Adventures with Pet Raising

am surrounded with people here who are so fanatic about pets, be it at work or at home...My neighbor has 2 dogs..(Don’t ask me about the breed...) One is huge, black in color and the other is the tiny poodle (i guess) kinds...both barking at a mere sound we make outside our apartment. The building in which i live has about 12 apartments, 4 in each floor. Till now I have encountered 7 dogs. Phew!!
Me n hubby both are wary of dogs. Hubby is more scared than me...All we know of dogs back home are the theru nayis (Street dogs) whom our parents used to feed with palayathu (left over rice..).
I for one instinctively shudder when I see a dog. The dog owner eventually says, "he/she wont bite..." but how do we know...namba neram...(our fate..) the thought of 14 usi (dog bite injections...) in the stomach looms ahead...
Nowadays, my apt people on seeing me give me wider birth.. the right of way !! That did it....it was so insulting...as if we don’t love animals...we do but it is our no-pet upbringing which makes us react this way. I remember when we (me and my brother) were young, due to the influence of lot of Enid Blyton books used to pester mom for a puppy..she used to " Ungala vechinde samalika mudiyalai,ethula nayi veraya " (We are unable to cope with you, on top of this should we go for a puppy).
We decided we should get some pets, something which we could take care of. Hubby was interested in getting an aquarium....he got excited about setting up a fish tank and buying all kinds of fishes...
All of our American colleagues have their dogs/cats photo on their desktop as screensaver, some have them framed for display near their workstation....Mike has 3 horses and 2 foals which he proudly gives status about everyday. When the news reached them about how we were interested in setting up a fish tank, there were all kinds of suggestions and opinions on the size of the aquarium, what things should be bought along with it and the kinds of fishes that can be put together in the tank...etc...etc...Wow wot enthusiasm..
I also heard them telling me that we should be prepared of the fishes dying and so it put me of the idea of getting lot of fishes...All i wanted to get was a single pot with a single fish in it...Since we were having difference of opinions we thought to give it time...Meanwhile since we already had thought of having pets, we decided on getting a bird feeder.
We shopped for it got this lovely bird feeder with a handle where the bird can perch and peck the grains through a small hole in it...We hung it from our 3rd floor balcony...it was Red in color and so pretty... To start with we got 2 lb of grains..for $4 and I filled it.
For about a week daily I used to want the birds to peck from it but no bird came and the grains remained untouched......So i scattered the grains all over the balcony one day out of lack of patience.
Lo and Behold! different type of birds started visiting us. Its such a beautiful sight seeing them. I proudly photographed the same and showed it everyone who were interested, see we too have pets...By the end of the week we ran out of bird feed. We were so excited and happy that we got 4lb pack for $6 and before we realized it we ran out of the grains in less than 5 days........!!!! My wooden balcony shows off a pristine white coat....(bird droppings)!! Still the joy of seeing these small delicate birds perched on the handle and pecking grains makes us wonder at God's fabulous creation!! Remembered my 10th std poem of Blake's "Did He who made the lamb make thee?"So we are happy with our pet idea of pets, to the extent of feeding birds...We also defend our actions saying that mostly people here, are lonely and they find solace in having pets, when we have hordes and hordes of relatives and no room for pets!!!