All the Pets
With our life style it has always been difficult to keep pets, although as a kid the family had Joe and Vanessa at Peachgrove Road and then Terry at the Simpson place. Zoe was a great friend to me as I struggled through my teenage years and Terry was there when I finally left home at 16. One a visit home as I drove off, I heard that Terry was running after the car, so hard to hear of this love he had! Marg had a cat called Kiri, who with her even before we met and was with us until we left for Germany, when we had to find her a loving home which we did with friends. We also had a number of other young cats that passed through our place at Tooth Ave in Brisbane. Once we started traveling the first pet we had was a parrot called Seiko in Bali, who sadly passed with a probable spider bite at a friend’s place who was looking after him, and then onto Goa where we found a pup we named Junna at the Hotel gates and decided to take care of her.
Junna used to take us for a walk down the beach every evening at half past five, in which she became quite well known to the local fishermen and folks. They used to get quite a shock standing knee deep in the water fishing to suddenly feel a very wet nose against their legs having a quite sniff and hello! Also, while trying to be friends with every dog around, there were some that quite terrified her, and she did not object to being picked up and carried past the particular obstruction present!
Nevertheless, with so much freedom around and so many hotel “friends” it was quite difficult to train her in any serious way. I suppose that we also spoilt her bad! But she was a blessing to us and while we were in Goa, she was very much a part of our family! Not long after Junna, a small kitten turned up, who we called Kiri, after our famous New Zealand soprano! As you can see from the photo, the two of them got on quite well, although Junna did not always know her own strength in the rough and tumbles played out!
As with most of our life though, the time came to find good homes for both of them. Junna, we wanted to leave in her native Goa, and as she was a chaser of anything that moved and we realized that she would not fit into the New Zealand farm scene. A hard decision and a painful one, but we finally found her a loving home with two ladies who dot on her and spoil her badly! Kiri found a good home also with a family close to the hotel there. This would be a large part of our decision to now find a home, maybe in Malaysia, where we can settle down for a bit. 18 years and more on the road is quite long enough and the thought of having a dog or other pets of our own and not having to find new owners on a relocation is getting stronger for us!
In Chennai we had the compound cats to take care of at first. There were four cats that lived at our Pycrofts house compound and then two lots of kittens have been produced we homes found for. A litter of three kittens was produced just after the New Year 2004 and Marg decided that two shall stay with us, and so we had Chayya and Yanni. Yanni was the quieter one, happy to play on her own, while Chayya needs attention and someone to play with when he feels like it. Yanni was with me when I moved Tarapore Ave until she died under our bed while I was away with Marika one time. Chayya was my great friend after Marg died and would follow me around, go for walks with me and slept on the bed, then one day six months after Marg passed away, I could not find him for a couple of days, finally finding him under an electrical panel box next door, just too wet I think and the current passed through. Heartbreaking once more!
We had two cats in Tarapore Ave who came with me to Pandiyan Ave as well. Oliver whom I had rescued as a kitten outside Tuscana on evening and Georgie who started tentatively coming up to our terrace at Tarapore Ave. He went missing for a couple of days and then made his way back, nastily injured by a trap on his foot, but he allowed us to care for him, never cried once when the vet changed his bandages and became a very nice friend of the family. Oliver kept more to himself but both were very spooked when I moved from Pandiyan Nagar to the VGP area at the ECR and I just could not catch them. I left food for them over the next few months, tried cat cage catchers and all, but could not find them or get them to my new house, so I had to leave them to their own devices. Heart breaking as well and you wish you could have done better for them.
The last visitor to our house was Alfredo, who wandered into the Pandiyan Nagar house one day and so was allowed to stay! When I planned to get her spayed in February 2020, she dropped four kittens and so during lock down I was left hand-rearing these four as Alfredo was sick. We found homes for all four but one came back as he would not settle, and so we had Butternut with us, who thought he was Brando’s brother as the same colours, but always reciprocated! However, Alfredo did not get better and one night about 1am, I was somehow called outside where she was and we had a rub and a cuddle and then the next morning I found her dead under the chair I always had my morning coffee in. Somewhere she knew and was saying goodbye, I am sure. Butternut had to be left at the ECR house with the cat lovers in the front place and is doing well and very settled there, but I am sure he misses his tan doggy friend a lot!
With Marika then with me in Tarapore Ave, she decided she really wanted a German Spitz, and so we brought Twiggy down from Calcutta as a pup! A white bundle of fur! Next, when I came back from a NZ visa run, I decided to get a companion for Twiggy and so brought Brando as a little tan young pup. However, Marika was not allowed back into India on this trip or after, and so I was left with the two dogs and Yanni. And so, the story of the last eight years has been in looking after Twiggy and Brando alone, always wondering how to take care of them, keep them with me, how do I keep the family together!
Twiggy is Marika’s girl, but she is really a Pappa’s girl, always within a meter of me where-ever I am, while Brando is the toughie, but a real softie when he gets a thorn in his foot. Between them Twiggy will suss out any rats or other animals that come near while Brando quickly dispatches them if given the chance! My life and my work has basically revolved around these two and it has never been a case where I could find them homes, they would not survive without me, or Marika in fact, around them.
Marika first came to know Brando in Malaysia and they have started to forge a good bond after meeting for the first time. I have been lucky in that I was able to bring them out of India and into Malaysia in 2023, and while Twiggy survived the two weeks in quarantine alright, but Brando was very dejected. After having a small walk, then into a stranger’s van, to the airport, across the ocean to a quarantine it was hard on them and even though you try and train them in their cages and to explain to them, but they just do not understand this. It was the same during Covid lock downs with no funds coming in, you and I may understand not having the funds for some food, but the dogs do not understand if there is nothing for them to eat that night. So, my two four legged companions have kept me sane, kept me busy looking after them and now we hope that they can live out their lives peacefully in Malaysia. They both sleep on the bed with me, and Marika has to find space somewhere in the middle, we go for walks 3 to 4 times a day, but the thunder, the rain, fire crackers and similar all frighten the hell out of Brando and so the walks are sometimes limited. But how to explain the company and love they both give me, but enough on these two, it is time for another tummy rub for Twiggy!
