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Pet

In June of 2006, I posted these haikus:

Ants don’t like living
Trapped in Ziploc sandwich bags,
Even ants must breathe.

It’s nice you named them
Cutie, Star, Climby, Chompy,
and R2-D2.

Plus “George” and “Lucas”
All respectible ant names.
But ants are not pets.

They will not do tricks.
I realize you love them.
Say your goodbyes now.

Mean mommy hates ants,
One last ditch effort plea cries:
“Educational!”

The Ziploc opens
Over a backyard dirt patch.
Farewell, little ants.

My children will make pets out of anything that inches, flits, or creeps through our backyard. I think my favorite part of watching my kids eagerly adopting God’s creation into our family are the names they bestow. Their latest pets are a pair of roly-polies (aka pill bugs) named Shrimp and Leslie.

There was some sort of rodent living in one basement window well, outside. The kids named it Cutie Junior. Considering that Cutie Senior is an ant (see the blockquote) I can honestly say that strange things are afoot out there in the wilds of our suburban lawn. Cutie Junior is gone, which disappointed all of us. He was a good mystery rodent, drinking water out of a mini Darth Vader helmet one of the kids dropped down for him and eating lettuce from our fridge. One day, he was gone. Godspeed, Cutie Junior.

I wait anxiously for Cutie the Third to come into our lives. I hope he is rabies-free, doesn’t eat our dog, and doesn’t dig holes.

A butterfly would be nice.

4 comments to Pet

  • Jenn

    Hey G,
    Got your message the other day, Ty has been gone more than usual lately, so it seems like my free moments end up being at 11pm. Ugh. I need to call soon! Oh – and Ethan had a pet rollie pollie today that he accidentally dropped inside a big tonka truck window (unretrievable). 🙁 Oh my! The water works started. He was heart broken… till he found an ant. LOL! Mr Ant, he carried around (pinched in his fingers) for about 20 minutes before he realized it was dead. More waterworks… ugh – we’ll try it again tomorrow. 😀
    ttys! Silly boys!
    Jenn

  • You never know how much pets mean to your kids until you are away from them. We miss our pets here in Mexico! Our girls notice all the stray dogs. They are in pretty bad shape. It makes us all sad.

    We hiked in a canyon two days ago and found very unusual and large bugs! I think the girls would have liked to adopt them as pets!

    Your blog seemed to disappear for a while. Maybe it was my connection from Mexico. Glad to find it again!

  • How sweet! We have moths in zip lock baggies, un-named, but considered pets all the same. Ants and worms, earwigs…

  • edj

    I love the names kids come up with for pets. We have had such gems as “Legolas Gimli Jones” and “Obi-wan Henry Jones.” LOL At least my guys aren’t so likely to make friends of bugs–we mostly try to get rid of them.

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