I thought that I was an ordinary girl with an extraordinary memory and somewhat athletic ability, that I made the school's track team and the girls' soccer team, and did very well at both. Glasses-wearing, brown-haired, left-handed, brown-eyed girl with a natural sandy beach tan. About to graduate high school as a valedictorian, one of ten students in our class, and class student speaker at Hillstead High School, home of the mustangs. Living my life in Sunnyvale, California, with a famous tiger healer for a dad, Jose Rosas, and a renowned therapist for a mom, Guadalupe Rosas, who helps tigers and humans return to their whole mental state. Two siblings: a brother, Joe, and a sister, Sheila. Both of my siblings are older than I am, but they are in the same grade because I skipped a grade in middle school. They're currently 18 and 16, and I'm 15. Two pets I own are a silly Welsh Corgi Pembroke named Moncho and a hopeful Bengal tiger named Fire. The pet my dad owns is a venomless Egyptian Asp named Naga, but I called him Niles. But sometime later, I found out I was completely wrong.
Months before I got my extraordinary powers, my sister and I got these two wonderful pets in weird, but very cool ways. The first of my two loving pets I got was Moncho, and he is currently 11 years old, but he looks like a healthy 2-year-old. My sister and I had been pleading with our parents for months to get a dog. After months of pleading, my parents gave in and agreed to get a dog. One day, my dad helped my uncle because he had taken the day off from the sanctuary to deliver some documents to him at his locksmith shop. After he finished helping my uncle, my dad, my mom, Sheila, and I walked to the small pet shop across the street from my uncle's locksmith shop. The small pet shop had a cartoon dog on the window. As we entered, we saw some wooden open pens; all the pens had this cardboard-like paper, and the walls were plain cream color.
Sheila, my mom, and I were looking around at all the dogs, but didn't find the right dog for us until my dad called us over to see this little lonely dog. We saw this cute little dog getting no love or attention because everyone in the store was looking at the beagles. When we looked into his wonderful, adorable, affectionate, mysterious, and luminescent brown eyes, we knew he was the one. The thing that made my dad completely for having this little Welsh corgi in our home was finding out from the owner that he was almost at his full size. Then he asked the pet shop owner, "How much is the dog on the left closest to the door?" The pet shop owner replied, "The dog closest to the door is on reserve for an old couple, and they are coming this afternoon." Then we left a little disappointed, but came back a few hours later with our uncle, hoping he was still there in the afternoon.
When we came back to the pet shop, he was still so happy to see us again, and in that moment, we knew it was meant to be. The funniest and cutest thing my dog did was when we paid for him: he ran around the pet shop after they took him out of the pen, with a big smile on his face, looking like he was laughing and bragging to the other dogs. While he was laughing at the other dogs, I thought he was saying this while he was laughing, "Ha Ha! I'm getting out, and you thought I was crazy and never got out, but I proved you wrong." The way the workers stopped him from running around the shop was by body slamming him like professorial westler. My dad, on the other hand, thought this regrettablely: "Ah, we just paid for a crazy dog, so we can't send him back! It's meant to be!" Ever since, he has been our loving, but crazy dog. He even helped raise our other pet, Fire, and fell in love with her and produced three fertile kids.
Also quite surprising that some felines and canines can breed and produce fertile offspring. My family proved it with genetic tests using their kids' blood. Before we did any tests, we believed it was possible to produce fertile offspring rather than infertile ones like mules, but most people thought we were nuts because the status quo said that no canine or feline species could breed fertile offspring. Our highly accurate results shocked the science community to its knees, and they knew they could not deny it because our family had so much evidence to back it up. They regrettably changed the theory.
The second pet I got was Fire, the Bengal Tiger. When our family's sanctuary got her, she was 6 months old; now, she is 8 years old. Before we got her, my dad promised me he would let me help get the next tiger back on its feet and back into the wild, but you need your siblings' approval as well, because I don't want you to get hurt if they start getting aggressive. So, I convinced them by making their favorite foods: chorizo, steak, and a bucket of steamed clams. They had a look and tone of being grateful for the food and suspicious as well while asking this question, "Dolores, why are you being so nice? What do you want?"
