Zhang, Annika and the Rest of the Meerkat Family by moyo

Zhang, Annika and the Rest of the Meerkat Family

moyo, Angola, Circumcision attempt, Cub, Female, Male, Meerkat, Mongoose, Penis, Poverty, Pussy, Rat, Sex, fossa, genet, india, uncircumcised

This is about the lives of a Meerkat Family in a 3rd world part of the African country of Angola.

Zhang, Annika and the Rest of the Meerkat Family

Zhang Meerkat, Annika Meerkat and the members of their family were born and raised in the Cunene Province of Angola, in the south central part of the country, and the poorest province of the country. However, in spite of the 3rd world standard of living they were born into and grew up being accustom to, their experiences in life had always been rich in family values, love, loyalty, compassion, honesty, and anything else anyone can think of that are reminscent of a community where everyone shares a close bond of friendship with one another. In

| moyo |

, there is a timeline project started of the Meerkat Family's history going back to the year 1915.

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Chapter 1. Introduction to Zhang's Family

ZHANG MEERKAT, male, born in Angola (Africa) on May 1st, 1986, age 27, is Raphael's dad. Zhang came from a poor family, dirt poor. So poor, if it only took a nickle to go around the world, his family couldn't have gotten out of sight. Zhang was born to his dad, Bron Meerkat, and to his mom, Lacara, having two older brothers, Moze, the oldest, then Jorad. And later, a younger brother, Cheesah, was born. 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. The local anthro-animals of the Cunene Province of Angola were also well aware that the UNITA rebels had been getting help from the then apartheid South Africa, against their non-apartheid MPLA government presently in power. In fact, a city, although a very far distance to the west, Lubango, had fallen under South African control in 1979. On Janurary 12th, 1979, Bron Meerkat and his wife, Lacara Meerkat, were still in their late adolescent age when they were married, which was a few weeks after it was known that Lacara was pregnant with Moze. Although there was the concern over their cub being 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. 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, who were still raising younger brother Amos and younger sister Beth, would help the family a lot, including helping Bron and Lacara get their house built during February and March of 1979 and completing it three months later in April. 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. 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 helping with Bron and Lacara's home. Dominique Meerkat, his son Zeth and Sanchez Genet use to work together on the sugar cane plantations back during the old forced labour days before Angola's war for independence from Portugal began back in 1961. On February 21st, 1979, on an old blanket, on the dirt floor of the only bedroom of Bron and Lacara's new house, Lacara gave birth to the first cub of the family, a male, who Bron and Lacara named Moze. 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.

This was how the car looked at 7 years old when Dominique Meerkat got it in 1961.

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This is the car in 1980.

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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 didn't own a car at that time, the car Sanchez Genet had, an old, 1950s, Wartburg Kombi, front wheel drive 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...

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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.

At ages one and two, Moze 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, which before that, it 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. 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 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.

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. There was also that moment of self discovery for Jorad in December of 1984, when Jorad was 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 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. 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 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 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, but it 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.

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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. In 1973, after Sanchez had that old Model T for 23 years, it had lost so much compression, it wouldn't run anymore, and it was pretty well falling apart by then.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 good 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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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 had figured it would be about a month ago. A few days later, Bron and Moze heard news of the South African invasion while they were at the village, 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 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 many of the locals that they were sent out 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 too chuckled. "Nao so de Americano", Jumanne Mongoose mentioned. "China ajuda a Unita tambem" (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 when Zhang celebrated his 2nd birthday two months later, May 1st, 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.

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.

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. https://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view;_ylt=AwrB8p... 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... 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.

