Petting in the city

As a child, I remember begging my parents to buy me one of those chicks, ducklings or painted-on mayas being sold outside the parish church after Sunday mass. Not once did they permit it, saying the poor birds would just die. One time, my younger sister, then about six years old, had chicken pox and received a duckling as a gift. She played with the duckling for five to six days and then it upped and died.

Rommel Juan, president of Petty Pets Enterprises Inc., said the duckling could have survived if it had a companion duckling and was kept a few hours a day under the warmth of a light bulb.

Of course, we didn’t know that then. The duckling didn’t come with an instruction manual on how to care for it.

But at Petty Pets, all the pets sold receive an initial stock of food and care instructions so the new owners could ensure they will enjoy the company of their pets for a long time. The instructions cover feeding (pets should have a balanced diet), housing, handling ("Scoop me up with a stick and place me on your cupped hand. Blow me a little to calm me down," said Speedy Spider), hygiene and what to expect from the pet in terms of natural behavior and life span.

"For ducks and chicks, once they reach a certain weight, they are robust enough to survive to adulthood," explained Juan.

Child-friendly

The Petty Pets cart is child-friendly. All the pets are stacked in such a way that kids can view them for hours at eye level.

"We want to acquaint kids with nature, teach them to love life, how to be responsible and how to care for animals. Children now are all into computers and electronic games. They rarely go out. Having a little pet at home to care for brings them back to basics, to a time before all the high tech stuff took over their lives," said Juan.

Another problem confronted by parents now is the lack of space in urban dwellings to keep pets. Condominium households are growing, with no garage, no garden and no yard in which to keep bigger pets like dogs and cats.

Petty Pets sells only small, indoor pets. They are easier and more convenient to care for because they require less space, less food and less time from the owners. (You don’t have to bathe a goldfish or a lobster).

Their portability is also an advantage. If your family goes on vacation, you can just bring the fish bowl or hamster cage to your next-door neighbor and it won’t be too much of a hassle for them. Sometimes, you can bring your pet along on your vacation.

Open for franchising

Petty Pets, whose first shop is at a Shopwise in Libis, Quezon City, is open for franchise opportunities. For a fee of P150,000, the franchisee will get a Petty Pets cart, an initial stock of assorted pets, cages and feeds and training for shop attendants.

Potential franchisees needs to submit a letter of intent, a map of the proposed location and a resume. He has to pass a panel interview before being accepted. Training runs for about four weeks after which he can open his own Petty Pets shop.

Juan said Petty Pets aims to be a venue for educating children about pet care. "We are going to develop educational materials for kids and these to the schools. We believe that if they learn how to respect animals, then respect for other people will follow. If they learn to respect nature, they will take care of mother Earth," he said.

And something new to rave about will be available at Petty Pets in a few weeks: Shy Guy, the makahiya plant.

Considering how most pet shops today are so focused on equipment and supplies, seeing one like Petty Pets–one that is consciously centered on the pets and their potential owners–is a welcome treat.

I remember my neighbor once ruing how his eight-year-old son has not seen a real life dragonfly or tutubi, an insect so commonplace in his youth. "He’s only seen a tutubi on cable TV." Well, there are no dragonflies in Petty Pets right now but, perhaps to give his boy a taste of nature, a turtle or a salamander may do.