I replied to them, annoyed, "I'm nice!" They replied, "But not that nice!" Replied, "Alright, the truth is I want to help the next tiger that comes in." Daddy said, "I need to get your guys' approval before I can do so because Daddy doesn't want me to get hurt if the tiger gets aggressive!" Joe answers, "Even though you are bribing us with food. I think it would be fun and a good bonding experience as well." Sheila replied, "Alright, it seems like fun!" Ran to Daddy, "I got Joey and Sheila's approval to help me with the next tiger!" My daddy replied, "Good for you, but you need to be very careful raising a tiger because tigers are wild animals, not like cats or dogs!"
The day came when my dad fulfilled his promise to me, it was Take Your Daughter to Work Day. I was in the car when my dad got a phone call from the Santa Clara County Highway Portal, and in the phone call, the Highway Patrol Officer said, "We have a tiger problem! The tiger is walking around, causing traffic on the Lawrence Expressway, and can also hurt someone. Can you help us catch that tiger?" My dad replied, "Yes, we can right away!" So my dad makes a U-turn towards the expressway.
When my dad and I got there, we saw right away that the orange Bengal Tiger was a girl who seemed abandoned by her mother and needed her mother's milk. It was a miracle that this scared and lonely girl was even walking at all. Using our earpieces, which my dad patented and invented, to understand any language, animal, or human alike. It is waterproof, fireproof, shockproof, cold proof, get step or sat on, any weather powered, has a very long battery life, look so hidden that no one knows you are wearing and so comfy that you can sleep with it, lasts for a long time and works great at night also my dad gets money from it as well because he sold the product to a company but not the right to it.
Within minutes of talking with it, we were able to calm her down by saying, "It's alright, we're not here to hurt you, but to take you to be safer than here. Where you are fed and loved rather than scared, confused, or even hurt." She answered me, "You promised!" I replied, "Promises!" So, she followed us to the truck without any struggle. I knew this one was special just by talking to her. Before leaving the expressway, I squeezed a juicy Porterhouse steak through the bars, holding it to her just for being a good girl and not fighting with us. When my dad was driving back to the sanctuary, I asked, "Dad, can you let Sheila and Joe raise her with your help because you promised that I could?"
We went to the sanctuary and got her checked out. She was very healthy but very hungry. After giving her a good meal, I bathed her and decided what to call her. I was washing her back and found a birthmark that looked a lot like a symbol of fire. I asked her with the earpiece on, "Do you like the name Fire?" She replied to me with genuine contentment, saying, "I love the name Fire because my mother never named me because she abandoned me just after birth!" I replied, "That's really sad!" Then I finished washing her and feeding her baby formula like a baby because she was so weak and too young to eat hard food.
After months of raising Fire with my siblings and Moncho, she and Moncho really surprised me by learning that we were like family. One night, Fire was at our house, not at the sanctuary where she usually is, because she wanted to spend the day with us. We also train her at our house so she can be close to the humans and the dog she loves. On this night, my siblings, Moncho, Fire, and I were playing some games in the backyard—hide-and-seek, monkey in the middle —and just enjoying the cool night, until my pets went on alert and both got into the protective stance of a usually herding dog. Ten minutes into their protective stance, a huge, full-grown American Black Bear that can easily tower over Moncho and Fire. My pets were jumping on the bear, biting it to protect us, and getting tossed around like rag dolls.
My brother hurried inside to get my dad. While Sheila froze up in pure fear, I pushed her out of the way of the bear coming towards her, but while I pushed her, I fell on my back and got my pants caught on a loose branch. In seconds of falling to the ground, the enormous black bear started charging towards me with its jaws and body language in a fearsome way. Two seconds before he was able to strike me, Fire and Moncho charged the bear to the right side together as one and broke the bear's bone, as I heard a massive crack from there, and I broke free from the branch and ran inside to get my dad.
While I was inside, I ran to my dad, who had a look that already knew what I was about to say, while grabbing a broom from the hallway closet. Still, I said it anyway, "Daddy, there is a huge black bear in our backyard, and Moncho and Fire protected Joe, Sheila, and me like a loyal pair of dogs. Moncho and Fire protected me from the charging bear by hitting it at the right side hard!" He told me, "Stay inside with your siblings!" Daddy went outside with the broom clutched in his hands, and he saw Moncho and Fire and the bear covered in blood and bleeding out of their mouths. Then they ran in front of my dad to protect him, and even though our pets were getting in the way, trying to keep him out of the fight, he still managed to land a few good hits on the bear. After an hour, the bear ran off with his head down, having learned that I should not mess with this family again, as they would fight back. My dad saw my pets fall to the ground from their injuries, smiling, because they had protected the family. My dad picked them up, put them on stretchers because he didn't have the tools he needed at home, and took them to our sanctuary's hospital, which is one of the top pet hospitals in the city.
