Our Honduran Pets

When we lived in the States we never had a pet of any kind. I remember always wanting a dog, but we never bought one. I had friends who had animals but we never had any. It wasn't until Honduras when we had pets. We had many different types of pets, ranging from dogs to chickens.

                We first moved to Yamaranguila where the owners of the complex we lived on had two horses and a dog. The horses’ names were Blanca and Chino (White and Chinese), Blanca was white, big surprise. She was wilder than Chino, he was brown and we rode him a couple of times, we never rode Blanca though. The dog’s name was Flipper; he was a mutt of some kind, white with a brown spot around his eye and both his ears.

We then moved to Zambrano, leaving behind the animals we knew in Yamaranguila. Once in Zambrano, we were given our first dog, she was a puppy from our first friends in Zambrano. We named her Patita, “little paws.” She was very small, I think she was the runt of the litter; nonetheless we loved our little puppy. We only had her for a couple months and she started getting sick. One day we came back from church and she was dead, sleeping in her box home. We guessed she ate some garbage near our house and caught a parasite. We had tried giving her medicine for parasites but it hadn't worked. We cried and then my dad buried her in our back yard. During the time we had Patita, my dad bought around ten chickens from a farmer missionary friend, along with a rooster.

After Patita died we still had the chickens to lay eggs and later on for eating. We hated having

These aren't the chickens we had, but they are similar.

chickens, they were such disgusting creatures. We had chickens for most of the time we lived in Zambrano, we ate several of them along the way. My mom told my dad that she would not cook it or eat it if the chicken did not look like it does when she buys it from the grocery store. Every chicken that came in to be eaten looked just like it was store bought. Us three girls would help my dad kill the chickens and get them ready for mom, she would never watch. My dad would place the chicken’s head under a stick that was lying on the ground; he would then step on either side of the stick and take the chicken’s feet and pull upwards. This was the grossest part, as the head came off and the chicken would still somersault and move even when it was dead. The chickens that were alive were cannibals; they started pecking the dead chicken. It was absolutely disgusting. After the chickens were somewhat done eating their friend my dad would take out its insides. My dad would finally take the dead chicken and put it in boiling water for a second to allow the feathers to get wet so we could pull them off. It was finally put into a bag and brought inside to be frozen until my mom was going to cook it. I hated those chickens.

While we had chickens, my best friend had baby bunnies and gave two to me. They were so cute! I forgot what I had named them since I only had them for a little while. I let them out of their cage each day to eat the grass and there was a chain-link fence that goes into my neighbor’s yard that they could fit through. One day I went to put them back into their cage and I saw one of them over the fence, so I went to get him, I never found my other one. I cried for my little bunny had run away. I still let my other bunny out to eat the grass and as I went to find him, yet again over the fence, I only found his bottom half. The stupid cat from the neighborhood had eaten my bunny! I cried and even tried throwing rocks at the cat for killing my bunny. I then figured that the cat also ate my first bunny.

Angel

After my bunnies and still during the time we had chickens, a missionary gave us her dog. She was moving back to the States and couldn't take her dog, Angel, so she gave her to us. We loved Angel and we had her in Zambrano up to Santa Lucia, about four or five years.

While we had Angel my best friend gave me another bunny, this time full grown, named Snowball. I loved my fat bunny, plus he couldn't fit through the fence so I could let him out without worrying that he’d be eaten. I had him for almost a year, but he was getting old. Angel would chase Snowball all around the yard, playing with him. But as Snowball was getting older, he suddenly started biting Angel and Angel would bite him back. I was scared that Angel would kill Snowball! I was shocked that my bunny would bite my dog. Later on I realized he just wanted to die in peace, as he was old, but Angel wouldn't let him. We tied Angel up every time I let Snowball out so he wouldn't get hurt. One day I came to feed him and he had peacefully died in his sleep, I still cried and my dad buried him in the yard along with Patita.

We eventually ate or sold all our remaining chickens and the only pet we owned was Angel. When we moved to Santa Lucia we just had Angel. We tried once to have another dog with Angel.

Ginger

We got a Boxer puppy named Ginger but she was too much for our family and for Angel. So we gave her back to the family who gave her to us. This year though, Angel passed away. She had had a tumor on her stomach so we took her to the vet to have an operation. After the operation, she was never the same. She was slower, she could barely see, she was eating but not too much, and she seemed to be in pain. We took her to the vet again and he tried giving her medicine but she still didn't recover. Finally we decided that it was time to put her to sleep, she was in so much pain. My dad and I took her to the vet one afternoon and asked him to put her to sleep. The vet agreed with our decision, when he touched her to check where the tumor was, she yelped. He could barely touch her without her crying out in pain. It was hard to listen to, I cried. Soon it was quiet, our beloved Angel was gone. The vet came out and told us it was for the best, she was in so much pain it would have hurt her more to live any longer. We came home and buried her in the back yard, we all cried. We had Angel for four or five years and she was gone. A couple months later a friend said she had a Golden Retriever that she couldn't keep and was wondering if we could take her. We took her in, she was named Lady and we loved her. We still have Lady and we’ll probably have her for a long time to come.

In Honduras we've had several different types of pets. It’s harder to take care of animals in Honduras, there’s trash everywhere and going to a vet is not common or it’s really expensive. Even though we've had many pets, we tried our best to take care of them. Some of the deaths we couldn't prevent. I loved all of the pets we owned, except those stupid chickens!

Goodbye, until next time!