So the other day, I came back from office and since I was doing morning shift, I had the whole afternoon at my disposal. I wanted to avoid sleeping because I wanted to get a good sleep in the night so as to be fresh for next day’s morning shift! So to pass my time, I started watching F.R.I.E.N.D.S. It’s the kind of series that I (or our generation) can never get enough of! I have watched all 10 seasons of the series over a hundred times and still I love to watch it again and again! I surf around the folders and click any random episode, that day I saw “the one with the monkey!” It’s the episode when Ross gets Marcel, the monkey. Then I remembered that Chandler and Joey get this chick and duck, so I searched that episode and watched that too! That made me think that life is so awesome when you have a pet.

In my life, I’ve never been lucky enough to have a pet. I have tried so many times to get one. During my early childhood days, there was a cat who used to come to our window for her share of roti. We stopped feeding her very soon because my grandfather didn’t like animals. So the cat was never welcomed as a pet. My earliest attempts to foster a pet were back in school when we had brought home a puppy. We found it near the big municipality dustbins near my school. My building friends and I brought the puppy back. We used to live on the ground floor. So my house was the obvious destination of that puppy! But the real problem was my grandfather! I knew he would never entertain us. So we were sitting outside my house and discussing what could be done! And we came up with an idea. We went behind our building and gathered all the bricks and stones. Then we came back to our front door and built a small house for the pup using the bricks. This way the pup would not enter the house but would still be looked after.

We named the pup as ‘Bobby’ and we put him in his new home! To make him comfortable, we had put a bowl of milk, some pieces of roti and a jute bag which worked as Bobby’s mattress! When my grandfather saw what we had done, he smiled and it was rare of him, but he didn’t kick Bobby away when he went near him. So we got our approval that the puppy was allowed to stay this way! Then when my parents came back from work that day, they saw the puppy as well and although a bit skeptic, accepted Bobby as a pet! I had finally got my first pet! I was so happy that I spent most of the time playing with the pup. He would playfully bite my hands and scratch my skin. I would in turn grab his neck and tail and tease him to attack me! My sister and parents were concerned that I would get an infection since the pup wasn’t vaccinated. But I didn’t care much.

After a few days, my mom was the first to cave in. She allowed me to bring Bobby inside the house when no one was there. I had an old Kodak camera with roll film. I was so much in love with him that I took pictures of him sitting on our table! It was a big deal because there used to be only 36 photos in that roll. And I had wasted two of them on a small pup! Such was my love for animals! I used to let him sit on my body. I used to carry him in my hands. I used to feed him Parle-G and watch him struggle while biting the biscuit with his small teeth. I was having a great time with my first pet! But this first experience as a owner of a pet rather ended in a miserable way!

I put him in his dog house one day and went to sleep. I woke up next morning and went out to see what Bobby was up to. I saw that the house was broken down! I didn’t know who did it, but it seemed as if Bobby himself had pushed the bricks aside, maybe because of hunger or fear! I felt really sad that he would leave me like this. So I went searching for him. One of my building friends was with me. We went near the big dust bin where we had found him a few weeks ago. And we saw him there, and the sight made us panic. I don’t want to describe what had happened to him, but he was hit by a rickshaw, and rest is self explanatory. We brought him back but our attempts to save him were in vain!

After this incident, I was deeply disturbed. I cried rivers because this was the first time in my life, that I had experienced a real loss. Before this I had lost my Grandmother, but I was just a three year old kid when that had happened. So I had no idea how it feels to lose a person close to your heart! My mom and dad consoled me and told me that this is one of the reasons they were against the idea of having a pet! And I was sad, so I agreed to them instantly, only to break my promise after some time! This time I had found something else. I wanted a fish tank!

