Life with Fenix and Binx

"Good morning, dear” I greeted my husband who woke up late after attending the meeting all night.

“Are you okay, now?” I asked him, handing his coffee.

“Yeah, I’m good. It’s been a hectic night with all those international clients” he sighed.

“Where’s Binx?” he asked and called out her name.

She came waddling, more like a quick run and jumped on to my husband’s chest. She is the cutest, with brown-white color combination. She weighs about 0.9 kg and loves the way my guy lifts her with his palm.

It’s been 2 years since we adopted her from the animal rescue care. My husband and I got married 3 years ago. We both are a freaking pet lover and decided to adopt one. Right on my birthday, he took me to the rescue care where we spotted so many pet animals waiting to be adopted. There were a lot of people on the dogs and cats adoption side and fewer on the birds adoption side. We spotted none on the Guinea pigs adoption aisle.

“Why do only the dogs and cats get all the attention? Why not these cuties?” I thought and turned to my husband. He already read my mind and gave me a goofy smile.

“Choose our baby” he said. I was searching for the one and she caught my eyes. The brownish white sweetheart leant over the strings of the cage, her eyes sparkling.

“This is our ray of sunshine” I pointed to her. He completed all the formalities to take her home. The rescuer released her out of the cage (likely to be a prison) and gently placed her on my palm. I couldn’t forget the look she gave me. It was more like a ‘Thank you for taking me home’ look. Since then, she has become one of us. She was one year old then and we named her ‘Binx’.

Binx, the Guinea pig was so small and would easily hide under the furniture to play with us. Days later, I made her a tiny box with essential sheets and covers to keep her warm during the cold. She behaved well. Sometimes, I take her out to play with our neighbour dogs and cats, so that she would socialize well. Socializing is of course important, right? Unlike others she had a good rapport with the other animals. I couldn’t find her a Guinea pig friend in my locality. It was hard during the initial days. Then she loved her friends and would hang out with them every evening.

1 month later,

My husband went on a trip with his friends and returned home a week later.

“Look who is here to meet my love and Binx?” he enthused and pulled out something out of his backpack.

I was shocked and so was Binx. It was so small, light brownish and had elongated ears, which were big to his face. It weighed about 1 kg. I couldn’t say if it was a dog or a cat.

“Is that a fox?” I asked.

“Yeah. It’s called the Fennec Fox. I found him near the desert and he looked so tiny and cute” he said.

I touched his body and hyper developed ears. He was inactive and seemed like a sleepy head. Neither my husband nor I knew anything about the fennec fox. So I googled to get some information about it. Binx, on the other hand, looked horrified. She was scared about the new member. She never left me aside even for a while.

“What should we name him?” I asked.

He thought for a while and came up with the name Fenix, as he is a fennec fox. Well, my husband is a genius.

“Binx , Fenix. That’s great.” I squealed.

I googled on the fennec fox and I found that he is a desert nocturnal animal. Now I knew the reason he was a sleepy head all day. The next thing was that he’s an OMNIVORE. So, I fed him with worms and bird eggs. Occasionally, I fed him with milk. Binx was an herbivore eating plants, vegetables and fruits. It was a nightmare for her to see Fenix feeding on the worms. Since he’s nocturnal, he was active all night. So I let him in a separate room during the nights and made sure the door was locked.

Binx was quite terrified of him, since she had never seen a creature like him before. The animal care and our home were her only shelter right from her birth. So it’s unusual for her to see a creature like Fenix. But gradually, they both started to get along with each other. They played together all the time and Binx made him active through the day. Binx introduced him to her friends- the neighbourhood dog and cat. Now, the three got their new play partner, Fenix.

One evening I took both of them to spend time with the dog and the cat. I visited the neighbourhood lady, the owner of the dog and the cat. She is black and she lives with her husband. I let the pets play and approached her to have a talk. She looked so upset and I asked her why. She said that she was rejected for the interview she applied for, just because she was black. That was insane. Black people were often offended by some of the whites. I felt bad for her. She doesn’t deserve this. Have the humans gone crazy? I mean.. Really, are they out of their mind? How could someone judge a person based on the color they are? Black is a beautiful color. The world wouldn’t be completed without the existence of the color ‘black’. Then why do people throw daggers on the black people?

I looked at the pets playing happily. Binx, Fenix, the dog and the cat were four different animals. They were a group of herbivores, carnivores and omnivores. Yet, they get along with each other so well. Their friendship was something that couldn’t be explained by words. Then why do humans, who belong to the same species act weird? And that is where I wondered ‘How are humans better than animals?’