At our sanctuary, my dad called other vets to help Moncho and Fire get better, but none were available. My dad knows how to help them because he got a bachelor's, MD, and Ph.D. in veterinary science, archaeology, and magical arts from Stanford and Ravenwood School for the Magical Arts. He had to do the surgery all by himself, but it was not traditionally done because it's a conflict of interest; however, they needed the medical attention now, and he had to hold his emotional attachment to help them survive the night. After an hour of surgery that went beautifully, he put them together on the huge non-wire floor, instead of a wooden one, with a big comfy bed. They both woke up at the same time to what my dad was saying to them, with tears down his face in gratitude, "Thank you for protecting my children and saving my daughter's life!" Then they said, while they were yawning from being tired and the medication, "You're welcome, protecting and loving our pack, or family, is our job." When my dad got home without them, all three of us asked in unison and worried in our voices, "Are they ok?"
My dad reassured us that they are ok by saying this: "They're perfectly fine, but they need to stay there to rest tonight and stay until Monday before they can be released. You guys can see them tomorrow." The very next day, we went to our sanctuary's hospital. They were awake, so happy to see us. Before we picked them up to take them home, my daddy asked me, "When we get to take them back home gives them both a lot of treats like steaks, bones, hot dogs, ham, shrimps, bananas and apples with no skins and donuts holes in their meals for today, tomorrow, the day after as a thank you to them." So, we feed them both the orders my dad told us to give them. They were fed very well and spoiled rotten with love.
Months after the bear incident, another thing surprised me as a tiger trainer and pet owner: families stick together no matter what. It was time to let go of our tigers who are not in permanent captivity, are not injured, or are still being rehabilitated. My siblings and I looked at the list of tigers being set free in the wilds of the state of Assam, India, and the one we personally trained was on the list to go. Our sanctuary takes them to the best tiger reserve in India, Kaziranga National Park. Weeks before our trip, everyone, even the zookeepers, got their shots, and my dad obtained all the government documents needed to release our tigers. On the day of our trip to Kaziranga National Park in the state of Assam, India, in the Golaghat and Nagaon districts, we went to San Francisco International Airport to fly to Jorhat City, India. I was sitting, sad, so my dad asked, "What's wrong, Dolores?" I replied, hiding my sadness with my usual smile, "Daddy, nothing wrong."
After we ate near our gate, A14, in Jorhat City, India, our flight was called, and we boarded. When our plane was taxiing, I was looking through the window. I started to cry sitting in my favorite seat of a plane, the window seat, and my daddy asked me, "Little Peanut, why are you crying? Is there something bothering you?" I replied to my daddy, "Yeah, something is bothering me since we entered the airport. The thing that's bothering me is realizing the reality that I'm never going to see Fire again. I'm really going to miss her so much. I'm scared of letting her go." My dad, as always, gave me good advice: "I know it's hard to let go, but remind yourself of all the good you shared with her, and she will always be in your heart."
After hearing that, I felt so much better that I wanted to drink some Coke, which the flight attendant poured into small, but bumpy, plastic cups. After hours of trying to sleep on these uncomfortable chairs with no success, I decided to write a little in my diary. When you know a book is good, a person starts reading your work over your shoulder while you have your chair as far back as it can go. Then I felt like walking to see how Fire was doing, so I crept so quietly that not even a mouse could hear my footsteps along the hallway of the cabin. I got to the baggage hold where Fire was hanging out.
When I got there, I took my earpiece out of my purse, and I could hear all the other tigers' excitement about going into the wild, except for one, Fire. Fire looked so sad in her big steel cage with wooden floors, as if she didn't want to go. I said to her, "Fire, how are you doing?" She replied in a sad tone, really missing Sunnyvale and living with us, "Dolores, I want to go home with you and become your live-in home pet like Moncho, my love. I want to go back home on my own decision, not by someone who wants me to." A few days ago, my dad told me, "Fire was acting similar to how Moncho acts when he's stubborn, not in an aggressive way, but will just not move from his spot at that moment, and he does it when he is on his leash for a walk.
