Who said wildlife can only be found in the wild? Growing up, I always considered that we lived in a wildlife home. Why? We took care of different pets or should I say animals than we thought we could be.

My father was a gardener and we always have lots of plants at home. Both of my parents love plants. That soothes their soul, I think. Here's a picture of our former house looked like from the outside:

My parents didn't bother to had our gate repaired hahaha! We would always joke that our house from the outside looks like Alice in Wonderland.

We had a lot of plants and trees. We had malunggay tree, when we were young we had Guava tree, Cacao tree, my mother even had a dragon fruit and harvest some when it's ready. My mother used to plant eggplant, ampalaya, calamansi, chili plant and we even have a miracle fruit berry. There's still a few that I didn't know of but those are some plants that I remember. We still have some of those plants when we moved in to our current house. Even got more because we now have a lot of space or a small garden that they can fill with lots of plants.

See? hahahah! Hey, that was just the greens. I am about to tell you more about our wildlife like home.

My father always say that when you have different insects or species visiting your home, it has somehow a balanced ecosystem. Well, something like that, you know what I mean. Most of the time, we see bubuli, bees, birds, even humming birds visit our house every afternoon, butterflies too!

We always loved animals, scary ones and cute ones. My parents hands could really take care of plants and pets. Well, taking care of pets were therapeutic to them. We only had a dog when we were kids until some of our uncle or someone give us another dog. Having a male and a female dog will result to having baby dogs!

One time, my cousins and nephews visited our house and a cart with colored chicks passed by. Here in the Philippines, some people dye the chicks with different colors and sell them for a peso or 5pesos. My father bought my nephews some chicks and one of them easily died because the kids played with it like a toy. Then my father decided to take care of the other 2 chicks when then left our house. I was actually surprised that the chicks really turned into actual chicken that even bears eggs everyday! Good job Taytay!

My father is really fascinated in exotic animals too but we don't have the money to buy them. Until one time, my aunt did give an exotic animal. She gave us a scorpion as the first exotic pet we had. It was her boss's pet and then decided to give it to us instead. Then she gave us a few kinds of tarantulas and gecko (tuko).

Here are some pets that we've had:

I loved taking care of hamsters. I even got to breed and sell some as they really multiply quickly.

One of our neighbors gave us doves and they reproduced too! We also got a chance to have a guinea pig.

I remember one time, my father caught a small snake and planned to keep it as a pet. He put it in an aquarium nd took care of it for days/weeks. After a few weeks my mother noticed eggs in the aquarium. It was only one at first but after a few days, there were 4 eggs already. My mother got scared of course and asked my father to let go of the snake in the river. Well, a small snake is fine but having too many is dangerous especially we are not experts. Good thing he did let go of the snake.

NOW! My father got an eel and is currently taking care of it. We still have 3 dogs, 2 turtles, a few fish and the tarantulas.

Anyways, growing up in a home like this really brought us close to nature. I really love the fresh air that it brings. That's why I don't like being on the road so much, because I love the freshness and the cold breeze. The only thing that I don't like in this environment is mosquitos. O.O

Maybe I'll enjoy living in the wild too, just in case hahaha!

I still have a lot too share but time is limited and I'm working on this article while carrying my Lo. Typing in one hand hahaah!

Another entry to @JonicaBradley 's writing prompt.

Just remember to follow the rules and guidelines.

Rules

Only 5! Number 2 and number 5 are the very most important.

1. Write anything on Wildlife (nature) or Wild Life (lifestyle)

2. Write 100% original content

3. Join and submit your story to the PromptlyJonica community

4. Tag me @JonicaBradley

5. Have fun!

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Lead image from unsplash, pictures posted are mine.