Perhaps a Pet...

Up til now, I have been priding myself on almost being pet-free...Just one crabby cat, about 13 years old or so, and we're done. Which is weird for me because I've always loved dogs, cats, reptiles, various rodents, etc. And I still do love them. Just not at my house. It's been nice going places without wondering if the dog chewed, peed, or pooped on my stuff. We wonder about the cat when we leave home for more than a day. Fortunately, she seems mostly okay with caring for herself when we're out of town, as long as we leave the bag of food open and available and two litter boxes. So we've been blissfully mostly pet-free for some time now.

This week, Archie and our next door neighbour found an inch worm. Unfortunately for the inch worm, he was the object of much affection for an entire afternoon. In the evening, "Mr. Inchy Worm Dutton" was placed in a match box for the night along with some leaves for his dinner. When Archie woke up the next morning, he arrived downstairs with Mr. Inchy on his finger. Mr. Inchy wasn't moving around. Archie told me Mr. Inchy was still sleeping because it was too early. He was clearly *not* sleeping. I told him that perhaps he should take Mr. Inchy outside because he looked like he might not feel very well. I was secretly hoping that he would be dropped in the grass and forever lost rather than my having to explain the inevitability of death and the circle of life even before breakfast. It didn't take long...I heard crying outside. I called for Archie, thinking that he must've figured out that Mr. Inchy was a dead worm. But instead, like I had foolishly hoped for, he had dropped Mr. Inchy, never to be found again.

Archie cried for almost a whole hour straight about losing his pet. His very first and only pet. We sat on the couch and cuddled and talked about it. Ultimately, Archie decided he really, really wanted a pet. At first he asked for a dog. I told him we were getting a baby instead. Then he wanted a rabbit. I talked him down to a hamster. When we travel, at least a hamster could potentially go with us without being noticed. I used to sneak my hamster with me to church when I was little. Isn't that a great use for a purse??? It's the only good use for a purse, in my opinion.

So after a chat with Daddy about getting a pet, the responsibility of a pet, etc., it looks as though we will probably be adding a rodent to the family after we get back from our Appalachian Trail hike in a couple of weeks.

In other news, our neighbours asked if we wanted to go in halvsies on a construction dumpster to put between our houses for a week. They're doing some remodeling, we're doing some remodeling...it was a great idea! So on Monday, the dumpster arrived. I couldn't really put our stuff in there til Phillip came home, so today we got busy and tossed, tossed, tossed! It was fantastic! Even if we don't get further on the plaster stuff, the release from our clutter was well worth the price of the rental! I'm pretty tired tonight with all the lifting, carrying and heaving we did today, but it's a good tired. We got a lot done. Tomorrow we knock out yet another wall.

Archie has been attending snack time at the recreational centre located two blocks from home. They do an after school program and the snack time is open to the community. So the past two weeks we have been going for about an hour and a half every day for snacks and playtime with the other children. It's working out great! Archie looks forward to it every day and it's nice almost break time for me, because I bring a book or magazine to read while he plays with the kids.

After snack time this evening, the rec centre was having a family night of games--Cornhole, which Archie refers to as "The Beanbag Game", crafts and stuff. Phillip and Archie attended and had lots of fun. I was having an emergency taco craving, so I missed it.

It's really nice living in the city and having all these resources within two or three blocks walking distance from home! Especially with gasoline becoming unaffordable. Of course, there are definitely drawbacks to city living, as we've experienced with neighbourhood hoodlum, enraged motorists, and noisy outdoor parties which took place last Saturday night and well into Sunday morning...but all in all I feel we're having such an interesting experience.

We were hoping for a nice night around our fire pit tonight, but it rained this evening. Maybe it'll be nicer tomorrow night. If so, I'll be sure to get some fire pit pictures posted.