Pets.....How did this happen!???

5 kids - 5 pets!

Check out the fingernails!

Daisy on Christmas Day - 4 weeks old.

I never considered myself to be a pet Mom, but apparently that's what I have become.

Santa brought Turbo the tortoise a few years ago, so all I can blame for that one is....Santa. Then came the bunnies. Brian & I were in charge of our school's Carnival's silent auction & we came up with the bright idea to donate a live bunny (it was last Spring). So I went & bought an all-white bunny the day before the Carnival. We had it less than 24 hours, yet Jake (my sensitive animal-lover) got SO attached to it he was traumatized by the thought of Petey going home with someone else. At the auction he tearfully kept guard over the bid sheet, trying to talk people out of bidding on it...the whole night!! WHAT ELSE COULD I DO? I had to re-buy the flipping bunny for $70!! Yet, the joy on that boy's face was so worth it when he realized we were taking it home.

A few months later we inherited another white bunny by mistaken identity (Brian caught someone's that had escaped & thought it was ours). But sadly, Petey "ran away" a few months ago, but we still have Snowball. And I must admit, I really like him.

Then, last summer, the boys come running in the house(dripping, of course), holding a half-drowned yellow parakeet that had apparently flown into the pool & they rescued it. I TRIED to find a home for him, but no takers. So, $80 of bird stuff later, we add Flo the parakeet to our list of pets. I was not a fan. Flo would always squawk alot right during naptime. Recently, Flo mysteriously "flew away". As you can see, my Pet Reduction Plan is underway.

Soon after Flo came to live with us, Max comes through the front door holding a little tan & white furball - a hamster. He said his friend's mom said we could have her. THANKS!! So back to Petco! This hamster has had hundreds of names, but Hammy has stuck. Hammy has a talent for escaping every cage we've put her in. And once she's out, she has no problem jumping off high countertops. She'll gnaw through a load of duct tape in one night, even bungee cords!! She figures out how to get the cage doors open. IT'S CRAZY! She has a serious need to be free. We should call her Houdini the Hamster! But she's cute and furry and we all like her...when we can find her.

So last but not least is Daisy, our beagle puppy. And I take full responsibility for this one, well, let's call it temporary insanity.

Our kids have always BEGGED for a dog - a REAL one, not a stuffed one. I honestly thought for a while that I would be depriving my children of a fulfilling childhood if they did not grow up with a dog. Last December, I was getting Christmas all wrapped up when I became OBSESSED with this vision of the kids on Christmas morning opening a beautifully wrapped box to find what they've always wished for - a puppy! I couldn't get it out of my head! I wouldn't even listen to all the puppy horror stories I heard, because it would be DIFFERENT with us! And puppies are sooo cute!! Like I said, temporary insanity.

So, I got ahold of a local beagle breeder & made it happen. Beautifully-wrapped GOLDEN box and everything! And it was an exciting, wonderful Christmas morning.

Fast-forward 6 months - Daisy is banished to the backyard most of the time because we CAN NOT get her to stop chewing everything (Couches, toys, tables, underwear!), and when the drips turn on in the backyard, it looks like a water show because she chews holes in all the drip lines! I'm buying replacement drip heads in bulk!! I just asked Zane to take Daisy on a little walk & he collapsed on the floor in whining protest! This was not part of my blissful vision!!

BUT, the kids do love her, and love teaching her tricks. They try to teach her how to swim & she HATES it. When they come out to swim, she cowers in the far corner of the yard. Poor thing!



I wanted to get a picture of the kids with all the pets before one of them "ran away" or something. It was THE HARDEST photoshoot I've ever done!!

It's never easy getting 5 kids to cooperate, but adding in these animals....it got CRAZY!

We soon found out we couldn't put the dog by the bird or the hamster or she would try to eat them. The bird would try to fly away. The bunny would scratch up whoever was trying to hold him. And the tortoise would immediately walk away from wherever we put him, and then took a huge dump in the middle of everybody!!



.......something about a fulfilling childhood....LOL!!!