my first patient ... on pets

It was with great hope that i put the fish hook into our pond when i was maybe 9 years old . But instead of a fish what caught the hook was a tortoise . Those who know the hide and seek behaviour of tortoise head knows how difficult it is to remove the hook from it . But i tried and succeeded in removing the hook and released the tortoise . Though a slow animal it has powerful jaws and a bite from it can crush bone .Still it cooperated in the "surgery " .

This was not my first animal encounter . I had a dotted cow as my pet when i was a child and with its pointed horns was very scary . But still i used to feed it plantain skin and it used to eat from my hand . It used to roam free in the huge compound of our ancestral home and people were a little scared of it as it had the sharpest horns among the 3 cows there . But children and animals almost always get along cos they both are uninhibited and have unconditional love .

Though i dont have the memory (except my fathers description ) at the age of 2 or 3 i used to put my hand in the mouth of the big german shepherd dog of one of my great aunts . I would beleive it because as recent as 4 years back in mumbai when i was "introduced " to a rottweiler , mastiff and boxer (all fully grown ) of my friend i could sit still when it sniffed my neck . Within a few minutes the rottweiler became my friend and even allowed me to stroke its belly .

Due to conditions at home (they say its difficult enough to bring up a child and teenager like me ) i couldnt have a pet except for some pets at ancestral home which i visited during vacations . But recently got a guinea pig as pet . (again ancestral home ) . Though the internet says it wont bite it was with a little fear that i put my hand in its cage . In strange environments animals do bite if we are not cautious in initial days . But on the second day itself it allowed me to touch it and stroke it and today am holding it and feeding it . Luckily unlike me the guinea pig didnt browse internet and learn the proper manners with strangers .

Its the truth .. Gut feel ,unconditional love and body language and lack of hypocrisy is the realm of animals , young children and a few adults . Luckily even my adult friends belong to that category ..

So since tortoises live long enough more than most humans (i think 200 years ) .. i still hope my first patient is alive somewhere .