She only stopped her stubbornness by putting some very non-lethal sleep potion in her meat by one of the zookeepers." It wasn't like her not to listen to us. The only thing I want from Fire is to be the happiest tiger in the world, even if it's not with my family as our pet. I started having the desire to write again while a lot of tigers were partying down all around me in their cages. After minutes of writing, I fell comfortably asleep on a hard steel floor next to Fire. Then an hour later, I woke up, checking my pocket watch for how long I slept, and saw two guys telling me, "Get out of here! You shouldn't be here, and we will give you ten minutes to get back to your seat." I hurried out of there and waved to Fire while saying, "See you later!"
At the Jorhat City airport, we hurried to the Hotel Du Pree to meet Gunha, as our flight had been delayed by over an hour due to a blockage that caused a crack in the fuel line. We made it to the hotel, which looked nice and elegant, Victorian-style, with windows that looked like that period, but unfortunately smelled like overcooked curry. We found Gunha sitting at the bar drinking a beer. Gunha is a tall, good-looking, light-skinned man at 6 feet 8 inches. He is a part-time employee at the Kaziranga National Park and is also pursuing a Master's in wildlife science in town. However, he's a pervert, so he checks my sister and me while we are undressing or changing. Gunha said to us, "What took you so long?" My dad replied, "Yeah, our flight was late." Gunha looked at us with a perverted look in his eyes through my sister and me. Still, Joe fired a look as if you touch them, I will personally kick your ass, Gunha. "It's too late to bring you all to Kaziranga National Park, but you guys must be tired after your flight, so let's all rest, then go tomorrow." We all agreed, yawning a lot, and then we got our room numbers and key cards.
When we got room assignments, I bunked with Sheila, but Joe bunked with Gunha. Our room number was 2045 on the top floor of this 20-story hotel. Our room looked like England, with posters of English rock bands, lamps of Big Ben, and all sorts of soda, coffee, and British tea on the counter, along with other British stuff all over the room. I saw in a magazine down in the lobby, while we were getting our room assignments, about different places. The very next day, we all woke up in the afternoon and had a good lunch in a bustling part of town, since everyone needed to get somewhere fast. Then, all packed into two cars and a trailer full of tigers that had just been fed, we drove two hours down an uneven road to the national park.
When we got there, I saw an arched wooden sign reading "Kaziranga National Park," and tons of lions and tigers chasing gazelles across the grasslands and marshes. After an hour of exploring the park and feeding them, we started taking the ten crates filled with very fed and very happy tigers out of the air-conditioned trailers. All our workers, except my siblings and myself, used crowbars to release the tigers one by one, and they ran so happily out of their cages to the wild. When the tiger my siblings and I raised to full maturity was up next, my dad gave all three of us crowbars to release the baby we had raised into the wild. When we opened her cage, she saw the door open, but all she did was lounge around, looking like this is the right time for a good night's sleep in her cage, like she was relaxing on a beach in Mexico.
After 10 minutes of talking to Fire with no change and using our employees for help with no luck, some of the employees went to get our dad. My siblings and I suggested we give meat and close it, but the other adults thought it would not work because we are too young. A few minutes later, they found my dad drinking soda in the shade, then they told their problem to their boss or my dad by saying this, "We have a problem, one of the tigers is not moving out of her cage, and what should we do?" He asked his employees, with an expression of surprise, "Which tiger is giving you guys trouble, and did you use meat to take her out?"
They replied to their boss with dumb looks and nervousness on their faces, "It's Fire, sir, and no, we didn't give her steak while trying to get her out." My dad got really annoyed by them due to their unimaginative stupidity and said, "If you can't get something done right, you have to do it yourself!" A few minutes later, we all saw my dad and the two idiot employees, then my dad asked his three children, "Did you suggest giving her meat and closing the cage?" We replied to our daddy, "Yes, we did, but no one listened?" My dad complimented us by saying this: "Good children, and now, some people are using their brains in this room!" Dad dropped two cooked pieces of meat outside of her cage because, for some reason raw meat makes her sick to her stomach, like when my mom gave Moncho a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, and a few days later, he was sick to his stomach because dogs can't process chocolate like humans can even though it's in her nature to like it. She likes cooked meat tons better than raw meat ever could. She started moving out of her cage, and she tried to quickly take her steaks back to her cage in her mouth, but the workers shut the steel door before she could get in.
Then she sat down with her steak and ten minutes later, she was done. Everyone was hoping she would run free into the wild, but all she did was sit on the ground, looking very comfy. Then a few people, including my dad, tried to push her into the wondrous grasses and trees of the reserve, but they could not because she was too heavy. While they were doing that, Fire asked me for my gold submariner diver's watch to check how long they had been trying to push her to move, and my watch showed 5 minutes now.
