House of animals!

My nani grew up in Jaipur, India, and her father (my great grandfather), was the head of the Rajasthan forest department.

My great grandfather spent at least 20 days a month patrolling the forests, which led to my nani having some very interesting and unique pets when she was growing up! There were some ferocious animals and some fun. One of the most interesting animals she had was a tiger and how did it end up inside of her house you ask? Well it went something like this.

One evening my great grandfather was in a jeep by himself doing a usual patrol of the park and suddenly he spotted a tiger cub sitting alone on the side of the road. Worried for the tiger cub, he stayed in his jeep watching the tiger cub for about an hour waiting for its mother to come. However, the tiger’s mother did not arrive so he decided to bring the cub home and care for it and protect it in fear that the cub may be hurt, attacked or even eaten by a bigger animal.

Once he had brought it home, he cared for it along with my nani and her siblings who eagerly volunteered to care for the tiger cub. They got to care for the tiger cub by feeding it with a little milk bottle and they even got to bathe it. However, they only got to keep the tiger cub for 3 days as it was starting to get ferocious. Although my nani loved caring for the little tiger cub, they had to give it to a zoo where it would be properly taken care of and wouldn’t hurt anyone.

My nani also had 2 dogs. Their names were Polar and Lucy, and they were gifted to my nani’s family by the royal family. They were all overjoyed to receive these dogs and care for them. Over the course of the 11 years that my nani’s family had them they had many puppies. Those puppies were cared for by my nani and her family for roughly 5 – 6 months. After the puppies were strong enough and didn’t need their mother, they gave them to their friends so that those puppies would also have loving families to care for them.

Another pet that my nani had and cared for was a monkey! This monkey was found in the jungle by her father, all alone and scared. As her father was a very caring man who loved animals he also chose to wait for this monkey. However, after roughly an hour no one came. Suddenly he spotted a predator that was hungrily eyeing the monkey so before anything happened, he took this monkey home. Once again, my nani and her siblings got to care for and play with the monkey, and he lived for a few weeks in a tree in their garden. My nani told me how naughty this monkey was and wreaked havoc in the house!

I really enjoyed talking to my nani and learning about how she got to care for and play with so many different animals during her childhood. I also see how this has made her to be caring, fun and loving with everyone.