Animals getting out of hand

Mum Lioness was having a tough time. She used to think the cubs were naughty! But after watching the two hippo babies (whose names she would always get wrong), she decided the Lord had been quite kind with her after all!
The first time she met them, Rumple and Crumple, she had thought, oh what cute little darlings!, but now her views had changed quite drastically. The names were so decieving!


For one she could not discipline Crumple and Rumple by picking them up by their necks, or even swatting them with her tail. She wondered how Mama Hippolyta pulled them up. Then she realized she didn't.
Rumple and Crumple would roll in the mud (they spent quite some time cooling off in the puddles) and then come in and roll on her couch and furniture. Rumple drank quite a bit of water, and then could not hold it! If she made mango lassi, he would be first in line, and finish it all off, leaving all the others empty-cupped.

Rumple and Crumple wrestled quite a bit. Mama Hippolyta said it was part of their growing. Now Mum Lioness knew that quite well, but two hippos wrestling in her house meant quite a lot of breakage.

Then there were the monkey babies who were always getting in her hair. Someone kept tripping over the tortoise, and the two skunks were always setting off the fire detector. That was perhaps the worst. Two skunks competing to see whose stink could set off the detector first!

She had expected help from Unca Stripes at first. Stripes had willingly helped lick all the dishes clean on day one. But Stripes really could not be bothered by what was happening in his own cave or Mum Lioness'es cave. He behaved like the epitome of renunciation. As though nothing mattered. As though the Lord would take care of it all. "Let Him who created this world ... (meaning of course Bhagavan Ramana) ... take care of it!", he would declare grandly everytime Mum Lioness would suggest work or cleaning up.

And so everytime Rumple sat on a chair, Mum Lioness would have to repair it.

But what could she say? These were all displaced animals. No home. They had lost everything. And she knew deep in her heart, that Arunachala had sent them to her.

And then she had expected the Animal Hopsibal plans to be forgotten in a few hours. But little Spotty leaked them to all the animals saying the Hopsibal was almost ready. So now Tiru had to work full steam to get the plans complete! The most difficult part of course was the Frothy Chocolate Milk Dispenser which should have unlimited supplies round the clock and the Magic Idli Machine (this name was a Spotty invention). Tiru had no idea what a Magic Idli Machine was but now he had to design one, and everyone was waiting to see what it would be like.

That evening Stripes brought some good news. He had met with Unca Krish of the Forest Department. Some animals could be moved back to the hill, he said. Before Mum Lioness could heave a sigh of relief, he added that the hippos would be here for a while. And the skunks. And the monkeys. Mum didn't have the heart to ask, so who is actually moving?

Unca Krishnamurthy was asking when the animal hopspibel will be ready, Spotty informed Mum Lioness.