking system. Hardly a central government", said Mose.
"It's sad too", said Bron. "To live that kind of a life of desperation. And we would think WE had it bad".
"The trawlers from rich countries. They have robbed their fishing from them too", Lacara noted.
"We ourselves are no strangers to living in a poor country... And being taken advantage of", said Annika.
"No offense intended, Captain Janosch. And I don't like saying this", Liea added as she felt a bit uneasy about making the comment in the presents of a ship's captain. "But the Somalis seem to be victims their selves. Just like the ships they raid".
Janosch Fossa paused for a moment, then explained, "I myself grew up in hard poverty in rural Madagascar. And like Angola and Somalia, Madagascar isn't exactly a 1st world country either".
Then Janosch continued, "Before I was born, my dad use to pull tourists around in a rickshaw in our nearby town of Toamasina for a living. One day, a drunk tourist wolverine hit my dad with a car, then drove away. My dad's legs were messed up and he was disabled walking with a cane for the rest of his life. I've known what it was as a cub to go hungry, and to be driven by desperation. I've seen the time my dad was caught stealing off of a market vender's table in Toamasina so the family could eat. The vender was an old ring tail mongoose who knew our family. He felt enough compassion for us to give us some food to take home, and didn't have my dad arrested, which was very kind of him. I've known well what hard times were".
Then Janosch motioned his paw toward the missile launcher hanging on the galley wall and continued, "But if we're ever attacked by pirates, my first concern is for the safety of my crew and the safety of any passengers I have aboard this vessel".  
As everyone finished eating, they still enjoyed good fellowship and conversation, but it was agreed that the subject about 'those living in 3rd world countries becoming sea pirates out of desperation' was to further be avoided.
Captain Janosch Fossa did not share the same pity that the Meerkats had for those anthro-animals who turn rouge out of desperate circumstances. Had it been anyone else talking the way Leia Meerkat did, Janosch probably would have slapped the shit out someone for it. But Janosch did consider that life experiences for the Meerkats may have differed some from what he himself had known. Janosch realized a hard way of life can shape how someone feels about situations differently than if they had grown up in better living conditions. That may have been why Janosch did not come down hard on Liea Meerkat for referring to Somali pirates as 'victims', in spite of the fact that sea pirates are a captain's worse night mare.

In the days that followed as the Star of Antananarivo continued on it's northeastward way, there would be periods of leisure time when some of the crew were not very busy, and members of the Meerkat Family had their chores caught up. Those would be the times they would exchange stories of their past experiences. The meerkats told stories of their way of life and of the civil wars in Angola. And the ship's crew members would tell of their past experiences out at sea.
Boatswain Roy Fox, who was also 3rd mate, told of a time from a year ago, when the ship was caught in a really violent storm out at sea, 1,200 naughts west northwest of Australia, and at times the ship going 'bow under' in the huge waves. Roy Fox also told of how the crew began to wonder if they were going to make it.
First Mate Joel Fossa told of the time on a run to Greenland, when they came close to striking an unexpected stray ice burg one night that was not on an advisory list. It was a time when the ship's home port was in the Port of Toamasina, and the ship still had an all Fossa crew. Joel went on to tell how a watchstander spotted the ice berg just in time to warn the captain and crew so they can take action to avoid hitting it...and without a moment to spare.
Captain Janosch Fossa told of the day and time way back when he himself had just been hired on as a watchstander's apprentice aboard the Star of Atananarivo. That was back when his Uncle Antwan was the boatswain, and Captain Mongoose (Malagasy ring tail mongoose) was the captain...qiute a long time ago. Janosch told of the times when the crew would get liberty call when the ship came into a sea port, and the crew would always find where a tavern was. Janosch told how when his Uncle Antwan got enough beer in him, he would start Hell raising, get into fights with one or more of the locals, or get into some other kind of trouble where Captain Mongoose had to go ashore to get Boatswain Antwan Fossa out of jail.
Joel Fossa also told of that time, 7 years ago, in the South Pacific when they rescued a kinkijou aboard a homemade raft who had left an island he had been stranded on in his attempts to find civilization.
Yannas told of the time, 9 years ago, during a run from India to Madagascar when they picked up three young adult lemurs as passengers paying their own fare to go back home to Madagascar...two males with a female traveling with them. One night, during that voyage, when the sea was rough, the lemurs were clowning around on deck and one fell overboard.
"By the time we got the ship stopped and lowered a lifeboat with a search detail...on a rough sea...at night...we thought we had lost him", Janosch went on to say. "But one of my watchstanders barely heard 'Mba ampio aho' from a long way off behind the ship, then spotted him with one of the ship's search lights".
"Ampo hio?", Cheesah asked.
"Yes", Janosch answered. "He was crying 'Please help me' as he was bobbing up and down in the waves, and doing everything he could to not go under. As my watchstander managed to keep the search light beam on him with the ship being rocked around, my search detail fought the waves rowing out over the rough sea and rescued him".
"I noticed those lemurs didn't mess around on deck after that", said Joel.
"Sometimes an experience like that is what it takes to make reality sink in", Janosch added. "After he got calmed down, I gave him and the two others a stern talking to about fooling around on the deck of a ship", Janosch further added.
"Your ship, it travels a big route from what you told us", Moze commented.
"Lots of those places, I learned in school where they are", Cheesah added.
"This ship is commissioned as a tramp freighter", Joel Fossa mentioned.
"Tramp freighter?", Mose asked.
"A tramp freighter is sent anywhere a ship is needed", Janosch Fossa added. "We don't run the same route all the time. We go where ever they send us".
Of course, one story that wasn't left out how the corporate owners of the Star of Antananarivo reassigned the ship's home port of origin to Port of Karaikal in India. Which meant Janosch Fossa and his wife and cubs relocating to India, as well as Joel Fossa and his wife, in order for Janosch and Joel to keep their jobs and their positions as captain and first mate with the ship...Also as well as a new crew having to be hired out of India because the rest of the former crew, which was an all fossa crew, didn't want to relocate from Madagascar...That decision from corporate never did set with Janosch, or Joel, very well.
The Meerkat Family certainly did enjoy the sea stories, which it was beginning to feel like a sea going vessel is more interesting once you find out a little about it's history.
  
Later during the voyage, the half grown cubs, Cheesah Meerkat and Habbar Fossa, experianced a bit of anatomical curiosity about each other, being of different species and design. It was when Cheesah was cleaning the restroom, and Habbar came in to pee. Cheesah noticed Habbar completely unsheath himself back to the base to pee.
"O QUE ACONTECEU, HABBAR!" Cheesah let out,  "Your poor little dickie. What happened to it?"
"What are you talking about?" Habbar asked as he continued peeing.
"Eh estranho...uhh...strange looking. Looks like behind the head was wrung...And like it's face pushed flat", Cheesah answered.
Habbar laughed then said to Cheesah, "All us male fossas are built by nature this way".
Cheesah noticed how Habbar's penis, starting from the base, had a long smooth lining, then a divided cluster of barbs, then a short smooth area, then a bulged place behind the head with more barbs, then the diameter going down small at the neck, then the back of the head flairing out like the shape of the end of a trumpet or like a bell, and the front of the head being nearly flat, with the pee opening protruding a little below center.
"Sure looks strange", said Cheesah.
"Not if you're a fossa", replied Habbar as he finished peeing and shook it, with the flair shaped head flopping up and down like a ringing bell. "Other species say we're blessed to have a pee-wee like this", Habbar continued. "When I have time alone, having a pee-wee like this is sure fun to play with".
Trying to find the right words, Cheesah began, "So...the captain...uhh..."
"Captian Janosch Fossa. My dad. He has a pee-wee just like mine, but bigger", said Habbar. "My two brothers, my uncles, my male cousins. All us male fossas are made that way".
"I'll sure say this. Yours is the first fossa dickie I've ever seen out of it's sheath", said Cheesah. "Espantoso".
"Eshun-toozoo?...or what ever you said", Habbar replied.
"Oh. Amazing", said Cheesah, "It's amazing. I've never seen a dickie like it".
"I've never seen one poking out on a meerkat", said Habbar.
"I'll let you see mine. If you want to", Cheesah offered.
"I am curious", said Habbar.
Cheesah placed his paws to each side of his sheath, and with the thumbs and index digits, pressed his sheath back, revealing the full length of his penis, having a moderatly long sulcus, and a head formed into a point with a graceful sweep to it, and with the point extending out past the pee opening, looking like a little pointy nose on it.

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"Oh, I've seen one like that before", said Habbar. "A mongoose friend of mine has a pee-wee that looks a lot like yours...except I recall his pee-wee having a more chubby looking head than yours has".
"Well, MINE is not that chubby", Cheesah replied. "There's some mongooses I know. Two of them do have dickies with chubby heads.  One other mongoose I know, his dickie has a long narrow head like mine".
"So like with us fossas then", Habbar replied. "On my dad's pee-wee, where the pee hole is, the point extends out further than mine does and curves down some. And my older brother Haja has a pee-wee with a puffed face and has a big point where it's pee hole is".
Cheesah then volunteered the info, "My brother Zhang's dickie has a head like mine. And the dickie my oldest brother Moze has, actually looks up at the same time it points ahead when it gets hard".
"Look up and point ahead?", Habbar chuckled.
Cheesah explained to Habbar how the head on Moze' penis deflects upward when it gets hard, then added, "And my deceased brother, his dickie had a big plumpie head".
"The sqeezy head kind", Habbar giggled.
"I did squeeze it once when I was a small cub", Cheesah volunteered as he and Habbar laughed.
"I bet your brother was starttled", said Habbar.
"Took him by surprize anyway...He did jump.", Cheesah replied as he and Habbar again laughed..
Habbar mentioned to Cheesah, "For some reason, until now, I've always thought what a pee-wee looked like on you meerkats was completely different from the pee-wee's I've always seen on mongooses".
"I don't see why. Mongooses and us are related species...Herpestidaes, my dad told me", said Cheesah.
"I guess that explains why it looks a lot alike on your kind and on mongooses", said Habbar. "It is a cute design. But do all you male meerkats pee-wees give off such a strong scent? I can really smell it since you poked your pee-wee out to show it to me...It's like popcorn".
"Not all of us. You might say my little dickie is extra blessed. In the...uh...scent department. When he pokes out, he really knows how to make his presents known", Cheesah replied as he and Habbar chuckled.
"One of THOSE kind of pee-wees", Habbar continued chuckling. "A stinky dinky".
"When I was younger, my brothers use to tease me about it. They would call me the popcorn beast", Cheesah told Habbar as they both laughed.
About that time, Janosch Fossa came in to use the restroom.
"Ce qui se passe en enfer ici!? (What in Hell is going on here!?)" Janosch retorted with overtones of concern, speaking his inquiry in French, as he saw his son and Cheesah looking at each other with their penises still extended out.
The first thought that ran through Janosch Fossa's mind was, "Don't tell me I've taken a meerkat cub aboard who is turning my son gay".
"Habbar, Inona no nitranga teto?" (Habbar, what happened here?) Janosch Fossa demanded of his son.
Habbar quickly explained, in a mix of French and Malagasy, to his dad what they were doing.
Then Cheesah told Janosch, clearly and slowly, "Eu-sou-eh-teh-raw-sehk-soo-ahl".
"I don't understand it if it's in Portuguese", Janosch reminded Cheesah.
Cheesah contemplated replying, "When you walked in, I did not understand the French you spoke", but with the present mood Captain Fossa was in, he figured he better not.  
So Cheesah restated in English, "I am heterosexual", then he explained what was going on, the same as Habbar had previously explained it.
Janosch thought it over a few seconds then said, "Hmph...Cub curiosity...Well, that's far enough. You two don't need to get carried away with it. Draw those things back into their sheaths before they start getting hard".
As Janosch unsheathed himself to pee, Habbar and Cheesah glanced over, then Habbar wispered in Cheesah's ear, "I told you my dad has one like mine but bigger". Then the two cubs chuckled.
"OK, Habbar. That will do", Janosch said as he glanced over at the two cubs, while he was still peeing.
After Janosch finish peeing, he shook his penis before letting it slide back into sheath, with it's flair shaped head flopping up and down as would a ringing bell.
Cheeash thought to himself, "A bigger bell head, looking like it's going, ding-a-linga ding-a-linga ding-a-linga...I guess if dickies could get dizzy, a fossa's dickie definitely would be, the way it's head being like that shakes around".
Janosch sent Habbar back up to the bridge house so Joel, who was at the helm, can continue teaching him about nautical navigation. And reminded Cheesah that he still had the passage ways to sweep after he got the restroom clean.
Janosch then turned toward Cheesah, him knowing what meerkat sex scent smells like, and said, "Oh, and Cheesah. I'm not saying this to embarrass you...but uh...well...you should wash that little thing of yours more often...WITH the sheath pulled back away from it. You got this whole restroom smelling like buttered popcorn".
"Yes sir, Captain", Cheesah replied with a smile.
"Ha ha. Cub curiosity", Janosch laughed as he left the restroom. "I guess we all had our turn at it while growing up".

