Animals went in two by two...

An hour into David Lynch's new film today, someone mentioned how some people are good with animals, they just have the gift. By that point, the film has reached such surreal heights that I switched off and started thinking about this particular dog we had that adored me. And I could not stop thinking about her all the way home.

As I was growing up, our household was always slightly haphazard and mad. Huge house with big garden, we all had this innate thing of bringing any stray animal home.
The animals never lasted long with us, which was a shame.
The first ever pet was a budgie that landed on our picnic table in grandma's garden. My mum extended her hand to him and he jumped on he finger and that was that...he was adopted.
I had many happy moments with him until he got sick 3 years later, started crashing into walls when out of his cage until I found him stiff at the bottom of his cage one morning. He was no more...

Then my dad bought me a hampster. We named him Bosko. He was really cool, friendly and fun. Then my dad bought him a girlfriend and we called her Mima. Now, she was an utter bitch. She was into domination and biting and she became especially unpleasant when she had hamster babies.
They both died of natural causes in their old age of 2.

Then there was this little cute puppy we had for couple of months. His name now escapes me, we never managed to truly bond with him because my mum ran over him in the garage. He liked sleeping under the front car tyre.
This scene was witnessed by my two brothers and I. We screamed in horror as mum backed out of the garage over our new pet.
I think my stepfather had to sedate her afterwards.

Then there was a German shepard pup who liked to practice his throat ripping skills on my brother number 2 who was a toddler at the time.
He grew strong and fierce, with special penchant for our postman, who was known as someone that was known for his love of liquor.
No matter how many times my stepfather persuaded the postman that all he needs to do is walk into our courtyard showing no fear and all will be OK, postie never quite believed him.
That story ended with our athletic Old Shep jumping over the fence and going for a teenager on the bike. He was saved by my mum, ripping the dog off his testicles.
The disgraced dog was sent to live with mum's cousin that had a farm somewhere remote in the mountains.

Then there was a huge goldfish that Ana gave me, which I managed to kill in under a week. And my pet mouse that lasted whole 10 days before he met his maker.

Then there was a tiny puss that my brother tried to teach how to swim and dive, saved by my mum when he was passing away with his 9th life.
Not sure how that ended.

I think my stepfather brought home this dog that wasn't well once. He was always sick everywhere and sometime later our neighbour found it had died in his basement.

I also had a bunny rabbit. Not sure whose idea was that as I hate rabbits. He never had much of a life, stuck in his hutch, I would feed him once a day and spend my obligatory 3.5 minutes playing with him (dull animal).
One morning I came to his hutch to find a rat feasting on my bunny.
The rat looked at me as if to say: "What?" and went back to eating the flesh of my rabbit.

There was a dog my brother number 2 brought home, named Bobby.
Bobby was our pet for over a year and he adored my brother until the day when he followed him on the bike and got hit by a car.
My brother came home screaming and crying and begging mum to go and get the dog off the street to take him to hospital.
As mum left to collect the deceased dog off the street, my brother sobbed and chanted to himself: "Nobody loves me the way he does..."
Witnessing that scene made me rather inconsolable.

And then there was the dog that was totally in love with me. Mum brought her home one day coming from work. Someone was getting rid of her and mum took pity on her.
Nera was this mutt, some fusion of border collie and something unrecognisable in brown.
She was utterly mad and for some reason thought I was cool.
I was about 16 and already heavily into an alternative scene, a sulky and very edgy teenager that was constantly tortured by the affairs of the heart and other life's misfortunes.
Nera cramped my style. She followed me everywhere. I would lock her into the courtyard, only to find her running after me 15 minutes later, having dug a hole in the soil and escaping by dragging herself under it. She would do the same shit come rain or shine, so on some days, she would look like some scavenging animal all caked in mud.
She would frequently follow me to the nightclub, then wait outside until I was ready to go home, enouraging ridicule and laugher from everyone.
I remember being on a date and not being able to get rid of her and my date saying in one moment: "your dog smells"

I spent best part of a year trying to outsmart that dog and get away when she wasn't looking and if you asked me then, I would have sworn I hated the damn thing.
A year later, Nera fornicated with some dodgy dog down the road and bore 9 puppies in our shed.
I tried naming them but got stuck on the fifth....
We found them homes and things were looking good but Nera never quite recovered. I think having 9 kids by the time she was 2 just killed her inside. She stopped eating and vet never found a reason and eventually she died.

I was utterly sad when that happened, it made me bitter and jaded. It wasn't love at first sight but she won me over with her devotion and unconditional love and loyalty over all odds and her quirkiness and then she was gone.
I remember the last days. I would talk to her and she would look at me with sad eyes and quiet acceptance and then she would look away and lower her head as if she has given up.
I could not stop thinking about her today.
Such is love...it sneaks up on you quietly when you least expect it, and then it rips your heart in two when you think things could not get any better.