Wong, 1

Steven Bradley Wong

Professor Holly Batty
English 113A
14 December 2014
Pure Kindness
I lived in a house in a residential area called Alam Sutera; located in Indonesia. It is a 700
hectares mixed-use development area and located in the city nearby the capital city of Indonesia.
In this area, there are 32 clusters that consist of 150-300 houses each. The developer made this
area looks really neat and organized. They planted lots of big trees, placed several benches
beside the pedestrian sidewalk, and facilitate people with a tram. These make the residents feel
comfortable and really happy with the neighborhood.
There is one unique thing which also become the best part of living in this area. People
are not allowed to build fences in front of their house. This rule is very unusual for Indonesian
people; they tend to build fences for security reasons. Even so, the developer keeps being aware
with the security issue and solved it by building a security post in every clusters.
Unpredictably, this uncommon rule makes people become more friendly and know each
other very well. They can easily say hi to each other and sometimes they also invite the
neighbors to have a dinner together. The basketball and volleyball courts inside the sub-area also
help the residents to do sports and give them more chances to socialize.

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Besides of either playing basketball or volleyball, my neighbors will also take their pets
for a walk (mostly dogs) during the evening. Sometimes my friend took his dog for a walk
around the neighborhood and I could see some kids were trying to play with it. They seem to be
very happy at those moments. Overall, I could say that my neighborhood loves pets and almost
every neighbor own at least a pet. However, my family does not have any pet.
In my house, I lived with my parents, a little sister, an uncle and two housemaids. I
believe that each of us has our own perspectives about having a pet. For instance, my mother
does not like to having any pet because she believe that owning a pet will make her life more
complicated. On the other hand, my little sister always wanted to own a pet because she thinks
that pet are adoreable. However, I did not really care about having a pet.
Looking at the children in the neighborhood that were being happy by playing with a pet
made me a little bit curious. Often, I was wondering why those kids were very happy.
Unfortunately, I could not find a good answer to it. I believe the main problem is that I was lack
of experiences about having a pet. My family tried to have a pet (my sister asked for a dog
several times and my parents gave it), but we always ended up by giving the dog to somebody
else. As the time goes on, I never have more experiences in having a pet.
Everything remains the same until one day, my family just got back from the mall. It was
on the evening and we saw that there was a cat laying down in front of our house. We thought
that it is normal since the developer lets animals live around the neighborhood to make it looks
more eco-friendly. That idea made we continue doing our activities and did not give any
attention to the cat.

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The following morning, my uncle told us that the cat was still laying outside. We saw the
cat and realized that the cat was in labor; that explained everything. I remember that the cat looks
so tired. I concluded that the cat need to find some shelter and prepare for giving birth.
Next, we discussed and decided to support the cat. We gave the cat some milk and foods
so she could survive. When we brought the milk and foods outside, suddenly she approached us
and finished all of it. I felt really bad when I saw that; she must be very hungry. I could only
hope that she would survive. After that, she tried to laid down and be still. I believed she was
trying to lose only very little amount of energy so that she will be prepared for giving birth.
Then, we decided to not disturb her so she could take a rest.
The next morning, we saw the cat was still laying down in front of our house. All looked
the same except this time, there were several kittens around her. We felt very happy about it and
that is the first time I felt like having a pet. In that moment, I could feel the warmth of love in our
family towards them. This made me thought once that maybe they could be our pets soon, but I
held my feelings because I wanted them to live freely. Besides, I also knew that they still lived
outside my house.
Unfortunately, a week later the cats were gone. I could not find them anymore in the front
of my house. I did regret about holding my feelings and did not keep them inside. I felt sad a bit
until I realized that several months later, another cat was laying down in front of our house;
considered our house as a shelter. I was not sure whether it was the same cat or not, but all I
know is that my family will help those cats when they need our help. Somehow, this cheer me up
a bit because my family do not own any pet, but we could always feel like we are having one.

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After I have got the experiences with animals, I have started to understand why the kids
were so happy with the pets. I acknowledge that people could have a relationship with animal,
especially pets. Since that moment, I tried to play with my friends dog. Even so, my family still
has no pets but I could play with our neighbors pets.
As the time goes on, I also realized that this experience shows me that animals have a
willing to survive from unwanted conditions. In addition, we as a human could also play a role in
helping them to survive. My experience above also proved that even if I live in a residential area
and lack of experiences with having a pet, my family is still being able to help animals.
Therefore, I could simply say that I got the chance to help many animals and I chose to help
them.

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Works Cited
About Us. Alam Sutera. n.p. , n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2014.