Pets that Made an Inroad into my Life: A Tortoise, Dogs, Rabbits and others

My son watched me gathering some photographs of my pet rabbits from an old hard-disk. When he learnt that I was doing it for writing some hubs, and there will be many people who would read these hubs and see their pictures for all times to come, he was very happy. Recently one of our pets (a bulbul) died. I told him that by putting their photographs on the hubpages, we can make them immortal as even if they die in due course, they will still remain alive in the computer screens. It is with an idea invoked by his questions that I decided to create this hub. In this hub, I present the profiles of my pets. All these pets were once staying with us. Given our difficulties in accommodating everyone in a 3 room set on the sixth floor of a house in Dehradun, we have shifted some of them to our farm back in Orissa. Currently we only have Snowy and Goldy staying with us. All others have been shifted. The profiles presented here are not comprehensive. We also have a cow, a couple of goats that I consider as pets and back in our farm, we also have buffaloes, goats, some home grown ducks and around 200 pigeons that I consider as domestic animals.

Tuktuk

We found Tuktuk (the tortoise) during an well excavation back in our village. Among all the pets we have Tuktuk is the oldest. We do not know when he was born, but he has been staying with us for more than 10 years now. Tuktuk is a peaceful creature, but once he had bitten my brother in law. He responds only to my son and only lives a solitary life. He lives in a tub we had specially prepared for him with cement and mortar. Tuktuk mostly lives on sprouted grams, but he also at times tries to bite small sticks

and wood pieces. He immediately hides himself in his shell whenever a stranger comes. Last month only we shifted him to my farm as we can have a bigger place for him to stay and shall also try to find a match for him. Tuktuk is still a mystery for me. But my son talks to him and surprisingly he does not go inside his shell even if my son holds him on his lap. Some elders in my village who have seen Tuktuk say that this tiny creature of around one kilogram only may be even older than me. In last ten years Tuktuk has not grown in size. So, what people say may be true. Some people say that Tuktuk will live more than 200 years. We do not have any knowledge about his breed and species specification. May be, my friend Lovely who is a life scientist would be able to tell something about the species of the tortoise.

Sandy

Sandy is a sweetheart. He is such a small dog but so brave that he often tries to invite troubles with much bigger dogs who dare to enter our garden. Sandy has been with us for around five years since December 2007 when he was only 2 months old. My brother who deals with pets gifted him to me. My son was around 2 years then and was not able to walk in a very stable manner. Whenever he used to walk near the balcony, Sandy would bark loudly and at times pull his pant to make him sit down. When My son got acquainted with him, he became my son's first friend with whom he could interact. Sandy worked as a doorbell for us. He would bark at the slightest activity outside our main door. I had then read from reviews that Tibetan Spaniels are not good for small kids. But Sandy saved my sons life several times. When in 2008 we shifted to Orissa and started living in a small house in a flood prone area near Bhubaneswar, once he located a cobra in our store room hidden under a load of fire woods and did not let the creature go away till we reached the spot and got rid of the reptile. He is not only brave, he also is much powerful for his size and weight. For a couple of months, we spent our vacations in our village farm. One day he broke his chain and drove away a herd of wild pigs who trespassed into our farm and were destroying our crops. We have now shifted to Dehradun for a couple of years and Sandy stayed back in village as we felt his presence in our farm is a necessity. My son remembers Sandy a lot and tells the legendary of Sandy to Snowy and Goldy.

Snowy

Snowy is beautiful. He is a white dog whom we picked from the streets of Dehradun during peak winter of January. He was hardly a month old and was probably abandoned by his mother. When I was taking my son to school in the morning we noticed him hiding behind a garbage heap. It was a love at first sight. In the evening, we again went near the spot and found him there. We gave him some biscuits and started leaving, but he followed us and we decided to adopt him. Since them he is living with us. For his off-white coat, we named him Snowy. Our vet says that he is a mongrel probably from a labra and some local varieties. We do not bother. He is very intelligent, loving and social; although I often think he is a bit timid too and hides behind my son when he sees other big dogs. At the time when I am writing this hub, he is around six months old and almost 25 Kilogram in weight. I love looking him running in the lawn when we take him out. Snowy has greenish blue eyes that makes him so special. He never attacks anyone and goes to everyone even if they are not from family. This I do not like. All the children in our building know snowy and snowy knows them. He is very attached to me and my son and is fond of sleeping with his head on my lap when I sit on the ground.

Goldy:

For me, Goldy was an unsolicited guest when she came to our family without our knowledge. One fine afternoon in February 2012 (a week after we brought Snowy home) when my son was taking bath, I went to his room and noticed his school bag was shaking and completely wet. I was so afraid, I thought, there was a snake inside the bag, as the school of my son is surrounded by a bit of jungle. There was no sound and when with a lot of fear and a stick in my hand, I opened the bag, and found a very funny creature that ran out of the bag and hid behind the door. I was very frightened and some how gathered enough courage to see the creature that was later named as Goldy for her golden colour coat. When my son came out of the bathroom, Goldy went to him as if they knew each other before. My son admitted that they were friends and he brought her home to spend the weekend together. That night, me and my husband had a lot of discussion about Goldy. We were not sure whether Goldy was a dog or a fox or jackal. She was so small for a puppy with a lean and thin shining body with a reddish golden coat and a free falling broom like tail. Till that time we never touched her and did not know that it was a female as we were afraid of touching her thinking that it was a wild jackal cub. Somehow, I put her in a cardboard box and gave her some milk. Next morning we found my son playing with her in his room and when she saw her she cunningly ran at lightening speed and hid again in the box. We later got it confirmed by our vet that Goldy is a bitch and we decided to keep her as a pet.

Chikki and Mikki the Rabbits

About Chikki and Mikki, I have already written a hub earlier. They are currently staying back in our village farmhouse along with their 15 children and grandchildren. Read about Chikki and Mikki here.