I'm crazy.
There. I said it.
S has had birthday and Christmas money burning a hole in his pocket. A few weeks ago he announced that he wanted a new pet. At the library he checked out books on hamsters and turtles. Hamsters? As in, rodents? No way. I had been there and done that.
The Man and I have been up in the middle of the night trying to catch an escaped white mouse (who had been given to M) before it found one of the mouse traps intended for wild mice who found their way inside our house. In that same house, I clubbed a stunned rat to death so it wouldn't crawl off and die in the wall. Actually paying money for a rodent to live in a house with us? That would be wrong. Very wrong. Rodents need to live outside in the fields.
Thus, I tried steering S away from the hamsters and encouraged the turtle. After all, we still had the fish aquarium where Tails and Scales lived. We did a bit of research on prices and concluded that he had enough money for the turtle, heater, and other supplies he would need. He also stated he was willing to commit to this particular pet for the next 50 years, should it live that long.
Yesterday while we were up in the city for M's music lessons we stopped at the pet supply store. It was then that we discovered that the pet supply store was actually an empty building. Poor S. He had his heart set on bringing home a turtle. I hadn't planned on making a trip up to the big city yesterday, but we went anyway.
Since G was sleeping, just S and I went into Petsmart. We found the reptiles. Eek. The cheapest turtle was $99, and the other one was $199. That was a lot more than he had available. Hmmm...the rodents were a lot cheaper. J came in at that point and said G had woken up. I went out to the van to feed G and sent M and Sacagawea in to stay with J and S and look at the rodents.
I suggested that S name his new gerbil Turtle. The kids thought that was one of the silliest things they had ever heard. S chose Gerald.
S thinks he looks like the best pet ever. Notice the soap dish in the background. I thought it was prudent for them to be acquainted in the bathroom just in case Gerald decided to try to escape.
Gerald slept at the top of the cage last night. This morning he has explored around the rest of the cage and now seems right at home. Since S had so much money left over, he is already planning which add-ons for the cage he'll buy on the next trip to the big city.
4 comments:
And we let our two box turtles go when we were kids?
Gerald is absolutely adorable. I think he made a great decision. I hope he doesn't bite!
My senior year in college I somehow found out about two gerbils on campus that needed a home and my mother said that she'd take them. On the weekend, they went home with me. I'd been assured they were the same sex. NOT!!!!! They had one litter and I don't remember what happened to them but know that at least one of the parents did get out and my parents had to catch it. Fortunately the living room door was always closed as my parents had 3 cats and 2 dogs too. No more gerbils after that.
We did have guinea pigs for my daughter (one at a time).
I was astonished at the prices of turtles. I remembe, as a kid, having a few that we got at Woolworth's and they were next to nothing in price.
Your hamster is cute.
You'd hear me screaming from New England if I saw a rat at the house and had to take care of it.
Nice pictures!
Happy blogging,
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