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We are animal lovers in our house.
Well…at least the kids and I are. I’m pretty confident that my husband is not the president of the fan club for our two rescue dogs, albino guinea pig, goldfish and crayfish. We’ll talk about the crayfish later….
Sometimes I wonder how so much animal love can go so terribly wrong. Over the weekend, I walked across our patio to my home office and quietly responded to a few emails that I had been delinquent in returning. As I headed back to the house, I realized that I had stumbled upon the scene of …a murder? There were bird feathers everywhere, accompanied by a small spot of blood. How did I not hear a single bit of commotion? To ease my guilt, I am going to hope that the poor bird had already expired and that my guilty looking dog was simply trying to “dispose” of the body. Yeah, right.
Later that day, my daughter exclaimed with glee, “Mom, I found a baby lizard! I accidentally ran him over with the garbage can but I think he’s okay!”
Yikes. No more than 15 minutes later she found a second baby lizard and decided that her first lizard (now named Scaley) needed a friend. In the process of transferring Lizard no. 2 into his new home, she screamed, “Mom! His tail fell off…but that’s okay because it will grow back, right?”
Oh, geez. I politely suggested that she tend to her new pair of lizards for a few hours and then they should be released back into the wild as they would be lonely without their parents.
Just when I thought we were back to normal with our four “regular” pets, my husband took my kids to a local creek and they brought home a gift for me. A crayfish. Seriously, what would make them think that this was a nice gesture? Diamonds, yes…crayfish, no. In all of his brilliance, my husband decided that the crayfish should live in the fish tank with our one remaining goldfish.
Now I’ll admit, I have been secretly hoping that CiCi the goldfish would soon make her journey to goldfish heaven as I am the only one in the house who actually feeds her and cleans her tank. Anyone else have kids that promised to take care of their fish??? Nonetheless, being the animal lover that I am, I refuse to starve the poor fish or have her live in filth out of respect for her tenacity.
So contrary to my disapproval, the crayfish was now co-habitating with the fish. As I went to check on CiCi’s well-being that evening, I noticed a few missing scales and a slightly bloody tail.
“Go get your Dad!,” I hollered at the kids. “Tell him to get this disgusting creature out of the house!!!!”
So now Rusty the Crayfish is living outside in a make-shift terrarium (hopefully not for long) and CiCi the Super Goldfish is doing better than ever.
Just when I thought I was in the clear my son asked this morning, “Mom, can I get a tortoise as a pet?”
Oh sure…they only live for 75 years! |
