Animal Wars

It came out of nowhere...but at our house we have been in the heat of an animal dispute for two days now. Our 10 year old has decided she cannot live without....*drum roll*....a guinea pig. Nonchalantly, she mentioned two days ago that she would be interested in having said rodent. I diffused the situation pretty quickly with a pretty solid answer of no, supplied with the various reasons why...you are gone at your mom's every other weekend, Daddy works late 3 days a week, you never spend time in your room, and of course the most obvious reason, they smell bad, and we have enough stinky things in our house: the kitty litter, diaper genie and the lingering memory of a small black and white dog named Lilly that used our upstairs as her own backyard on several occasions. Not knowing what was to come, I was pretty certain that that brief discussion would be the end of it.

Fastforward one day. Overnight, the desire for this creature has doubled, tripled, quadrupled!! Pouting. Sulking. Research with classmates about how GREAT life would BE! If ONLY she owned one has occurred...what was I thinking! Amateur! We are not done with this yet.

I think I need to back up and explain first that Audrey is the greatest lover of animals that I have ever encountered in my entire life. This is not the typical love of kittens and puppies that most children display. No, this is animal LOVE. I mean, she REALLY HEARTS animals. ANY kind of animal. She currently has a pet snake and Lilly dog living at her Nana and Pappa's. She wanted a rat for Christmas and got it, two years ago. She shows pigs in the 4-H fair every summer. And just the other night when we were giving baby goose her bath, she picked up one of her new squirty bath toys and said, "Oh look, a sand ray!" Huh? a what? But I don't doubt at all that this is the actual name of that thing and I'm certain that sand rays exist. She watches Animal Planet constantly. Basically, Audrey is earthy and like a beatiful little hippie. That's what I named her when I came into this family...I thinkI just assumed that all little girls are obsessed with Bratz dolls and pink and purple, and that is just not the case here.

So back to the animal war. I don't know if this is good parenting at all, but I think we are going to compromise with getting a new kitten. I mean, we have Gracie cat at our house, but let's be honest - when you date someone and you are almost 30 years old and he's lived with someone for 7 years before you, I've just never really felt the love with that cat. I mean, I feed her and all - you could say she has "food, water and toilet" (a little Meet the Parents referance - that's for you sis) so she doesn't go without. But...let's just say I'm not exactly curled up by the fire with her, stroking her fur and listening to her pur, either.

So operation KITTEN may go down this Saturday. It's an off weekend with nothing big planned for the girls. With the holidays approaching, I have visions of long evenings by the fire, the snow falling and baby kitten sitting in my lap, purring contently. Plus, I want Lauren to grow up with a pet that we got as a family when she was young. We have been working on "petting nice" with Gracie. Every time she sees her she kicks her feet in excitement, and tries to get to her as quickly as she can. She looks at me, and then rakes her little hands quickly through her fur while I supervise and Gracie scowls. Sorry Gracie.

We'll see. Mr. Awesome has not approved this mission. Will report back with the final decision soon...

Love, V :)