Because I'm Not Brave Like Baloney...

Maren wanted some sort of rodent like creature for her birthday.  Or a fish.  Like, the real things.  We have a dog and I feel that is sufficient in meeting the domestic animal quota.  I don't DO rodents.  Fish? Well, fish are pretty harmless, but are they worth the effort?  Then they die and then you flush. 

Maybe I have been damaged in my youth.  My mom did let us have hamsters, gerbils, and we did have a couple fish, one of which we believe was eaten alive by my cousin Randy. We also had any sort of abandoned animal on our farm place - little runt pigs and calves that needed to be bottle fed - cats, dogs, even a baby doe Dad rescued out of the field one spring.  And then there were the lambs, Sparkle and Jewel, that mom brought home from the salebarn where she ran the lunch counter.  Nobody wanted them and they were so pathetic - so we actually housed them in our basement for a month or so. Ewww. (or should I say ewe - HA)

Inevitably with all those animals - there were deaths.  We had a two rows of honeysuckle bushes in the middle of which was our own little Pet Cemetary.  Stephen King had nothing on us.

But mice, mice I can no longer tolerate, unlike Baloney who is truly a great mom.  So we caved to the annoying kid-targeted marketing and bought Maren the start of the endless Zhu-Zhu Pet dynasty.  Gotta admit they are sort of cute.

They are acutally a bit too life like at times.  They scurry like mice.  Especially on  the hardwoods. And they make mice-like sounds.  Except when it crows like a rooster.  I have no idea why.

So I can do zhu-zhu.  Although I have done my share of double takes as it scurries across our floor.  Maren is quite pleased too.  She has made a nice little home for her in her bedside table;  ripped up paper towels, water bowl, pet rock, exercise wheel.  Miss Zhu-Zhu's got it made.

 What kills me is the shish kebab skewer locking the doors.  That's my girl.