With less than a day left before the ship's arrival at the Port of Karaikal, they passed over the Chagos-Maldives-Laccadive Ridge, on which a series of  atoll islands are located that make up the nation of Maldives. There were places that Captain Janosch Fossa had the Star of Antananarivo's engines slowed down to one-quarter throttle as not to make a large wake when passing a nearby island. The highest point on many of those islands are only a couple of meters (several feet) above sea level, including those with buildings and towns on them.
Members of the Meerkat Family were really impressed with awe the few times the ship passed near enough to an island to see from a distance it's beautiful white sand beaches, elegant marinas, and it's lush tropical foliage among it's buildings and beach houses.
"How do you like those islands?", asked Assistant Engineer Natoo Linsang, who was presently off engine room shift.
"Nothing like it I have ever seen", Lacara replied.
"They are really beautiful", Bron added.
"India! Places like that it has too?!", Cheesah asked with enthusiasm.
"Naw...Not in India...A few places in Sri-Lanka might come somewhat close", Natoo answered.
"Awww", Cheesah moaned with disappointment.
"Hey...Cheesah", Older Brother Zhang told him. "Many beautiful places there should be in India".
Then Natoo Linsang suggested, "At a later time, why not take a vacation here? It's not that far from India, you know".
"There you go, Cheesah", Oldest Brother Moze added. "To see Maldives, it's not too late".
"Oh, that would be nice", Lacara replied as she and Bron hugged each other.
"Oh it would", Annika added as she put her arm around Zhang.
Also amazing to the meerkats was that while still over the Chagos-Maldives-Laccadive Ridge, there were places no deeper than about 70 meters (about 200 feet deep), and you could see the bottom and the sea life below like you were looking through glass.
Cheesah had even made the comment, "When you look down, it looks like the ship is floating on air".

Eventually, the Star of Antananarivo had made it's way past the Chagos-Maldives-Laccadive Ridge, leaving behind the atoll islands of the Nation of Maldives, and was again out over deep open water.
About an hour before sunset, Cheesah and Habbar were walking on deck, and Cheesah noticed some things making flight just above the surface of the water.
"Habbar! You see that?! Those poor birds! They lost their way out here!...Far from land!", Cheesah exclaimed.
Habbar laughed, then told Cheesah, "Those aren't birds. They're flying fish".
Cheesah couldn't believe Habbar at first until Habbar asked Cheesah to have a 2nd look. And when Cheesah looked again, sure enough...FISH...gliding with large front fins as wings...some of them going fast enough to keep up with the ship at 22 to 25 naughts...and squiggling their tails along the water giving them the appearance like they were actually flapping wings. Some of them would fly distances of more than 30 meters (100 feet) before diving back into the water.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_fish#/media/File:P...
"UAU!", exclaimed Cheesah. "About THIS! I gotta get Mom and Dad and everyone to see it!".
From up in the bridge of the ship, Captain Janosch Fossa, First Mate Joel Fossa, Second Mate Nandoh Orangutan, and the watchstander at the helm who was a palm civet looked out over the deck below and saw how fascinated Cheesah was seeing flying fish for the first time in his young life.
As they saw Cheesah running toward the ship's superstructure, Joel Fossa said, "I bet Cheesah is running to get his family to come out and see the flying fish".
"You know he is", Janosch laughed.
A few minutes later, as the Meerkat Family came out on deck to see the flying fish, the palm civet at the helm said to Janosch Fossa, "There they are, sir".
Sure enough, viewed from the windshield panes of the ship's bridge, the meerkats could be seen coming out onto the deck.
"Probably the their first time seeing them", said Nandoh Orangutan as he, the captain, the first mate and the watchstander at the helm observed from the bridge the flying fish flying like escorts along the sides of the ship, and getting a kick out of how fascinated the Meerkats were, which was probably as entertaining to them as the flying fish were to the meerkats.
After sundown, the flying fish stopped flying for the night, and Habbar Fossa and the Meerkat Family went back inside. Tomorrow morning, the Star of Antananarivo arrives in the Port of Karaikal, India.
 