I convinced my mom that compared to dogs, fishes were harmless. They live in their own little world and hence we don’t connect to them as we do with dogs. So it would be painless to pet fishes since we were never going to connect with them emotionally! On these strong arguments, and with a little help from my friends, I got a fish tank and a pair of goldfish. I used to feed them as soon as they finished the previous lot. I knew very little about all the safety and care that one needs to take when it comes to fish. So I lost the pair in a matter of days. Then my friends advised me to get those long fishes. I’m not sure if they were genuine but the shop owners used to call them sharks! So I got these Sharks, 3 of them, and put them in the tank! It was fun taking care of them! On my very first attempt to take them out of the tank because the tank needed cleaning, one of the fishes jumped from the net and landed on the floor below! I got a mini heart attack and I panicked when I saw the small one struggle for an ounce of breath! I quickly grabbed it with my bare hands and threw it in the bucket of water! I took utmost care from then onward while taking them out of the tank!

Pretty soon the Sharks started growing in size and my tank was not big enough to accommodate them! So I had only two options: either buy a bigger tank which I knew my parents were not going to allow, or give the fish away. So with a heavy heart, I bid adieu to my little fishes. I gave them to my friend who had a bigger tank! And so ended my second encounter as a pet owner! After this I tried convincing my parents to get a dog again! But they kept denying. I stayed calm for a few years but the idea of having a pet again started to haunt me. This time I had a different species in my mind! A friend of mine had a cat and she had just given birth to little kittens. They friend’s mother was soon going to give the kittens away. So my friend asked if anyone of us was interested in adopting one of them! I just casually asked my sister, who I knew was fond of cats, and she agreed! So now I had a partner who could easily convince my parents!

So I went to this friend and there were these small cute little kittens! I chose one of them and put him in my friend’s car and brought him home! Little did I know that this small fellow was going to be so special for the whole family! My sister welcomed him with a hug! My mom and dad were still not fully convinced, but still allowed us to keep him. I grabbed him like Rafiki holds Simba and named him ‘Gogo.’ And he lived or rather exceeded expectations as the crime master Gogo!! He had a very limited life span of just four months. But in those four months he gave us countless memories! We lost him to food poisoning very soon, and it stills brings tears in my eyes sometimes when I look at his pictures or see his videos! My father is not really fond of animals either! But Gogo even made him play with him! My father used to run behind him in the house and Gogo used to climb up his jeans, I don’t know as a sign of love maybe! Gogo used to sleep in my blankets and get up as soon as my mom woke up in the morning. He then used to sit behind my mom as she made rotis in the morning and have his meal! He used to sleep on my CPU as the area around used to heat up because of my excessive use! He used to scratch my sister and would not let her sleep! I could go on and on about Gogo and never get tired of it! But I have to stop because even though the post has virtually no limits, I have set a rule that I would not exceed word count of 2000! Right now it is at 1677!

So this was my whole experience as a pet owner! I know that I must have bored you with all this, but I just wanted to dedicate a post to this subject, so that maybe my parents will read it and allow me to finally get another dog! 😛 But I know that now my parents will not say no to a pet. My experiments with Bobby & Gogo have succeeded in proving to my parents that pets are more than just animals! They come into our lives with a purpose of making us more humane! We start to understand and pay attention to their needs. They in turn pour their love on us! And really pets do love with all their heart! Even though they can’t speak, they understand our emotions and treat us accordingly.

So this post is dedicated to all the lovely little creatures out there! I know you all can’t read it, but I hope your owner reads the post to you! 😀 And I hope those who don’t have a pet will also enjoy reading it! I wish to get a dog soon! Because I have realized that having a pet is nothing less than having a relationship! You have to be there for each other, you have to listen to each other, you have to give each other time, respect and space whenever needed. And there’s no harm in trying you know. What if it doesn’t work out, you ask? Well in both cases, you will end up with all theses memories which stay with you for life! You’ll have theses little stories to tell, you’ll be an experienced soul and people will ask your opinions! And if it works out, then you will have a companion for the rest of your lives! 🙂

So I really have to stop now! I hope you all like the post! do put your comments and remarks, if any! 😀

See you soon! Woof woof!!