Your first pet was a _____. Write about it.

I don’t remember wanting dogs or cats as a young kid. Growing up in a small apartment in Kuwait, most of my friends who also lived in small apartments had either love birds in cages or an assortment of fish in tanks. We had our own fish tank and kept several fish for a while. My mother’s family side has a lot of dog lovers. When I was a baby my uncles, both lawyers who lived in my grandmother’s large house in Mattancherry (old Cochin), bought a German Sheppard bitch they named, rather humorously Hema Malini (a famous Indian actress). A few years later they got another German Sheppard which they named Mickey. Mickey (not sure as to how fine he was) was cute as a puppy, as he grew he scared the crap outta 8 year old me.

When I was 11 years old we moved back to India and settled in the South region suburb of Thirkkakara. Once again we bought some love birds and, since we had a big house with a large front porch, we bought a rather large bird cage and kept 6 love birds and also a fish tank with some fish. A year later my dad, sister & I talked about getting a dog. At age 12 I was excited about getting a dog of our own but didn’t know much about the various breeds. We ended up getting a mixed breed pup – she was part Pomeranian-part Alsatian and we named her Lassie. She was an awesome fluffy ball of energy and my sister & I spent the entire day basking in the little one’s love. We had to keep her in a huge cartoon with her water and some sheets until her kennel could be built.

For 4 days I doted on little Lassie but she died on the5th day as apparently she had a worm infection and she also knocked down a can of petrol and lapped it up. This happened when no one was around and she snuck into the room behind the garage and did it. She broke my heart when that happened and it took me a while to get over it. I also remember that a day or two after we got her, she was so scared because our neighbours were bursting really loud firecrackers and just looking into her big brown & fearful eyes made me want to cry. All I could do was hold her close.