I will bow to all of your requests
The downcast face that invites pity and love
The saga tree with its still green pods (www.NatureLoveYou.sgu.sg) 
The dry curly pods with the red saga seeds dispersed throgh the explosive method
They gave me endless hours of playing during my childhood days
The black-white feathered body
Specks of white contrast with black for the wings
Wing span stretches half of my lower arm
The black-white feathered body
Specks of white contrast with black for the wings
Wing span stretches half of my lower arm
Saga's red round beady eyes
Dark reddish brown head and neck
The long and narrow beak
An injured leg hinders its flight to freedom
PETTY OVER PETS
4th Oct was World Pet Day. Guess what? My family ended up with two pets as a result of that event.
First, my son met a black cat at his cousin's Tampines flat. He played with it for a while. He returned to the same flat the next night and the cat was there again. It followed him wherever he went. My son had been pleading with me for him to keep a cat since he was young, but I never relented. He once owned a kitten for a few days when he was seven years old but the cat escaped when we forgot to close the wooden door. I had firmly put my feet and weight down ever since for him not to have a pet.
Defying all previous orders and warnings, my son brought the skinny, scrawny and pathetic-looking cat home last Thursday. He had enlisted extra backup from his elder brother to fetch him at Tampines and both of them sneakingly went into the house with a box in my younger son's hands. I almost jumped out of my seat when he said that they had brought a kitten home and like the cat's melancholic eyes, he pleaded with me to keep Charcoal; the name we gave her because she was as black as the night.. Charcoal’s eyes met mine. She seemed to be pleading and begging for some mercy. The momentarily meeting melted my heart. Looking at the starving and malnourished kitten, my husband and I relented. She was so pitiful and helpless - vulnerable and exposed to so many dangers in the open.
Charcoal with the elfin-looking face knows where he belongs and is trying to win me over slowly. She has already built a personal relationship with my two sons and husband. She seems to be attached with all the males in the house. Charcoal is a bit reserved with all the ladies in the house: myself, my mum and my maid. Has that got to do with gender preference?
My sons can keep Charcoal under one condition. Everything concerning looking after Charcoal comes under their job scope and responsibilities. Charcoal has not messed up the house and she goes to the litter box to do her stuff. Nobody teaches her that. She is a kitten of the 21st century learner – self-directed, independent and a concerned citizen. Wow! That's great!
What else did I end up for World Pet Day? Last night my husband and I picked up a struggling bird which tried to continue its flight but failed at the walkway. It did not move as we neared it. We scooped it up and marvelled at the beautiful black and white feathers under its body. The round deep red-beady eyes stared at us helplessly. I birth-certificated (a word I coined) him as 'Saga'. Do you still remember the scattered saga seeds we used to pick and play with long ago during our kampung days? I think the flower child of the 60s-70s would know the red saga seeds that had brought us endless hours of pleasure as our childhood game. Your partner and you need to come up with the same number of saga seeds. The handful of saga seeds are thrown on the floor and using your pointer finger you make a cross between two saga seeds. The ides is to flick and hit the saga seeds. If you succeeded, you pick up one seed as your win. You continue flicking and hitting the seeds until you stop hitting a pair.
The last standing beautiful umbrella-shaped saga tree I came across five years ago was the one opposite SOTA building, Cathay Cinileisure. When I saw the Saga tree giving shade to weary-feet tourists and locals, I relived my childhood days and went round collecting and bringing the seeds home from its burst pods. The tree disperses their seeds by literally exploding the dry pods. The hanging green pods turn brown and curl up as they dry. The sides of the pods dry up at different rates and this creates tension which causes the pods to split open, forcibly catapulting the small bright red seeds for several feet in all directions. The seeds are usually found littered under the tree. I introduced the saga-seed game to my sons and we ended up playing for hours. I don’t see the tree anymore and I think it had been axed down since.
I once went to a Chinese cemetery at Sime Road to study the graveyards to understand why some graves were sited at the higher while some ended at the lower ground. The reason I received was because of the social and economic status of the dead. If the dead had come from an influential family, the grave will be on higher elevation and vice versa. The red shiny saga seeds were all over the undulating ground. I bent down to pick a few to bring home but was cautioned by a Chinese friend not to take anything from the burial area unless I wanted the sprit of the dead to follow me home. No thanks! Horror movies already make my hair stand so I won’t need any encounter of the third kind for that spooky feeling. I immediately returned them to its original place.
Coming back to Saga, the bird – we couldn’t really identify what bird it is. Saga’s long and curved beak seems to suggest that it eats small aquatic creatures. Nevertheless, we had a neighbour who is a bird lover. He rears beautiful canary. I suggested my hubby to pay him a visit. My hubby brought Saga down to his flat. He too could not tell us the specie which Saga belongs to. We ended up with a cage from him to let Saga recuperate before we take our next course of actions.
Two pets within a week. It was a little hard to swallow. My husband and I foresee one common thing. We will be shelling out from our own pockets to buy pet food. Now, not only do I have a family to return home to, there are two pets I can pour out my feelings too.
Anyone out there knows what bird Saga is?
Latest update:
A friend of mine from Nature Society identified Saga as non-native bird of Singapore. Saga belongs to a specie known as a hooper.
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