Pets I had during my childhood days

My pet animals

There was a time, I often tell my friends and students, when I had number of pets at home which is difficult to believe. I had rabbits, parrots, a myna, hens and their brood of chickens, two dogs, a cat, a peacock and a deer. The last two animals were gifts given to us by the Forest Ranger who was our next door neighbour. The best part of it was that none of these animals were caged or chained throughout the day. Each had their own places to sleep which no one could occupy. None of them were scared of each other. The parrots were closer to the dogs than to others. They even dared to nibble the ears of the dogs. Once when the nibbling reached the extend of a bite the dog lost its patience and barked at the parrot so ferociously that the parrot stayed away from it for a good period of time. We did eat the eggs laid by the hens but once in a while certain senior hens were allowed to have a clutch of eggs and then hatch them. The sight of the chicks for the initial 4 – 5 days used to be quite pleasing to the eyes. On the other hand the little ones of the rabbit for the initial 10 – 12 days used to look quite ugly. But soon after they were so cute that we couldn’t resist the temptation of chasing & hold them for a while.

The peacock and the deer as well as the cat generally kept to themselves.

During the evenings when fried rice used to be sprinkled in the varrendah almost all the birds and animals used to flock together and eat it. It was really a pleasure to watch them together.

In the evenings the mother hens used to lead the chicks to the cubicals made for them and then the chicks used to try their best to be under the wings of their mothers as snuggly as possible.

Among all the animals we could witness the maternal love of only two of them the hens and the rabbits. Of course, the young ones of the sparrows were also seen flattering around along with their proud parents.

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