Our family has 20 members. And before you think something else, let me clear up that out of these, just 3 are homosapiens (mama calls me a donkey, but still....), the rest are an assortment of different creatures. They are not just dumb animals, but if you spend time with them as I have, you'll learn they are far more than that.
The oldest in our family has to be the tortoise. Its been about since 7 years or so. Even now as I am writing about her (she's a female) she is busy rubbing her head against me. She is more of the gimme-my-food-and-get-lost type. The story of how she came to live with us is a little...well...read for yourself. Since I was a kid, I had always begged for a dog. So one fine day Papa brought home a box and told me "Here's what you wanted". Over-excited and anticipating a puppy, I opened the box, but inside there was something that looked like a soldier's helmet with feet and a silly looking smiling snake-head sticking out from underneath. "A tortoise?" I shrieked,"I wanted a pup". Papa replied "what's the difference? It has 4 legs, 2 eyes, a nose too". I answered "this is a REPTILE, puppies are mammals, being a zoologist, how could you even think that?" Mama and the tortoise made a female-bonding with each other and so she stayed. Ma is her favorite, so its hardly surprising she is the only person in the family Toto doesn't pee on. Yeah, she does that a lot on me, she sneaks on me from behind and before I realize, my skirt is all wet. Often I think she has a vendetta against me, maybe for not giving her puppy status all those years back. But still, i miss her during her long hibernations but she makes up for it when she wakes up---she is too hyperactive. I am sure this one would have won any race without the rabbit dozing off. I do not know how much intelligence god has bestowed upon these reps but it sure is more than we think. She rushes in to the kitchen and claws at the fridge when she is hungry, she'll rush to the nearest door when it rains and sit there staring out quietly, even when three of us are together-its always ma she snuggles up with. They say torts can live up to 300 years which means, judging by her size, there might be a good chance that she's older than papa and she'll live out the three of us.
The next to come in were two parrots. Never really liked them because first I don't like the idea of caged birds and second they were noisy aggressive fighters. I wasn't surprised when 3 days later they successfully murdered each other. On the day we had decided to set them free.
The next after them were two rabbits, who were baptized Digi(tal) and Ana(log) with respect to my two favorite subjects. They were the cutest pets I had. If Toto favored mama, these two favored me. At night they could climb on to my lap and fall asleep or they would sneak into ma-pa's room and doze just below the a/c. Spoilt brats they were--they had to sit on the couch,they hated bathing and I remember they used to spit the water right at my face. Yuck. And they nibbled at anything and everything...they were finally caged after we had to get a new keyboard, slippers, mouse scanner and modem cords. Since they ate a lot, well--they acted like two shit generating machines too, until ma got frustrated and tied little nappies around them. What a damn funny scene that was!! But one day, they died. I wont elucidate on how, but it was a bad heat-stroke. As I mentioned, animals have far more understanding than we think them to be capable of. Our usually playful G sat gloomy and refused food until the next day. And so did I. I really hope there is a heaven for rabbits with all the things they would want to nibble and an a/c and a lap to sleep in. Also the baby rabbits, that Ana was pregnant with....
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