Do you have a pet

 

This is serious.

 If you want to be happy, share your life with a pet.

 It can be anything – a pair of love birds, a parrot, a dog, a cat, hens and cock birds or ducks and geese. Don’t go for anything too exotic as they cost a tidy sum and require more care than the normal pet. Some advice- Don’t go for an elephant, if not you will have to empty the fridge to put it in. Not a giraffe either, because each time the giraffe must be put to sleep, you will have to take the elephant out of the fridge to put the giraffe in. Both will also eat you out of house and home. Corny joke I know – but jokes were never my forte. I am just not the among the ‘funny types. Anyway, back to my tale.

As far back as I can remember, we always had a pet at home – at least, for a large part of my growing years. (I am still growing breath ways). Another stupid joke but I can’t help it – part of growing older!

There was ‘Lovey’, the Cocker spaniel. She was loveable, to say the least, had a lovely silky coat and enjoyed biscuits. I recollect attempting to teach her to beg, but despite my, and her best efforts, it was an exercise in futility, as she was too fat and her hind legs said no!

 Then we were talked into keeping love birds,which we bought from an old gentleman in Allahabad- Mr Eates . There was a lovely cage made, water bowl, food tray, ‘et al’ and the two little ‘budgerigars’ arrived. We were told that they would multiply and soon we would need another cage or two. Well, I presume they were both males, as there were no eggs laid, and hence no miraculous babies. Despite the old seller replacing them on and off, it was an exercise in futility. We seemed fated to have just two birds for life. Well, the plus side of this was that I spent many an hour looking at them, feeding them and at times poking them with a knitting needle and making them fly. I found them a trifle lazy. They were not exactly ‘love birds’ if you get what I mean and were fairly well behaved. We finally gave them away with the cage too.

We then got some hens and a cock bird. They were truly productive and every morning I went around searching for the eggs that were laid in the hedge in the compound. For some obscure reason they refused to lay eggs in their coop, and so the treasure hunt had me, as the sole participant every morning. Five or six fresh eggs, made for quite an inexpensive, yet tasty breakfast every day. Then, they suddenly stopped laying eggs. Some sort of strike I guess, or a plan, as one fine summer day they all stopped laying together. I don’t quite know what happened to them, but I am sure that we did not have chicken on the menu anywhere around that time.

I must add that the rooster was rather wild and whenever he saw either another rooster or a defenceless kid, he charged – feather all bristling as he tried to peck the enemy! We had named him Jonny and he seemed to answer to his name and would calm down when shouted at. The neighbours had a similar ‘fighter’ and my friend, Phillip and I often tried to get them to fight each other, much to the amusement of the other kids. And yes, there was blood too.  

Some years later we had ducks. Ducks were easy to keep- plenty of water and almost all kitchen leftovers for meals, and they were fat, happy and healthy. They were lazy and did nothing but waddle around all day and eat. They seemed to overeat because they did cause quite a mess.  I guess they were all males and hence no eggs were forthcoming.

My best friend who is now my brother-in-law, kept a few dozen pigeons and he was crazy about them. We spent many an afternoon staring up at the sky watching them fly. There used to be competitions as to whose pigeons stayed up the longest, and there were prizes and stuff for the winners.  He was just a teen at that time, but quite a well known and respected pigeon breeder.

Many families had dogs in the Railway colony, and dog fights were common. There is one sad incident I can never forget. The neighbours would go to Goa for a month or so during their summer holidays every year. One year they went off with their Tin trunks , bedding rolls and water bottles and secured their house with padlocks, telling us as usual, to keep an eye. However, sadly, their dog got locked in. It must have been quite a silly dog as it never barked, nor cried, nor scratched, or else it did so, and no one heard it. A month later when they returned, they were shocked and dismayed to find a skeleton and no more. The stench was unbearable to say the least, and it took a few days to dissipate. I am sure they were heartbroken and the whole family was devastated, as it was a loving pet that had been with them for years.

There was another neighbour who had an extremely ferocious dog as well. It was always chained up with a rather thick chain. On the few occasions it managed to get lose, a few children and adults were sure to be bitten. It was named Tiger. Somehow any striped dog back then was named Tiger, and they sure lived up to their name.

