Mijbil the Otter
Mij arrives
Retell how Maxwell got Mij and how Mij behaved at first.
Why an otter? Early in 1956 Maxwell went to southern Iraq. He thought an otter would suit Camusfearna, which is 'ringed by water a stone's throw from its door'. A friend said otters in the Tigris marshes were 'as common as mosquitoes, and were often tamed by the Arabs'.
A long wait at Basra. They went to the Consulate-General in Basra to collect their mail. His friend's mail had come, but Maxwell's had not.
- He sent a cable to England and waited three days.
- He tried to telephone, but the call had to be booked a day ahead: the line was out of order, the exchange closed for a holiday, then another breakdown.
- His friend left. Five days later his mail arrived.
'Here is your otter…' He took his mail to his bedroom and found two Arabs sitting on the floor beside a squirming sack, with a note from his friend. Out came a creature like 'a very small… dragon', covered in scales of mud. Underneath was soft fur like a chocolate-brown mole. It took a month to get all the mud off.
Maxwell's otter. Mij was 'of a race previously unknown to science'. Zoologists named this kind Lutrogale perspicillata maxwelli, or Maxwell's otter.
Getting to know him.
- First 24 hours: 'aloof and indifferent', sleeping as far from the bed as possible.
- Second night: he slept in the crook of Maxwell's knees.
- The bathroom: on a lead, he 'went wild with joy in the water', making 'enough slosh and splash for a hippo'. Every drop of water must be spread about.
- Two days later: he ran to the bathroom alone and turned on the tap with his paws.
- Soon he followed Maxwell without a lead, dribbled a rubber ball 'like a four-footed soccer player', and juggled marbles on his belly.
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