Pets

So far, we’ve managed to avoid the accumulation of any animals in our house other than Jack the Cat who resides with the in-laws back in Australia. He’s been there long enough now (since we extended the house) that its hard to even really think of him as our cat. As the children grow older though, there’s mounting pressure for us to get some thing for them to torture bestow their love upon other than their parents (let’s face it we’re sure to be well on our way down the ‘cool curve’ at this stage).

One of the good things about having moved overseas is the ability to use the excuse that we can’t have a pet because we won’t be able to take it back to Australia. Hell, we might be able, but if someone else isn’t going to foot the bill, I’m not forking out for furry removals!

Emily may very well melt at the sight of anything fuzzy and cute, but even that hasn’t managed to sway me thus far.

Things did get dangerously close though. A couple of weeks ago Michael and Sam went to a science camp (camp over here does not involve sleeping there) and amongst all that happened, there, came home deciding that they had found a pet that they wanted.

A snake. Of course, what else would it be? When they excitedly told me about it, I asked if they had asked their mother (knowing full well what to expect).

“Yeah and she didn’t say no!” came the excited response. Emily and Thomas had even been there when Caroline had gone to pick the boys up, so they’d seen the snakes as well. So the limiting factor quickly became the ability to import the little critter into Australia. Turns out that getting them in is about as easy as getting them out (though probably more legal if you actually do it right) so for now, we are continuing with our pet free journey.

Of course, I personally believe that we should get it and just let it free when we leave if we can’t find someone else that wants to take it off our hands ... its only a tiny little corn snake after all.