• Sep. 17, 2007
A 4 year olds worst day...
Everyone knows about "Pickles"-our Praying Mantis. Well, a sad day came last week to my four year old. (owner of Pickles)
Pickles died. Not the usual dead-because-he-is-old-death. No, it was a terrible death, I am sure. Well, his immenent death came one morning last week when my son took him outside in the sun (in his cage) for a "the flies in his cage like the sun" tanning-like session. Yep, I am sure you know what happened next. Pickles was left out all afternoon. He was a culprit of the worst sun soaking experience a Praying Mantis could ever have. After my son discovered the stiff, innocent creature he went into red-eyed, crying hysterics. I can't say I kept a dry eye either. Pickles had been so adorable when he pounced on those unsuspecting flies and held them in his little paws..er...claws with his little mouth moving oh so rapidly. He always ate in a most genteel fashion. Never talking with food in his mouth and always cleaned himself so precisly after his delicacies. Well, I have to say that there was ONE day when he wasn't so polite. It was the time he caught a second fly in his mouth when he was still on his first fly. I would say that he had a good excuse though. I think he was overly hungry from not having had enough flies the day before. Anyway though, we loved him and my son adored him. I tried to come up with a very clever way of consoling him (my son) but had a hard time finding what to say in this situation. Every mother should always be on hand with beautiful, dry-up-the tears remark. The only thing I could think of was, "He died oh so cozy and warm".
The day didn't end there. No, being so sorry for my little boy who had just lost his only insect friend in the world, I decided to go the fish route. So my son dried his tears in delight of the thought of owning his own pet fish. (yes, even a PET FISH is a big deal in our house!) I tell people, I don't raise pets, I raise KIDS! :)
Anyway Walmart, here we come. I packed all five kids up and took them to the the fish department. It had a limited selection. All the 25 cent goldfish were missing-hence the empty aquarium.(DId they, the goldfish, have advance notice ahead of time, that the Praying Mantis killers were on their way to collecting their next victims?) We all gazed at the other fish and deciced that the least amount of time and money for a fish was best. After the kids looked in excitement at the all the fish as if they were at Seaworld, we saw the Beta fish. They each had about 2/3 of an inch of water in a tiny container. Yep, thats my style. We will take them. Low maintenance, low feed, low death. My son picked his fish. My second son also wanted a Beta. He wanted one that was the same color as the one on the fish food container. So here I am going through 20 containers of you-can't-see-the-color-of fish-because-the-water-is-blue. My daughter was starting to lose it at this point from waiting so long and started to pull up a smile-face sticker off the dirty Walmart floor. I hate dirty floors.We decide that we found the right fish and all are happy. Except for the fish in the bottom of the stroller who are swaying in very little water on our way through the store. Well, when all was said and done, the boys were very happy at the end of the day.Even our fish are VERY happy now with five inches of water EACH. What an upgrade!
The story doesn't end there. My mother calls and is excited to tell me she has a new pet for my son in replacement of Pickles. She brought back a lizard from the inside of a friend's home . He was on the stairs and the owners of the house gladly gave him to us! Now my son is blessed in a double way. A lizard, a fish or two, what more could a little boy want? Just today he caught (my son)seven flies in his bug-catcher all flying around at the same time in the catcher and deposited them into the lizards habitat. The last time I looked, the lizard,( "Sassy",) was was hiding in a corner with his nose against the plastic, hiding from the invasion of flies.
We are now a very happy family of 10. (seven humans, two fish and one lizzard)
My happy boy with his flies...
Our easy-keepers...
Comments
• Sep. 18, 2007
Untitled Comment
Posted by MiryClay
Oh, so sorry to hear about pickles. I'm glad that you were able to put such a cute happy face back on your son's face though. How precious! (Ewwww, a lizzard....shiver) I'd have books piled on the top of that cage. LOL
Blessings,
Lori
• Sep. 18, 2007
Sassy...
Posted by SuzyScribbles
Hey, I see Sassy is out of his corner and looking like he's made himself to home. If I may, let me add that you rejected the other pet I brought home--that gorgeous black and yellow garden spider. I blogged about it. I will send folks over here to see the lizard...
mom
• Sep. 18, 2007
Untitled Comment
Posted by Lyric
Poor Pickles. At least he died in the great outdoors in freedom.
I like the fish. Our fish tank is currently full of... pictures.
I'm glad we let your mom take the lizard and that it brought happiness to your family of 9... And Mom's screams when she found it on the stairs were hilarious.
• Sep. 18, 2007
Untitled Comment
Posted by socalval
Ah, I stumbled over here from Susan's blog to read about your praying mantis... such a good blow by blow about the days events! Congrats on the replacements. We have gone the same route as you with all those wonderful God created creatures. So fun. Feel free to come on by and say hello.
Valerie
• Sep. 21, 2007
Untitled Comment
Posted by bethanyrae
So sorry to hear about your Praying Mantis. He was a cool pet. We did that to a frog once. uh.
The lizard looks....uh, kinda cool. Hope you're ok with it!
bethanyrae
• Oct. 11, 2007
hy mom!
Posted by NathansAdventures
read my blog[it's me Nathan!] I wrote a awana subject, please?
