When I was young I became obsessed with Rikki Tikki Tavi. The story of how this small, furry, cute-looking pet had fought and killed dangerous cobras was miraculous to me. Years later when I re-discovered that story and learned that this was accurate mongoose behavior, I sought the grown-up reasoning behind the fairy tale. Why did that tiny, elongated mouse challenge this scaled representation of the devil himself? I had become convinced that there was something in the mongoose mindset which lent itself to why I had always taken an opposing and unnatural path toward almost anything. But all that I poured over, read, and surmised from evolutionary and behavioral biologists never provided that connection I had hoped for. Until one day, randomly, I came across a quote from a completely unneducated mongoose afficianado; "Because fuck cobras, that's why." And then it all made a complete and primal sort of sense.
