Pets and such.

My 7 year old's reading assignment for the week has been a book about a girl who invites her horse to her birthday party. Her Mom tells her she can invite anyone she wants, so she invites 4 other kids and her horse, who is also her best friend.

At the end of the book there were some questions in regards to the story. One of the questions was: "Why do some people not have pets?" My daughter had 3 clever answers.

First, she said that people may not want a dog because they chew the furniture and toys and shoes. I could tell she based this on her personal experience. When we lived in the States, we had a family dog; a pitbull named Odin. He was a crazy, fun, huge, annoying, loving, cuddly, handsome, friendly, dumb and strong dog. And he chewed the furniture, toys and shoes.

Second, she said, some people may not want a cat because they run away. This she also based on personal experience. Her sly, black cat, Bubbles, ran away when Odin got bigger than her, never to return. (I wasn't too upset since I don't really like cats that much.)

Third, she said (and I was excited to hear this one, because she hasn't had any other pets), some people may not want mice or rats because they'll eat all the cheese in the fridge. Or even the apples! I thought this made a lot of sense.

I must admit that I'm not really a pet person. Growing up, I only had 2 pets. My first pet was a bird, Romeo. I think I was around 8 or so when I got her. That's right, we were told the bird was actually a girl, but the previous owner had named her Romeo, and I didn't want to change it in case it would confuse her tiny bird brain. I was very sad when she died. My Dad put her in a milk carton which he threw away in the garbage bin outside. I freaked out about this and told him Romeo was no regular garbage! I made him dig a grave in the back yard (important fact: it was in the middle of winter and the ground was hard as rock). She deserved a proper burial, though.

My second pet was given to me on my 18th birthday by 2 of my friends; a goldfish named Hieronimus Bach the 21st of the Maldives. He hung around for a while, and was pretty cool and mellow. He suffered a tragic death when we went on summer vacation and it got really hot in the house. We came home to a nasty fish odeour and a dissolved Hieronimus. No proper burial this time, though, just a flushing of the toilet. Oh, the fate of a fish.

My husband is like Dr. Doolittle and I am convinced he can talk to animals. During our 9 years of marriage we have included a frog, guinea pig, hamsters, fish, dog and cat in our family No snake yet, though, which would be my choice. I think snakes are pretty cool and fascinating. I should get one and invite it to my next birthday party.