My boys were invited to a friend's birthday party some time in June this year. The theme of the party was pets, and true to its theme, there was a petting zoo of rabbits, hamsters, cute pups, kittens, and colourful birds for the kids to enjoy. At the end of it, I was a little taken aback when I saw the boys had received two tiny little chickens as return gift. I politely refused to accept them, saying as a working mom I had no bandwidth in my life to take on this additional responsibility. The boys wouldn't hear any of it and were delighted to get a pet at last. The host said most of these chickens dyed in bright colours would hardly outlive a week and asked me to not stress too much about them. My cries of protest were drowned in the boy's squeals of joy, and we got back home with two live chickens in a tiny gift bag.
People close to me know how terrified I am of animals, no matter what size or cute package they come in. I sure love cute dogs and kittens, but only in videos or from a safe distance. And now we had two bright-colored, curious chickens who wanted to jump out of the bag and run amok in my house. I wasn't exactly thrilled, but the thought that these tiny furry chickens don't live all that long kept reverberating in my mind. Having brought them home, we were determined to give them the best chance to live.
To cut a long story short, we brought out the picnic basket, lining cloth, drinking water and appropriate feed. I had never interacted with any animal this up close and had to idea how to care for them. Thanks to Google, YouTube, and my househelp, we survived.
All animals are messy and keeping them clean is a task, especially when you have to do it without touching them.
Today it's over 6 months, and it gives me so much happiness to see those two awkward, gawky chickens grow into two sturdy roosters/hens (I don't yet know) and trot around in our private terrace, shooing away the pigeons with an entitlement that this place belonged to them and them alone. They have travelled with us on road trips, we have had them babysit during the few where they couldn't accompany us, and no qualms over giving up evening movie visits or dine-outs.
As they grew my younger one (YO) used to wonder when they would start crowing. He decided they didn't know to crow because they did not have a mother hen to teach them. One Sunday he played rooster crowing videos on YouTube in an attempt to 'train' the chickens. It was a week later that we started hearing the small, squeaky voice of the rooster trying to crow, much to the delight of my sons.
I remember when we were returning from that birthday party and I told my sons that even loud noise could frighten the chicks to death. The pin-drop silence they maintained, asking us to turn off the music and not allowing us to even utter a word, is memorable. These past few months we have witnessed our chickens exhibiting happiness, fear, anger, and even mild disdain. I can write a book on them. This is not to virtue-signal compassion and kindness, but just to share our experience that all lives have a certain amount of intelligence and emotion that we, as humans, don't have the time to care about or understand.
This is an unexpected and amusing episode in the lives of an urban, apartment-dwelling family and wondering what lies in store during the coming year.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2020
#ChanguMangu #UnusualPets #Vegetarianism #TryMeatSubstitute #AllLivesMatter
People close to me know how terrified I am of animals, no matter what size or cute package they come in. I sure love cute dogs and kittens, but only in videos or from a safe distance. And now we had two bright-colored, curious chickens who wanted to jump out of the bag and run amok in my house. I wasn't exactly thrilled, but the thought that these tiny furry chickens don't live all that long kept reverberating in my mind. Having brought them home, we were determined to give them the best chance to live.
To cut a long story short, we brought out the picnic basket, lining cloth, drinking water and appropriate feed. I had never interacted with any animal this up close and had to idea how to care for them. Thanks to Google, YouTube, and my househelp, we survived.
All animals are messy and keeping them clean is a task, especially when you have to do it without touching them.
Today it's over 6 months, and it gives me so much happiness to see those two awkward, gawky chickens grow into two sturdy roosters/hens (I don't yet know) and trot around in our private terrace, shooing away the pigeons with an entitlement that this place belonged to them and them alone. They have travelled with us on road trips, we have had them babysit during the few where they couldn't accompany us, and no qualms over giving up evening movie visits or dine-outs.
As they grew my younger one (YO) used to wonder when they would start crowing. He decided they didn't know to crow because they did not have a mother hen to teach them. One Sunday he played rooster crowing videos on YouTube in an attempt to 'train' the chickens. It was a week later that we started hearing the small, squeaky voice of the rooster trying to crow, much to the delight of my sons.
I remember when we were returning from that birthday party and I told my sons that even loud noise could frighten the chicks to death. The pin-drop silence they maintained, asking us to turn off the music and not allowing us to even utter a word, is memorable. These past few months we have witnessed our chickens exhibiting happiness, fear, anger, and even mild disdain. I can write a book on them. This is not to virtue-signal compassion and kindness, but just to share our experience that all lives have a certain amount of intelligence and emotion that we, as humans, don't have the time to care about or understand.
This is an unexpected and amusing episode in the lives of an urban, apartment-dwelling family and wondering what lies in store during the coming year.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2020
#ChanguMangu #UnusualPets #Vegetarianism #TryMeatSubstitute #AllLivesMatter
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