Many of you would know that here in Dubai we have a cat- ‘ Chanel’. She is a mix between a Turkish Angora and a Persian.  She is a beauty and I have mentioned her in stories before as we all adore her. She keeps us amused, is playful, intelligent and a natural stress buster for the family. Like most cats, she is a bit miserly with her love, does not like to be carried, and if you call her, she often walks in the opposite direction. With a personality of her own, she often has us dancing to her tune. My wife is certain that she says ‘mummy’ but that is a different story. Ever second month she gets well groomed, and a few photos are taken of her ‘looking pretty’. In reality, my phone is full of photographs and videos of Chanel sleeping, playing, walking, jumping, looking at the pigeons and in dozens of cute poses.  Believe it or not, but I do not need an alarm, as promptly at Four- thirty in the morning she jumps up and pushes her nose on to my face and ears demanding her snack, ‘Dreamies’. She does the same twelve hours later! With the granddaughter visiting frequently, I have observed that she is a trifle jealous and peers at the little one from various places, but most females are jealous by nature, so she is no exception!

My elder daughter and her husband have adopted a cat too – from our parking lot. It is an Arabian Maou. He was injured, weak and lame when they adopted him.  A year later, he  is ‘Lord and master ‘of their home. ‘Munchie’ goes in and out when he pleases, brings another cat home to play, purrs rather loudly, has extra-long legs and a thin body, and lives a comfortable life, while his sister continues to struggle as a stray. Such is life!

My brother-in-law and his wife have a parrot. He has always had birds as pets and is quite an expert. The parrot however seems to have taken over their household. Every time we visit, we are shown how the parrot walks, talks, goes in and out of the cage, flies, swoops, plays with a ball, eats etc. I am not a big fan of parrots in general, and their parrot in particular, as it seems determined to attack me, bite my shoes, peck at my watch and in general cause a nuisance near me. They however have the parrot nibbling their ear, kissing them, sitting on their head- literally and figuratively speaking. I know verbatim how it bathes, which son it prefers over the other, when it wakes, what it does on waking, and how it does not like to go back to its cage. The parrot ‘bathing story’.   I have invited them to bring ‘Nicky’ their pet to meet ‘Chanel’ but till date they have refused!

My sister-in-law has a son, who does not actually like pets and stuff but lives by fads and whims like most teens. Recently he woke one afternoon – and decided that it was about time the family had a pet.  When he wants something, he harasses till he gets it, and so to cut a long story short, the mother took him to a pet shop, and they returned with a rather costly African parrot.  No advice taken, no questions asked, no experience whatsoever, but the parrot was brought home in a fancy, gilded cage. For the first two or three days we were inundated with calls about how clever the parrot was, how it was starting to talk, how it whistled and how beautiful it was. There were photos and videos too and relatives and friends all over the world welcomed him into the family.  Then there were two days of silence. I thought the parrot had died. However, I was wrong. They were struggling to look after the poor creature, which had stopped eating or something to that effect, so they sold it back for half the price! I was sure their tryst with pets was over and done with – I was so wrong.

They then went out and bought a pup. Duke is a handsome looking Golden retriever. We were invited home to meet him.  I admit he is smart to look at and has been with them a month already, so I guess he is there to stay. Now a days, the husband wakes at four am to take him for a walk. Then he gets back to bed. The wife then takes him for a run at five. Both have begun to look rather worn out & exhausted though they deny it’s anything to do with Duke. The maid then does ‘dog duty’ for the rest of the day and she has silently begun to rebel- the maid, not the dog. There are stores about how clever Duke is, how he has learnt to beg for biscuits, is particular about his bedding etc. The son has gone off to college in the UK and so the ownership of the pet has changed hands, as expected.

 Meanwhile the ninety-year-old great-grand- mother lives there too, and she is determined that Duke will not enter her room upstairs, lest he drop her down. Valid point no doubt. However, the poor puppy is not allowed into the bedrooms and nor in the hall either. I do not think he will celebrate his first birthday with the family. Wish I am wrong on this one as he is a cute chap.  

I have always advocated about families keeping a pet. Yes, there is an expenditure involved  and a fair amount of commitment required  too,  but it’s the same with your kids, isn’t it?

The advantage of pets is – you don’t have to send them to school or college nor worry about getting them married, and believe you me, that is something to think about.

And to those who do take my advice and keep a pet, PLEASE listen to this – You don’t kick your kids out of the house and on to the street, if and when you get fed up of them.

It’s just not done.