dymo

back in the 80s, my mom brought home a myna bird. it was still a baby then and my mom had to feed it (i don't know if it's a male or a female or do birds have sex at all) coz it couldn't feed by itself. my brother christened it dymo, after the label maker.

somebody told us that if taught, dymo could talk and so everybody did their part talking to him (i think he's a male). everybody was teaching him to say good morning, hello and of course our names. others taught him to say pangit. i tried teaching him to whistle the sexy whistle.

one afternoon, less than a year after we got dymo, as my dad was calling me (i think he was angry at me), my sister heard someone else shouting. dymo, at that time, uttered his very first word...and it was my name! maybe because my name was the most repeatedly called in the house for errands, reprimands and everything, it was the name he always heard.

soon enough, he started saying good morning, kamusta ka, kumain ka na, hello (when the phone rings) and of course, pangit! he could bark too with the dogs. and when he would see me, he would whistle ;-)

for years, he was our entertainer, conversation piece, pacifier for crying babies and so much more. a lot of visitors who met dymo wanted to take him home. some kids begged or threw tantrums just to bring him home. almost all my friends from grade school to med school met dymo and one of the first things they would ask after not seeing them for a long time would be dymo.

a year before my dad died, in 2003, dymo left us. he was 18 years old, i think. i was in my post-grad internship and was living in the dorm at the time. one weekend i was home, i saw a small wooden cross in our garden. i asked why it was there. my sister told me that dymo had died and my dad buried him there. she said she forgot to tell me. it was a very sad day.

nobody would whistle at me anymore.


i saw the myna birds in crocodile farm in palawan and kinda felt nostalgic.