Atoke’s Monday Morning Banter: Sing to Me Oh Canary!

I don’t know about you guys but there’s a certain feeling of glee that descends upon my soul as the month draws to a close. You see for us Nine-To-Fivers, that Pay Week is fantastic and Pay Day itself is simply glorious! Being broke is NOT fun at all and have you noticed that it’s when you’re broke that things will start appealing to you? Sea food Okro, new hand bag, friend’s bridal shower, million braids? Interestingly I was not alone in this state of being broke. My friend Tola said food had finished in her pantry and all she had left was cereal.

“Abeg, can 25th quickly arrive? Otherwise, I’ll eat this stupid gold fish“.
“What gold fish?“

Apparently, her boyfriend had bought her a gold fish to teach her to be responsible for something other than herself. His initial plan was to get her a puppy but he figured that it was better to start small with Tola. If he’d brought the puppy she’d probably have killed it by now. The gold fish had made it to the 3-week line. I am very proud of her, this is the first pet she has not tried to kill by forgetting to feed.

When I was much younger I loved having pets in the house. We had dogs and it wasn’t bad taking care of them. Somewhere along the line I got a kitten, which I loved to bits because it was constantly rubbing its fur on my body. It was also very neat and was very clingy. Until, one day, I accidentally killed it. We had those large swing back doors and I didn’t realize the cat was following me and I just let the door go. It was the squeak of the cat that made me turn around. I cried so hard, gave it Panadol and warm milk… nothing worked. My cat died and I resolved not to ever love any pet again. For me, owning pets is just emotionally tasking. Especially the ones that end up being eaten during holidays. Imagine nursing, loving and nurturing rabbits, ducks and chickens only to find that by the next holiday they’d be sitting on your plate.

“Mummy, is that Fluffy’s cousin you’re cooking?”
“No, honey, that’s Fluffy herself!”

It is well!

Some people believe that pet keeping is un-African and that it’s just “Lonely Oyinbo people” who keep pets seeing as they don’t have the large extended family system.
Then there’s also the school of thought of what can appropriately be deemed a pet? I know some Nigerians wont keep cats because they believe there’s some diabolical spirit attached to the felines. (I blame the 90s TV show Lynx for that). Is a goat a pet? seeing as you guys will probably kill it for New Year’s day? What about chickens? I mean, you feed them, they run around the house, and they have names (I don’t know about you city people but in Ogbomosho, our chickens have names). Some people have parrots and canaries! That’s so cute honestly!

Then, there’s the care and cleanliness of the pets. If you keep pets, you have to be ready to clean up after them. Abroad, if you have a dog, you better  be ready with a poop bag to clean up after the dog when it does the nasty on the streets or you get fined.

Do you have pets? What pets do you have? Would you get pets for your kids? Share some of your favourite pet keeping stories with me. Oh and if you could get a pet right now what would it be?

Have a fabulous week ahead and let’s have a ball when salary comes!

Peace, Love & Cupcakes!

Toodles!

Photo Credit: masterfile.com