Tuesday, October 09, 2007
INDAY'S PETS
According to the Chinese zodiac, people born during the year of the rooster are, for the most part, self-assured, resourceful, determined, intrepid and talented. Moreover, they can be very accurate observers as if gifted with a keen sixth sense. But my sister Inday wasn't born under this sign, she just comes to mind whenever I see a rooster or anything that resembles it. You see, Inday had a pet fighting cock once when we were kids.
Our parents were quite lenient when it came to allowing us to have any pets that we wanted, except for reptiles, especially those slithering ones, which gave our mother the creeps. But I was totally astonished one day when Inday's wish for a pet rooster was granted by my father. To make a long story short, when she did get one to keep as a pet, I must admit that she cared for it extremely well. She wasn't one to get shy when asking for tips from seasoned breeders who were guests of my father on some occasions.
Inday even had an older cousin blow cigarette smoke into that rooster's face every morning. And that same cousin would help her arrange in staging mock fights that would pit her pet rooster against the older, more experienced fighting cocks in the neighborhood. It soon became evident that Inday was truly grooming her pet to become a ferocious contender. Unfortunately, our eldest sister Fraulein frowned upon the idea of Inday having a fighting cock for a pet that the poor rooster ended up as stew for our Sunday lunch.
Inday wasn't upset by the early demise of her beloved pet rooster, for there were other pets to be had she reasoned. Most noteworthy of which were the duck and rabbit that grew healthy and surprisingly large under her care. Inday had no need for "invisible friends" like other kids do because she would tirelessly talk to her pets as if it were the most natural thing to do. Nonetheless, I teased Inday that both pets willed themselves to get grotesquely large so they'd be shipped off to my aunt's house in Subic; thus, no longer had to listen to her incessant chatter.
To this day, Inday still has pets -- love birds, this time. And she talks to them just the same. The single pair that she started with became so many that she soon she had to start selling off some to make room for the newly born ones. Those love birds certainly proved not only their amorous nature, but their astounding prolificacy as well.
And besides these colorful love birds, there is another pet in which Inday is pretty much preoccupied with as of late. However, it isn't a pet of an animal kind but rather an endeavor, which I believe to be a significant aspect of her purpose in life; this I will relate in my next entry.
posted by Señor Enrique at 6:56 AM
20 Comments:
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carlotta1924 said... i used to have pet roosters before too, though not the fighting kind hehehe.
can't wait for your next pet entry. =)-
Sidney said...
Filipinos and roosters. It seems to be a long love story!
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Señor Enrique said...
I guess, if Inday had a hen instead that laid at least an egg a day, Fraulein would have never minded it, Carla. But a promising fighting cock was a bit too much for her female sensibilities ... hehehe.
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Señor Enrique said...
I would say love/hate story, Sidney.
My cousin started caring for a whole bunch of fighting cocks in his parents' grounds in Quezon City which prompted the whole neighborhood to file formal complaints because of the excessive noise those roosters created with their endless croaking.-
said... We also had variety of pets through the years - love birds, pigeons, dogs, cats, no roosters though. :)
But the one very memorable for me is my husband's mini pond which he kept for several years when we finally had our own house.
He tended to the pond everyday - feeding the fishes, cleaning the water. In time, the fishes grew so big, from just an inch to six or more inches in length, and there was even one which grew to almost a foot. And he had turtles too - about four of them that grew from just like a tiny dot to the size of dinner plate.
What puzzles me until now however, is that one day - without any prelude at all - he just drained the pond and gave away all the contents to friends and neighbors. He never told us the reason why he did that. Pero sayang, sana pinagbili na lang niya sa pet shop - they could have yielded quite a sum of money. :(-
said...
Sabong; I've yet to see it for real and I'm so intrigued by it.
(:
To me it's normal for us to talk to pets, they do understand us --- in a way.-
Señor Enrique said...
Neither have I, Kyels, and lack the desire to see one.
Yes, that's what Inday claims, that her pets somehow understand whatever she tells them :)-
Señor Enrique said...
Sayang naman, Rhoda. Bakit kaya?
Actually, I've been entertaining an idea of getting turtles as pets. I saw these unusual kinds that a local breeder exhibited in an early morning news TV show.
