If you know me at all, you know that I am not a fan of pets. Oh sure, I love to see animals at the zoo or at an aquarium. Sometimes seeing animals in the wild is even a thrill for me. But pets are completely different animal entirely, (excuse the intended and really not-funny pun). Why on earth would I want to feed, care for, clean up after, and entertain yet another being? There are 5 beings in this house for which I already do that 24/7. That’s pretty much it. I don’t need another reason.
Well…over the last 16 years my very firm “No” to the question of “Can we get a pet?” has been worn down, but only a little. In May, when Elise’s 2nd grade classroom was hatching chicks, I said, “Yes” to the question, “Can we take a chick home?” I did, however, make very clear, that this was only a foster care situation. The chicks would be going to a permanent adoptive home after a few weeks. Lucky for Becca, the chicks got to come to our home on the very day that was PET DAY in 4th grade. This day is, in my opinion, really lame…everyone brings their pets to the playground all at once and all the dogs strain at their leashes to try to get loose and it’s pretty much a huge headache for all the adults while the kids run around to see all the animals. Nevertheless, once I had borrowed equipment from all my animal-loving friends, purchased pine shavings and chick feed, I picked up two chicks from Elise’s classroom and brought them to Pet Day. We lasted a full 10 minutes before the chicks looked so stressed and cold that I thought they might die right then, so I took them home.
When I finally got them home and into their large tub, this is what they did. I was nervous. I really didn’t think that they would survive.
But, chicks are apparently pretty hardy and they were just fine.
This is Brownie, who from day 1 has tried to get out of the tub. He (don’t know if it is a He…that’s just what we decided) loved to sit on Becca’s hand and then hop/fly down. Eventually he did manage to fly out of the tub, right through the one small hold in the gridded lid!
They loved and adored their chicks. The yellow one is Vanilla.
That is, they loved and adored their chicks for about 2 days. Then all of the “I promise we will do ALL the work for the chicks, Mom” went completely out the window. They still did a lot of it, don’t get me wrong, but they didn’t do it ALL. As the chicks grew and their feathers came in, they got a little fiesty and a lot louder, less cute, and messier. They liked to kick shavings into their water and poop in their food. Public Service Announcement: these things annoy little girls.
We had the chicks for almost 3 weeks and just yesterday they left to go to their permanent home…unless they are roosters (which I think they are) and then they will get sold at the auction barn. I don’t think anyone was sad to see them go.
Goodbye Brownie & Vanilla. Goodbye pine shavings being tracked into my house. Goodbye peeping that woke me up all the way from the garage. Enjoy your new home with The Friend of the Year.
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