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Life in a New Homeland

After a few days out on the Indian Ocean, the Star of Antananarivo arrived to it's destination, the port city of Karaikal, in the southern Indian State of Tamil Nadu. And it was a good thing the Meerkat Family had a fluent knowledge of the English language. Because the first thing asked by the immigration official, who was a bear of small build and humble demeanor, was, "Fala Ingles?", him knowing they were Angolan.
"We do speak English. Yes.", Lacara answered fluently. And her answer was also affirmed by the other family members.
None of the Meerkat Family, except for one, were able to present birth certificates. As was already expected by the Indian immigration officials, many poverty stricken parts of rural Angola never issued birth certificates...In fact, nearly all the family members didn't even know what a birth certificate was. When someone was born, everyone in the community knew who they were, and that was considered good enough back in the old homeland.  Only Nafula's husband, Yousaf, had a birth certificate, because he had been born in the City of Namibia on Angola's Atlantic coast. Provided all members of the family were able to affirm under oath who everyone else was, the immigration process was then able to continue. And in a short while, due to the family's refugee status, the process was expeditiously completed, then the meerkats were sworn in as citizens of India.
As for those old vehicles the meerkats brought over from Angola with them, there wasn't hardly any import duty charged on them. Customs took one look at how old those vehicles were, and at the condition they were in, and declared their values as being next to worthless. However, the meerkats were advised to have some repairs made to the vehicles, such as Najja's truck not having windshield wipers, Moze's Opal wagon having bad brakes and now missing it's muffler, and a fair size list of various other safety issues needing to be fixed on the vehicles.
There were more safety issues with the first group of the family's vehicles that left Angola. Out of the four vehicles that made it to India, none of them had signal lights that worked...except for Yousaf and Nafula's Renault, on which the left signal did work, but the right signal did not. And there was the horn in Najja's truck that didn't work, and no brake light.
Almost half the tires among all the vehicles were bald, and some had inner plies and steel belt showing through. And that bad front tire, that began to peal apart while in Mozambique, on Oswald and Zoe's Opel Kapitan had already gone flat during the voyage coming over aboard the ship.
And the mink, who's job it was to catch discrepancies on imported motor vehicles, REALLY took issue when he looked under Annika's Moskvitch and noticed the left tie rod end being held together with bailing wire.  
"Who owns this car?", the mink called out as he got back up from under Annika's car.
"It's mine", Annika said as she approached him.
"I'm Navin Mink, custom's officer", The mink hastily introduced himself.
"I'm Annika Meerkat. To meet you, I am pleased", Annika humbly replied.
"This excuse for a tie rod end", Navin Mink admonished Annika. "You can call a tow truck and have it towed to a garage to get it fixed, and fixed right. But you're not DRIVING it there like THAT".
Zhang and Annika argued the issue of needing the car towed until Navin Mink finally told them, "Hey look. I can reject this car from even being here in India if I want to. It's getting TOWED to a garage, NOT driven there".
Then Navin Mink saw the wired tie rod end on Yousaf and Nafulas's Renault and retorted, "ANOTHER ONE?! No way. You're not driving this car to a garage either. Get it towed there".
Navin Mink also found the Meerkat Family's guns, still packed in their cars, they had taken with them from Angola.
"WHOA!", Navin Mink exclaimed to the meerkats. "You're not going to keep THESE in this country".
 As Agent Mink radioed for customs agent Rahshen Mongoose, Janosch Fossa told Bron Meerkat in a low tone, "I wish I had known you had these firearms with you. I would have advised you all to leave them back in Mozambique".
Navin Mink was still rambling on and lecturing to the meerkats how most of their guns were illegal under Indian firearms laws when Rahshen Mongoose showed up.
"Navin, take it easy", Rahshen Mongoose told him, "What seems to be the problem here?"
"THAT!", Navin Mink exclaimed as he pointed into an open window of one of the family's cars at several rifles, including a Portuguese A3G3 war rifle.
"OK. We can get this matter taken care of. Calm down", Rahshen assured Navin.
Rahshen Mongoose then gave the Meerkat Family a brief rundown about the firearms laws of India, and what the consequences are for violating those laws. But Rahshen gave the Meerkat Family a break being that they were not accustom to firearms laws where they were from. And, after all, their guns were stopped from making it out of the Port of Karaikal, so no harm done or intended as far as Rahshen Mongoose was concerned.
"We'll have to confiscate most of the guns you have though", Rahshen Mongoose informed the Meerkat Family. "There are a few you can keep", Rahshen continued. "But those guns will have to be registered immediately".
Among the guns to be confiscated, was the Portuguese A3G3 war rifle...The meerkats hated to see that one go, but laws are laws. Rahshen Mongoose and Navin Mink then had the meerkats bring their guns they were allowed to keep to the customs office to get them registered. Rahshen and Navin also had to explain to the meerkats what gun registration was...It was something the meerkats have never heard of before.
Captain Janosch Fossa also had to go the customs office to declare an amendment to his cargo manifest from Mozambique to account for the guns belonging to the meerkats he was unaware of that he had unknowingly shipped to India. It was a bit of a legal mess, but it was soon straightened out.        
When the issue with the guns was settled, Customs Agent Rahshen Mongoose, told Zhang, Annika, Yousaf and Nafula about a reputable automotive shop that was nearby so the cars with the wired tie rod ends would not have to be towed so far. So that's where the cars were towed to have their tie rod ends replaced, along with other repairs on all their cars that should have been done years ago.
Then, Navin Mink and Rahshen Mongoose watched the second group of the family's vehicles being unloaded onto the dock. Those were the vehicles belonging to the family members who had made the road trip across Africa a day behind the others. After those vehicles had been unloaded from the Star of Antananarivo, just as many problems were found with them as well. A vehicle that really drew Navin Mink's attention was one that was sitting on the dock with two of it's bald tires flat.
Navin Mink gazed at the ragged, dilapidated vehicles, then said to Captain Janosch Fossa, "Janosch, I can't believe you actually transported those death trap cars into this country".
"Well, Navin, so I did", Janosch Fossa proudly replied.
"Damn anyway, Janosch!", Navin Mink retorted then abruptly walked away.
After Navin Mink left, Rahshen Mongoose said to Janosch Fossa as the two chuckled, "Oh, don't worry about Navin. I think he's had a bad day".
The repair shop that Annika's car, and her sister and brother-in-law's car, were towed to was run by two otter brothers Havish and Sayed. And they were surprised to see the old Russian made car coming into their shop.
"A Moskvitch. You don't see those every day", said the younger brother Sayed.
Then the Otter Brothers were even more surprised when the other vehicles came in for repairs, such as Najja's old truck, the Renault 4 and the old Opal. The vehicles from Yousaf and Leia's families also came into the Otter Brother's shop, such as a Wartburg wagon that idled and popped like a dirt bike, an Opal Kapitan with layers of cardboard and a few old pillows on the back seat to cover the seat springs that were showing through the upholstery, and a Morris Minor with a half rotted piece of plywood sealed with tar to replace a broken rear side window, to name a few.
Some of the cars were still packed full of belongings that were not yet put in storage.
"Sayed noticed a few cans of 30-W, non-detergent, motor oil behind the front seat of the Wartburg wagon.
"I'm just curious", said Sayed, "I know this car has a two stroke motor. Why the motor oil?".
Sayed's older brother laughed, then told him, "You can use that for two stroke oil. I used it in a moped a lot when you were still a cub".
Leia's dad, Sieheib, who owned the Wartburg, then said to Sayed, "Where we are from, two stroke oil is hard to find. But like your brother says, the thirty weight oil works".
"Three cylinders and only seven moving parts", Havish added.
"That it is", Sieheib confirmed.
Sieheib then noticed the Otter Brothers gazing at a big sheet of rusty metal, with tar around it, over the rear of the roof of his car.
"I see you wonder why the patch is there", Sieheib told the otters.
"It has crossed my mind a time or two", Havish replied.
"If you like, I can tell you", Sieheib offered.
"Sure", Havish said.
Sieheib explained how his Wartburg use to be a camper special, station wagon with the retractable canvas rear roof section when it was a new car many years ago. By the time any of the meerkats ever owned it, that canvas roof section had been long rotted out.  Sieheib continued how what replaced the canvas for years is that large piece of rusty sheet metal. He explained how the metal patch had been hacked out of the side of an old wrecked panel van, by pounding a hatchet through it with a mallet. Then the metal had been beat out flat, then installed on the Wartburg with screws and wire, then sealed with tar.
"It always had leaked a little in a hard rain, but not too bad" ,Sieheib mentioned like a small roof leak was no big deal.
"Well. As long as it works, I guess", said Sayed.
The brakes on the Morris Minor was a scarey story. Years ago, rain water had gotten into the brake fluid reservoir and rusted the master cylinder and brake lines, and there was no money or means to get parts. That dilemma had been easily remedied by rigging the parking brake lever so it would not remain up when it was released. If you wanted to stop the car, you simply pulled up on the parking brake lever as you pressed the clutch petal, and that gave you rear cable operated brakes with no front brakes...That was the brakes. To release the brakes, simply let go of the lever. Needless to say, Havish and Sayed Otter saw it necessary to completely rebuild the entire brake system on that old Morris.
"Incredible...Simply incredible", Sayed Otter had to say about how the brakes were on the Morris.
At least this was a time when the meerkats did have enough money to afford the proper repairs so badly needed on their cars.    
The older brother Havish exclaimed to the meerkats, "My goodness! These old cars. They're worth a lot to any collector, you know".  
Being from their old homeland, the meerkats had no understanding of what Havish Otter was talking about. They've never heard of anyone collecting old cars back in Angola. Some of those old cars were passed down from generation to generation, and to them, an old car was just another old car.
"We don't wish to sell them", Lacara said to Havish. "We need them to get around in".
Upon hearing Lacara's reply, the Otter Brothers just simply looked at each other with bewildered expressions.
Havish and Sayed, had never expeirenced what it was to be so poverty stricken, that all you have for a car is a makeshift masterpiece your grandparents once drove, and to be thankful to have it. The Otter Brothers also had no understanding how someone can have a fifty year old car and not realize it's value.
When Sayed was about to repair the brakes on Moze and Leia's car, he noticed the two old bullet holes in the left door and fender.
"Did someone own this car who had a drug deal go bad?", Sayed halfway joked.
Upon hearing Sayed's question, the family suddenly got quiet as a somber feeling seemed to set in.
Moze then asked Sayed to step aside, and that he wanted to talk with him.
"Those bullet holes, they are from a civil war our old homeland had. That was about ten years ago", Moze began as he explained to Sayed about the war, then continued about how because their old homeland province wasn't very populated, everyone including cubs, the elderly and females had to help fight.
"In that war, we lost a twelve year old brother when I was only nine. I was with him when he died. A grand dad and two cousins, we also lost", Zhang added as Moze nodded in agreement.
"My son, Jorad, he would be twenty two right now", Lacara mentioned.
"Oh, I didn't know. I had no idea. I'm really sorry", Sayed Otter said as the family accepted his apology.
Sayed's older brother, Havish, also gave his condolences for the family as well.
Havish and Sayed have heard about countries before where cubs have been on the battlefield. But hearing about it was nothing like personally meeting those animals who actually have testimony of being there as cubs.    
Later, when Sayed Otter was replacing the left tie rod end on Annika's car, he asked, "I hear you all came from Angola?".
"We did. Yes", Bron affirmed.
Then Sayed asked Annika, "And you drove this car with that tie rod end across Africa?".
"Well, yes. It's been that way for a couple of years", Annika affirmed.
Sayed then mentioned to Annika, "Ma'am, it's a wonder you didn't have it come apart on you on the way over. It could have gotten you or someone else killed".
Havish, who was changing out the tie rod end on Yousaf and Nafula's car, commented to the meerkats, "You all must be mighty brave, or dare devils, to be driving these cars the way they are".
Havish and Sayed could hardly believe that the other vehicles were also driven across the African continent in the condition they were in.  
This was a different way of life for the meerkats, as well as other things that would take some getting use to, including the culture, the music and the seasons being opposite to the months in the Northern Hemisphere, although both Southern India and their old homeland of Angola are pretty much in warm year round climates.
 However, they didn't have to get use to driving on the left side of the road by now, as they do in India. They experienced a lot of left lane driving coming through Zimbabwe, Zambia and Mozambique, on their way from Angola to Port of Beria. But the driver's side being on the left of their vehicles did present some inconvenience driving around India's wild traffic. Najja's truck was the exception. Being a truck meant for use in Kenya, it is a right paw drive vehicle. And in addition to inconvenience, under India's motor vehicle laws, the Meerkat Families cars had to have a small sign displayed, or letters painted, on the rear to warn other drivers, which read, 'left paw drive vehicle'. There was also some concern as to how long the meerkats would be allowed to continue driving their left paw drive cars on India's roads. They were told that it would not become an issue before the Angolan tags on their cars were to expire. Then other animals told the meerkats that because their cars are so old, they would be exempt from any regulations against driving a left paw drive vehicle on Indian roads. However, Janosch Fossa promised the meerkats that he would speak about the matter to an attorney friend of his, Attorney Ebeneezer Weasel.
Janosch assured them, "If they try to stop you from using your cars when your Angolan tags expire, Ebeneezer should be able to find what exceptions your cars would fall under".
"Son, the tag on your car. It will expire in two months? Will it not?" , Bron asked his oldest son, Moze.
"The end of November, it will be expired. Yes", Moze replied.
Janosch then told Bron and Moze, "I see other left paw drive vehicles around here occasionally. I notice they are always old vehicles. I'll get with Ebeneezer and have him see what he can do for you".
With all that said, the meerkats thanked Janosch for offering the help.
The Star of Antananarivo was scheduled for extensive maintenance work, so Janosch Fossa would have two months off with leave pay while the vessel was in down time. Janosch offered to help the meerkats get settled in during his two months off.
With the meerkat's vehicles unloaded from the ship, immigration procedures completed, and their Zambian currency exchanged for India currency, most of the relatives were able to find work. Although the jobs some of them found were not very good jobs, and didn't pay well, they did have an income. A few of the family members got better jobs, getting hired on working at the sea port. As for Moze, he got a job with a construction contractor. Najja put his beat up old truck to work, being in business for himself as a local hauler.
Bron and Lacara, with their youngest son Cheesah, were among the family members who settled in the City of Karaikal. Bron and Lacara found an old, small house that rented for cheap which was in a neighborhood near the sea port. The location worked out well for Bron Meerkat because he was able to get hired on with the sea port, helping to tend a security checkpoint where trucks enter and leave the port. Even though Bron had hip dysplasia, the security job was a job he could easily do. And because the neighborhood was not far from the sea port, it wasn't a far walk between the house and his place of work...At the time, Bron had not yet replaced his old Rekord wagon that blew it's engine during the trip across Africa.    
Whether a family member found a good job, or a not so good job, or not yet found a job, they were grateful the country they now live in wasn't on the verge of exploding into instability and collapse like the country they just left.
Chessah wanted to get hired on with Janosch Fassa's crew aboard the Star of Antananarivo, but at age 13, he was considered too young. And there was also the matter of Bron and Lacara wanting to get Cheesah enrolled in school. With Angola in collapse, it was unlikely Cheesah's parents could get a transcript sent from the school there. However, the school administrator they went to see was able to administer an aptitude test to determine what grade they could place Cheesah in. Once Cheesah resumed his schooling, and his niece, Dora, began attending school, Cheesah was amazed with how different the school building in the City of Karaikal was from his old school back in Angola. It's a nice building with air conditioning, electric lights, running water, tiled floors, restrooms with toilets and sinks. and even a cafeteria. And there were actually buses to take students to and from school.
Cheesah remembers the times, where they lived in Angola, there were no such thing as school buses. Before his parents had a car, he had to get out of bed and begin walking to school at 5:00 o'clock in the predawn hours, then arriving home at 6:00 o'clock in the evening. It was 16 kilometers each way, and over one mountain ridge. Even though his parent's old Rekord wagon was next to being a piece of junk on four wheels, the car had really been considered a blessing to have, up to the time the engine blew a connecting rod on that trip leaving Angola. Even so, the family was still grateful they had that car for the years they've owned it.  
And the school in Karakal had something Cheesah and the rest of the family had never seen before...lap-top and desk top computers. Cheesah didn't even know what they were at first.
At one point, Cheesah asked, "We get to watch tape in this school?" ('Tape' being an Angolan word for TV) when he thought the lap-tops were television sets.
The rest of the students wondered what Cheesah was even talking about.
But in the months to follow, Cheesah was well on his way to being computer savvy.
The school Cheesah use to attend back in Angola had walls constructed of stacked rock with clay for mortar, and a leaky corrugated tin roof supported by rough timber rafters that were not even milled into lumber, and it had no glass in the windows...only curtains that would wave as the wind blew through. It had no electricity, drinking water was drawn from a nearby creek, there was a designated tree away from the building for the "potty" area, and some classes were held outside (weather permitting).
And Annika's dad, Banga, told of what little education he had, back in the days when Angola was known as Portuguese West Africa. The school building was a large, makeshift tent supported from trees in a meadow near the edge of the jungle. For school desks, you picked a place to sit on the ground. And the chalk board was a spread of sand, on the ground, inside the tent, the teacher would write in with a stick as the students gathered around to learn. Banga's school allumni still remember that sand spread as "O kota placa de areia" (The old sandboard).
And cellular phones were a story in itself. The meerkats have never seen those before either, and never even had land line phones where they were from. And once they understood what cellular phones were, those meerkats who could afford a cellular phone, got one. The method of carrying them ranged from a clip on the back of the phone attached to fur hairs, to a pouch and belt worn around the waist, to a flip phone closed down on a necklace. Annika's brother, Najja, being self employed, saw the benefit of having one as a business phone. To some, these new phones were also somewhat of a novel toy.    
As for housing, a lot of the families started out sharing apartments or renting shanty houses, and later, getting to a point where they could do better. Being that Annika was pregnant, Janosch Fossa offered to put her and Zhang up at his house to live with his family, which is a good drive inland from Karaikal, and out into rural country, in the mountains near Yercaud. Zhang and Annika have never been in that nice of a house before, and never even seen such a house back in their old homeland, much less been invited to live in such a place. Janosch introduced them to his wife, Sthella, his 1st and 3rd sons, Haja, age 16 and Mario, age 8, and the youngest member, daughter Malala, age 6. They already knew 2nd son Habbar, age 14. Arrangements were made for Cheesah so he can stay over, on some of his days off from school, at Janosch Fossa's place, with Annika and older brother Zhang. Cheesah and Janosch's 2nd son Habbar had become very close friends, and Cheesah was becoming friends with the other two brothers as well. Cheesah's place of residence was still with his mom and dad in Karaikal.
While staying at Janosch Fossa's place, Zhang would look for work in near by Yercaud and in the next town, Salem, a larger city, but with not much success. In fact, for three days in Yercaud, Zhang would encounter a beggar, who was an old ragged lesser panda. When the panda would ask Zhang for money, Zhang would simply reply, "Find me a job, and I'll give you a paw out"...His way of telling him, "I don't have it to give".
One day, in a cafe in the nearby City of Salem, Zhang met a panda named Kim Sou. During their conversation, Kim Sou Panda found out that Zhang had recently immigrated with his family to India, and was looking for work without much success in finding a job. When Zhang found out Kim Sou was a martial arts instructor who ran a martial arts school in Salem, Zhang told Kim Sou about himself holding a 2nd degree black belt.
"I can use an assistant instructor", Kim Sou told Zhang. "It won't pay much, but it will get you by until you can find something".
"And I can use a job", Zhang replied. "I accept your offer".
After they left the cafe, Kim Sou began to have Zhang follow him on foot to his school.
"Riding's better than walking", said Zhang as he offered Kim Sou a ride in the car that Janosch Fossa had loaned to him.
"Oh, thank you Zhang", Kim Sou replied as he got into the car. "My car is in the shop waiting for a part to come in".
At the martial arts school, Kim Sou had Zhang show him some moves to see what Zhang can do. Kim Sou was well pleased with what he saw, and Zhang was hired on.
"The school only runs two days per week", Kim Sou told Zhang. "And I can't afford to pay you much. This school doesn't by any means make my rich. But it is something until you can find a profitable job".
"I'm just grateful to have the job" Zhang replied. "Besides, during the time I'm here, I'd feel honored to pass along some knowledge to those who want to learn".
"That's why I keep this school open instead of going into something else or getting a full time job" said Kim Sou. "My heart's in it. I like what I do"
Annika and the Fossa Family were happy for Zhang that he did at least find something, even though it was temporary until Zhang could find full time work. And with Kim Sou being 5th degree black belt, Zhang learned a few moves from him he had not until then known, plus some Aikido moves that Zhang's instructor back in Angola did not teach him. Zhang's martial arts training was for war time, to be use against invaders when there not enough guns to go around. The object to Aikido is not to kill, so in Angola, it was never taught.
 