{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 threshold structure under the rear cargo door, which 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 rear bumper. The other ends of the bamboo were wedged over the rear body mount 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 only from the underside of the car so no one riding behind the back seat gets tar wads stuck in their fur, which the duct tape was to prevent tar from oozing up inside the car. The new cargo floor wasn't level though. It had to be run at an 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 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, and of a movement that had started in that country to end it's apartheid rule. And 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, seven and four year old cubs. In the following year, 1991 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. And needless to say, Bron, Lacara, and everyone else they knew, voted straight down the ballot MPLA. 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 1992, there were the reports of the civil war going on, just like it had always been before. Two weeks before Moze's 13th birthday, Lacara found out she was pregnant her forth cub. And 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. 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 would still be at home most of the time with Mom and cub brother Cheesah. Dad and older brothers Moze and Jorad were still the ones going out the most to seek work. There was a period of time, in 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. There was usually enough food to eat, and water was drawn from a nearby creek. But during 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. The opportunity to work finally picked up again starting with a morning that Moze and Jorad, who were then ages 10 and 14, walked to the village and noticed the serval who was in charge of the CFB railway warehouse needed some temporary help unloading two boxcars that were dropped off on a siding. There was already an adult mongoose and an older 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, and went to work following the lead of the adult mongoose. The job wasn't really all that hard. The boxcars were along side a loading platform up even with the floors of the cars, and the platform was under a roof that provided shade. When the job was done, they were paid well...working for the railway always pays better. And Moze and Jorad were also able to get a ride home. By that time, one of Sanchez Genet's sons, Sefu, was working a permanent job at the metal fabrication shop and was using his dad's car, and it was at the end of the work day when Sefu was getting off. On the way home, Sefu's dad's old Wartburg wagon reminded Mose 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 Sefu Genet was 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 wasn't much food at the house, and a family of six meerkats does have to eat. Lacara collected that day's earnings from her sons and asked Sefu Genet if he could take her to the village. At the village, Lacara bought food for the family, including three, 100 pound bags of whole grain rice. Unlike cubs who live in 1st world countries, who would have a fit, a cow and a rage over Momma taking THEIR money, Moze and Jorad never did complain. The brothers knew all to well how poor the family was, and that a family survives when all it's members pull together.

+31

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. "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. Jorad. Dois fotógrafos de uma editora. O equipamentos de câmera, Eles precisam de ajuda pra carregar. Você pode ter um trabalho hoje" (Moze. Jorad. Two photographers from a publisher. The camera equipment, they need help to carry. You can have a job today), Rosie told them. Moze and Jorad thanked Rosie as an otter and a weasel approached their table. "Hello, Uh, I mean ola. Ola...Me, uh, Oliver Otter. Voce suricatos...uh...Voce tem algum traballo? Mucho, uh, muito, uh uh, mucho salario.", the otter attempted to introduce himself in Portuguese and offer a job to the meerkats. "It is not 'tem algum'. 'Search for work' is said as 'procura de trabalho...And it's 'trabalho', not 'traballo'", the weasel corrected the otter. "Now observe, Oliver. I'll show you how it's done". "Seu Eu...uh uh uh...Eu Seu Vince Weasel. Por favor Eu...know...voce", The weasel attempted to say 'pleased to know you' to Moze and Jorad, but it came over being understood as 'please, I in you'. "If English you can speak, so can we. Portuguese, I see you do not speak well", Moze said to the photographers as Rosie Hippo giggled. "Oh great! We are from the U.K.", Vince Weasel affirmed. "Yes. We do speak English". "The English, me too can speak", Rosie informed Vince Weasel with a smile. "You should have told to me so". Vince Weasel and Oliver Otter introduced themselves as free lance photographers on assignment for a British magazine publisher, 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 TN 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. And the professional grade photo equipment was also something like the meerkats had never seen before...At the time the Meerkat Family didn't even own a camera. "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'll be able to carry 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. We do not go to school", Moze replied. "You don't go to school?", Oliver asked. "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 is unheard of in the UK where we are from", Vince Weasel added. "Hasn't you're family applied for assistance...you know...welfare or something like that". "Huh?", Jorad responded. "Welfare? 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?!", Jorad asked surprisingly, still hardly believing what Vince and Oliver had just told them. "Giving money away? They really do that? What you just told us, we do not have here", Moze affirmed. "Such a thing as that, I never heard of", Jorad added. Vince and Oliver had heard of cubs in the work force in 3rd world countries before, but actually witnessing it seems to bring it to another level of reality. So as they continued their ride, Vince and Oliver and the meerkats 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 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. "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. Before long, 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, 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 mountain", 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, "Vince, you need to see this". "Keep looking for that adapter. We need to find it", 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 VAROOOOOM<, 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!" (Shitheads! They planned it this way!), 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. 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.

Toward the end of 1993, Cheesah at almost a year and a half old, 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.

+12

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?" (Are you laughing at my pee-pee?) Cheesah scorned. "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 penis was flaccid and back in sheath, he and hid 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?" (Will this one 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. 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. "We will get the fish with this. 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. "Nao dar ista a Zhang ou Cheesah. Isto noa e um brinquedo. VOCE usa-lo" (Do not give this to Zhang or Cheesah. This is not a toy. YOU use it), Lacara instructed Jorad, being the oldest, 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, "Quando você puxa o gatilho, você não pode parar o bala" (When you pull the trigger, you can not stop the bullet). As Lacara sent the cubs to go get the fish, she told Jorad, "E não atire no meio do peixe. Que é a carne. Atire a cabeça" (And do not shoot the middle of the fish. That is the meat. Shoot the head). 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.