Then she asked me this, with a look that wanted them to give up and let her stay with me and my family, "Are they going to give up now?" I replied, "I don't know." The next thing, and the last thing they tried, was leaving a steak in the grass and then leaving. They left the stake deep in the grass, and she went into it. Ten minutes later, while everyone was about to pack up, she came back with the steak in her mouth and had a look of Really, you just did that! Wow, you're really dumb to the others —except for Sheila, Joe, and me —since she rubs her body against my siblings and my legs like she's happy to see us. I was delighted that she came back. Then my dad raised his hand swiftly and, in pure annoyance at Fire's behavior, said, "I had it!" Then, with a tone of regret, said this, "I give up! Dolores, can you ask Fire what she wants to do?"
Then I walked a few steps up to Fire and I lowered myself down to a crouch position then asked her this "Do you want to live here, or live at our family's sanctuary or at our home as our family's pet? Answer this question wholeheartedly." She answered wholeheartedly to my question and said this: "Finally, someone is asking the right question! I want to stay with you as your family's pet because ever since I met you and you are my family, I always felt this feeling that I was meant to be here, like when you needed protection against the bear or just being a polite pet to guests, not at the sanctuary or in the wild." I answered her, "Ok, but I need to tell dad first." I rushed to my dad, overlooking the watering hole, and drew the animals to relieve his stress from Fire's actions, and he asked what she said. "Dad, the reason she was stubborn today and for the past few days is because she wants to live with us, can she?"
Before he answered, Joe, Sheila, Fire, and I gave looks of Please, Daddy! He replied to us with a look that he had one condition for us "Alright, because I love her as a pet too, but I have one condition, Fire if you hurt my family you are automatically going back to the sanctuary!" She replied to my dad, "I agree to your condition. I don't want to hurt you guys. I love you guys too!" She went back into her cage, which was packed up. Ever since, she has been living with us, and there have been no problems. Her decision to give up her freedom in the wild for a life with us taught me that pure loyalty is much more valuable than freedom, and it can also bring you love.
I have a submariner diver's watch because my dad and I are licensed master scuba divers. Only do it recreationally, but my dad also does it commercially because he's a marine archaeologist and a tiger healer. My dad has been researching Krokotopia and Egypt, but has to go deep underwater to investigate buildings, objects, and even sunken ships. One time, my daddy promised me we would scuba dive in Egypt. He kept his promise to me by sending us a letter with four round-trip tickets to Cairo, Egypt, and he put a p.s., and it said, "Dolores, bring all your scuba equipment. We are going scuba diving on the fourth day of our break." When we got to Cairo, my dad was so happy to see us at the huge airport and my mom asked dad "How were you able to get these tickets for us?"
My dad answered my mom, "The head of the research team, Professor Arevy, gave everyone tickets to bring our families here and to rest for two weeks. We were doing such a great job, and to air out a temple we recently found a week ago." I knew all our kids were on summer break. During three days of our vacation, we explored the city, saw Egyptian temples, shopped, and visited the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Egypt. On the fourth day, in the afternoon, 4 hours before sunset, my dad asked me, "Did you bring your scuba equipment?" I replied to Daddy, "Yes, I did, and when are we going?"
My daddy replied to me, "Very soon, so get ready. If you want to go?" I got ready so fast that I was a little jackrabbit zooming back and forth in our hotel room. When we got to the place where we were going to scuba dive, I saw the most beautiful water, on par with the waters of Mexico. And he could see me so happy with this trip, and that he kept his promise. We did our checks little and filled our oxygen tanks to the brim. We saw so many fish and coral. I took pictures of everything with a waterproof camera. When we went out because our tanks were getting low and it was getting dark, but there was enough to reach the surface, we got to see the sunset and took a picture of ourselves and the sunset.
Before we left the beach, I told dad "Dad, all the trips we go on are the greatest trips because we got to be together like always and thanks for keeping your promise to me Dad." My dad answered me "I 100% agree with you that every trip is the greatest because spend it together and your welcome and I wanted to go scuba diving with you in Egypt too." Then for two days straight, we relaxed at the hotel and played in the pool. Scuba diving is one of the ways we bond, and our favorite places to dive are anywhere in Mexico with water, plus a secret stop halfway to San Francisco. These events in my life taught me always to honor, love, and care for my pets and my promises, and these life lessons were important to learn when I got a really huge surprise.