The amazing Talking Mongoose!

Ha, I'm blogging.  Check me being all intellectual and technologically advanced.  Also, how pretentious and self-righteous of me, expecting people to read it; except that I really only expect Sally to.  How depressing.  Well, if this first post is going to be dedicated to Sally, I might as well write about something she would find interesting, as well as explaining my incredibly intriguing user name: talkingmongoose.  No, I don't have an unusual fascination with the linguistics of herpestidae (although I wish I did), Gef the Talking Mongoose is a gem of not only cryptozoological interest, but also one of possibly supernatural  curiosity.  Not that I believe in such bullshit.

Here is a mongoose (just in case you're an idiot):

Awh, look how cute it is.  But it can't speak, only make some sort of squeak I imagine.  But not Gef!

So in September 1931 there was this farmhouse on the Isle of Man which was home to the Irving family.  This consisted of Daddy Irving (James), Mummy Irving (Margaret) and 13yr old Irving (Voirrey).  Yup, she was actually called Voirrey.  This family started hearing odd noises around the house and eventually, Voirrey said she'd seen the creature keeping them awake at night (I'm sure a mongoose stuck behind a wall could be very distracting in a number of situations, especially as it was said to 'gurgle like a baby'.  Nice.)  Gef then let on that he could speak, saying he was 'an extra clever mongoose', 'an earthbound spirit', and my favourite 'I am a freak.  I have hands and I have feet and If you saw me you'd faint, you'd be petrified, mummified, turned into stone or a pillar of salt!'

'A hoax!'  I hear you cry.  And yeh, I know, it seems like complete bullshit.  But James Irving kept a diary of the event for FOUR FUCKING YEARS.  If this was a fraud, the guy kept it up forever.  He also got some footprint casts of Gef:

These were actually said to NOT be from a mongoose, but Gef said himself that his hands and feet were uber large for a mongoose (if a mongoose at all, some say he was some sort of poltergeist).  And there were some photos taken!  Don't get excited, they're a bit shit.

Nope, I don't know where he is in this picture either, the next one is a bit better.

That is Gef gazing into the sunset.  I guess he was a bit of a romantic.  So yeh, it's an odd story, and no one in their right mind would believe it.  But it certainly is interesting, whether it was a hoax or not because a few years later, the Irvings moved out and a farmer shot a 'strange animal' but it was apparently much larger than Gef was said it be.  Also, on her death bed, the daughter, (Voirrey, remember) swore that Gef was not made up by her and her family and that he was totally real.  So does anyone really care if it was real?  Even if it's not, it sure makes one hell of a story and I love it to pieces, not only because it's so quirky and mysterious but because it's so unique.  Nothing like this has ever been documented again.  Type in 'ghost' into google and you'll get reams and reams of bullshit, but type in 'talking mongoose' and you'll only get this.  And that is why it's my user name for EVERYTHING.

I'll leave this on one more note.  Apparently, APPARENTLY, Indian Shaman can teach a mongoose to talk.  Food for thought eh?

Hope you enjoyed this!  Here's a pretty detailed link if you want to know more, because I have seriously just given a brief over-view, there is so much that can be added.
http://www.forteantimes.com/features/articles/4915/gef_the_talking_mongoose.html

Thanks for reading!
Alex