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 to look for temporary work, and Kelila a mile and a half 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). "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. Eu amo e sua grande cabeca. Muito sensual", Kalila said as she squeezed Jorad Meerkat's pee-pee's big head. (Aww, cute pee-pee. I love your big head. 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 admitted to Jorad and Kalila that he himself had also been seeing a female friend, Leia. 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.

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.

Chapter 2. 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 Zhang's 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 nonessential businesses had to close shop to go fight, and cubs who were going to school had to pull out of school, along with their teachers or 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. 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 were old civilian firearms that had been in their families for generations, and very few Portuguese G3A3 assault rifles taken from fallen Portuguese during Angola's War for Independence years earlier. What they had for grenades were homemade explosives and dynamite, some of which was old. And their military transport were their own personal vehicles, nearly all of which were in ragged mechanical condition. The populations 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 Zhang's 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 found himself helping to defend the homeland in a guerrilla combat war, as a 9 year old cub, not much older than Raphael would be in the year 2013. At his young age, Zhang, who was issued a 4/10 gauge shotgun and rifled slugs, got the experience of firing on other living beings, and at age 9, having two kills to his credit. And a time or two, Zhang had a close scrape with death himself from enemy fire. This is where a cub really learns to grow up, and learns to grow up fast. Maybe even too fast. Zhang, as well as others, was 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. Some meerkats and other animals in the southern provinces were fighting with weapons, ammo and grenades (the real ones) that were taken from fallen enemy fighters. Not long into the war, it was realized that pangolins and various civet species who are citizens of the southern provinces were mistaken for UNITA fighters, and as a result, came under friendly fire from those who did not know them. This was soon remedied by issuing strips of cloth for their allies to wear either as a bandana or 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 ricocheted near the meerkats, 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 northern fighter by him having no bandana or arm cloth...and from the obvious fact the pangolin had just shot Jorad. 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 moved on. Jorad's body was picked up for burial that evening. Along the family members attending Jorad's funeral was also a 13 year old, female meerkat not related to the family, but was in as much mourning as the family was. But the family did welcome the adolescent female, who introduced herself as Kalila, the same as though she was one of their own. Most of the family didn't catch on to it, but Bron and Lacara speculated, as well as Moze already knowing, Kalila and their late son Jorad may have been a bit closer than "just friends"...However, Jorad's parents held no feelings of disrespect for Kalila, considering Jorad didn't have to miss out on the experience of having sex during his life of only 12 years. During the remainder of that war, Zhang also saw two cousins die. One, who was his Uncle Amos' oldest son Sengo, he saw actually get shot, the way he saw his brother die, and one on his dad's side of the family he came up on as she laid unconscious and dying. Later during the war, Zhang earned a metal of honor when he was blazed in the thigh while helping a wounded fellow meerkat to safety. In November of that same year, which is shortly before summer in the Southern Hemisphere, the northern forces were well on their way to being defeated. It was then, Zeth, Zhang's grandpa on his mom's side of the family was killed while helping to drive the last of the invaders back to where they came from. 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. 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.

Chapter 3. 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 of his parents and his martial arts instructor.

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 was 19 then, Zhang was 12 and Cheesah was 6. It was decided by Bron and Lacara that Cheesah would get the schooling they themselves and the older brothers never had. School was about 16 kilometers (10 miles) away, which was a good drive, or walk, along those substandard dirt roads where they lived. 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.

https://www.sofurry.com/view/933179

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. 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. The story has it that Great Grand Ma Gloria had at first thought perhaps Great Grand Dad Dominique had stolen the car, until her husband Dominique and her son Zeth explained how they got such a nice car for cheap, assuring Gloria that the car was legitimately acquired. That was the first time the brothers heard that story, and they enjoyed it quite well.

BTW: In the Angolan dialect of Portuguese, a car is often called a 'boter' in place of the use of the 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/933183

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, a broken right taillight lens, 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/933182

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. 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. That old car was a blessing to have, and the family was very thankful to have it. Because before Bron and Lacara even had a car, Cheesah would have to walk three hours each way to school and back every day, leaving for school before dawn and getting back home late in the afternoon, except for the times friends and family who did have cars could give him a ride...The luxury of having school buses did not exist in that part of the country. Before the family got the car, there were those times during rainy or cool weather, Cheesah was able to get a ride aboard a train to the village on the way home. 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), the road cut in the mountainside becomes so narrow, the road narrows down to only one lane and shares a 3 meter (9 to 10 foot) wide right-of-way together with the narrow gauge railroad tracks...both road and tracks overlapping together where it is hardly wider than a parking spot from rock wall to cliff, plus it's on a curve. On one shoulder of the track and roadway overlap is a sheer rock face going up. And on the other shoulder, 3 meters over, is a sheer drop going down a long way, with no railing or guardrail to stop anything from going over the edge. The speed limit on that 130 meter long stretch for both automobiles and trains is 10 km/h (6 MPH) so in case a train and a car met on that 3 meter wide road cut, they can both stop in time to avoid a head on collision. And also so any pedestrians would have plenty of time to stand against the rock face to allow the train to pass by. There were times a train would happen along when Cheesah was walking home along that narrow stretch of mountain pass. If it was a cool or rainy day, and if the train was going in the direction of the village, the engineer 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. The mountain pass was 11 kilometers (6 1/2 miles) from home...From the village to home was only a 3 kilometer walk (2 miles). Plus the engineer would let Cheesah ride in the cab of the locomotive, a narrow gauge version of the Garrett, articulating, steam locomotive with the two sets of drive wheels...which was a real treat for a six year old meerkat cub. A narrow gauge Garrett is shown: 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. Before they got to where the mountain pass widened again, and where the tracks and dirt road separated from each other, you could look out the left window of the engine and see the rock face close enough to reach out and touch it. And from the right window, a bird's eye view of what is beyond the sheer drop. The engineer maintained the train at 10 km/h, and tooting the whistle every 10 seconds to warn automobiles not to venture onto the 3 meter narrow portion of road cut in the way of the approaching train. Once they were past that 130 meter long stretch of narrow road cut, the train would run between 50 and 65 km/h (30 to 40 MPH) on the way to the village. Shortly before Bron and Lacara got the car, there were only two times Cheesah didn't get that train ride on a cold, rainy day. One rainy day was when Cheesah and a linsang cub had 45 minutes detention after school for talking in class. School normally dismisses shortly after noon. But on that day, the train had already gone by before Cheesah got to the mountain pass. On another rainy day on the 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 at a point nowhere near the railroad tracks. But it was shortly after that the family finally had a car...Needless to say, Cheesah was very thankful for that. 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. 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, 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.

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.

In the year of 1999, Moze (then age 20 and married) 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 remnants of FNLA and UNITA, 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.

A year later, April of 2000, just 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. The nearest really decent 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. Moze and his wife, Leia, had their new born daughter, Dora, at the time, but still donated everything they can to go to pay Lacara's medical bills. Zhang had found a job as a metal worker apprentice, a week before he turned 14, with help from a vocational program that Sanchez Genet told him about at the metal fabrication shop. 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.

Chapter 4. Zhang Meets a Female

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...

At one point, Zhang commented how smooth 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 grand mom 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 a station wagon which has more room.

https://www.sofurry.com/view/933167

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.

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 see the justice of the peace so they can get married. The justice of the peace for the village and local countryside was Sy Aardwolf, who owned the old car parts yard 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, 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 linsang 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 and Annika Meerkat. 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 Mam and Dad. 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.

Chapter 5. 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.

Chapter 6. Annika's Experience of the War

On that June morning of 1995, when the northern rebels invaded the homeland, Annika was 16. The part of the country Annika help to defend didn't see as much action as Zhang had seen. There was the time, about half way through the war, 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.

Chapter 7. 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.

Chapter 8. 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 town, 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 in a nearby town, 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 also have similar stories to tell of their encounters during their trips to a town, 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 north as the locals 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 near enough followers to pull 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 them, 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.

Chapter 9. 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. Even the cafe' owners and a hippo waitress, Rosie, had gotten passports to leave the country, although it meant walking away from a business they've built up over the years. 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, Yannas Fossa. The meerkat families would travel aboard Yannas 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 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. 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.

Chapter 10 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 Mose and Leia's '70 Opal wagon running as lead car. That was because they were the only two cars that had properly working lights. 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. Mose and Leia's car 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 locate, 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 Moze and Liea'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. While in Mutare, the meerkats stopped at a petrol station and fueled up their vehicles. As the rest of the meerlats 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 Chishone 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.

