The pets we had

Months ago I have already shared with you the story of Doggo and Doggie (not their real names but it sounds like their name) but I still want to join this week's writing prompt by @JonicaBradley by talking about the pets we had when I was growing up.

When we were still living in an apartment, we did not have any dogs or cats but we were taught to care and love for animals as how we would to people. I think the first ever pet that we have was a chick. I think there was someone who rode the jeepney who sells chicks and ducks and even fishes. As a kid, we were really fond of looking at them so my brother and I begged our mom to buy us one and we did not stop until she bought it for us. My brother and I were so happy and we really gave all our attention to our first chick. I think our first chick died because our dad had accidentally stepped on it. For us to be happy again, our mom bought us another chick but we do not know what happened to the chick as it was not lively or probably because it was just one. When we woke up, again the chick was already dead. And then our last chick, our mom told us that it went away on its own. We kept asking her how the chick went away and she said it just flew to the sky. When we were grew up, I realized what she meant by it. My mom did not want to tell us that the chick died because we would have been depressed by it.

Then there was a time when my brother saw an injured bird while he was playing with the other kids. They brought it home and I even placed it in my steel pencil case. I was pretending I was a doctor that I tend to the injured bird. LOL. I forgot what happened after that but for sure it died. Speaking of my pencil case, I also placed the duck in the balut in my pencil case. LOL. As defined in Wikipedia, balut is a Filipino term for a fertilized developing egg embryo that is boiled and eaten from the shell. My dad was eating balut and he asked us if we wanted to try it. We asked him about it and he said that it has a duck inside. Of course as little kids we were so curious about it especially me. When my dad opened the shell, he showed us the duck and I requested my dad not to eat it and to place it in my pencil case. I just looked at it whole night. LOL. My mom threw it away when I was sleeping. I juat wanted to look at it that is why I requested my dad to not eat it. Do you eat balut? I do even if I saw how it looked like. There was even a time when I ate a balut that I feel that the duck was days old as it was a little hard to chew and to swallow. LOL. I sometimes look at my balut and sometimes I don't. I like it with spicy vinegar and salt. How do you eat a balut?

Let us move now to mussels. Yes, I asked my mom to save me one mussel. She used to bring me to public markets when I was still a little kid and I saw that the mussels were still alive. When we got home, I placed one mussel in a glass of water and whenever I would look at it, it would spit some water. It was really cool and it was my first experience with a mussel. Again, I forgot what happened to the mussel. LOL. Another crustacean and probably some of you can relate, crabs and small crabs. I would let the crab walk in our living room. LOL.

Those were just some of my experiences with animals when I was a kid and I really wanted to keep every animal that I fancied as a pet. When we moved into a new house, after few years my dad brought home a dog. I think I was already 10 years old when we had her. We do not know much about breeds during that time but we really loved her. It was because of her when my brother and I realized that we love dogs. Our dog would even follow us outside our subdivision when my mom would drive us to school and she would go back home. Though she cannot go inside our house because no one is home but she would just stay outside our house. And when we would come back from school, she was there waiting for us. She died from a hit and run just outside our house.

After that, we had a few more dogs one after another. One died because it was still a puppy and my dad's driver did not notice him in the garage. Then the rest died of flea and ticks. It was really a painful experience for all of us that my mom asked our dad not to accept dogs anymore. Our dogs werr usually given to my dad. Then after more than a decade, we had the opportunity to have a dog again. Because we were already at the right age, our mom told us that we should be the one to bathe them and feed them. I still do it up to this day and I really treat them like they are my little brothers. I do all those and my dad pays for their shots, check ups, foods and medicines. I love it when pur dogs would finish the food that I gave them. I give them kibbles with a little sauce or broth from our dish if we have something saucy. Then I also give them a few slices of pork or chicken meat. Chicken are their favorite.

But did you know that we also had fishes when we were kids? We did and xannot remember how many fishes we bought. There was a time that we had to go to our relatives' place in South to spend the weekend there so my mom accidentally pulled the plug of the oxygen. When we came back, all the fishes were already floating. My mom even asked me to clean the aquarium and I was crying while I was taking out all the fishes in the tank. Then the last time that we had fishes, I did not know why one by one the fishes disappeared. At first I thought that it was because of the fighting fish thst I placed in the tank together with the other fish but I did not know why they disappeared each day. I even blamed the janitor fish. LOL. But it was not the fighting fish as I saw that its tail was bitten and it disappeared. We never solved the mystery behind the disappearance of the fishes and it was the last time that we bought fish.now, our aquarium is in our stock room.

Most of us consider our pets as part of the family. With all of my past experiences with taking care of some animals, I think it is wise if we would know first how to take care of each pet. I remember we even had a hamster when we were in high school. Then I bathed the hamster and the next day it was already dead. I do not know if it was ok to bathe the hamster but luckily we were able to return its cage to the shop and got us something else.

For a child, it is really painful if the animals die. They may be traumatized or depressed but I know that kids would learn a lot at an early age if they are introduced to taking care of animals. Sadly, my godson is turning 7 years old yet he is not into any pets. At a young age, my sister-in-law would not want our dogs to get near him. Well Doggo who is a Japanese Spitz is not also into children. He even jumped on my sister's womb when she was still pregnant and he kept on barking at hear. It was the reason why she would not let the dogs near my godson. I hope that if he would grow up, he would love and care for the animals especially dogs.

We all have different preference with animals that we want to take care as pets. But aside from dogs, I would also like to have rabbits as my pets and a horse and a pig. Whether you are an animal lover or not, I hope that you would not hurt or harm them. I am overly mad with people who hurts animals especially dogs. It was one of the many reasons why I decided not to browse my Facebook. Animals also have feelings.

This is in response to JonicaBradley's Writing Prompt #10 Pets

Challenge rules:

1. Join the Promptly Jonica community here
2. Write anything about pets
3. Write 100% original content
4. Tag JonicaBradley
5. Have fun!

P.S. lead image is a photo of Doggo and Doggie