Two New Notches On My Overalls

I could stretch things and save this post for Farm Friday, but I've got nothin' for today.

No reserves in creativity either, so I'm making do with this.

"This" being that we have two new pets.

That's right. Because we didn't have enough.

Please give a warm welcome to our hamsters Fizzy and Dizzy.

It began innocently enough on Friday afternoon. I took the girls and James out on a few shopping errands. We had a nice dinner out at Boston Market and then went by the pet store for our last errand: buying some small goldfish for our ponds.

As luck would have it, they were out of goldfish.

As luck would also have it, we had to walk past the warm furry pets to get to the cold scaly pets.

And of course, we walked right past a cage with little black and white hamsters sitting up on their hind legs looking for all the world like prairie dogs scoping their surroundings.

Adorable?

We asked the nice man to take one out.

We asked the nice man to put her back so we ould talk things over.

Three of the four kids wanted one. As in each. To be kept in their rooms.

I did my best to talk them down.

I told them to forget the 3 - 5 years life expectancy the nice man mentioned. More like 2 for a hamster. They were setting themselves up for more heartbreak.

I told them they would need to clean the cages themselves. They would need to fill the food and water dishes. They would need to handle them with care. The cute little hamsters could possibly bite if they were handled too roughly or not with enough frequency or if the mood struck them.

They would have to pay for them themselves. This little prerequisite knocked Bella out of the running as she had just blown through about half her allowance on junk at Five Below.

But the other two, James and Julie, still had cash burning a hole in their pockets from the nice people who gave them gifts for completing their church sacraments.

So much so that Julie even decided to spring for a new cage, though our attic probably has enough critter cages to start a small zoo.

So we grabbed a cart and started loading it up. How much stuff could two pocket rodents possibly need? The cage, 2 bags of bedding (b/c James wanted blue and Julie wanted confetti), food, water bottles, wood chews, little houses, treats,hay, and an exercise ball.

There was no room left in the cart for the actual hamsters.

But somehow we managed, and we got our new pets home and settled into their new digs.

The kids were disappointed when I told them they had to wait till the next day before they could handle their new pets so they could have some time to acclimate, but they made it. And last night they took them downstairs to hold and love and cuddle. And in the process of so doing, they lost one.

Yeah. Someone was holding one of them and she got freaked out when she started climbing up her arm and then she dropped her and then she was on the sofa and then behind the sofa and then under the sofa and the kids were frantically running around searching for their new lost pet and plugging up the air conditioning vents and in general just freaking out.

Oh the joy of being a small critter in our household.

And of course I was blissfully unaware of any of this b/c I was on the road picking up one of the other kids from a party.

But they found her and returned her to her cage before I got home and all was well with the world.

I don't hold out much hope for them. Better start saving the shoeboxes now.


Meet Fizzy. Julie's hamster. Got cute?


You know, I'm betting when most people get asked,
How many pets do you have?
they're quick with an answer.
2
they might say. Or maybe even
3.
Or if the person being asked is borderline crazy, the reply could be something like
7.

Me? I'm beyond normal.
I'm beyond borderline crazy.
I probably fit more into the category of hoarder, because I don't actually KNOW how many animals I have unless I stop to count them out.

Let's see, I have....

(5)I have our dogs Sunny, Sophie, Cindy, Blue and Annabelle.
(3) Our cats Mamfy, Mali and Punkin.
(2) Toad 1 and Horny Toad.
(2) The new arrivals Fizzy and Dizzy.
(1) Nick the cockatiel.
(4) Hermit Crabs I don't care to know the names of.
(2) Rabbits Alice and Minnie.
(6) The goats Elfie, Frex, Tibbit, Crope, Ozzy and Houdini.
(3) The horses Genevieve, Pippin and Finnegan.
(14)Our chickens Tizzy, Goldie, Puddin', Chicken Little, Miss Peggy, Elizabeth, Earnestine, Ting, Bam, Big Mama, Mamin, Nugget, Pox and 1 more I can't remember the name of.

Looks to me like that's 42. Is that correct? Someone check my math please.

Yep. Definite hoarder.