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📝 Pets — How Many of You Have Them?

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<h4><strong>Pets — how many of you have them?</strong></h4>

Published: 2026-02-22 — Reading time: 4 min

Pets — how many of you have them?



When I was a small kid, I had chicks, a rabbit, a turtle, and cats. But my family didn’t know the right diet for the chicks and the rabbit, so they passed away quickly. I still remember the rabbit, though. It loved me. Whenever I went near the box where it was kept, it would come toward me.
The turtle we had died after falling from the table to the floor.
The cats stayed with us the longest, living to old age.

About 18 years ago, my dad brought home two turtles. He kept them in a small plastic box. One of them barely moved, and my dad eventually brought it to the cemetery. The other one—John noticed it was stuck in a tiny plastic box with the wrong food. As soon as we realized there was a turtle in my dad’s room, I went out to buy a proper water tank. We named it Turty. For a long time, we thought Turty was a boy. Then a turtle expert, Mandy, told me that Turty is a girl.

Before I moved to hell, I had to find a temporary home for Turty
Turty
Turty before moving to Mandy's
until I could bring him with me. Through Facebook, I found Mandy—a true animal lover. Her place was tiny, but she kept about a dozen different species of turtles and also a dog. She took care of Turty until the day she told me she couldn’t continue. She suggested putting Turty up for adoption.
It was impossible for me to bring Turty here without bribery, and since I travel back to Hong Kong often, I couldn’t keep him with me.

That’s when Turty met Mr. Liu, a widower in his 70s who already had one turtle at home. I felt good leaving Turty with him. I bought a big tank and a special light for the cold weather. Unfortunately, he doesn’t seem to know that red-eared sliders need to stay in water most of the time. He lets them sleep under his bed. Now I’m worried.

Here in hell, stray puppies used to run into my yard often. Christophe, my neighbour, fed them when I was away. They kept coming back when I returned—until one day they didn’t, just like Maomao.

I had Maomao
Maomao
My Maomao
for about a month. She even brought me two of her kittens,
Maomao's kittens
Maomao's kittens
though she later took them away. She was a wonderful companion. Without a leash, she walked with me around the neighbourhood a few times. She always came when I called her for food. She let me pet her while she ate, or simply because she felt like it. She even “told” me when she needed to poo while we were chatting.
She was an amazing cat. But when I came back from Hong Kong, she never returned, even though I asked Christophe to feed her.

Now, two sibling cats
Leeloo and Lilu
Left is Leeloo, right is Lilu
come to my yard every night. I feed them too. I can get close to them, but I still can’t pet them yet. I hope one day they’ll let me. I’ve named them Leeloo and Lilu.

Apart from the cats, two zebra doves
Zebra dove
Zebra dove mama built a nest on my wall light

built their nests on my wall planters.
Zebra dove eggs
This is the first nest on my block wall planter
Zebra dove eggs
This is the second nest on my plastic bottle wall planter

I suspect the planter made of concrete blocks had a “cat incident,” because the cats can jump up, “play” with the birds, and eat their eggs. One day I found one egg missing, another egg broken with ants eating the unborn chick, and some feathers beneath.

The other nest was in a planter made from a plastic bottle. The dove and her two eggs

Zebra dove mama and her eggs
Zebra dove mama sitting on her eggs
stayed there for a couple of weeks—until two days ago. Mama dove and one egg disappeared, leaving only one egg in the nest. Because the weather here is unstable and it often rains at night, I moved the egg inside by the window. I hope it will hatch one day.