Baby Meerkat Attack!

Two days ago on a day with fine weather I visited the meerkats at their feeding time. They got cat food, which the babies can chew easily. The males sniffed it, and I saw their noses wrinkle at this "insult" ;-)

But the babies tucked in heartily and in particular baby Sayuri!

I see more and more similarities between her and Uncle Stubby Tail. Her fur will almost certainly turn out as fluffy as his and her character...

On the day I visited, some people brought their dogs near the enclosure. 2.5 little tails were raised, backs arched and one of the babies even started some war dancing, kicking up dust with its front legs.

If you have never seen meerkats war dancing, it looks like this:
tails erect, backs arched, the kats will jump up and down and sometimes kick up some dust. It looks very funny, but it is meant as a serious threat.

After some time, only Sayuri and one of her littermates were still arching their backs and raising their tails. And guess, what? She made spit calls at the dog! Just like Uncle, when he was small, he used to be the first in line to growl at dogs of any size. I wonder, what`s next.

She is still trying to stand up on her hind legs, but still not very sucessfully.

For those of you who have not yet read up on the previous posts: Sayuri suffers from a neurological problem, she has trouble with her balance and is likely to stumble, as she also sometimes has trouble coordinating her hindlegs. But she`s a happy kat anyway and making the most of her abilities.

You can have some short glimpses of her at the beginning and end of this video: