Animal Pets that Had a Part in our Family

I was born in a province, in a big family of a dozen in all. I am the seventh child . I spent my early childhood days in the province.

My Father's Animal Pet

My father owned a male horse for he was a tranter "kutsero". During those time the means of transportation only was a wooden wagon or cart we called "karitela" . It has two big wheels attached to it. It has a long handle on both sides as long as the lenght of the horse , because the horse is being tied to it , so as he can pull the wooden wagon or wooden cart. Only two to three persons can ride into it or a maximum of four including the kutsero or tranter. "Kutsero" is like a driver we call today . He guides the horse where to go using a bridle attached to its mouth. The bridle is used by the kutsero to control the speed of the horse while running , or to control to stop running. When needed to make the horse run faster the kutsero used a cord to whip the butt of the horse. I remember all those things that my father did as a kutsero . My father being a kutsero is one of his means to have additional income to support our big family. Though he was a US Veteran pensioner and owned a 3 hectar farmland or ricefields yet as big as our family was additional income was needed for from eldest to the eight child , are schooling .

My father took care of the horse by feeding it with grass we called "sakati" and "pulot". My brothers were the ones who looks for "sakati" in the fields nearby. They ought to gather as much as possible they could , for the horse eat much. Though we have lots of rice, veggies and fruits to eat, finances are still needed to meet other family needs like clothings, school supplies and grocery goods.

My Mother's Pet Animals

Since our residential lot was big, there was enough space for hens, ducks and pigs. The horse of my father had a definite stall. The hens and ducks as well and even the pigs. My mother with the help of my older brothers and sisters helped in taking care of those animals . Laid eggs of ducks and hens are for household consumptions. Some hens and hens were sold to have some money.Hens are only for food consumption when there are occasions or celebrations and when there are visitors from city, visiting our place, either classmate friends of my older sisters who were studying in the city. The pigs when giving birth to piglets , some were sold, others remained to take care purposely to have meat to cook during fiesta celebrations. Foods for my mother animal pets was not so much a problem , for there are available food options to feed them .

Our Firstborn Sister

My firstborn sister animal pets were dogs and cats. Among my siblings she is a pet lover. She has three pet dogs of which the names given were accdg. to their colors. The one she named Whitey, for it is white, the other one, is Brownie for it is brown and the last one was Blackie, for it is black. The dogs just stayed in our premises. I also played with them for they seemed to be harmless. They just stayed downstairs for our house had steep stairs. Cats only goes up.

Our only one bird pet

I just don't remember exactly whose pet is the bird. We called it Martines. The color is black . And the bird talks , for they taught them to talk. The bird talks in Ilocano for my parents speaks Ilocano. It was free to roam around the house , so it becomes the cat's prey.

A Carabao

We also had a Carabao, but it was being taken cared of in our farmland by a relative who works in our ricefield.

Being the Seventh Child - That's Me

So far these are but all that I can remember about our animals pets. I was so well aware of their existence in our home, but that didn't make me to be lover of pets like my sister. When we the younger ones that time , grew older only few of our siblings had passion for taking care of pets.

My Tenth Sibling

One of my brother had pet doves. He was able to raise many doves. He sold them others were given for free to friends. He had also hens, and ducks . But when he died he left it all in the care of my younger sister .

My Ninth sibling and family.

They continued taking care of the pets left by our tenth sibling, till they produce more. They sold some and others were for household consumption.

There were only a pair of dove left as of now. They remained because they cannot be caught to be sold. They just stayed at the rooftop and still survived on their own.

People come and go in this life, so with the animal pets. But times spent with each other still remains in my heart and memories. Though I am not a pet lover I had experienced some fun, excitement and learned something from animal pets. Somehow they left something in me that I can ponder upon as part of our family memories of my early childhood days.

Thanks for reading. I hope you too can share your stories about your animal pets here in my community. I will be glad in joining me here.

10th Article as of Sept . 2022

Title: Pet Animals that Had a Part 
In Our Family

Published: Sept. 29, 2022 - Thurs.