Pets <3

I love animals. I was always encouraged to play with animals and taught to be gentle with them. I consider myself very unlucky when it comes owning a pet for a long time. I have had various types of pets but none of them were with me for more than a certain period of time. But they all live in our memories and the plants we’ve planted over them, when we buried them. (also in pictures for the pets who came to live with us in digital age *wink*)

My First Dog:

When I was 3 years old, my father’s friend had a Doberman, who gave birth to some of the cutest puppies ever. My dad got one of the puppies. I was fascinated by the size of the puppy. He was very tiny with cute little brown eyes. His skin was the color of chocolate. He was always energetic and playful. At that time one of my aunts lived with us. She loved the great “Roger Federer” so she named our puppy roger. Other than this I don’t remember much about him. Soon the puppy got very big. He was overpowering everyone in the family except my father. My parents used to tell that he always listened to the commands from me. But I have no idea about that now. Whenever my father is away, my grandparents were put in a position to take care of him, sometimes. (they also lived with us. * Indian joint family*). Since my father is always travelling for work, my grandparents were very displeased when it came to taking care of him. When roger was 8 months old, we decided to give him to a family who could take better care of him. We used to go and visit him every week, but his family moved away. More than me, my parents miss him terribly.

Pingu, The Bird:

When I was in second grade, a bird built her nest in a tree in my house. Not that often we see bird nests in that tree because that tree never blossoms. The bird had two tails. (see picture). They are called Black drongos. The mama bird built her nest and even laid eggs. And then the eggs hatched. The baby birds were adorable. Unfortunately, two baby birds were eaten by crows. Only one baby remained. It was raining one evening when the nest fell down with that one baby bird. We all were outside by some luck. We took the baby in. I in love with a cartoon show featuring pingu, the penguin so I named the bird pingu. My dad and I went to an old iron things store and got a cage for pingu. We arranged something like a bed with leaves and stuff, so that pingu stays warm. We fed him baby food with the help of an ink filler made of rubber. He was so vocal and would squeak every time he sees one of us. Every morning we would take pingu out, keep him in the backyard. He stayed inside the cage because he barely had feathers. So we would oped the door to the cage, his mama would bring tiny worms and insects and feed him. We all would stand around, very close to protect them from the crows. (crows are evil ). After pingu’s breakfast we took him inside. This was the routine every morning and evening. (nature is fascinating!!). Pingu got a little bigger and stronger and yet he couldn’t fly. He was a pro in catching the house flies though. When it was all perfect, on one god awful day, a cousin of mine came to my house. He was playing with pingu. As usual pingu was trying to show off by attempting to catch the damn flies. My idiot cousin thought pingu was hungry and fed him some uncooked rice. The rice got struck in pingu’s throat. We took him to the vet. But pingu was very tiny. There was nothing anyone could do. Pingu died that night. I cried and cried and cried a lot. I called many people who knew about pingu, to tell them about the terrible day. My mother and I had a small, beautiful funeral for him and buried him under a hibiscus plant. When his mama came to visit him next morning, I lost my shit. Mom consoled me by asking me to look out for the new hibiscus flowers because pingu will be in every one of them. I still believe Pingu is sleeping under that plant.

The Birds after Pingu:

I was really upset for a long time. So, my Maternal grandmother got me 5 pairs of colorful “love birds” and a huge ass cage, two weeks after pingu died. They were so small. I loved them all. Feeding and taking care of them was my responsibility. I felt like an adult. ( when we were kids we always wanted to grow up right!). The following happened after two to three months. I still do not understand how the cat got them, but a stray cat ate 2 of my birds in two consecutive days. ( we found the feathers outside the cage). It broke my heart. We planted two more flowering plants next to pingu’s hibiscus in honor of the dead. I decided that I can’t take anymore deaths of my birds. Also these birds grew up fast, they had long feathers and everything. So we took them to a bird sanctuary where they have a huge provision for the domesticated birds to live and fly. (basically a very, very huge assed cage!! ). I released them there and went home happily. A part of me felt like no other bird can replace pingu.

The Golden Fish:

The fish fever came into our house hold when my baby brother was two and a half years old. ( I was in class 5). He was awestruck while seeing a deep-sea program in TV. (not like the jaws, but something like finding nemo ). So my maternal grandmother (yeah, she rocks!) got him a pair of gold-fish. One of them died mysteriously after a few days. The other one mourned and the followed suit. It was so strange. But my grandmother again got a bunch of tiny black and orange fish from the pond. ( now it started getting out of hand and my mother hated it ). After a few days we found one of them dead, outside the tank. This time it was more strange. The next day my brother came running to us to show the “fish dance” to us. He had one of the fish in his hand. Luckily we were able to save that fish. Then we explained to him that fish are aquatic. That they can’t breathe outside the water. That they will die if removed from water. Now he started asking about death. He demanded an explanation and wanted to know if mommy and daddy and he could die. (i don’t think he was worried about me 😉 ) Needless to say, all the fish were sent back to the pond the very next day.

The Last One:

We got a white lab puppy when I was in grade 9. The puppy was offered to us by a friend of my dad’s. We loved him instantly. He brought so much joy to us. I named him roger this time as well, in honor of our first puppy. Roger was a ball of love. He made every one happy. He was so calm when others came into our home, if they gave him biscuits. But he had one awesome rule. ” Anyone can come into our house, but no one can take anything outside, even if it belonged to them”. We always carried the guest’s purses and stuff when they were leaving. All my friends loved him. He was a hit in the neighborhood. He was a desi dog by heart. As desi as a dog can get. He loved to wait at the entrance of the kitchen when my mom is cooking. (he was not allowed inside the kitchen). His favorite food from my mom’s kitchen was dosa with sambar. (dosa is a crispy dish and sambar is a gravy eaten very fondly in TamilNadu, India). My mother started making them exclusively for roger without salt and the things that are not good for him. He gave the best hugs. If my brother or I cried, he would bring us his favorite toy or pillows to comfort us. He befriended a passer-by monkey once (there’s a small mountain near my home where monkeys lived. sometimes they come down in search of food). He gave the monkey an apple the first time. Later, monkey visited roger often and got lot more apples. Roger was the best dog you guys. When I was in high school, roger was poisoned by an idiot localite. (we still are not sure about who did that). We were heart-broken. It was so so sad to lose him. Now he’s buried under a coconut tree in our farm. I miss him so very much all the time.

After that I never had a pet. I never wanted to have one either. Pets are so precious. They become a part of our family. They make us happy. Bring us joy. A part of me never recovered from losing roger. He was my favorite family member of all time. And still very angry about what was done to him.

To the people who have pets: You guys are so lucky to have a pet. There is no love like the pet’s love towards their family. Take good care of them.

To the people who don’t have pets: Be kind and gentle to animals. They are so much better than humans.

Animals rock!!!