Cheesah was still amazed by the electric lights 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_vd70JwbyEshows 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 a beautiful Angolan folk song https://youtube.com/watch?v=vS_SSXB5yks , Annika asked him to leave it tuned there, but reminded him not to turn the volume to high because Cheesah and Abina were asleep on the back seat. "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 a another Angolan folk song on the car radio. http://youtube.com/watch?v=8orzq4lDTPo 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. 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. "What is it, Zhang?!", Annika said as she was awakened. "WHAT'S HAPPENING?!, 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. "DAD HIT SOMETHING!" Abina exclaimed as Annika looked back to see what was happening. "It's the muffler from Moze's car. His car just lost it's 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. 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 offspring, Nafula, Abina, Annika and Najja, and from his wife Murura, as well as from Najja and Lacara who were riding with him, he decided to let Murua take over driving before continuing on their way. 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.

Chapter 11. 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 Toyota 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 Yannas 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 Yannas Fossa. He is at this sea port, we are told. "Star of Antananarivo. Yannas 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 Yannas 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 Yannas Fossa, it was obvious that just about everyone knew him, as Audin Bear had told them. The meerkats could see that Captian Yannas 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 Yannas 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 Yannis's crew", the mongoose told them as he headed back to his work area. The fossa overheard Moze Meerkat. " I'm not Yannas. I'm Joel Fossa", he said introducing himself. "I'm first mate on Yannas 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 Yannas, 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 old freighter, that looked like it had seen some years and a lot of sea voyages. But it appeared to be well kept up. It had a good coat of paint of black, white and red hull with white upper structure, and was in fairly immaculate condition for and aged old sea going vessel. It was one of the old kind still left in service that hauled large machinery and other cargo in wooden crates down in it's hull...unlike the kind that are built now days to carry everything in modern cargo containers. 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 Yannas 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, Yannas 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 Yannas Fossa". Then the meerkats introduced themselves, and Yannas 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", Yannas said to Lacara. "He's one of my sons, Habbar. He wanted to come along with me on a voyage". Then Yannas invited everyone to the ship's galley where everyone got better acquainted. Yannas had some food ordered up, and got out couple of cases of beer for who ever wanted some. "We enjoy a drink now and then while at port", said Yannas 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 the northern provinces ten years earlier. Yannas and Joel had stories to tell of their experiences out at sea, and ports they've been to around the world. Yannas Fossa had some to say about how the corporate owners of the ship 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 Yannas. Moze, Zhang and Yannas had a lot in common, being the tough types. And Yannas, 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 Yannas had lots to talk about. They were about like drinking buddies from the get go. However, it didn't take much beer to get Yannas and his crew, or the meerkats in a festive mood. It was seldom any of them drank alchol beverages. That was because the captain and crew of the Star of Antananarivo never had alchol while out at sea...a rule Captain Yannas 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 alchol beverages. After they had a couple of drinks, Yannas 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 Yannis something in Portuguese, and Yannas would reply, "I don't speak Portuguese" or "Tsy azoko". But they all did speak English. It was a festive atmosphere as they were playing some Malagasy folklore music from some CDs that Yannis 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 Yannas had chose for them, out of concern for the unborn cub Annika was pregnant with. http://youtube.com/watch?v=ajlVbrqjbx8 - http://youtube.com/watch?v=ejQik8Uer3U - http://youtube.com/watch?v=mlG87ZE06BU - http://youtube.com/watch?v=AIhNGxODaTA . Habbar Fossa, Yannas' son, got out a checker board, and he and Cheesah enjoyed several games of checkers. A few photos were taken of the occasion such as of Zhang, Moze and Yannas. And of Cheesah and Habbar standing side by side with paws around each others shoulders, and various candid shots of the others...with Yannas Fossa's camera. The meerkats never owned a camera, so Yannas did promise to later send the meerkats some prints. It was getting late in the day, so the rest of the day was spent with Yannas Fossa giving the meerkats a tour of the ship. Late in the evening, it came time to discuss business. Captain Yannas 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. Yannas also mentioned, that in the morning, he'll assign jobs that the able bodied males will have while on the way to India, and on the way there, there will be a stop in Madagascar. Then the meerkats were shown their sleeping quarters, and a place to bath. It had been the first time they've had a bath and slept in a decent bed since they've left Angola. They've been sleeping in their cars while others took turns driving on the way over. 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, Bron and 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 Yannas 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 Yannas Fossa laughed. Lacara's mom, Mylah, told her son-in-law, Bron, how worried everyone was when they saw Bron's abandoned 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. "Yannas", Joel called to him. "What is it?", Yannas 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 Yannas. "I hope so".

