It took my mom at least 3 years to convince my siblings and I to have a pet at home. Personally, I’m not a fan of having animals in my space. I love it when I see people keeping pets and all of that but, I can’t even get myself to come close to them.
Eventually, my mom managed to bring a kitten home. I don’t know why she loved cats so much but then since she wanted it, we just had to put up with it. We had never had pets in our house aside from when we used to stay with our grandparents and so this was new to us. Imagine waking up from bed and seeing a cat in your room.😂 For a minute, you’d think your village people are following you until it dawns on you that you actually own a pet now.
I’d like to believe one reason I don’t like pets has to do with my experience with pets while growing up. I spent the first few years of my life in my family house with my grandparents, some aunties , uncles and some cousins. It was a very beautiful experience to have people around you all the time and the spirit of family was always in the air. In the early 2000s there was a great spike in criminal activities in our neighborhood. That was something new to everyone because that place was known to be an estate free from any crimes.
Within a week to two, there were so many reports of armed robbery in so many houses around and finally it go to our turn. It was more like once they start picking things from your house, they don’t stop until the clear the house dry. Thing were always getting missing in our house every morning and it was always getting worse. Once, my uncles even stayed up all night to catch the culprit but they didn’t show up that day. Everyone in the neighborhood got fed up and that led to everyone resorting to getting a dog.
Knowing my dad, there was no way he was going to agree to have such wild dogs around kids and it took a lot of convincing for him to accept it. Luckily, one of our neighbors reared these big dogs. I don’t really know their names but we generally call them bull dog. We managed to secure a huge one and my cousin named him Thomas. Thomas was mainly brought into our home for security and so it was obviously a wild animal and it took some time for it to get to know the people in the house.
Most at times, my uncles would wait for everyone to go to bed before bringing it out if it’s cage because most of us kids were scared. With time, this dog grew bigger and even scarier. Just know it’s over for you when you come into contact with you if it’s not familiar with you. Once, one aunty visited from afar and she didn’t know how wild this dog of ours was. She woke up at dawn to sit outside and that’s how this dog bit her thinking she was in intruder. That was just it for most of us in the house, especially the kids.There’s no way in hell we would come out to the compound when it hasn’t been put back into its cage. I remember how it cased me one night when I went out not knowing that it was around. You should seen me running for my life with my tiny legs.😂
Up till today, I still get scared when I see dogs, especially the big ones. I wonder if it would bite me or not so I’m always ready to run in case things go south.😅
all images belong to me.