During the late morning of November 23, still in the year 2005, Annika called Zhang into the bedroom she and Zhang were using.
"Get Sthella. Have her bring some old sheets or towels in here", she said to Zhang. "The cub is about to be born".
"This is a blessed day!", Zhang told Annika as he went running to get Sthella, and to break the news to everyone.
Zhang and Janosch's family gathered in with Annika, Sthella bringing in the old sheets. Janosch's three sons had witnessed the miracle of their siblings being born. Malala had not because of her being the youngest. But this was the day they will all witness a new born meerkat coming into the world. Cheesah was staying with them that day, and was standing in the doorway.
"You can come on in Cheesah", Zhang said to his younger brother. "You're about to witness yourself become an uncle".
"Well, we're already uncles", said Cheesah, "Dora", referring to the five year old daughter of their brother Moze and sister-in-law Leia.
"You'll be his uncle also, right?", Annika asked Cheesah.
"Sure will!", Cheesah answered with enthusiasm.
It was at that moment Annika passed fluid.
"I feel the cub coming through", Annika said just before fur and afterbirth can be seen pushing out of her clef.
It was Zhang who began holding the new born on the rest of the way out.
As Janosch cut and tied the umbilical cord, and Sthella gave the little one a wipe down, Zhang said to Annika, "Do you remember, when we were still in Angola? You said you felt like he was going to be a male?"
"Yes. I do remember saying that", Annika answered as she was regaining her breath from giving birth to their cub.
"You were right", said Zhang. "We have a son".
Annika was the first to snuggle their son, as he found the strengh to reach out with his little paws, and grab Mom's fur, and hugged her. Then Zhang gently hugged him, and eventually everyone else had a turn holding him. Even tough, old, Captain Janosch Fossa gently hugged the new born meerkat cub. As Cheesah held him, he said, "Hey. How's my little nephew?"
Then he was given back to Annika so he can nurse. There was no crying or pitching a fit, as those are not the ways of new born animals.
Everyone gave suggestions as to what to name Zhang and Annika's newest family member, but Zhang and Annika decided to name their son Raphael. Janosch Fossa even broke out the finest wine he had for everyone to celebrate the occasion. There was even a music CD played which included a really good Malagasy / French tune, http://youtube.com/watch?v=0fPxPcfKgMI .
Janosch had wines he had picked up at various ports he's been to in many parts of the world. What Janosch broke out that day was wine he reserved only for special occasions. And this was a special enough occasion.
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Unbeknown to the Fossa and Meerkat Families...and
they could have cared less if they did know...while Raphael
was being born, a creepy rat doctor in the nearby City
of Salem was throwing a cussing, raging, conniption fit
in a postal facility over getting "the shit end of the stick"
of the disbursement of his deceased dad's estate.
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The next day, Zhang and Annika took Raphael to Salem to have it on record that Raphael Bandogo Meerkat is a native born citizen of India.
Within a few days, Zhang was blessed with a good job opportunity. He was able to get hired on as a yard worker with the railway, at the Salem Railway Junction. Annika and the Fossa Family were thrilled to hear about Zhang getting the job, and Zhang's former employer, Kim Sou Panda, wished Zhang well with his new job. The railroad paid well, and in a couple of months Zhang and Annika, with their son Raphael, had their own place, renting a fairly nice, modest home in the town of Yercaud. They were even able to help a couple of family members who weren't yet prospering so well. Cheesah and his niece, Dora, were now enrolled in school. Janosch Fossa let Zhang and Annika borrow an old Lexus the Fossa Family no longer used. That old 1967 Moskvitch that had belonged to Annika, since before her and Zhang were married, was by now literally falling apart, and had finally quit running. Zhang and Annika really liked the car Janosch loaned to them. And it had a lot more "zip" and get up and go.
As Raphael got up to ages 2 and 3, he enjoyed playing with the other cubs. Cheesah, then age 16, and Raphael would go over to play with Janosch Fossa's sons and daughter. Sometimes Moze and Liea would bring Dora, then age 8, to play.

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Life Gets Better for the Meerkats

Two and a half years later, late summer of 2007, Zhang put in for a position that became available where he worked. It was for an assistant locomotive operator trainee for a newly commissioned express train run. Zhang had the most seniority among the others who also put in for it, and it was Zhang who got the position. As an assistant locomotive operator, Zhang would earn a lot higher pay, plus working fewer days, than if he had stayed as a rail yard worker. Zhang's crew would relieve the crew of an eastbound bound express train in Erode in the late afternoon, then running the train the rest of the way to Chennai, near India's east coast. The crew would spend that night in Chennai, then, at 7:15 the following morning, they would begin the westbound return run. When they arrive at Erode around noon, they are relieved by the crew who would run the train to it's western turn around point in Coimbatore. http://youtube.com/watch?v=fYA3FJPJ9ul .
.After work, Zhang would then ride a commuter train back to Salem. Annika would drive down from their home in nearby Yercaud to pick him up at the Salem station. Zhang would have a day off, work two days, have two days off, then work two more days each week, and still bring home more pay than working in the rail yard six days per week. With Zhang's higher pay grade, it was only several months, he and Annika were able to put a down payment on the purchase of a nice home in the mountain rural countryside. And it isn't more than several kilometers from where Janosch Fossa and his family live. At the closing of the sale of the house and land, Zhang had difficulty reading the paperwork in a timely manner. Because Zhang never learned to read or write until age 12, he is still a very slow reader. So Annika read the sale contract, escrow agreement and legal description out loud, The realtor, Jaharh Linsang, explained the contract as Annika read along, then Annika and Zhang signed off as the buyers.
Also, there was something Zhang and Annika were wanting ever since they've been married...a pair of gold wedding rings in place of the wooden rings they've been wearing. They bought a pair of 24 K gold rings at a jewelry store in Salem.

When Cheesah started high school around the end of summer of 2007 (2007 - 2008 school year, 10th grade), Bron and Lacara allowed Cheesah stay in Yercaud with older brother Zhang, sister-in-law Annika and nephew Raphael so he can go to school in Salem with friends he knows, among of whom being Habbar Fossa, although Habbar was a grade ahead of Cheesah.
Janosch and Sthella Fossa had always home schooled their cubs up through the 9th grade, but their cubs attended public school during 10th, 11th and 12th grades...Janosch and Sthella felt that some public school experience would help to improve on the social skills of their offspring. And as far as good and bad influences from fellow students go, the cubs had already developed a good foundation about discerning those things from what Mom and Dad had home schooled them.

In February of 2008, three months after Raphael turned age 2, Raphael's little penis poked out for the very first time. Cheesah was already home from high school for the day at Zhang and Annika's house, and was the first one who little Raphael approached. Little Pee-pee was poking all the way out hard like it was having it's first look at the outside world.
"Uncle Cheesah! Do you SEE him?!", Raphael proclaimed to Cheesah, while pointing to his penis. "He's cute! I think he's my pee-pee!".
"He IS your pee-pee", Cheesah said with a laugh to Raphael.
"O que Raphael quer?" (What does Raphael want?), Annika called from the kitchen to Cheesah.
"Eu acho que Raphael descobriu-se" (I think Raphael found himself), Cheesah answered.
As Annika came into the living room, Raphael proclaimed, "Look Mamma! Pee-pee sayin' Hello!".
"Yes he is", Annika said with a giggle as Zhang walked in...Zhang was off shift from the railroad that day.
"Heh heh...that's my boy", Zhang laughed.
"OUR boy", Annika corrected Zhang.
"Oh, sorry, Hon...Our boy", Zhang acknowledged as he put a paw around Annika.
"I don't think I'm the ONLY one in this family with a stinky xi-xi", Cheesah mention as strong sex scent began to permeate around the living room...And it wasn't coming from Cheesah - His penis wasn't sticking out.
"Son, you have a stinky xi-xi like your Uncle Cheesah has", Annika told Raphael and she, Zhang, Cheesah and even Raphael chuckled.
Raphael then took another good look at his own penis, then said, "Mamma. Pee-pee was lookin' where he's pointin' a while ago. But when Pee-pee got all stiffy feeling, he points THAT way, but looks up all the time".
Annika hadn't figured out what her son was saying at first, until Cheesah made mention to Zhang, "Like our brother Moze. The way HIS xi-xi seems to look upward when it's hard".
"Sim. You mean like it's face is turned up on top looking up", Zhang added as he took notice.
"Awww, that IS cute", Annika added, seeing that the head of Raphael's penis flexes up that way when hard.
That was when Raphael asked, "Mom. Dad. Is that good or bad?".
"It's a GOOD thing", Zhang assured Raphael. That's the way it was naturally made.
"That means your Pee-pee is looking up at you, Raphael", Annika told her son.
"Yea! Pee-pee IS lookin' up at me", Raphael gleefully exclaimed once he looked down and noticed how little Pee-pee seemed to have it's face turned up on top of itself so it can look back up at it's owner...regardless that it was pointing out horizontally.
This is how Raphael perceives little Pee-pee;

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However, once Raphael's penis went back flaccid, and before it went back into sheath, Raphael did notice that Pee-pee's head would return to it's flaccid shape...That's when Pee-pee's head again seemed like it's looking ahead toward where it's pointing.
For some time to come, that day would be known by the family as "the day of Raphael's little discovery".
      

It was in the year 2010 that Cheesah graduated high school in Salem. Cheesah finally got that education his parents Bron and Lacara always wanted him to have.
Shortly after graduating school, Cheesah did end up with a couple of 'dead end' jobs he didn't like. But by the end of that summer, Cheesah was able to get hired on as a maintenance assistant for the City of Salem, helping with maintenance of the city vehicles. It wasn't what you would call a high paying job, but it wasn't too bad.
Little nephew Raphael was to start kinder garden in the fall of that same year in Yercaud.

The meerkats even began to receive mail back from friends and relatives they've been trying to reach who never made it out of Angola a few years earlier.
This was the first time since they had left Angola that mail was again allowed to go out of the country.
From what the relatives wrote to them, Angola had now become a peaceful place to live and began to prosper very well. The political issues that use to plague the country had been resolved. And the various rebel groups who were remnants of UNITA had been overpowered by the rest of the population there. Many of the rebel leaders who had now been taken back out of power had been arrested for war crimes and treason, and the MPLA government is back in control of the rest of the country. And the best news from the relatives was that the so called State of North Angola was no more. It is once again Angola as it was before the trouble erupted.
The family sent letters to the relatives in Angola with phone numbers they can call them on.
It's good to hear from the other meerkat relatives, although those of the family who came to India don't plan on going back. But they do stay in touch with their relatives abroad in the old homeland.

