pet lessons

i heard this kid downstairs at the 4D shop today asking his dad if he could throw a stone at this stray cat. i think the uncle was aware of my hideous glare, cuz he quickly pulled his stupid son away and rushed off. when my siblings and i were growing up, my parents filled our lives with pets. i think this is why i love animals so much now...and in a way, it has made me the person i am today. i wish it were every parents' responsibility to ingrain this kind of awareness into their kids...in fact, it's not even about being environmentally friendly (i'm not the kind who will go and be a tree-hugger or anything like that...), but about respecting nature and it's children. you'd be surprised at the lessons that can be learned from raising pets.

when i was a baby, my dad's side of the family had this huge-ass german shephard that prowled the backyard of my grandparent's house back in taiwan. his name was "taka" (which apparently meant "eagle" or something like that). he was damn fierce to strangers...but the most loyal dog in the whole world to his family. i remember getting drenched in his saliva even as a toddler. on my maternal grandparents' side, they had a dachshund - aka sausage dog (can't remember his name though), who was the exact opposite...he'd lick every person who'd come his way...he was so friendly that he'd even let me ride on his back once in a while. they were my first encounters with pets. that's how i became comfortable around animals.

naturally, as i grew older, i'd start bugging my parents for our own pet. we were staying in an apartment back then, cuz my dad was still teaching in 交通大学 (jiao tong university)...and we couldn't get anything that barked or made a lot of noise...so ducks and rabbits were brought into my life. but they didn't last very long cuz the ducklings caught a flu...and died...while the rabbits were hunted down by stray dogs when we let them out to play on the grass patch downstairs...and well...died too. let's just say that i had an early introduction to the concept of death beacuse of that.

soon afterwards, we moved to the states. in california, we didn't have enough time to settle down to get a pet...so my brother and i would go out to our backyard and catch crickets, grasshoppers, snails, beetles, fireflies, and even earthworms to bring back to our little aquarium tank at home. they'd normally all die within a few days, cuz we didn't know that they needed proper food and housing in order to survive. but we soon figured out how to keep them alive a little longer with the help of my mom (who was very understanding, and probably concerned as well, about all the dead insects around the house). another few lessons learned on the basics for survival, and the importance of being caring and responsible.

and then we moved to the big apple. in new york, my dad brought us to the pet store one day, and asked us to choose something. it was one of the most brilliant days in my whole life. they had EVERYTHING there. i fell in love with the ferret in the glass enclosure immediately. back then, at least in new york, it was still legal to own one (though i don't know about now). ferrets are the smartest, brightest, cutest, most cuddly animals alive...but we couldn't afford one. i was so disappointed, but then we still took home a pair of guinea pigs, so...i learned to live with my disappointment, and be content with what i had. yet another chapter in the "life lessons" book.

one year later, my dad decided to change jobs, so we had to uproot again...this time, to michigan...where my dad was going to teach at the michigan state university. we had to give the guinea pigs away. by then, i had already gotten so attached to them that it was very heartwrenching for me to leave them behind. but i had to let go cuz the plane ride would have been too stressful for them to survive. another painful "breakup".

when we settled down in michigan, my dad decided that we were ready for a DOG!!! wowsers...that's up there along with the pet store in new york experience!!! we searched the papers for advertisements, and low and behold, someone was giving out free puppies! so we drove out to the farm where they were at and got ourselves a little black cocker spaniel puppy. we named her "小黑" ("little blackie"). we kept her in a dog house in our back yard, in a fenced up area, about the size of a king sized bed. 小黑 was a very hyper dog, and would want to run everywhere...but the more she wanted to run, the more i wanted to hold her tighter on the leash. finally, one day, while i was trying to get her back into her pen...she ran away. we never found her after that. eventually, we got another dog...a german shephard husky mix. DAMN cute. she had the german shephard golden dots above her eyes and a husky curled up tail. we named her "happy". silly name, but she was really just that. happy. but then, same story as with 小黑. same ending. it's not that we mistreated or ill-treated her in any way...it's just that she wanted the space to run, and the freedom to be herself, which i didn't give. if you love something, you have to set it free...if it loves you in return, it'll come back. a hard lesson even for an adult...not to mention the small kid that i was.

all in all, i think animals played a large part in my growing up years. i wished that the father today taught his son a lesson or two. cruelty to animals is actually punishable by law...though sometimes too leniently. i don't know...maybe i just have this respect for animals...the same as i would have for a teacher...a teacher who's been with me my whole life, and who's still tutoring me...albeit without words. get a pet for your son asap...i think you would reap more benefit from it than all those 4D tickets could ever bring you.