You Know That Your Home Needs a Pet

When-
Ojas starts cribbing at the chicken shop- Mamma, I want to take the chicken home- we must have a pet.
Me- But you have Duggi in Pondicherry- he is your pet
Ojas- no - I don't want a scary pet. I want a chicken.
Anticlimax- the chicken breaks free and flaps around near the kids and Ojas and Tejas jump about squealing.
But let me tell you- chicken can be scary too. We used to have hens and chickens when we were younger. The mothe rhen was err- a mother hen- very calm and collected and would not protest when every morning I would lift her backside and pull out an egg from under her. She would quietly get into the larder, push some spare bowls and even a bulb under her and sit calmly.
The chickens that were hatched- well, the 2 male ones- very aptly 1 in brown and 1 in white were not so easy going. Especially the white one was well- a murderous lot. He had to be kept separte from the rest of the brood. HE wouldnot hesitate to "strangle" the mother also.
Now we had a huge field in the back yard where we had patches of veggies- potatoes, okra, beans etc with dividers in between. Sis and I would walk up every morning on these dividers to inspect the produce.
And like 2 mini villains- these male chickens would follow us. We would finish inspecting and take an about turn and ... dhan te naan.. the 2 villains would be facing us- proverbial arms akimbo.
We couldn't run across because the veggie patches were there and we had to necessarily walk back the same path. We would edge past the chicks shaking in fear and the 2 nasty pieces of work would eagerly and viciously peck at our ankles- bruising them very badly.
So much for gentle pets.

Anyway, back to present- one evening Ojas, Tejas walk back to the house and Ojas exclaims-
Tejas- look- we have a pet now- pointing upwards
Lo and Behold- a dirty dull grey moth has decorated itself on the ceiling and the kids "lovingly" swat at it with their hand fan/ bat/ racket/ wicket and squeal to b picked up so that they can touch the "pet" with their afore mentioned weapons!