Very early in the year 2012, Zhang and Annika also got a decent reliable vehicle, and it was a one in a lifetime deal too. An elderly widowed palm civet, who's husband recently passed away, had a utility vehicle she called a jeep. Her late husband left it to her and she was selling at almost a give away price. When Zhang and Annika, taking along Raphael, then age 6, went to see the so called jeep, the widowed civet mentioned that it had some collectable value to it, but since her husband died, she just wanted to get rid of it. When the Meerkats saw the vehicle, they found out what the widow palm civet was calling a jeep, was a 1970, five door, hard body, Land Rover, in pristine condition, in dark green, with a white top. It had 4 wheel drive, in line 6 cylinder engine and a manual transmission.
http://moyomongoose.deviantart.com/art/Zhang-and-Annik...
It was the ideal rugged, well built, go any where, nostalgic, family wagon, built to hold up and last. And unlike the cars the meerkats were now replacing, the steering wheel was on the right side, which is better suited for driving in India.
"The only thing missing, is it use to have the safari roof panel above the regular roof", the widowed palm civet told Zhang and Annika. Then she continued, "Birds use to build nests up under it. My late husband and I would tell them not to build there, but they'd do it anyway. Then they'd expect us not to drive it, telling us they were scared that their young would fall out while going down the road. So we fixed that by taking it off and getting rid of it".
Little Raphal was even hopping and climbing over the seats in glee and astonishment.
"I can hardly wait for the other cubs in school to see our new car!" Raphael exclaimed as he took a place on the driver's seat and reaching up holding the steering wheel, barely being able to see over the dash. Raphael had recently started school at that time.
 Zhang and Annika hopped on that deal right away.
"And the engine. It can warm up on it's own. We won't need to hold a piece of cardboard over the carburetor", Zhang said jokingly as Annika chuckled and hugged him.
The widow palm civet was puzzled by Zhang's comment until he and Annika explained how Annika's Moskvitch automobile was.
Then she too laughed, then told Zhang and Annika, "This old jeep treated my late husband and I very well. And as long as it's taken care of, it will treat you just as well as it treated us".
"Hey look. It don't have the fast numbers", Raphael announced as he pointed at the speedometer, noticing it only read up to 75.
"Well, the fast numbers, we don't need them, Babe", Annika replied to Raphael.
"We seldom drive faster than seventy five kilometers per hour anyway, Son", Zhang added.
"Oh my!", the widow palm civet exclaimed. "I almost forgot to tell you. That speedometer is not in kilometers. It's in the old English miles per hour".
"I see that now", Zhang mentioned as he saw MPH, instead of KPH, printed on bottom of the speedometer.
"So seventy five to this speedometer. It's going pretty fast", Annika added.
"My goodness yes", the widowed palm civet answered. "You run this to seventy five, you'll be going almost 120. This kind of speedometer can easily fool you, being use to kilometers.
"We usually drive at seventy or eighty on the open highway. So in miles, that would be....?", Zhang asked.
"Well, if you run it to forty five, that will give you seventy kilometers per hour. And running it to fifty will give you eighty", the widowed palm civet explained.
For Zhang and Annika, getting accustomed a speedometer they were not use to was only a trivial matter. They really liked that Land Rover, and so did Raphael, especially after the meerkats, with the widowed palm civet riding along, took it on a test drive. When they got back from the test drive, Zhang went over to the car that Yannas Fossa had been letting he and Annika borrow, and got the checkbook from the glove compartment. The widowed palm civet received a check in the amount she was asking for the Land Rover, and Zhang and Annika received the title to the vehicle, signed off to both of their names, and a written bill of sale. The deal was done.
Now that Zhang and Annika were the proud new owners of the Land Rover they had purchased, the first thing to do was to return the car that Janosch and Sthella Fossa had been letting them use. Annika drove the car back to the Fossa residence, as Zhang and Raphael followed in the Land Rover. When Janosch and Sthella saw Zhang and Annika's newly purchased vehicle, they were really impressed, which of course, was followed by an hour visit, talking about old Land Rovers and other old vehicles while Habbar entertained Raphael, before the meerkats went on their way.
For most of the remainder of that day, Zhang, Annika and Raphael cruised around Salem, and stopped in at a few places, before they headed back to their house in Yercaud.

It was past bedtime one night, a couple of days after Zhang and Annika bought the Land Rover. The family took a trip into town. As Mom drove, and Dad was trying to find the location of something on a map, Raphael was standing on the driver's side rear door, outside the vehicle, looking for butterflies to catch in his butterfly net as they rode along.
Mom would say, "Get back inside so you don't fall off!".
Then Raphael awoke in his bedroom at 3:20 am, still snuggled in his bed...It was one of those crazy dreams...Raphael dreamed he was standing on the door of the Land Rover catching butterflies.
"What a crazy dream", Raphael thought, then went back to sleep.
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This was drawn for me as a Secret Santa 2016 gift by @Harkrun .
      
Although Zhang and Annika had the Land Rover registered in both of their names, this was the first time Zhang, then 22, ever in his lifetime had a motor vehicle with his name on the title. And it was among the first of the vehicles they and the other family members had that wasn't either beat up or a falling apart piece of junk.

On a Saturday morning, about a month later, there was a knock on the front door of Janosch Fossa's house. It was Yannas' wife, Sthella, who answered the door.
There stood a male skunk of humble demeanor, who introduced himself as Seymour, and announced, "I noticed the old Moskvitch automobile around side of your house. Would you be interested in selling it?".
The skunk then reached into a pouch on a belt around his waist and got out a business card and pawed it over to Sthella.
The card indicated Seymour Skunk to be a dealer of restored antique automobiles.
"It belongs to friends of ours", Sthella Fossa informed Seymour Skunk. "If you want come inside and wait, I'll call them".
Once inside, Janosch offered the skunk a drink while Sthella made the call.
Sthella was able to reach Annika by phone and told her there was a skunk who wanted to buy the old Moskvitch...which had been sitting up long enough, among the palmettos and banana trees, to have a couple of flat tires and weeds grown up around it.
Annika said she would like to sell that old car. It was one of Zhang's day's off from the Indian Railway, so Zhang, Annika and Raphael got in the Land Rover and promptly arrived to Janosch and Sthella's house with the title to the car.
Once everyone got introduced, Seymour Skunk offered 5,000 rupees for the old Moskvitch, which Annika was about to gladly accept.
"Wow! Five thousand!", Zhang responded with surprise.
"He's gonna buy our JUNKY car?!", Raphael asked.
Then Janosch told Annika, "Hold up a minute. Let me talk to him".
Janosch then had Seymour follow him alone into the den and began discussing the offer on the car.
Annika could hardly believe anyone would offer that much money for her old broken down car that no longer ran.
"He must want my old car really bad", said Annika.
"Or he's crazy", Zhang laughed as Annika and Raphael laughed along with him.
Janosch Fossa and Seymour Skunk haggled about the offer over in the den for about seven minutes.
When they came back into the living room, Seymour told Annika, "I'll gladly give you 35,000 rupees for that old car".
"Thirty five thousand", Annika asked. "For my old broken dow....".
"Annika! Annika!", Janosch called her attention as he motioned her to stop talking.
Seymour reached into his belt pouch and got out his checkbook and a pen. Seymour wrote out a check for 35,000 rupees, and Annika signed the title of the old Moskvitch over to Semour Skunk.
Needless to say, Zhang and Annika thanked Janosch for haggling with Seymour to get his offer up 30,000 rupees higher...a big difference between that and the 5,000 Seymour originally offered.
After Seymour Skunk left, Zhang remarked, "For that old broken down car. Thirty five thousand rupees. If I didn't see it, I wouldn't have believed it".
"I know", said Annika. "But I'm not complaining".
Janosch and Sthella then told Zhang and Annika that there are antique car enthusiasts that pay good money for rare and old cars. Janosch told Zhang and Annika that for a car like the old Moskvitch Annika had, Seymour Skunk was taking advantage of them by offering only 5,000 rupees for it, in spite of the condition it was in.
"The five thousand he would have given you for that car would have been nothing compared to what he'll sell it for after it's restored", Janosch had mentioned.
Zhang and Annika had no idea old cars like that were worth anything.  Back when they were living in Angola, they've seen lots of cars as old as 60 years old that were falling apart but would still run...and some that would only barely run.
To everyone where Zhang and Annika grew up, an old car was just another old car, regardless how old or how rare they were. Some of those old cars back in the old homeland had been around seemingly forever.
And there were some of those cars that were passed down from generation to generation to the animals who presently drove them. Many animals in the southern part of Angola drove the very same cars that their parents and grandparents use to drive. And when those cars quit running, an engine, transmission or other parts were taken from another car that no longer ran to get that car going again so someone in an upcoming generation could someday have a car to use. Only when a car was literally falling apart...that is actually rusting apart into pieces, was it no longer kept running.
Later that day, Seymour Skunk returned with a rollback wrecker truck, driven by a helper, a stoat, and picked up the old Moskvitch.
No one would have guessed it was only six years earlier that the meerkats had lost everything they owned except for their ragged vehicles and what they could haul in them, fleeing a country that was at that time falling into a state of collapse and violence.


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On occasion, there was a little thing Zhang and Annika did for Raphael, called, "Xi-xi's playtime"...It was a little session when Mommy and Daddy would stimulate Raphael's little penis as Raphael would lay back and enjoy how so good, erotic and tingly little Pee-pee feels. And when little Pee-pee got his little pointy nosed head massaged, Pee-pee would rare up like a standing snake, getting even harder, and poke all the way out of his sheath, making his owner Raphael feel good all over with even more erotic pleasure. And there was Raphael's strong sex scent that smelled like buttered popcorn when little Pee-pee poked out, but little Pee-pee didn't care what he smells like.
Of course Zhang and Anniika felt "Xi-xi's playtime" should be done only on a seldom occasion as not to over do it...The custom was not uncommon back in the old Cunene Province homeland. Just about every cub, males and females, would on occasion receive sexual play from the parents, including members of the Meerkat Family going back for generations.  
There had been times when Raphael would approach his parents with his little penis head poking out of sheath, and ask, "Mom. Dad. Little Pee-pee wants you to play with him".
If the last session of Xi-xi's playtime had been less than a couple of weeks or so ago, Zhang or Annika would tell Raphael, "Not today, Son. When we feel it's the time for it, we will".
But if it had been a couple of weeks or so, or a month ago, then Zhang and Annika would oblige Raphael and give little Pee-pee some more Xi-xi's playtime.
One of those sessions was during a visit when Cheesah was there, and Raphael asked, "My Pee-pee wants Uncle Cheesah to play with him. Can he?...Please?"
After everyone got finished giggling and chuckling, Zhang and Annika gave the OK, and Uncle Cheesah massaged, patted and rubbed the head of Nephew Raphael's little Pee-pee.
Everyone got another laugh when Raphael exuberantly exclaimed, "OHHH! Pee-pee says thank you, Uncle Cheesah", as Raphael's penis began boinging it's head out from between Cheesah's fingers.  
"As long as he don't squirt me, that's thanks enough", Cheesah laughed.
"He he he he...Don't worry, Uncle Cheesah. He won't. I promise. He's bein' a GOOD pee-pee", Raphael giggled.

