Thursday 30 June 2011

The deed is done


I may have lost my mind. The left brain and right brain have finally parted, gone their separate ways and are now unrecoverably on non-speaking terms. They leave a whistling gap between them.

The children have burst into the void, busy filling up the space with a selection of their finest plots and plans.

Yes, it is now perfectly sensible to bring a hamster into the house to love and care for.

I am sure, once upon a time, I maintained an absolute unshakable fixed line on that. All pets are madness. When the left and right brains were working in happy harmony, there it was: no living creatures in cages, no pets, no responsibilities to squeaking creatures with big eyes, no, no, no, no matter how cute.

But now it is. The deed is done. Sparky has a bowl, a name, a patch of straw for beating the bounds and three ladies in fixed adoration attending to its every furry twitch.

6 comments:

Kelly said...

I am NOT an animal person, yet at one point we got up to one cat, three budgies, and five fish in a bowl. Have had five budgies in total, but I finally pulled the plug when we got down to one, after 13 years of budgie ownership (because previously when that had happened we bought a new one so the old one wouldn't be lonely). Shenga (the boy) had to die alone. Budgies seem to live forever, especially when you feed them budgie health food. Unless, of course, the cat eats them, but that is better left unexplored. In eighteen years of constant pet presence, we are now left with cat number 2, the first female member of the household except me, named Brenda, for my cousin.

Grit said...

because i am unbending in my determination not to admit animals in the house, i will say, although i am not admitting anything, not at all, i merely note, that this week i have had the opportunity, with my mini grits, to comment upon respectful treatment, ethics, duty, obligation and responsibility.

i am sure this is not the civilizing example brought by a pet hamster. no, it just occurred naturally, out of the breakfast cereal. yes, it must be that. not the result of having a pet hamster in the house. nope.

Green V-Neck said...

You should check out our Hamster Majals, from two years ago. Thank maude the rodents (five, in all) are now safely ensconced in the Hamster Graveyard out back. NEVER AGAIN.

Green V-Neck said...

Oh! And one redeeming factor is that they LOVE vegetable scraps that are not already destined for the compost (I'm sure you're much more conscientious of such a thing than I am). If you run out of hamster kibble, no worries, throw in some broccoli stalks and a baby carrot or two (it's like hamster crack, no kidding). A peanut, a few sunflower seeds...go ahead, make its day, toss in a sliver of apple, and you have a devoted pet.

Green V-Neck said...

OR, you know, I could actually link what I intended from the first of now what are three posts. http://greenvneck.blogspot.com/2009/06/im-not-sure-how-but-kids-convinced-me.html I'm not even going to bother to hyperlink since, at this point, I'm obviously ill-equipped to deal with the interwebs in general. Mea culpa.

Grit said...

thank you gvn! this is brilliant!