Strange Noises in My Ceiling

A few days ago, at around 4am, I heard strange noises coming from inside of my ceiling. It didn’t sound like rats. It didn’t sound like a cat either. The movement was unfamiliar to me. I could not help but to freak a little, so I checked my roof (whatever I could see from the windows). Nothing, so I let that go.

But then, the sound came back the night after that. Also at 4am. It was louder this time. There’s only one worry — there’s someone up there trying to either enter my house or next door neighbor’s. After shaking off my early morning drowsiness, I went downstairs to take my ladder. Armed with a flashlight, I climbed up into the ceiling, by this time it was 4.30am.

I didn’t see anything out of place. The water tanks, water heater, pipe-works, wirings, miscellaneous construction remnants, everything one would expect to see in a ceiling. I moved about to check for footprints and other clues… nothing. I temporarily turned off my flashlight to see if the street lights would enter through any unexpected opening… nothing but total darkness.

I waited there for quite some time… then suddenly I heard the noise again. I pointed my flashlight in the direction of the sound and I saw this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_Palm_Civet):

What the fuck is this thing? My first thought was musang (chivet) but I saw musang before (coming down from my roof in Kerteh, among other places) and it was larger (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civet). This thing was meowing almost like a cat (about the same size too). It was not scared of the bright light. But then maybe I was blinding its vision. After all, it is a nocturnal animal hence not too fond of bright lights.

As I was entertained by this creature, I saw another one! I asked my wife to grab a camera, but unfortunately by the time I got it, they were gone. I think they came back later (I heard the noises again) but at that time, I was almost falling back to sleep.

All in all it was quite an adventurous night…. hahahaha. God bless Malaysia. This is the price we pay for encroaching into wildlife’s habitat — they in turn encroach ours. I’m not planning to do anything about this, for as long as they don’t bring their whole freaking clan to live in my ceiling… ’cause the noise can be pretty loud and I don’t want them shitting everywhere up there.