Our childhood pets

 Our home is a happening place for live insects - thanks to the kindhearted soul that nurtures us.

When he was hardly 4 years old, he went to a small kids center and his correspondent used to fetch him (along with his other classmates) to and fro school, in a car (They had so much fun in the car, singing with the correspondent and playing with fellow kids). We used to rush to board the car every morning, because we wake up late everyday. As we alighted the lift and were rushing to the car, tada! we see a tiny caterpillar. On his advise, I pick it up in a leaf and brought it home. We placed it in a small casing along with the leaf. I wanted to have him observe it and throw it away. But, the little bunny had other ideas- to see it metamorphose to a pupa and then a butterfly. Poor caterpillar had no other choice and was stuck with us! It built a cocoon inside the casing and never matured to a butterfly though. One morning, as we ventured out, I stealthily recommended J to dispose it off. As we returned, we saw an open pupa and we claimed that the moth flew away - easy to make a 4yr old believe this story.

A few years later, he picked a few snail babies, named them (Sayara, Banooth and Sayuth etc)

These souls had to abide by the love of the tiny boy, satisfying themselves with whatever leaves (curry/coriander/mint included) were fed by the little hands.

We grew to nurturing lizards (evil Amma released them when the boy went to school). Once when we visited the beach, we spotted a hermit crab, who rented another shell and brought her home. She had other plans. The moment we opened her box to feed her, she made a quick escape, treading through our living room within her rented shellhouse. We laughed loudly- it was such a funny scene. Both the sunny and in chased her like crazy and finally imprisoned her within her disposable box. She munched on several 100gms of carrot. Assuming that she'd be fedup with the taste of carrot, I fed her fish food one day. Unfortunately the ants were very fond of the fish food and conquered the box through the breathholes. Unable to bear the stings of the ants, the crab walked out of her shellhouse. Finally, although we chased the ants, the crab couldn't go back inside the shellhouse because she had overgrown it.