Pet peeves

I've always wanted to have a pet dog. Not those yappy little toy dogs; if I do get a dog, I'd pick a big, macho mutt, the kind who would scare the heck out of anyone who would see it. I even have a name all picked out--"Napoleon." And I'd call him Nap-Nap for short. Cute, di ba?

Unfortunately, Nap-Nap would have to wait until I get a house of my own, because there is no way my parents will allow a dog in our house. They say it'll most likely ruin our garden, pee on our furniture, or die of loneliness (because no one is home most of the day).

This is why the only pets we have at home are a couple of Japanese carps and goldfishes. My parents like fishes because they're quiet, hardly make any mess, and are the most low-maintenance of pets.

Sure, we've had dogs before. When I was a child, my dad had a doberman named Sonny (after Sonny Jaworski). I didn't get to appreciate Sonny that much because I was expressly forbidden to go near him.

Then we had two askals, one after the other. One was color brown, whom my brothers and I named Brownie. The one after him was black, whom we named, right, Blackie. (Hey, we were kids...) They both died as well, because we got them when we were still living along EDSA, and the dogs had the habit of rushing out into the highway whenever we would open the gate. I remember my brothers and I bawling our eyes out over their deaths, and I guess my parents didn't want us to go through the trauma anymore so it could be another reason why we never got dogs again.

That doesn't mean we didn't have other types of pets, or at least tried to have them.

One day when we were in high school, my brother brought home a little turtle. Unfortunately, my parents, like many Chinese, believed it was bad luck to keep a turtle in the house; turtles represent long life and keeping one as a pet was tantamount to "imprisoning" your life force. So one day, while we were all in school, my dad set the trutle "free" by putting it in one of the vacant lots in our village. My brother bawled his eyes out; we never knew what happened to that turtle, but there are days when I think about it, and I hope that it went on to live the long life it was meant to live.

And then there were those chicks that we would win during school fairs. They always died the day after we brought them home, and it took quite a few similar incidents before we learned that chicks needed constant heat to survive, something they couldn't get inside a cardboard box lined with newspaper. So we stopped getting them as well.

A few years ago, I went through a phase wherein I wanted to own a pair of lovebirds. Eric almost gave me a pair, until I went to my Auntie Ebie's house one day; she owned a pair of lovebirds herself, and the birds were so noisy! As in they chirped all day long! I couldn't take it, told Eric to forget it, and then wheedled him for rabbits instead. Eric said no, that rabbits could give me rabies and that they would breed like, well, rabbits. Unless I get two of the same gender, but kawawa naman sila pag ganun.

I've never liked cats (I'm one of the few who think Garfield is funny but not cute), hamsters (baby hamsters are gross), or iguanas (ugh).

I really, really, just want a dog.