The family did get the first phone call from the relatives back in Angola, which Annika had answered the phone. And they were surprised to hear the relatives back in the homeland were calling from cell phones...something the family thought would never be seen in their part of the Cunene Province. The relatives told of how the way of life had begun to improve, Most everyone has cars now, which were still old but not the beat up hunks of junk the animals there had always known.
Raphael talked to the relatives who had never seen Raphael before, and they were delighted to hear from him.
Relatives in Angola told Zhang and Annika about electrical service now being made available to everyone in many parts of the Cunene Province, and also that the linsang couple had reopened the village cafe, which now has electrical service...The cafe owners never did make it out of Angola during the trouble back in 2005, but they, as well as their cafe, did survive the almost constant civil wars that had now recently come to an end.
The family members in Angola had their phone on speakerphone, so one of Annika's cousin's cubs mentioned that the cafe in the village now plays music on a radio, and they no longer use an old crank-up Gramophone playing records. Annika's cousin then explained to Zhang and Annika how bad that old Gramophone was beginning to wear out and drag, and how scratchy those old records had become...He went on to comment it doesn't exactly make for excellent music quality to dine by.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cmJOyKo8HY
"Lo soar engraçado, quando era lento" (It was funny when it was slow), Annika's cousin's cub added as she giggled.
As for Rosie Hippo, the waitress, friends back in Angola received mail from her once she moved back in with her family in Kenya, thus everyone knew she was OK...Being from Kenya was why Rosie Hippo had always spoke with a non-rhotic dialect.
Most everyone in the old homeland has cars now, which were still old, but not the beat up hunks of partly reliable junk the animals there had always known. Some of the relatives in Angola told of how they could now take trips to Menengue to work the sugarcane plantations during the harvest season now that they have reliable cars to get them there, and then back home again after the harvest season is over.
"Ter um boter, a viagem que podemos fazer" (Having a car, we can make the trip), one of the relatives said.
"Ele ainda é um trabalho árduo" (It is still hard work), Annika replied.
"Hoje nao. Operamos máquinas" (Not today. We operate machines), the relative said.
Other relatives from Angola who took turns talking told about how it's not done anymore by hacking all day long with a machete, and shoulder carrying bundles of cane to be loaded by paw onto a ragged old truck. The relatives told of how some of them got training and qualification to run machines such as cane cutters, track-hoes equipped with mechanical tongs, front end loaders and other equipment...and how those jobs paid well too. Harvesting sugarcane certainly is different from how it was done in the old days.
Annika told the relatives about how Cheesah was wanting to get hired on with the railroad. Like it was in Angola, if you can get on with the railroad, the pay is good...It would be better than that maintenance assistant job with the city where Cheesah had not gotten a promotion since he had been with them for almost three years.  Zhang had been putting a good word in for Cheesah at the rail yard where Zhang himself use to work before he got his position as an assistant locomotive operator.    
In the recent years, life has been good to the meerkats, and more so to Zhang, Annika and Raphael.

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A Little About Raphael Meerkat

RAPHAEL MEERKAT, male, born near Yercaud, India, in the State of Tamil Nadu, to Angolan parents, on November 23rd, 2005, age 8, is Zhang and Annika's boy.
At Raphael's young age, most of what will be his history is still yet ahead of him. Raphael is a playful, inquisitive young meerkat who likes companionship, loves his friends and relatives, and loves, honors and obeys his parents, and like his parents, God fearing and a love for the creator. The lifelong love bond between Rahpael and his parents is a very strong one. Hardly a day goes by without Raphael, at least once, hugging his parents and telling them, "I love you, Mama", "I love you, Dad". And it's always the highpoint in Raphael's day when either Zhang or Annika would pick him and hug him, and snuggle him, and love on him, and tell him, "Raphael, you're my boy. I love you", and then hug him again. There are some nights, that Raphael's parents would decide, instead of having sex that night, they would allow Raphael to sleep with them, snuggled up between Mom ans Dad. And if you were to ask Raphael, "Raphael, what movie picture hero would you want to be like?", the answer he would give you would be, "I just wana be like my Dad".
Raphael likes helping his dad, and learning things, when his dad is working on projects or doing maintenance on the family vehicle. And Zhang likes having his son with him, helping him. Zhang has been a good teacher to his son. Since age 7, Raphael has known how a gasoline engine works, and how to change spark plugs, do an oil change, check filters and maintain the fluids on their Land Rover wagon. Zhang even taught Raphael how to drive the family wagon, with the driver's seat pulled all the way foward so Raphael's feet can reach the petals. The stipulation to that was, that Dad or Mom would be with Raphael, and only on the secondary dirt roads, and no speed above 40 kilometers per hour (25 miles per hour).
There were a few small knocks in life that Raphael had already experienced. There was the time Raphael was caught by Zhang watching a television show ran by two hairy trolls who were a bad influence on cubs. Raphael was told before not to watch that show, so Zhang, letting his temper get the better of him, threw a bottle of flowers through the picture tube, and told Raphael there would be no more television in the house. When Annika got home, she made Zhang take the family into town and buy a new television.

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There was the time Raphael had a problem with some bullies at school. Part of what started it was over the fact that Raphael has that extra strong penis scent like his Uncle Cheesah has. Other cubs would call him names like "stinky dinky", "popcorn popper" and "pee pee pee pee pew-ee boy".
Zhang taught Raphael some of the Aikido he learned from Kim Sou Panda years earlier. Zhang wouldn't teach Raphael the other martial arts, which had lethal moves in them, until Raphael got older. Aikido is turning the opponent's strength against their self, so Zhang figured that would be safe enough to teach a cub. Once Raphael got good at what his dad taught him, the bullying stopped almost overnight. Raphael got respect after that, and even the bullies were later in Raphael's circle of friends.


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It had been more than a month since Raphael's little penis had it's most recent "Xi-xi's playtime" session, and Raphael had been asking his parents for another playtime session for a few days. This was one of Zhang's days off from Indian Railways, it had been a while, so Zhang and Annika decided this would be a time for it.
"Come on in the bedroom", Zhang said to Raphael as Zhang and Annika gathered at the bed.
"I'm coming! I'm coming!", Raphael proclaimed as he ran into the bedroom with his little penis already poking out of sheath.
Raphael promptly climbed up on the bed and laid on his back beside his parents. Raphael was feeling so good as little Pee-pee, already poking up straight and proud, began getting it's little head massaged. Raphael had his balls gently rubbed. That little nose point on Pee-pee's head got flipped and wiggled. Pee-pee's sheath got moved back and forth behind it's head.
There was a knock on the front door.
Not wanting to interrupt Xi-xi's playtime, Annika called out, "Who's there?".
"It is me. Janosch", they heard Janosch Fossa call back.
"Janosch and I are taking a drive to Karaikal", Sthella Fossa added, "We were wondering if you would like to come along".
"That would be good", Zhang said to Annika.
"We gonna visit grandma and granddad?", Raphael asked as he was still enjoying having little pee-pee played with.
"Yes we would", Annika replied to Janosch and Sthella. "You can come in. The door is not locked".
After Janosch and Sthella entered the house, Zhang called from the bedroom, "We're in here", him and Annika not giving any thought to the sex play session.
Upon entering the bedroom, Janosch Fossa and his wife were startled to see Zhang and Annika playing with their son's penis...and almost as startled to see Raphael laying back enjoying it.
"What is going on here?", Janosch asked in a calm collective tone.
"Oh my", Sthella added.
Zhang looked around puzzled, then asked, "I don't see anything, Janosch. What do you mean?".
"That", said Janosch.
"All that is going on here, is Raphael getting some Xi-xi play", Annika replied as she continued patting the face area of the head of Raphael's penis.
"Mamma. Can Janosch and Sthella play with Pee-pee?", Raphael asked.
Janosch promptly answered, "No thank you".
Janosch Fossa had heard of these kind of things being common in isolated parts of the African mainland back when he and his family still lived in Madagascar...And because of it being a common norm back in the Meerkats Angolan homeland, Zhang and Annika never gave it any thought.
"Zhang. Annika. Can we go into another room? I have something I want to talk to you about", said Janosch.
"Well, OK", Zhang answered, still wondering what it was about.
Annika then invited Janosch and Sthella into the dining room for some tea. As little Raphael came into the dining room, with little Pee-pee still poking his head out of sheath, Sthella recommended that Raphael should go back to the bedroom and stay there until the conversation was done.
"India's not at war are we?", Zhang asked.
"Raphael, go back in the bedroom", Annika said to her son.
"Awww, Mom", Raphael retorted.
"You heard your mom", Zhang added.
After Raphael returned to the bedroom, Janosch Fossa said, "There is no war...The thing you were...uh...well...doing in the bedroom...", then Janosch wondered where to really begin.
"Playing with little Raphael's peedee", Sthella interjected.
"And...?", Zhang asked, still puzzled as to what was up.
Janosch then gathered his thoughts, and said, "I realize parents playing with their cub's genitals might be a thing that is normally done where you are from...But we don't do that here in India...In fact, it's not a thing normally done in most of the world".
That came as a surprise to Zhang and Annika. And it came as almost an equal surprise to Janosch and Sthella when Annika told them of how that went back for generations.
"My sisters and I had our bucetas (pussies) played with when we were cubs. And my brother Najja had his xi-xi (penis) played with as a cub...and I even played with Najja's xi-xi before", Annika mentioned. "And my mom and dad got their things played with as cubs by my grand parents".
Zhang mentioned, "My dad and mom played with me and my brothers that way when we were cubs. My mom and dad were played with that way when they were cubs. Even my grand parents. I was told my great grand dad Dominique had his xi-xi played with as a cub. So did my great grand mom Gloria have her buceta played with as a cub".
"Well, Zhang. Annika", said Janosch. "This is not that isolated area of Angola you came from. It's different here".
"That wasn't even done where we lived in Toamasina", Sthella added.
After about a half hour of enlightenment from Janosch and Sthella Fossa, Zhang and Annika finally came around to seeing that issue as the Fossas were explaining it to them.
Little Raphael was disapointed when his parents told him there won't be anymore "Xi-xi's playtime" sessions. But Zhang and Annika convinced Raphael, with support from Janosch and Sthella, that Raphael could do that himself...provided he doesn't spend all day getting carried away with it.
After that matter was cleared up, Zhang, Annika and Raphael went with Janosch and Sthella on that trip to Karaikal they were invited to.

Then there was the time in late November 2013, a couple of days after Raphael's 8th birthday, Raphael began feeling tired, and would occasionally cough up small amounts of thick flem.
Zhang and Annika at first thought that Raphael had simply caught a cold. But as a few more days went by, Raphael's symptoms only got worse, and late in the evening of the last day of November, Raphael complained to his parents of a "buzzy feeling" in his chest when he coughs.
Zhang and Annika knew by this time it was something more serious than a cold and decided they should take their son to see a doctor. It was already past sunset, and they knew their family physician would have already gone home for the day...That being so, they would have to take Raphael to the hospital emergency room.
"They're not gonna stick me with a needle, are they?", Raphael asked, followed by a cough, as the family was getting into their Land Rover.
"I don't know, Babe. But if they do, it will be to help you get well", Annika assured him.
"The worst thing you can do is be scared, Son. Remember, faith always triumphs over fear", Zhang reminded Raphael just before cranking up the vehicle to leave for the hospital.
After arriving to the hospital, Raphael still felt a little nervous with that sense of uncertainty over what is going to happen, as Zhang locked the doors to the Land Rover, and the family began that walk to the entrance of the admissions office.
During Raphael's admission process, he would get even more nervous while the staff was checking his vital signs. But the triage nurse, a female white wolf, assured Raphael that everything was going to be OK.
After the admission process was done, they had Raphael climb onto a gurney, then wheeled him to the emergency room where his parents waited there with him.
They didn't have to wait long before the doctor who was assigned to treat Raphael showed up. Raphael's parents sensed that something didn't feel right about this big, brown rat. They also noticed he was circumcised, which they didn't pay much mind to, because, among friends of their family, are two circumcised civets, and a circumcised fossa who's closest friends jokingly call him "Ding Bell", because his flared shape penis head (typical of male fossas) would shake around, looking like a ringing bell on the end of a barbed shank, when he walked.
"Hello, I'm Dr. Zander Iscelberg Rat", he introduced himself. "And I take it this is the little one we'll be checking this evening. What seems to be goin' on?".
"He's has a rattle in his chest when he coughs. And he says he feels weak", Raphael's mom, Annika, told Dr. Rat.
"What is that plastic thing?", Zhang asked, noticing two items Dr. Rat was holding. "And what's with the knife?"
"Oh. This is a circumcision clamp." Dr. Zander Rat explained. "Before we do anything else, that nasty skin cover needs to come off your son's penis. By the way, you yourself should also consider getting..."
"QUE O INFERNO?! (WHO THE HELL?!)" Zhang cut Dr. Rat off in mid sentence, as Raphael began freaking out, screaming and crying, scared half out of his wits...The last thing a little boy meerkat with pneumonia needs.
The acquaintance between the Meerkat family and Dr. Rat got real ugly real quick. Annika demanded a different doctor for Raphael as Raphael frantically cried, "I DON'T WANT MY PEE-PEE CUT!".

