stories of pets in my family are very interesting. see if i can recall every pet that we ever had and have.
1. fish. when i was very little, 4 or 5 years old, we had those tiny weeny colourful fish in a medium sized aquarium. my brother and i got inspired by our mom cooking skill one day that we decided to give it a try and cut the fish into tiny little pieces ( the mom was graciously sleeping at that time ). we didn't have pet fish again until i was a senior in high school. then, we had to buy new fish every 3 months or so because the fish got drowned in dirty water or one of us stupidly forgot to put the chlorine after changing the water. i believe this is still the case until now.
2. chicken. we had chicken when i was small too. initially, they were only ayam kampung. then there was a fever of getting those colourful chicks. i believe mine was blue or green. then the ayam katik. but then after we all went to boarding school and my mom had no one to clean after the chicken, it stopped for a while. started again with the fever of ayam serama few years back. my uncle became a tauke for ayam serama and my animal-loving brother managed to get a couple of them from him. he's been trying to breed them, and i've to say he's been pretty successful. before i left we had six or seven ayam serama.
3. birds. we usually nursed any bird that we found hurt or fell off their nest or accidentally flew into the house. quite a few we had over the years. eventually, we'd let them go. of course, there're quills too. each of us have had them when we were little. and when we got tired of playing with them, we got to eat them. fun animal.
4. cats. we had a cat when i was small. it died when it jumped out of the trunk on our way home from kampung and got hit by a car. named A, was buried behind my house. my mom won't let us have another cat again afterwards. practising our alphabets when the cat was around was fun, it'd come running whenever we began. last year, as i was told, a cat came to our house and stayed. it's still there now. my mom let my little sister keep the cat because it knows where to take care of 'business'. simply called kucing, is loved by everyone. last night i heard, it might be dying. the little sister cut off his eyebrows and whiskers. the poor thing is not eating much and has lost a lot of weight. my eldest brother is worried shit, he said he'll hit my sister on the head ( he loves her like crazy ) if the cat dies. i'm still waiting for news of what's going to happen next.
5. rabbits. when i was small we had them, and gave them away. we had them again about two, three years ago. my brother tried to breed them unsuccessfully. he then borrowed another rabbit from my uncle to impregnant ours. clever scheme, it worked. i believe we now have six rabbits, at least when i left we did.
6. goats. my mother so wanted us to have goats that my dad complied and got her three of those a little over three years ago. the thing was, my mom wanted them, but she didn't want to take care of them. same thing like her car, i guess. one of the goats gave birth to three kids. one died trampled by the big goats. anyway, we kept them for a year and then paid someone else to take care of the poor mistreated goats. i think my mom had one slaughtered for my brother's kenduri doa selamat last year.
7. squirrels. cute, soft, furry pets. bought two baby squirrels when we were in thailand. i took one with me to ppp and named it puu ( i was a big fan of yuyu hakusyo ). it died after three days. i felt so helpless watching it died, i called my mom and bawled. we buried the squirrel behind blok satu. i cried for the rest of the evening. and afterwards, whenever someone mentioned about the squirrel again. i loved that thing like crazy. days after the tragedy, the other squirrel at home died too. i still feel guilty until now, i felt they wouldn't have died if i had left puu with his sister at home. my mom said they were lonely without one of their own. no more squirrels. my sister used to ask me why the squirrels died whenever i called home. only served to make me feel more guilty.
end of pet stories. i'm now going to stick to only virtual pets, like shixeo. too much complication with real ones.