I hear Leens calling her husband and asking him every alternate hour ‘Cherukanthye’?. She is referring to the new addition to the family,the 2 month old Golden Retriever.

Ever since he came into her life, our lives, adds Leena, there is so much more fun and laughter. The vacuum that seemed to exist between her and her husband seemed to have evaporated as they bond over the antics of the little ‘Spart’.

Everything now revolves around this little one. Disciplining him, taking care of him, feeding him and taking him for walks are her priorities now. She regales with pride of how her spoilt brat,’Spart’ is  an attention-seeker and will never leave her side once she is back home from work.The delight of the day was ‘Spart’ devouring tasty food prepared by his father.

That’s when another equally proud mother shares the story of her two kids, Sandy and Thor. The 8 month old Sandy is chirpy and vivacious. She enjoys car rides, with the air brushing against her ears, says Kavya, more like Rose in The Titanic.

Thor though is broody and gets upset with car rides.He prefers the quiet of the house and loves to take long strolls in the garden.

‘And she cooks food for her kids, but not for me’, complains the husband. And we all laugh together, realizing how integral pets are to a family.

My former colleague,Aimen was of the firm opinion that you have not experienced true love until you have had a pet. She seems to borrow heavily from Anatole France who said “Until one has loved an animal a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.”

Once in the hostel in Indore, one of the boys had kept a turtle as a pet. My cousins, three of them together would keep rabbits, dog, cat etc. as pets and I remember how my aunt used to complain.

I rarely thought it fit to ask for any pet as a kid but if I could have had one, may be I too would have kept a dog. Once when I was looking for sponsors for the school magazine, three boys of 10th Standard came to me with a suggestion that they would like to advertise their pet shop, They even tried to convince me to invest in their business venture.

My mother feeds crows as soon as the rice is boiled and strained of the starch. Sharp at 10 AM, when she is back from the temple, she is greeted by two to three crows who seem to be waiting for the food.

In our so called busy life, while we run from pillar to post to pay the EMI and the school fees and the medical bills, we rarely have time to think of others. Caring for animals will certainly keep us more alive.

If only we remembered more frequently that the planet we live on belongs to them as well, we would be better humans.