Chapter 12 The Voyage

At dawn, everyone had a good breakfast, then Yannas 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 Yannas reminded his son, Habbar, to get some of his school work done that day. Being that Yannis's sons like to come along aboard the ship at times, Yannis's cubs are home schooled. At about noon, Yannas 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 vehicle over to the ship, the car lost one of it's front wheels. Banga's car slid to a stop on it's three remaining wheels, and dragging on a front spindle and control arm where the 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. "I'm irritated over it. 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 car, 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. Yannas Fossa arranged for a wood shipping crate for the contents from Banga's car. It was like pulling whales teeth to get one, but Yannas 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, then the ship will run on it's own." 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". The Star of Antananarivo made it's stop in Madagascar to deliver infrastructure supplies. The voyage was certainly an experience for the meerkats, and it was the first time they've ever seen Madagascar, although they 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. That evening, while still at port in Madagascar, 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. Yannas Fossa, would get after him for it too. But they didn't go hard on him for it. They realized how fascinated Cheesah was with flipping a switch on a wall, and a room would light up, then get dark again. During the time Cheesah was still blinking lights aboard the Star of Antananarivo, two shore workers, a Malagasy civet and a ring tailed mongoose, would stand on the dock and occasionally notice one of the ship's portholes (a ship's window) lighting up and blinking. "Someone on that ship keeps blinking lights", the Malagasy civet said to the ring tailed mongoose. "Ever wonder what that's about?" "I don't know", the mongoose replied to the civet. "I wouldn't think old Captain Yannas Fossa would have hired a crazy on his crew". "Yea, I wouldn't think so either...THERE IT GOES AGAIN!", said the civet about the time Cheesah blinked another light. At dawn the following morning, The Star of Antananarivo pulled out of port in Madagascar and continued on it's way to India. 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. One evening, when everyone was sitting down to dinner, Moze Meerkat asked Yannas,"What's the missile launcher for?" "I'm surprised you knew what it was", Yannas 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...", Yannas Fossa answered. "Ocean robbers?!", Nafula gasped. "If you prefer to call them that", said Yannas. "Joel and I, and two of my other crew members 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 Yannas. "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", Yannas 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 Yannas. 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". Yannas 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 Yannas 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 Yannas 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. Although Yannas Fossa did not share the same pity that the Meerkats had for those anthro-animals who turn rouge out of desperate circumstances, he did consider that life experiences for the Meerkats may have differed some from what he himself had known. Yannas realized a hard way of life can shape how someone feels about situations differently than if they had grown up wealthy. That may have been why Yannas 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.

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 Yannas 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.

"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, Yannas Fossa came in to use the restroom. "Ce qui se passe en enfer ici!? (What in Hell is going on here!?)" Yannas asked with overtones of concern, so startled he spoke 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 Yannas Fossa's mind was, "Don't tell me I've taken a meerkat cub aboard who is turning my son gay". Habbar quickly explained to his dad what they were doing. Then Cheesah told Yannis, clearly and slowly, "Eu-sou-eh-teh-raw-sehk-soo-ahl". "I don't understand it if it's in Portuguese", Yannis reminded Cheesah. "I'm heterosexual", Cheesah told Yannis, then he verified what Habbar had explained. Yannas 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 Yannas 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", Yannas said as he glanced over at the two cubs, while he was still peeing. After Yannas finish peeing, and shook it, 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 that head shakes around". Yannas 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. Yannis 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 out of the way. You got this whole restroom smelling like popcorn". "Yes sir, Captain", Cheesah replied with a smile. "Ha ha. Cub curiosity", Yannas laughed as he left the restroom. "I guess we all had our turn at it while growing up".

