|
Mommy Talk
Marci Laehr Tenuta: Welcome home Gregory
Posted by:
Janine Anderson on
August 1, 2009 at
7:54PM CST
It’s official. On my son’s sixth birthday, the number of pets in my house became equal to the number of people. As of July 24, the Tenuta household contains a mom, a dad, two boys, a girl, a cat, three goldfish, and a gecko. The newest addition to our family is the gecko. His name is Gregory, and we adopted him for our middle child as a birthday gift. (The name was inherited.) Gregory is a new experience for us, and most specifically for my animal- reptile- fish- bird- and insect-loving 6-year-old. I grew up with dogs. My husband grew up with parents who believed animals belonged outside in the wild. When he and his brothers asked for a dog, they got a ceramic statue of a German Shepherd. It took a lot of convincing to get my husband to agree to our first pet. We were given our cat Begonia the year after we were married; two years before we had our first child. She quickly became our baby. We were at a party once, talking about our cat when a friend of my sister-in-law’s pulled her aside and said, “They named their kid Begonia?!” Seriously. Begonia wasn’t so happy when we brought our oldest home. She ignored me for three days. When the kids began to walk and talk, she decided she disliked them even more, and began hissing and swatting at them. She still does it when they run by or irritate her. So my children have never had the experience of really caring for and playing with a pet. Begonia wouldn’t let them near her with a 10-foot-pole. Last July, my animal-crazy boy received two goldfish and an aquatic frog for his birthday from an indulgent uncle. My son was absolutely over the moon. The only problem was he kept trying to hold the frog. “He wants to play with me!” my then-5-year-old would insist, stomping his foot for effect, after we’d catch him trying to scoop the frog out of the fish tank. “He’ll die. He needs the water,” we would say. Our near-constant warnings did nothing to dissuade our adamant son. One morning he took Skipper the frog out of the tank and “played” with his pet. Then he set the frog on the bathroom counter. Later that day, after we had peeled what was left of Skipper from the counter, we had a flushing funeral. Both my sons sobbed. I’m hoping Gregory has a better experience in our home. So far, having him has been mostly positive. My son takes his gecko out to play every day — which I’m told this type of lizard likes. He also helps us feed and water Gregory. He is careful with him and shuts his bedroom door when the gecko is out of its tank, so Begonia doesn’t get it. The only downsides to our new reptilian friend thus far is his choice in food is pretty gross (crickets), and his poop. I won’t go into details, but it’s kind of big and bird-poopish. But Gregory makes my son happy, so I’ll live with the eating of live crickets and ugly gecko poop. I just hope my kid doesn’t plan to advance to snakes anytime soon. That’s one aquarium I would NOT be cleaning.
Send This | Categories: Mommy Talk by Marci
(8) Comments
|
About This Blog
Mommy Talk Blog
 0 rating(s)
Categories
Older Posts
Current Entries
November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007
Latest Entries
Loading...
 |
Leave a Message
Leave a Comment
Request a Friend