Can your husband give me some tips? I can just house them in an aquarium tank, right?-
said...
Although hubby did not tell us the reason why he just dumped his fishes and turtles, I have a guess.
I think he got tired of my constant complaining whenever I saw him sitting by the edge of his pond, as if mesmerized. In short, parang nagselos ako. hahaha!
Anyway, with the turtles, yes, you can keep them in an aquarium, maybe at the start, pero paano pag lumaki na sila? And they can really grow big, I tell you. So I think you should house them in a big tank.-
Watergirl said...
Sounds like your sister was a proper Dr. Doolittle. Some people have the knack to handle animals. Is she a vet?
I lived on a fighting rooster farm for 2 weeks. Every morning at 3 am, they'd start crowing, I seriously wanted to massacre every single one of them. By the second week, I got used to their wake up call.-
Señor Enrique said...
I once went along with a cousin house hunting, MTan, and the realtor showed us a newly-built modern house in Cainta, Rizal. It was gorgeous and the price was surprisingly lower than anyone would expect in such a nice residential area.
Anyway, on the second floor, as I took a peek at the view from one of the bedrooms, I saw the reason why the house remained in the market all that time -- a couple of houses away, on a huge ground was a mini breeding farm for fighting cocks! And right after my cousin noticed it, we hurriedly left the place.-
Señor Enrique said...
Talk about misguided emotion, Rhoda. At least he was right there where you could see him, unlike others who'd be gone away the whole day golfing or whatever. Oh, well...
Hmmm ... a big tank for the turtles, eh?-
NOYPETES said...
My alarm clock is the the sound of a rooster's "cock-a-doodle-doo" at the break of dawn. Unlike most, I love to hear roosters crowing in the morning. Reminds me of my days on the farm when I was a kid. It's really unusual for a female to get into the routine of petting a fighting cock which is a common sight in the barrios and some urban areas in Manila with the men training their "panabong" to hone their skills in the galleria fights so they could come home with some cash prize for the day or nilagang manok, tinola or inasal for dinner.
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Señor Enrique said...
Inday grew up a tomboy so she tended to become extreme with her choice of game and hobbies, Pete ... hehehe.
My cellphone has a selection of a cock's crowing that I can use to alert me for incoming messages or calls. But I use it instead for my wake up alarm as you do.-
ScroochChronicles said...
Maybe Inday and my kid, Gaby, should talk one of these days. My kid has this thing for those colored chicks which you can get in the palenke. We get ours in Pampanga and they never really last past a week. We just tell her that they went back to Pampanga rather than telling her that they croaked. Talaga lang, dapat mag-usap sila :)
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Señor Enrique said...
That's very wise of you, Scrooch. Perhaps, you should get Gaby a pair of love birds :)
I've a feeling that one of these days we'll all run into each other in a mall or something and we'll spend the next hours or so chatting up a storm, with Gaby included :)-
reyd said...
I had a lot of pang sabong na manok, nag dala pa kami ng mga itlog from California to Clark in the 80's ilang beses lang ako nagsabong. My brother is the one that always go there, tapos minsan, talo, minsan may ilalaga silang manok na tinalo nila.
Now, yun nga, naging mga lovebirds ang hobby niya, the last time I saw the cage, ang daming ibon and I love those different colors. Maingay lang nga -- hahaha but for a retired person, those might be his outlet to spend his idle time watching those lovely birds.-
Señor Enrique said...
Hi Reyd!
Malamig sa tenga ang ingay ng mga love birds, di ba? And colors are simply glorious -- ang gaganda. Your brother certainly picked a good hobby because it is so relaxing to care for those birds.
Would you believe na hanggang ngayon hindi pa ako nakakapasok ng sabungan? By the way, last I heard federal offense na to transport interstate kahit mga itlog ng pang-sabong na manok. Kasi considered extremely cruel to the animals ang sabong sa Amerika.-
-= dave =- said...
We raised chickens when I was a child and bird flu is not yet around. I also liked the roosters more because they are the colorful and funny-looking ones. But I didn't develop a liking for cockfighting though. I just like playing with them (ranging from gently to cruelly), feeding them, then finally, eating them, hehehe.
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Señor Enrique said...
Lol!
You are too much, Dave!