Chapter 13. Life in a New Homeland

After 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. And her answer was also affirmed by the other family members. The immigration process was then continued, and in a short while, 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. 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 showing through. And that bad front tire on Oswald and Zoe's Opal Kapitan had already gone flat during the voyage 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. "It's mine", Annika said as she approached him. "This excuse for a tie rod end", the 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 the 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 the mink saw the wired tie rod end on Yousaf and Nafulas's Renault and told them, "ANOTHER ONE?! No way. You're not Driving this car to a garage either, Get it towed there". Another customs agent, a mongoose, told Zhang, Annika, Yousaf and Nafula about a reputable automotive shop that was nearby so the cars would not have to be towed so far. So that's where the cars were towed to have their tie rod ends replaced, among a few other repairs that should have been done years ago. Then there was the second group of the family's vehicles, that made the road trip across Africa a day behind. Those vehicles had also been unloaded from the Star of Antananarivo, and just as many problems were found with those vehicles as well. The mink who inspected the Meerkat Family's cars said to Captain Yannas Fossa, "Yannas, I can't believe you actually transported those death trap cars into this country". "Well, Navin, so I did", Yannas Fossa proudly replied. "Damn anyway, Yannas!", Navin Mink retorted then walked away. 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, Yannas Fossa promised the meerkats that he would speak about the matter to an attorney friend of his, Attorney Ebeneezer Weasel. Yannas 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. Yannis 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 that the meerkats thanked Yannas for offering the help. The Star of Antananarivo was scheduled for extensive maintenance work, so Yannas Fossa would have two months off with leave pay while the vessel was in down time. Yannis 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. 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 Yannas 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, Yannas 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. Yannas 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 Yannas Fossa's place, with Annika and older brother Zhang. Cheesah and Yannas' 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 Yannas 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 Yannis 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, 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 Yannas' family gathered in with Annika, Sthella bringing in the old sheets. Yannas' 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 Yannas 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 Yannas 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. Yannas 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 . Yannis had wines he had picked up at various ports he's been to in many parts of the world. What Yannas broke out that day was wine he reserved only for special occasions. And this was a special enough occasion. The next day, Zhang and Annika took Raphael to Salem to have it on record that Raphael 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. Yannas 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 Yannis 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 Yannas Fossa's sons and daughter. Sometimes Moze and Liea would bring Dora, then age 8, to play.

Chapter 14. Life Gets Better for the Meerkats

A few years later, 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 Yannas 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. The meerkats even began to receive mail from relatives 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 those who were in power of the country since the northern provinces took over, had been overpowered by the rest of the population there. Many of the northern leaders who took over the country had been arrested for war crimes, and a democracy government is back in power. And the best news from the relatives was that The State of North Angola was no more. It is once again Angola as it was before the trouble erupted. 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.

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 Yannas 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 Yannas 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. 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 Yannas 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, Yannas 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 Yannas 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 Yannis told Annika, "Hold up a minute. Let me talk to him". Yannis 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. Yannis 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!", Yannis 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 Yannas 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". Yannis and Sthella then told Zhang and Annika that there are antique car enthusiasts that pay good money for rare and old cars. Yannis 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", Yannas 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 falling into a state of collapse and violence. In the recent years, life has been good to the meerkats, and more so to Zhang, Annika and Raphael.

Chapter 15. 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.

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.

