It seems no one in this earth who does not like animals. At least we have a gold fish in a small tank in our room, a small bird in a simple cage, cats or dogs around our neigborhood. Even no one who does not have pets at home never visits a zoo in their lifetime. We love animals both in the wildlife as we watch them in TVs or as pets in our home. Malang’s Exotic Animal Expo that was held in May 2014 really made the pets lovers happy.
This event was held in Dieng Plaza, a mall in Malang City, East Java. Adults and children came to this event while they were accompanied by their lovable pets. A man bringing a big iguana on his shoulder really caught the visitors’ eyes. Some others were bringing their puddles or chihuahuas. The dogs in the cage were barking loudly when they walked their dogs near them. Some dogs were silent when the bigger dogs passed by their cages, they only barked a lot on puddles and chihuahuas. A boy walked his cute dog around the area. They really attracted people to watch them and took a picture. His dog was really cute. Sometimes, it laid down on the floor like mattress; the boy pulled its strap while the dog did not make any move, so it moved like a mop cleaning the floor.
There were a lot of stands in this event. Near the entrance, there was a stand that offered various kind of pets food; cat food, dog food, rabbit food, etc. On the left side, there were a stand with many lunch boxes. It was not for satisfying the people’s hunger, but it consisted of various morphs of geckos. They offered buy one gecko get one free gecko. Sound interesting, right?! However, bearded dragon lizard was not on this sales, also iguanas with various sizes and blue tounge lizard were sold in normal prices.
Pet lovers would be really glad visiting this expo, especially children. Many of cute animals were here; like mini hedgehogs with various colour of their spikes (salt and pepper, albino, pinto, etc), rabbits with unique types like Netherland Dwarf and American Fuzzy Lop with their hanging ears, Indian Star turtles, corn snakes, etc. Mostly children would stay longer watching the pets around, while their parent gave up by sitting on a place waiting them finishing their curiosity observing each animal.
The “pet of the day”, I mean the “main star of this event” that mostly attracted people to watch was the hugest dog that I had never seen before; perhaps it was an Alaskan Malamute. I am not expert in dogs, so I am not sure about this kind of dog. However, it was really big and fat dog with nice light brown fur. It looked so tame with its friendly eyes. The little dogs on the cage were not affraid while this dog came close, even the small dogs behind the bars tried to lick its mouth.
Pets are potential best friends when you are lonely. They will never leave you, because they have strong bond with you. They never ask you to do many things you dont like. They just sit and do nice stuffs that make you happy. So, own pets at home, and you will know that you don’t live alone in this world.
/// Written by Gigih Dwiananto, Indonesia
