PonyTales

OK..Ok…balitong is not a pet! But I was only a few years old then and they are moving creatures (thou very slowly). Besides, no one told me that they are food and I never really eaten any till today!

Back to the pet story.

That faithful morning, I was as usual at the wet market (famously known as Sentul Pasar) with my mom. I still remember, it was an unusually sunny day and the market was very crowded. I was walking behind my mom with my hand holding her shirt - trying not to get lost. As my mom paused to buy fish, there I was stading in front of this uncle with a big plastic pail of balitong. I was kinda tired due to the heat and the crowd and decided to just squat down and look at the balitong. It was the first time I saw a creature like that, some of them stuck to the sides of the pail and I thot they were quite amazing, thou the appearance wasn’t very appealing

After a while, the uncle selling the balitong spoke to me in some Chinese dialect that I do not understand. He smiled to me and took 3 balitongs, packed them in a piece of newspaper and handed them to me. I was surprised and a little afraid to take the balitongs as mom told me one of the condition to follow her to market is not to take anything from strangers. But, I was desperate for a pet, and looking at the condition that day, I thot the chances of my mom buying any pet for me is way too slim. I may regret later if I don’t take them and the uncle was giving me this reassuring looks and nodded his head to encourage me to take them. He held my hand up and stuff the newspaper packed balitongs on my palm. I was dumbfounded for a slight moment, forgot to thank him at all, just smiled back.

I realised that my mom moved on to another stall already, and I quickly got up and hold her shirt from behind again - another rule from my mom was ‘Do not get lost". My mom usually stop by at the market’s food court area for breakfast after doing her marketing. The food court is actually a narrow alley beside the main building of the market with a row of hawker stalls. My mom usually frequent the curry laksa stall where the curry laksa is so mild, even I can take it. It is there and at the moment, that my mom realised one of my hand was holding something packed in newspaper. She also looked dumbfounded and asked me what I am holding? Who I took the package from?

I was filled with guilt and wanted to cry already. My mom took the package from me, opened it and saw 3 little disgusting balitong - still alive. With teary eyes, I told my mom I wanna keep this black black things (I don’t know it is called balitong) in my plastic aquarium. The curry laksa auntie saw what happen and burst out in laughter with my mom. I told my mom that the uncle near the fish stall gave it to me. My mom told me that they might not even survived the journey home later and warned me that I am not supposed to take anything from stranger. To cut the long story short here, the curry laksa auntie help to say a few words to my mom to let me keep the balitongs and with a few more warnings and new rule from my mom, I was happy again cause I found new pets.

At home, I quickly unwrapped the balitongs and put them in the aquarium. My mom told me she don’t know how to rear them and just said that they might need salt water. So, I put a little amount of water with some salt in the aquarium, and put some fish food for the balitongs to eat…hahaha!!

Needless to say, the balitongs did not survived long. Only a few days and it start to smell really awful cause they are dead. My mom throw them away due to the smell one morning. I wasn’t that heartbroken this time around, probably due to the smell

Again. my little plastic aquarium is vacant and I need to find another pet to stay there. I asked my dad and my brother to help me find a pet. My brother, who is 3 years older than me introduced me to something more challenging this time - Match Box Spider!

…to be continued…

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