a zoo in my loo

a long time ago i had read this story about some woman finding a snake in the toilet of her bathroom. thankfully, no one was hurt. it was not venomous. just a very startled snake and a frightened woman. however, i still get chills when i think of it. this incident came to mind, when i heard that apparently some guy in the good ole neighbourhood of dubai, sharjah, had a pond and in that pond he had a 30 cm crocodile. the crocodile escaped and was found on some beach. the rumor spread that crocs come out of that beach and very soon that beach was left empty. finaly someone picked up the crocodile, the police got involved and it was traced back to this souq which was illegally selling exotic animals. and that too for a mere 300-400 AED (approximately 100-125 dollars). the crocs can be ordered by telephone and delivered at no cost. so much is the demand that they were out of stock of these reptiles. the sad part is the souq guy was heavily fined for selling these reptiles however we-get-it-if-we-pay-for-it, the crocodile was conveniently returned to the original owner. wat crap. i cant understand why they would return it back and most importantly why people would keep such animals as pets. now its 30 cm but later on it will grow and then how will one take care of it. and wat if it escapes and bites someone or something on the beach. its scary to think that many people now own wild animals like this, so much that it could be even your neighbour.

speaking of animals, on a more milder scale. we ended up buying 12 fish from the satwa animals and plants souq. satwa souq, some time ago, was severely criticized for keeping a gazillion animals (mostly birds and fish) in inhygienic condition, cramped spaces and keeping them on diets. i remember the last time i visited maybe some 5 odd years ago, there was this really pathetic looking dog, super scrawny who was whimpering the whole time i was there. sadly we arent allowed to keep dogs or i would have taken the poor fellow home. howver taking care of a dog or even a cat is quite difficult and time consuming and you should know what you are doing or it gets very messy. neway so since we arent very adventurous, we have fish. we really dont know anything about our fish. nor what their names and origins are. im not really fond of keeping fish. and this has nothign to do with finding nemo. ok maybe a little. in general im not a fan of captive animals. perhaps only parrots. we used to have this parrot which was as old as me. born around the same time as me. it passed away two years ago. it didnt talk or seeti maar (only in the afternoon when absolutely no one was around). and like all parrots are named we called it mitoo. mitoo wasnt particularly fond of us, only my auntie who fed him an apple a day. if any kids came over it would go crazy and hide under a chair and never come out until they were gone. im afraid that probably when we were kids, as in me and my sisters, we probably bullied it or something which is why its scarred for life. either that or the only other reason i cant think of its scared of midgets/short people. the other good thing about mitoo was if any unknown person came it would yell. sort of like a cheaper version of a security dog. anyway we never cut his wings.he could open his own cage with his beak and come out and sit on top of the cage. and although mitoo had a permanent scowl on his face he never ever tried to run away. so i figured he must like it here.

anyway back to the fish story. we bought 12 additional ones. we already had 10 or so in the aquarium. today morning 5 have miraculously disappeared. have they escaped nemo style most probably theyeve been eaten by the bigger fish. the problem is there is no trace of the remains so which fish has done the crime is it a. the yellow ones b. the fat ones c. the long ones d. the one who looks innoncent but arent or e. the ones who hide behind the oxygen area. some months ago we had got this jingha (prawn/lobster type thing) which would try to catch fish swimming at lower levels with his claws. for some reason this provided my family entertainment and the lobster was kept there to send more fish to their death. my sister put her foot down and we transferred the lobster thing to an isolated bowl. in the morning we got up and it had escaped. and we couldnt find it anywhere. finally we found it hiding under the bed some two rooms away. gasping for breath it died sadly when we returned it back to the water.

i guess they have a better life with us since we feed it well and have more space for it as compared to the pet shop. but it probably isnt as good as it would be if they were let back into their natural habitat.