Our new pets.

We enjoyed a brief stint with the kindergarten class hamster last summer. And that is about the extent of our experience with pets. That is, unless you count the children. I've cleaned up my fair share of poo and pee. And barf. We have wood gnawers, paper chewers, food-right-off-the-floor-eaters, middle-of-the-night-yelpers. Gosh, who needs a pet? I've got four of them.

Which is why, at least while the kids are young - a pet will never grace the halls of our home. Or backyard. And if you think I'm a hardliner, you should hear Tim's take on the whole idea. It's through the roof, I tell you.

My kids are well-informed of our stance on the pet issue. Hence, the unbridled excitement when we got these in the mail:


Yes, they're chrysalids right now. But, we got them as wee little caterpillars who ate, breathed, and excreted all in the same container for 7 days. We then carefully moved them to their new habitat and voila! Butterflies in another 7!

Wanna know the best part? (Well, besides the fact that there's no poop to clean up?) Within a week, we can set them free! Fly away butterfly, fly away!