Kako

The Predicament of Kako, a Beloved Pet

By

Seye Adetunmbi

In the early 1990s, 'beware of Kako, a mongrel' was the warning message hanged on the railings of my balcony. It was a departure from the conventional 'beware of dog' hanged at residential buildings. Most people were often amused when they read it. Anyway, it was meant so, to entertain visitors. Though Kako was a modest guard dog that barked enough to alert residents of any strange movement, yet it was a very friendly and likable pet! Subsequent to getting a boy to live with me in Lagos when I was a young working class eligible bachelor, while I trained the young kinsman in a gainful vocation as part of the incentive package, my mother (Mama) later brought a cute dog for me after her mongrel delivered 5 lovely puppies. Of course, she had been conscious of my love for dog as a pet. In fact she brought one for me in Ilorin during my post graduate days, which I named after my father's popular pet dog, Jack, that lived in the 1960s as the family pet dog. If you wish to read more about the original Jack, visit https://mindscopeafrica.blogspot.com/2018/04/d-o-adetunmbi.html?m=1. 

My new, small and a few weeks old friend; a very likable white hairy puppy arrived in Lagos from Ekiti in 1992. Considering the fact that I grew up to know Jack in Ekiti living with us, my new pet had to share my apartment with me and those under my care. It was really challenging bringing up my beloved pet in a 3-storey building on the second floor of  and premises of 8 block of flats. My love for the cute indigenous breed overshadowed the burden of cleaning the uncontrollable urine and excreta in any part of the apartment until an attainable age when easing itself was self regulated.

    Naming the pet was a serious matter for me. I finally settled for Kako! For the benefit of those who may not know, Kako is the name of "Kako onikumo ekun" my favorite legendary fictional creature in the famous book of D.O. Fagunwa; "Igbo Olodumare" which Prof Wole Soyinka translated into English under the title of the 'Forest of One Thousand Demons'. Kako can be likened to Rambo in the modern times or Mark Garland and Malik, for those who read James Hadley Chase in the high school days. If someone dropped a copy in the midst of students and sneezed, before the person recovered, the novel was gone! In fact, if some of us have read our academic books in the manner we devoted time on the panther and corgi series then, grade one distinction would have been assured. I digressed. 

   One can then imagine the expectation of people when I talked about my dog or mentioned its name knowing the character called Kako. They must have been expecting to see a fierce looking, "bad" and huge dog in the mold of an alsatian dog, a bull dog etc. Alas; by the time they encountered Kako, they must have been amused somehow or attracted to the little thing and be entertained. That was the spirit behind it all, while keeping memory of my folklore hero alive and having fun with my beloved pet.

  Outgrowing the puppy age was quite tasking. The veterinary doctor attended to the needs of the pet on schedule. Kako stayed in the balcony while everybody left the house, whatever mess we met on arrival would be cleaned up accordingly. With time, Kako got more matured and responded to the training of taking a walk after meals to ease itself; as well as when released every morning to go downstairs. Kako responsibly dashed out and returned back home immediately after easing itself. Same thing applied after greeting/welcoming us in the evening on arrival from work, to ease itself. 

Seye Adetunmbi with his friend, Kako in 1992

He rode with me to many places in my 1975 Peugeot 404 car that was passed to me. He was very popular among my friends. My squash racket playmates at the UNILAG Senior Staff Club nick-named me Kako because of my pet! Whenever Kako sighted the 404 or heard the hoot from the balcony, the wonderful creature was a beauty to behold. One could practically hear Kako barked out a distinct sound something sounding like 'gbo gbo, ko ko, ku ku, ka ka, a bo' (you are welcome); jumping at the railings. I was often scared of Kako falling down from the 2nd floor. I would wave and talked to the cute thing to please take it easy.

   Nevertheless, Kako and I had our low times. I came home one day and saw the poor thing tottering in pains. Someone for whatever reason, somewhere or somehow attacked Kako with a cutlass or a sharp object which inflicted one of the rear legs. I spirited it to the veterinary clinic in Ikeja GRA from Akoka, Yaba. Kako was admitted and the affected part was stitched. The fourth leg couldn't touch ground evenly with the rest which caused Kako to hobble slightly. The setback and minor disablement notwithstanding, the pet remained the bubbling self after the wound healed.

   Kako and I had best of times together until I had to relocate briefly to Zambia on invitation from an expatriate friend, to explore opportunities and carried out some financial advisory assignments after the hurtle of the Nigerian finance houses in 1994. I didn't want to send Kako back to Mama, my preference was someone based in Lagos with natural caring disposition towards pets. Reprieve came and I was very happy when one of my older brothers and his wife offered to take care of Kako for me.

   The good thing was that they had many pets of different species; dogs of foreign breeds, peacock, tortoise (Ijapa) etc. However, my worry for Kako was that it was a "spoilt" pet that lived in the house with all the attentions in this world. I never thought of any relocation that would break our staying together; perhaps I would have prepared the poor thing for the challenges ahead. I actually anticipated issues when Kako had to live with other pets in the compound or restricted outside the house. Kako apparently could not place it that it can not enter the house at will. The poor pet became unruly, stubborn and developed disturbing attitudes. The "change shock" was too much for Kako to handle and that was the beginning of the troubles of my beloved pet.

   Distance and temporary separation notwithstanding, Kako remained in my consciousness radar. One of my host's Nigerian colleagues in Mobil Oil Nigeria was returning from Zambia to Lagos, he heard me talked often about Kako in Ndola, Zambia and volunteered to help me check Kako out. I was damn too happy to send him to my brother's place. By the time I received the letter giving me an update on what had become of Kako; it was a kind of nostalgia relief though the news of its predicament was not particularly cheering. Apparently, it became tough keeping poor Kako at home and had to be relocated along with other pets to a vast office premises in Isolo.

   Kako met a well loved small monkey called ronto in the workshop. I knew the monkey very well; it was a master of intrigues peculiar to their mammal specie. I still feel that ronto was either a midget breed because it refused to grow in size, or was just still growing then. The technicians in the workshop played with it to unwind before the arrival of my beloved mongrel. Meanwhile, Kako was a "wounded" pet if you know what I mean. Here was a corny jolly-little monkey making overtures to an aggrieved Kako! Like the popular saying, a well fed dog does not play with a hungry one. Ronto was said to be fond of taunting Kako and climbed the nearest heavy duty truck to it where the latter would watch it with frustration. The predicament of Kako could only be imagined. On the day ronto miscalculated; Kako went for it and that was the end. The workshop mourned ronto the little likeness left for Kako faded out. "Aja ti o l'eniyan l'ehin, ki i p'obo" (a dog without people behind it can not just kill a monkey). The hostility was too much towards Kako from the technicians that ronto was fond of entertaining. Kako went out of the compound and never came back. The beloved pet had lost the beautiful white furs and had to fend for itself. Few people who knew Kako sometimes ran into it on the street where he had turned into a public property.

   I left Kako adorably healthy in July 1994, by the time I came back in November 1994; it was  a shadow of itself. It was indeed a tragedy of a beloved pet. Few days before my arrival, they found Kako dead somewhere in Isolo area. I thank God for one thing, I never saw Kako in its last ignoble days or bad state. This helped me a great deal to reduce the pain because I held myself responsible for all Kako went through. Dedicating this article to its memory makes me feel better. Until I'm sure of sustaining the required lifespan treatment for my kind of pet dog, I'm for now limited to my cherished 1975 antique car, the story of which I have told and had been published.