Bank employees strange friend

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: For the past one-and-a-half years, Jayakumar aka Ulloor Jayan has had a strange friend - a white civet, which, according to the bank employee, is a rare occurrence in nature."Civets - black, brown or spotted or of mixed colours - are common. But a white one is a rare occurrence,’’ says Jayakumar, who hails from Ulloor. ‘Kannan’,’ the civet, is around two years old."Kannan must have been around six months old when he fell from the attic of the Government Higher Secondary School, Malayinkeezhu. He’s been with me for one-and-a-half years now,’’ he said.Kannan is quite happy with a diet of fruits and milk and until recently, used to live in a cage in Jayakumar’s home. Now he lives with the family.Civets are usually found in the wooden attics of old ancestral houses, and in trees with thick foliages. The disappearance of old houses and chopping of trees have endangered the civets, says Jayakumar.Civets are nothing new to him, though.In fact, there is a poignant story behind the name Kannan. It was the name of a female palm civet that Jayakumar kept as a pet some years ago. He had discovered it in the backyard of his house at Ulloor and grew attached to it.He even displayed ‘Kannan I’ at a pet show organised by the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation. The civet died over a year ago and Jayakumar decided to give its ‘successor’ the same name.