Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, the mongoose in Rudyard Kipling's story, originally lived in a burrow with his father and mother. One day a summer storm washes him away from his home. The rushing water carries him into a roadside ditch. At first he is conscious during this flood, but at some point he loses consciousness. That's when the boy, Teddy, finds him. Teddy thinks the animal is dead, and he plans to conduct a funeral for him. But his mother thinks he might be alive and suggests they take him back to their bungalow to dry him off. So they bring him in from the garden path onto which he has washed up and dry him off in the big house. The man determines he isn't dead, merely "half-choked." They wrap him in a cotton cloth and get him warm, and he sneezes himself awake.
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