All of us feel the need to be loved, to be cared for, be it a human or an animal. Humans express their feelings, not all pets do, but even they have their own ways of expression, maybe they just answer to your call when you call them or talk to them. I'm not referring to animal obedience here, but to the feeling of being wanted or needed.

In North India, crows are considered to be the bearer, or attender of Lord Shani .It is believed that you should feed crows to please the Lord and ward off harm. My mom being an ardent devotee of Shani Maharaj  took to feeding crows. She would place bits of bread on our kitchen window sill of our second floor apartment and call out to the wanderers of the sky with the sound of "khao,khao". It was weeks before one finally turned up to eat, snatched the food and flew away. But she kept calling out and it wasn't long before they knew that they are being called everyday. So, now they come and sit and eat their biscuits regularly (they are surprisingly choosy about their fooding habits and don't prefer roti in their diets). Sometimes they come and call out to her instead trying hard to imitate the word khao. They don't just come for food, you find them calling just for nothing, mom responds back and blabbers to them as she works, they just sit their watching her work and fly away after some time.

I stand and watch from afar, they fly away when I approach them. I stand and watch and wonder what they feel, what do they think, do they really understand our feelings or is it just basic animal instinct to come for food. Even when mom's away for work, they come to our kitchen calling out for her....