One of the perks of living out in the country is the abundance of wildlife in the vicinity.
Er, well, most of the time, that is.
The skunk that found its way underneath our house and proceeded to spray all the scent it harbored in its little body out into the air (and thus into the drafty old farmhouse) was not a perk. We all stunk. For a couple days.
We’ve had a really wet summer this year, which is pretty unusual. Thanks to all the rain, our 8.2 acres is swarming with toads, Logan’s new favorite toy. Every day, he catches one or two of them. He names them (usually “Tyler”), plays with them, lets them swim in a “swimming pool” (a little thermos), and, at the end of the day, he lets them go.
Rachel, my animal lover, convinced him that he needs to do this in order to “preserve the toad population.” She told him that if he plays with them too much, they’ll die and that by letting them go each day, he’s making sure they live and reproduce. I’m not sure why she’s so worried about the toad population when it’s hard to walk across the yard without stepping on one these days. I doubt we’re on the verge of toad extinction.
The newest “pet” is a mouse that Rachel took away from our dog, Remy. Evidently he caught it and was about to maul it when Rachel rescued the poor thing. Of course, the kids all thought they should be able to bring it in the house. Ha. Yeah, sure.
For now, its home is outside, complete with an old sock for bedding. “Squeak” is getting the royal treatment — leftover bits of macaroni and cheese, relocation from a gallon pail to a huge water tank so he has plenty of room to play, plus frequent daily visits from the kids.
Today they wanted to clean out our horse Tex’s old water tank before they put Squeak in it. Cody came in, at Rachel’s direction, to fetch her a sponge to clean the tank. When I explained that mice are dirty and the tank doesn’t need to be cleaned, Cody said, “But Mom, Tex DRANK out of that!”
Have your kids had, wanted or rescued any unusual pets?
You’re so lucky to live in the country! Too cute about your little animal lover.
We live near a park in Tokyo, and there’s a pond with lots of things like crayfish and tiny shrimp. So my children have brought those home on occasion. They’ve also raised tadpoles, but we’ve found, to our sadness, that they don’t usually thrive in our house, so now the children know to leave them where they’ve found them.
I guess our most unusual pet was probably 2 stag beetles! (These are commonly raised in Japan by children during the summer). That was an interesting experience.