Family Pets

[Julie Cole]

The picture you see is of my beautiful nephew Emmett with his dog, Magnum. A picture of our family pet does not exist because we do not have, nor will we ever get a furry friend. My kiddos often complain about how difficult it is having a mean mama. I like to remind them that they may luck out in their next lives, but for now they are stuck with me.

Nagging for a pet is a hobby for my kids. Last summer I compromised and told them they could have fish, but not the pet store kind. You see, there are these nuisance fish called globbies that hang out in Lake Ontario and eat the eggs of native fish. When you pull a globbie out of the lake you are not supposed to put it back in, so they generally become lunch for the nuisance seagulls.

When fishing at the lake last summer, I let my kids put a few globbies in a bucket and bring them home. Generous, I know. We made a nice fish habitat in a big plastic container in the backyard. The excitement ended in disappointment the next morning when we discovered the local raccoons had a feeding frenzy on our pets - fish heads and guts scattered around the backyard. “Never mind” said I and back to the shores of Lake Ontario we went. We were determined to beat the raccoons at their own game. The next morning we were delighted to see that our pets survived the night. Things went pear-shaped later in the day when we went to check on our fish and they were all belly-up. Clearly, we are not a family well suited for pets.

The recent birth of Finian caused my sister to get a bit clucky. Her kids are now ten-years-old and six-years-old so she was not really thinking another baby at this point in the game. But, she was clucky enough that her kids were able to successfully talk her into a puppy. In comparing our baby and puppy stories, my sister and I have discovered is that we are going through remarkably similar experiences - except that her puppy is more work than my baby. Puppies don’t wear diapers and when they have ‘medical’ appointments, they are not covered by Medicare or any benefits plan.

Since playing with their cousins’ puppy, the nagging for a pet has started up again around here. I keep reminding them that we have wee baby Fin, to which they respond “but he’s a baby not a dog!!” Hmmm, can’t outsmart my clever kids.

I get that pets are good for kids – teaching them about responsibility, life cycles and all that good stuff. My feeling is that as long as I’m cleaning up human poop I’m steering clear of animal poop. Besides, spring is here so we can head back down to the lake for some more pets. Who knows – maybe we’ll be able to keep them alive for a full 24 hours this summer!