GROWING UP IN ANAGIRI PART 1: PETS

Growing up, animals were a large part of my life. Living on our Coffee Estate, my parents and grandparents made sure that I always understood the importance of the natural world around me. Anagiri was filled with all sorts of critters and I was always found with one of these either in my hands or right beside me. We had dogs and cats as we still do.

We had geese, goats, rabbits and little lovebirds. We had chicken, ducks, turkeys and guinea fowls too. We also had many cows. But I never had a horse because a gelding bit Grandpa when he was younger and I was terrified that the same would happen to me. We had a water tank which held the water used for coffee pulping. It was filled with fresh water fish. We sometimes caught these fish and after they were cleaned and prepped for cooking, I would have fun popping the swim bladders that were still filled with air by jumping on them with all my might.

Puppies were my favourite pet out of them all because they were so soft to touch and they were smaller than me so I could pick them up. So many puppies have been born on our Estate that we have now lost count. They are blind, toothless and completely helpless when they are born and are fully dependent on their mother to provide for them. Each day the puppies would move around a little more and when they were around one week old, they would open their cute little eyes for the first time and take in the world around them. A close second were rabbits because they were like fluffy little clouds. Sweet, brown Sindhu Cow was my favourite

cow in the world because she would let me sit on her back and give me tiny rides from time to time. My least favourite was the large gaggle of geese headed by the mean gander with the loudest honk who would chase anyone who got too close to the little goslings. But they were really good watch birds, never letting a new face into the Estate, alerting them to what would happen if they stepped inside with a painful peck on the bottom.

Whenever the hens, ducks, turkeys, geese or guinea fowl started laying eggs, Grandma used to find them using some magic power of hers and bring them to the kitchen veranda and the poor bird would be arrested under a basket until the eggs hatched.

Each day I would go to the veranda demanding the basket be lifted and the bird moved so I could see if the little chicks decided to come out of their little ball-shaped houses even though Grandma kept telling me that it would take nearly a month for the eggs to hatch. Once the chicks, goslings or ducklings emerged, everyone knew where I would be. Fascinated by the delicate little creatures, I would watch them with awe and wait for them to be old enough to be held by me.

Almost everyday, Grandpa and I used to take the dogs down into the Estate for a nice walk. We walked past the cow shed and the goat pen and further down the mountain to the nursery where saplings of coffee, avocado, papaya and numerous other plants were grown until they were ready to be planted in the Estate. After a nice invigorating walk filled with bits of knowledge and wisdom that Grandpa passed on to me, we would check for leeches in all the nooks and crannies of our feet.

Grandma would welcome me back after the walk with a big hug, a glass of warm milk from Sindhu Cow and an early dinner. At the end of the day, I would wait for the stories that Grandpa read and fall asleep dreaming of the stories and the adventures I would have the next day.