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Zander Rat simply argued, "It's all about what I feel is best in my professional opinion".
"BACK OFF! AND I MEAN NOW, RAT!", Zhang shouted.
But Zhang could clearly see he was being ignored as he saw the creepy doctor set the scalpel on the gurney to have a paw free to retract Raphael's penis sheath, poking his little meerkat penis head and shank all the way out. Zhang and Annika were appalled beyond belief when they saw Dr. Rat trying to get the circi-clamp bell over Raphael's penis head as Raphael began kicking and fighting it.
"STOP THIS! NOW!", Annika screamed.
As Raphael struggled, he kicked the scalpel Dr. Rat set on the gurney. Dr. Rat had to let loose of Raphael's penis, allowing it to sheath back in, so he can catch the flying scalpel.
It was at that point, Zhang Meerkat knew enough was enough. Zhang quickly came around the gurney and gave Dr. Zander Rat a hard shove away to protect Raphael, and almost knocking the doctor down, then slapping him around a few times and roughing him up.
"WHAT'S GOING ON OVER THERE?!", Zhang could hear what appeared to be another doctor ask, followed by the reply, "WE SHOULD HAVE KNOWN! DR. ICE BERG! WHO ELSE WOULD IT BE?!".
Zhang Meerkat hollered at Zander Rat, "STAY AWAY FROM MY SON OR I'LL KILL YOU, YOU CREEP! THIS IS YOUR ONLY WARNING!", as Zhang began backing the creepy doctor away from Raphael.

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"They must be stopped!", said a civet who appeared to be a nurse. "Someone will be hurt!"
"NO! Let him have at it.", said another doctor who was a Wolf. "I'd like to see that meerkat nail the living shit out of Zander Ice Berg".
Zhang continued backing Dr. Rat away, telling him, "Those things tougher than you even dream of being, I've laugh at, voce pedaco de merda (you piece of shit)!"
Then Zhang continued cussing out Dr. Zander Rat in an Angolan dialect of Portuguese, that being the language of Angola, Africa where Zhang and Annika were born and raised.
Annika was busy calming Raphael down. "It's all right, meu bebe (my baby). It's all right" Annika assured Raphael, as she was hugging and patting him. "Papai e Mamae irao mante-lo seguro (Daddy and Mommy will keep you safe). It's OK. Daddy's taking care of him. Right now".
Zhang Meerkat already had it settled in his mind that at this point, if Dr. Rat took a half step back toward Raphael's direction, or run his mouth one more time, Zhang  would turn that creepy doctor into a corpse real quick. It had now escalated into a volatile situation as Zhang was ready to make the decision to hook up Dr. Rat with a ride in a hearse and a closed casket funeral.
Zhang Meerkat then stared Zander Rat down, with only two seconds away from going ballistic on him and killing him. The only thing that stopped it was that Annika had finally gotten Raphael calmed down, and came over and held paws with Zhang to calm him down.
Annika thought to herself, "Thank God my husband didn't kill him", as she was so grateful she held Zhang back from making a mistake he'd later regret. Annika, like any other wife, does not want her husband in prison (known as 'The Zoo') on a murder conviction.
Then suddenly, Dr. Rat dropped his circi-clamp and scalpel, and went running off, hollering for hospital security, "AHHHH! SECURITY! SECURITY! I'VE BEEN THREATENED! I'VE BEEN THREATENED!".
Zhang, still holding paws with his wife, told the creepy doctor as he ran by, "Why don't you just go to Hell?".

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The last the family saw of Dr. Rat, for the time being, was when he dashed out through the double doors leading into the main hallway of the hospital. Even from in the ER, the family could hear Dr. Rat running, loudly slapping his feet down the hallway, and hollering for Security.
Zhang Meerkat could have easily delivered a reverse spin kick to Dr. Rat's chest, which would have caved his rib cage in like a cardboard box, instantly killing him.
Although circumcision is practiced in parts of the meerkats former homeland of Angola, Zhang and Annika were from the Cunene Province of Angola (near Namibia), where, unlike other parts of the country, circumcision is not traditionally practiced. And they certainly did not want it for their son, Raphael...nor did Raphael.  
A different doctor was assigned to treat Raphael, Dr. Clyde Konar Wolf MD.
"Please don't cut my pee-pee", Raphael timidly asked Dr. Wolf.
"I'm not like Dr. Rat", Dr. Wolf assured Raphael. "I can promise you, as long as you are in my care, nothing's going to happen to your little boy thing".  
Raphael, as well as his parents were so relieved to hear that. Dr. Wolf and an attractive female fox nurse, Nurse Sheryl Fox, were very caring and friendly. Dr. Wolf alleviated Raphael's fear of doctors that Dr. Rat inflicted on him earlier that evening. Dr. Wolf and Nurse Fox, and the Meerkat Family got along well, and Raphael took a liking to Nurse Fox.
At one point Raphael told her, "Nurse Sheryl. I like you. You're pretty".
Sheryl Fox replied, "Aww. That's the nicest thing anyone's said to me all evening. Thank you, Raphael".
After an examination, a couple of tests and an X-ray, Raphael's illness was diagnosed as pneumonia. Dr. Wolf even showed Raphael the X-ray and told him it was a picture of his lungs, and pointed out the spots representing the infection at the top of his right lung. Raphael was fascinated by it. Dr. Wolf administered an antibiotic shot to Raphael's haunch, which he didn't like very well, then prescribed medication for Raphael to take twice a day. Raphael was then released to go home later that night.
"That rat who first saw us. He has no business as a doctor. You are by far a better doctor", Zhang told Dr. Wolf, as they were about to leave.
"Well, Thank you", Dr. Wolf replied. "And I apologize for what you all were put through with Dr. Rat. I'm giving the apology on behalf of the hospital because you'll never get one from him".
"And you've been so kind...Obrigado", Annika said to Dr. Wolf .
"Oh?", Dr. Wolf pondered.
"In our former homeland, it means thank you", Annika answered.
"You are most certainly welcome", Dr. Wolf returned.
The Meerkat Family and Dr. Wolf then bid each other a good evening, before the family dropped by at the billing department to make payment arrangements to pay Dr. Wolf and to the hospital for services rendered.
"What about that Rat? We don't owe him anything, do we?", Annika asked the billing clerk.
"I can assure you, you don't owe Dr. Rat so much as a paise", The ferret behind the desk assured the family. "If Dr. Rat sends you a bill, bring it here, and administration will deal with Dr. Rat over it".
Hospital security did have a word with Zhang Meerkat just before the family left to go home, although they did not press assault or threat charges on Zhang, considering the circumstances. Zhang was let off with a warning instead. And he was lectured about a hospital being no place to be shouting and making loud noises.
Back home, everything went very well. With the medication Dr. Wolf prescribed, Raphael Meerkat got over his pneumonia and felt good again within a few days.
And that incident was only a week after Raphael's 8th birthday. What a screwed up 'belated birthday surprise' getting his penis sheath sliced off would have been.

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When Zhang and Annika told Janosch and Sthella Fossa about it during a visit, Janosch said, "If it had been any of our sons, Haja, Habbar or Mario, that rat would have either backed off, or he'd be dead by now.".
"And my husband would not have given a second thought about killing him if it meant protecting any of our cubs", Sthella Fossa assured.
"My husband almost did kill him", said Annika.
"That's right", Zhang added.
"Back in our homeland, that doctor you're telling me about would eventually find himself on a bonfire out on a beach one night", Janosch said to Zhang and Annika as Sthella nodded in agreement.
"It's called Island Justice back our old homeland", Sthella added. "And as we would say in Madagascar, Fako no nanadio amin'ny afo, which is to say garbage is cleansed by fire".
Raphael's uncle, Cheesah, was now a 21 year old, strong, young adult meerkat, and had earlier learned martial arts from his older brother, Zhang. When Cheesah heard about the ordeal at the hospital, he wanted so badly to "beat the rat shit" out of the doctor who tried to circumcise his nephew. Some of the other family members wanted a piece of Dr. Rat's hide too. But Zhang and Annika insisted that the matter is already resolved.
However, less than a month later, Cheesah came over from his duplex apartment in Salem to Yercaud to visit with Zhang, Annika and Raphael. Raphael had the Christmas 2013 and New Years Day 2014 holidays off from school, so Cheesah and Raphael went to see Habbar Fossa, now 22, so the three of them can go to the City of Salem for the day.
Cheesah and Habbar had some free time as well. Habbar has a job as a ship's officer aboard his Dad's freighter, and the Star of Antananarivo wasn't scheduled for another run until the end of January. Cheesah was hired on as a yard worker at the Salem Rail Junction and was to begin work the following week. Cheesah's older brother, Zhang, being an assistant train operator, put a good word in for his younger brother where Zhang himself use to work.
On their way into Salem, Habbar even took along a small "boom box" radio / CD player of his, and Cheesah brought some of his Angolan music CDs with him from his parents house in Karikal. Unlike the old folk songs, Cheesah's CD collection has the exciting stuff the young anthro-animals are crazy about and like to listen to.
Cheesah's dad and two older brothers would jokingly tell Cheesah, "That sounds like the kind of music that comes out of Luanda" (Angola's capitol).
Cheesah's dad and brothers never did make a big deal over it. The family had never been into narrow minded thinking, and they figure various animals like to listen to various styles of music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lmnqoc66hs&spfrelo...
http://youtube.com/watch?v=EIlJRd9T7xQ  
http://youtube.com/watch?v=oAo1cKpxCcA  
Habbar would carry his boom box up on his shoulder, playing Cheesah's CDs, as he, Cheesah and Raphael would walk along having a good time and shuffling along like they were dancing.
Habbar Fossa even bought along some Malagasy hit tunes, which they did more of a slow groove to.
Habbar, like his older brother Haja, was a big fan of Dean Aimbe Mongoose, a rather lanky Malagasy ring tail mongoose musician who is very popular in the Madagascan homeland.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=QeWIzYgISPw  
http://youtube.com/watch?v=P6olIgG6NGI  
http://youtube.com/watch?v=AbD3lh1PImI
The three of them noticed an ice cream parlor just down the sidewalk as they were getting down on it with a really good, Afro-Portuguese tune they had going https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lmdl73-yCaM , hopping, grooving, dancing and having them selves a blast. The fossa and the two meerkats were about to go in to get some ice cream, when who would be coming out of the ice cream parlor with a cone of pistachio ice cream, was a creepy old rat....As the song went into an electric guitar run, Raphael recognized the rat.
https://youtu.be/Lmdl73-yCaM?t=250
Raphael began pointing to the rat and frantically calling it to Cheesah's attention.
Habbar, taking notice, turned the volume down on the boom box so Raphael can be heard.
"That's him!", Raphael gasped. "Uncle Cheesah! Uncle Cheesah, that's him!"
"Who's him?", Cheesah asked his nephew.
In a low voice, as not for the rat to hear him, Raphael pointed out the rat and told Cheesah, "That's the rat who tried to cut the skin off that hides my pee-pee's head".
"You thinking of doing what I'm thinking?" Habbar asked Cheesah.
"Damn right. Let's follow him", Cheesah replied as Habbar turned the boom box off completely so the rat couldn't hear that he was being followed ('The We and Us, spectacle' could always be listened to later).
The three youths followed the rat on foot to the parking lot of the nearby hospital.
Just as the rat was about to get into an odd ball looking 1950s European sports car of his, Habbar Fossa set the boom box down and called out, "Dr. Zander Rat".
"Who called me?", The rat casually asked as he turned around, still licking on his cone of pistachio ice cream.
"ELE SER ZANDER RATO!" (He be Zander Rat!), Cheesah shouted as he came flying into Dr. Rat with a jump side kick, breaking two of the rat's ribs as his pistachio ice cream cone was sent flying, followed by a heel kick in the balls before Cheesah's feet ever touched back down onto the pavement, then followed by a few rapid jab punches and a front snap kick in the face and mouth while Dr. Rat was still collapsing on his way down to the pavement, all within a matter of seconds. Cheesah's speed, accuracy and co-ordination was like that of a zipping squirrel. Cheesah learned the arts very well from his older brother, Zhang...Bruce Lee would have been impressed had he been in the Furry World.

