My name is Timok and I am a micinik. What, don’t you know what a micinik is? Well, then let me tell you. A long, long time ago, us, the miciniks looked like dogs; with beautiful golden fur and ears flapping happily in the wind.
But then, for I don’t know what reason, one of my great-great-great-great grandfathers swallowed a balloon. He felt nothing strange, but then he looked in the mirror; and what do you think he saw? He was round like the balloon. He could no longer walk normally, like all the other dogs, on its own four pawns. No… but he could hop. Hop, hop from here to there.
All his children and the children of his children were then born like that. Round like balloons but hopping cheerfully around. Hop, Hop, Hop. But we did not stop discovering. No no.
You see, my grandfather, the great Timocescu, discovered something interesting. Whenever he wanted to, he could blow out all the air inside him and become small, thin or however he wanted.
This way he could fit anywhere, no matter how tight the place was. So, Timocescu became one of the most famous micinik on Pluto.
We, the miciniks, also have a secret. We are able to perfectly understand the language of the people on Pluto, our owners. Actually, we understand the language of every human being that we meet. But we do not tell them that. No no.
We continue to pretend that we are funny animals that do not understand anything. This way we can find out which humans talk nicely to us and which not. I think that all the animals in the world do the same. They pretend that they do not understand a word, just to be sure that they know when their owners speak badly about them.
I am sure that all the dogs and cats on Earth have a lot of fun watching their owners talk to them as if they were a bit silly.
I am lucky. My owners are actually my family because they treat me as if I was one of their children. I couldn’t imagine my life without them either. We have a great time together.
I still remember the day Color, my best friend, brought me home to the Escu family. Back then, I did not know that we could become friends. So I tried to scare him.
You know, we, the miciniks, can be very scary if we want to. We can growl in a threatening way and fluff out our fur. Then, we look like a ball of fur that was wet and then dried with a hairdryer. Actually, this image might not be that threatening. But in our minds, we look fearful.
Color found me on the street. I cannot remember how I got there, neither do I remember where my family was. I only know that I was there, on the street, hopping back and forth after every person passing by, trying to convince them to take me home.
Color was the only one who stopped and took me in his arms.
– “Waa, your fur has such a nice colour, you tiny” I could hear him say.
But he took me by surprise and I got scared. I growled and fluffed out my fur. I would have done a lot more if it wasn’t for Color’s laugh, who also started growling at me and made farting sounds with his mouth. Then, he told me:
“I would also fluff my hair, but you see, all my hair fell out. So let’s just pretend that I also puffed my hair. I think that we will get along very well.”
From that day Color became my best friend. Well, I also like the other members of the Escu family, but I like Color the most.
He is the best. When he comes home from work, he always has a small present for me; be it a piece of my favourite fruits or a tiny ball. I sometimes think that I cannot remember my real family, because the Escu family is the real one.