Then there was the time late in 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 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 Yannis and Sthella Fossa about it during a visit, Yannis said, "If it had been any of our sons, Haja, Habbar or Mario, that rat would already be dead". "And my husband would not have given a second thought about killing him either", 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", Yannis said to Zhang and Annika as Sthella nodded in agreement. "We call it Island Justice", Sthella added. "And it is said, 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 Karakal to visit 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 that month. 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, http://youtube.com/watch?v=QeWIzYgISPw http://youtube.com/watch?v=P6olIgG6NGI http://youtube.com/watch?v=AbD3lh1PImI , which they did more of a slow groove to. The three of them noticed an ice cream parlor just down the sidewalk as they were getting down on it with a really good tune they had going http://youtube.com/watch?v=A91nBwyqEd8 , 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. 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 so the rat couldn't hear that he was being followed. 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. 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. Not so nearby was Zander's clip on wallet. It flew a long way when Cheesah kicked and broke Zander's ribs. 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. While they were there, having 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. None of the security guards actually saw it happen, plus the parking lot security camera system was down (lightning struck it two days earlier), and there were no witnesses, so no charges were pressed. Cheesah, Habbar and Raphael were told about Dr. Rat's condition. Then 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. The three of them 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 the incident to Zhang, Annika, Bron, Lacara, or to Yannas Fossa and his wife. The beating Cheesah gave Dr. Rat laid the doctor up in a hospital bed, with a neck cast, on a bed pan, with his face stitched, and his mouth wired shut eating through a straw for almost a month, including Christmas of 2013 and New Year's Day of 2014. Plus the one crushed gonad had to be removed, and there was the dental work that was yet to be done on his remaining teeth, including dental plates. And Dr. Rat now wears a contact lens on his right eye. Zander Rat was also told that when Cheesah delivered that snap kick to Zander's mouth, it almost severed his spinal cord when his head popped back dislocating his neck. That would have paralyzed Zander Rat from the neck down for life. "You're a very lucky rat", Dr Tavi Mongoose told Zander. "You have no idea how close you came to that young meerkat making you a quadraplegic. Maybe you should leave your paws off of the genitalia of your patients, huh?" At the time, Zander could only reply, "Ummmmph!", through the straw in his wired shut mouth. Dr. Wolf would always rub it in Zander's face by turning the television on in Zander's room each morning to "The Meerkat Friends Variety Show", hosted by meerkats, knowing Zander didn't want to be reminded of meerkats...especially of the meerkat who laid a good hurting on him out in the parking lot. And also knowing Zander couldn't get out of bed, and was unable to move his neck in the cast or talk with his mouth wired shut on a straw. http://youtube.com/watch?v=xzocEeiD10M - http://youtube.com/watch?v=zqDz3IHwP4E - http://youtube.com/watch?v=NcGfIeO6usM - http://youtube.com/watch?v=Qfksq52ij7U . And Zander Rat didn't get a break on those mornings Dr. Wolf was not on shift at the hospital either. Dr. Wolf would leave instructions with a nurse to turn The Meerkat Friends on in Zander's room the following morning. "It's Part of his therapy", Dr. Wolf would tell a nurse. "I personally prescribed it". Zander had no way of turning off the television or changing the channel. It was a half hour of Hell in the hospital bed each morning, being reminded of the meerkat who put him where he was. Zander could only bounce his butt up and down on the bed pan and go, "Ummmmmmmh!" through the straw out of frustration. Dr. Zander Rat will always have to set dental plates in his mouth and instal a contact lens in his right eye every morning, plus look at a nasty lip scar in the mirror...not to mention missing one of his testicles. For the rest of Dr. Rat's life, it will constantly and naggingly haunt him as being "compliments from Cheesah Meerkat". Dr. Rat's wallet was never recovered either. It was the the kind that clips into the fur hairs. Cheesah kicked Dr. Rat so hard in the chest, the wallet wet flying across the parking lot. A fox eventually found Dr. Rat's wallet and walked off with it. And Dr. Rat's sports car had the convertible top down when Chessah gave him that beating. For the following two days, while Dr. Rat was still bedridden, one of those monsoon rain storms came through. And because Dr. Rat wasn't very well liked, no one "thought of" putting the top up for him until the rain had passed. http://youtube.com/watch?v=KeSGgge0Udg . A couple of days later, 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. Noticing the car's circular grill (1954 Lancia Aurelia PF 200), http://www.pinterest.com/pin/143904150563292120 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 and 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. 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, 'Zander is a wiener'...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... Needless to say, when Dr. Rat recovered from the hospital almost a month later, and the next time he saw his car, he was not a happy rat. After Dr. Rat saw the quarter panel of his car that Cheesah had kicked in, he had assumed another car had backed into it and the driver left without saying anything. And Zander about had a cow when he saw the graffiti that Habbar had painted on the fender and door. Then Zander about had another cow over the dent in the right, front wheel cover. Zander promptly had a vandalism report filed and requested to see security video tapes to find out who dented the quarter panel of his car, and who painted the graffiti, and who dented the wheel cover. At the time, it was thought the dents and the graffiti were unrelated incidents. Dr. Rat was anxiously anticipating on having someone in court over his car being damaged. But at the time Cheesah Meerkat and Habbar Fossa damaged Dr. Rat's car, it was before the parking lot security camera system had been repaired from that time when lightning struck it a month earlier. Thus no video footage ever existed of Cheesah kicking in the quarter panel, or Habbar spray painting the side of Dr. Rat's car and denting the wheel cover...Speak about the most rotten luck. Zander did remember the top being down on his car the day Cheesah attacked him. But Zander had no idea the top was put up, then put down by Cheesah and Habber, then put up again by a security guard, then put down again by Dr. Clyde Wolf. The security cameras were still down when all that went on too. All Zander knew about the top being down was that the interior of his car was wet and full of mildew. Hard knocks, like anything else, is a part of growing up, and a part of life. Some are unavoidable. And there are those who bring them on their selves.

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. 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.

There is a story that is about the Rat Family that Dr. Zander Rat is from.

SEXUAL DESCRIPTION OF THE CHARACTERS.

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.

A drawing from

| nelson88 |

, drawn by Victor, shows Raphael's penis when it's that way.

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. Back 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 pathetic excuse 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

THE END

The story, Zander the Bad Apple, is about the Rat Family's experience in this story.

Then it continues on to http://inkbunny.net/submissionview.php?id=591766

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Moyomongoose 2013 - Even though it is my story, permission is granted to who so ever wants to copy and distribute this story and pics, but in it's unaltered form. What I also ask is you not plagiarize it, plagiarizing meaning representing it as your own creation. Although I've given permission for my story to be copied and published by others, please still acknowledge that it is to be given credit as being my creation.

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