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Dr. Rat laid on the parking lot, cold cocked lights out, with his face battered and bloody, his lower lip busted wide open, one crushed gonad, two broken ribs, jaw broken in two places, a dislocated neck, the cornea jarred loose from his right eye and eight of his teeth knocked out onto the pavement. When Dr. Rat woke up, moaning in excruciating pain, he recognized Raphael, and then knew what the beating he just received from Cheesah was all about.
Loud enough to make sure Dr. Rat clearly heard it, Cheesah told Raphael, "If that perverted rat ever comes near you, or even looks at you, you just let me know".
"I sure will, Uncle Cheesah!", Raphael exclaimed bright eyed and exuberantly.
Then Cheesah told Dr. Rat, "You're lucky, freak. I could have stopped your clock if I wanted to. You don't EVER mess with my family...OR with their sex parts, you perverted creep".
Of course, Raphael put his two paises worth in, telling Dr. Rat, "When I grow up big and strong like my uncle, I'm gonna do it to ya too!".
"You tell 'em, Raphael!", Habbar added as Raphael looked up to him and smiled.
Zander Rat still laid helpless on the pavement, near his car, as he tried to roll side to side in a fetal position, gasping and moaning in a world of hurt. Habbar, Cheesah and Raphael stood around, staring down at Zander. Nearby was Habbar's boom box where he had set it down, along with eight of Zander's teeth scattered out on the pavement. Also nearby was Zander's cone of pistachio ice cream that had landed up side down on the warm pavement, with the brown sugar cone still standing pointy side up, after it went flying in a spin out of Zander's paw when Cheesah kicked him.

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Not so nearby was Zander's clip-on wallet (clips neatly to the underlying fur hairs). The wallet flew a long way when Cheesah kicked and broke Zander's ribs.

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When hospital security guards came out into the parking lot, Habbar snatched up the boom box and the three youths fled the scene, then a short while later, they went to the ice cream parlor.
Not long after Habbar, Cheesah and Raphael were at the ice cream parlor, enjoying some ice cream, a hospital security guard, who was an otter, along with two law enforcement officers, a wolf and a bear, had Cheesah, Habbar and Raphael come outside from the ice cream parlor so they could talk with them about the assault and battery incident in the hospital parking lot.
Quite naturally for an 8 year old, Raphael mentioned, "Our ice cream's gonna melt".
Of course, it was Dr. Rat's word alone, written on paper before undergoing anesthesia in the O.R., against the three youths who denied they had anything to do with it. The otter, who was the security guard, finally admitted to the three youths that none of the security guards actually saw it happen, plus the parking lot security camera system was down from lightning striking it two days earlier, and there were no witnesses...Being there was no evidence, no charges were pressed. However, Cheesah, Habbar and Raphael were told about Dr. Rat's condition as they were let off with a warning, during which, the three of them were trying to hold back from giggling and grinning about it the best they could. After the security guard and police officers left, Cheesah, Habbar and Raphael had a good laugh, giving each other the "high fives" and the "high tens", once they were back to their table, finishing their ice cream.  Needless to say, Cheesah, Raphael and Habbar never mentioned a word about beating up Dr. Rat to Zhang, Annika, Bron, Lacara, or to Janosch Fossa and his wife.
As bad as Cheesah beat up Dr. Zander Rat, it did not take rocket science for Cheesah Meerkat and Habbar Fossa to figure it out that the 'not so good doctor' will be laid up in a hospital bed for at least a few weeks or so...Even little Raphael Meerkat suspected that Dr. Rat will be out of commission for a good while.

Several days after Dr. Rat was laid up in the hospital, Cheesah, Habbar and Raphael came back into Salem. They were curious if the top was still down on Dr. Rat's car during all that rain a few days ago, so they went by to check out. When they got to the hospital parking lot, they noticed the top was up, but busted out laughing as they could tell from all the condensation inside the windshield and windows, the car had been rained in...It was obvious the top WAS left down during a heavy monsoon they had over the last couple of days.
Habbar took notice of the car's circular grill (1954 Lancia Aurelia PF 200),
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/143904150563292120
Then Habbar said, "That rat must have chose that car because the grill looks like a mouth getting ready to suck a dick", followed by Cheesah, Raphael along with Habbar laughing at Dr. Rat's car.
"So that's a pee-pee sucker car!", Raphael laughed as Cheesah and Habbar laughed even harder.
 As the three noticed there was a bad, afternoon thunderstorm approaching about 40 minutes away, Raphael said with a devious smile, "Uncle Cheeeeesaaaah...You think we should put the top down? It needs to dry out?"
"It don't hurt for it to dry out!", Habbar Fossa quickly and gleefully replied as the three of them laughed.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=RRDisKk9Z7Q .
So Cheesah and Habbar put the top down. And before they left, Cheesah gave the right quarter panel of Dr. Rat's sports car a good, hard Tae Kwon Do side kick, caving in a big dent just ahead of the rear wheel..
Twenty five minutes later, as the storm got closer, a security guard, a lesser panda,  noticed the top had been put down, so she put it back up.
Ten minutes after that, as the storm was just about to hit, Dr. Clyde Wolf, who did not like Dr. Rat at all, was coming on shift. Dr. Wolf took a minute to put the top back down, then went into work, thus, Dr. Rat's car got rained in again.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=xbhMXSgiUi8
A few days after Christmas, the boys returned with a can of magenta color, spray paint that Habbar had purchased from a hardware store.
"What's all that black fuzzy stuff?", Raphael asked, pointing out the mildew in the windows and windshield.
"Now it's got mold!", Cheesah laughed.
"To match his moldy personality", Habbar added as they all laughed.
Cheesah, Raphael and Habbar got a good laugh as Habbar spray painted on the right front fender and on part of the driver's door of Zander's car, in magenta paint, the words, 'Zander is a weener'...misspelling 'wiener' of course. Before discarding the spray can, Habbar smacked a dent in a front wheel cover on Zander's car with the bottom end of the can.
http://moyomongoose.deviantart.com/art/Zander-Rat-s-Ca...
  
Cheesah, Habbar and Raphael knew about when Dr. Zander Rat recuperated from the hospital...That was sometime in January of 2014...How they knew is because they noticed Dr. Rat driving around the streets of Salem in his 1954 Lancia Aurelia PF 200 with the right rear quarter panel kicked in, the dent in the right front wheel cover going >round 'n' round 'n' round 'n' round<, and the big 'Zander is a weener' spray painted down the right side in bright magenta.

Among the good times in Raphael's life, are times Zhang would get permission, from his boss with the railway, to let Raphael come along on a run aboard the train...That is provided that Raphael's grades are good enough for him to take a couple of days off from school, or when school is on break.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=VTXkYwfIGp0 .
It was made clear to Raphael that the controls aboard the locomotive are to be touched only by his dad, Zhang, and the chief locomotive operator, Benjamin Binturong. However, Raphael is allowed to sound the horn. Zhang would get Raphael up to the locomotive's control console so Raphael can reach the switch to blow the horn. And on the newer WAP-5 locomotives, it didn't take Raphael long to figure out how to get the low and high tones from the horn. There would be times Benjamin would allow Raphael to wave the green signal flag, from an open door of the locomotive, with Zhang holding Raphael's paw so he don't fall out (or Benjamin holding Raphael's paw when Zhang is at the controls), while pulling out of the crew relief point in Erode, and pulling out of Chennai on the return run the following morning. Raphael always gets a thrill when ever he can come along with his dad aboard the train. Then on Raphael's next day at school, he always tells stories to his fellow students, as they gather around to hear about the train run with his dad.
Raphael once asked his dad, "Dad, did they have trains in Angola?"
"Yes we did", Zhang answered his son. "But they were not as nice. Not like the ones we have here in India".
Zhang told Raphael of the two times he had been aboard a train as a cub in Angola. It was a narrow gauge railroad that still used steam locomotives that didn't go very fast. And for passenger cars, it was a homemade, wood frame and corrugated tin coach body, built on an old flatbed car chassis, with no glass in the windows and hard wooden benches to sit on. In some areas of the coach floor, you could barely see the tracks and train wheels below through the gaps between the floor planks.
"ALL the trains in Angola are like that?", Raphael asked.
"The train that came through our province, it was", Zhang answered his son. "To the north though, they have nicer trains. Through Menongue there is a rail line. And further north through Huambo, a standard gauge line".
Raphael asked his dad, "Have you ever seen those 'nicer' trains? What were they like?"
Zhang reminded Raphael, "I have never seen them. That is because I never been to Menongue or Humbo before...Many of us never traveled around much in the old homeland".
Raphael Meerkat still marvels that there was the time when some family members in the generation before him had never been more than 70 km (45 miles) from the place where they were born.  
Raphael has always had a fascination for trains, and has recently said he would like to be a locomotive operator when he grows up. Young ones have many things they say they want to be when they grow up...Only time will tell.


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ZHANG AND ANNIKA like a lot of foreplay, and they get it every night and then some, except when Zhang is out on his job as an assistant locomotive operator for two days at a time. But when Zhang returns home when he has a few days off, he and Annika have sex like there's no tomorrow. And they really get it on good.
As for genital details, Annika's pussy is the wet and oily type, not too tight, but firm.
Zhang's penis head has more of a drawn out "long taper" look than what's average for a male meerkat...the way it also is on his younger brother Cheesah. The sheath is slightly long, and the scrotum is average. Zhang's penis has only a modest amount of oil and smegma production. In the sexual relationship, it is Annika's genital that brings most of the oil to the table.

RAPHAEL is still just a boy meerkat, still in that stage of life being fascinated about "little pee-pee" he calls "Little Pokey". On occasion, Raphael would play with himself, like we all did when we were his age.
Raphael's penis has a head like the head of the penis his oldest uncle, Moze, has. When it gets erect, the bottom of the head swells up a lot, causing the pee opening and point to get pushed upward, making Raphael's penis look like it's face is up level inline with it's dorsal plain, looking straight up. To put it another way, when Raphael's penis is hard, he can point his penis at something in front of him, but at the same time it looks like little pee-pee is looking up at the sky because it's face it turned up on top of itself.

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In the drawing, little pee-pee is pointed at the ceiling, but little pee-pee is looking at his owner's belly...The penis of his uncle Moze is the same way.
At times, Raphael does imagine, "Poor stinky Pee-pee has his blank Pee-pee face (where the eyes are imagined to be if it had them) distort skyward when he gets hard, and looking up with only his little Pee-pee hole mouth pointing forward and spitting forward"... But Raphael also figures, "As long as Pee-pee is feeling good while Pee-pee is hard, and Pee-pee is having fun while Pee-pee is getting played with, then Pee-pee doesn't mind his little Pee-pee face momentarily becoming the top of his little Pee-pee head, and looking only upward while he's hard".  After-all, that's how nature blessed it.

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The eyes are only something Raphael imagines when he's playing with it. Raphael's Pee-pee doesn't really have eyes.
When it gets flaccid again, the point droops back down, and Raphael's little pee-pee can look at what's ahead of himself again...that is until he slips back into his sheath and gets covered up.  
The head and sheath lining have a higher level of erotic sensitivity* than what most male meerkats have, inducing greater sexual pleasure* from rubbing, touching, massaging, etc. Raphael's penis, like his Uncle Cheesah's penis, also has a much higher than average oil and smegma production* (stinky little cheese / popcorn dick). It can be said, "Nature has been good to Raphael"*.
Dad and son are uncircumcised, with sheaths slightly long for a meerkat*.
*Dr. Zander Rat would have mess up a really good penis, with what he was about to do to Raphael Meerkat on that November evening in 2013.

DR. ZANDER ISCELBERG RAT MD has a typical rat / rodent penis. Like all other males in his family, Zander is circumcised...so short in fact, the head is longer than what is left to the rest of the penis. Zander's dried, katrinized surface is so built up, he just about has to take sandpaper to it to feel an orgy (Dead Dick Zander). Zander is a rat with a really messed up dick.
During the time of Zander's dysfunctional marrage and live-in relationships, he never fathered any offspring (Thank God. They are better off never being conceived). Presently, Zander does not have much of a sex life, except to rarely see prostitutes, who pull away before Zander can climax (takes almost forever), then demand more money from him. Zander Rat's substitute for a sex life also includes cub porno sites, stalking cubs in the parks and on playgrounds when mom and dad aren't watching, hanging out down the street from elementry schools at 3:00 in the afternoon, loitering in public restrooms, and getting off on the dicks he does forced circumcisions on. Zander is one chronically sick rat...Someone you'ld like to throw under the bus...It's a wonder he's even still alive today.

END OF SEXUAL DESCRIPTIONS

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The story, Zander the Bad Apple, is about the Rat Family's experience related to this story.
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\r\n\t\t\t\tZander the Bad Apple - זנדר הוא תפוח רקוב by moyomongoose
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