East of the Sun, West of the Moon

This was the part of kids-having-pets I was least looking forward to, so to speak.

Tonight around 9pm N‘s pet rat died. She had not touched any of this morning’s food and was moving unusually little all day. We had assured the boys that if she had not improved any by morning we would take her to the vet and find out what’s up, but now that won’t be necessary anymore, unfortunately.

It was N‘s first pet, so he’s not taking it so well. Sure, other pets have died but those belonged to grandparents (for instance) and that’s not quite the same. Hopefully he’ll feel a little better in the morning.

It’s a pity, but Overheard In New York is actually too noisy. If for some reason I don’t get around to catching up on it for a few days, it’s like instantly there are 100 new entries and that becomes a bit overwhelming to wade through, unlike some of the other noisy news/topic feeds where I have absolutely no qualms to just hit command-K and move on, as a lot of what is said there will show up elsewhere or already has, by then.

I wish I had more time to read all of the entries in all of the feeds that interest me, but then I’d have to either sacrifice the time I want to dedicate to work (yeah, right) or need to dedicate to keeping this house and the people that live in it sane and a few other hobbies, like this blog, a few other websites, IgorMUD, and easily a dozen other projects.

It’s starting to look more and more like I’m a homemaker of sorts, but at the same time I have a full job and a guilty conscience everytime I walk away from the computer to do something around the house. I don’t want to quit either one of these things, though.

What to do, what to do?

When N (the oldest kid, now 9) got a pet-rat for his 8th birthday, I wasn’t exactly thrilled. Over time I’ve gotten used to the idea though, which is probably a good thing since I see more of the rat throughout the day than anyone else living in this house.

Of course, since N got a pet, A more or less expected to get one for his 8th birthday as well. Crossing out most other options for practical reasons (maintenance, allergies, all that sort of fun) we decided that a second rat would be the most likely option.

Now, ignoring that two days before his birthday a friend of the family more or less hijacked our gift-idea and we had to make a last minute run to the store to find him a suitable gift from us, that means that as of a few days ago we now have two rats in this household, and I can’t poison them!

Unfortunately it would appear that in his enthusiasm A has completely forgotten what he’s learned in the past yar and a half about the treatment (gentle, you know) of pets, especially ones that are much much smaller than himself, so we’re currently faced with hitting the brakes fairly hard to bring him back down to earth when he’s swinging them around or otherwise treating them like ordinary toys. Hopefully that’ll be sooner rather than later, or someone (him or one of the rats) is going to get hurt.

Here’s hoping…