guinea pig

Kudos and an Inkspot pen to both Andrea and Beckett for correctly guessing the last two Mystery Photos (Andrea guessed Graham, Beckett guess Reid). I'm especially impressed by Beckett's guess since she's never met my friend Reid! :-)

Spent most of yesterday in restaurants (morning) and coffeeshops (afternoon) working on the short story collab. The intense focus on the short story reminds me all over again of how much I love writing fiction. I enjoy writing nonfiction, but there's something about fiction writing that is so much more absorbing (for me, anyway).

I'm thinking about scaling back temporarily on my nonfiction to focus on getting my novel finished and out to my agent by the end of June. Unfortunately this would mean scaling back temporarily on income as well, but I would really, really like to have my book out circulating. Jeff's supportive of this, but I still want to think about it.





Looks like Sara and Annie are going to be getting a pet guinea pig! The whole family's doing a lot of research on the topic (as you can tell from today's photos). Sara was reading aloud to us from one of the books she borrowed from the library.

Jeff and I have agreed to take care of the guinea pig when my sister and her family go away for vacation. We're both a bit nervous about the possible risk, of course...the main concern being WHAT IF SOMETHING HAPPENS TO THE GUINEA PIG WHILE IT'S IN OUR CARE? Geez, I remember how traumatic it was when Sara's pet snail died.

I've pleaded with Ruth to make sure the girls pick a generic-looking guinea pig that would be easy to replace in a hurry (as I imagine Jeff and I driving frantically around Toronto hours before Sara and Annie come back from their vacation, combing the pet stores for a lookalike guinea pig), but she says she's leaving the choice entirely up to Sara and Annie.

Argh! Does she have to be so REASONABLE?





Today's Poll Question: What pets did you all have as kids?

Here are some of ours (the ones I remember, anyway):

ZEBRA FINCHES: Can't remember their names, sorry (Ruth would remember, I'm sure). Our pair ended breeding and having about half a dozen chicks. Pretty fascinating to watch the whole process (eggs, hatching, chicks growing up) though it sure made a mess. I remember we named one of them Spock. We ended up giving them away to our Avon lady.

HOUDINI: our gerbil. Can't remember what his original name was, but we renamed him Houdini because he kept escaping.

MARTHA: My pet hermit crab. The most boring pet I ever had. She/it was dead for a week and a half before I noticed. I kid you not.





TRUDI: Australian terrier, much beloved even though she did look a little bit like an oversized rat when we gave her a bath (hence the reference to her appearance in Reid & Luisa's song).

Ruth, Jim and I researched dogs for months because we knew our parents were resistant to the idea. We put together an impressive-looking (at least I remember it being impressive-looking) project. Dad and Mom said they didn't want a dog that was too big, too noisy, or too mean. So we spent a lot of time in the library doing research (the Web didn't exist back then :-)) and finally collated our findings, showing a comparison of different breeds for size and noise and temperament (supplemented with our own drawings and photocopies), concluding that the Australian Terrier was the best choice for our family. We begged and pleaded, promising to take care of the dog, to be responsible for cleaning up after it. My parents finally relented.

Despite all of our promises, my poor Mom ended up doing all the cleaning up after Trudi. I can't believe we did that to her. Funny thing is, Ruth, Jim and I were absolutely sincere when we swore up and down that we would be the ones to be cleaning up the yard. I feel bad about this now, obviously. And I did apologize to Mom, years later. She seemed to have a good sense of humour about it.





But partly because of this, Trudi became more of my mom's dog than anyone else, really. Which is why it was so hard when we finally had to put her down (the year after my mom died of cancer). I felt so sorry for the veterinarian who had to do it...Dad, Ruth, Jim and I all insisted on being there for the injection, and we were all bawling during the procedure. We were crying partly because of Trudi, but there was also a lot of leftover grief over Mom there as well.

The poor vet. :(

No cats for us...we were all pretty allergic. I still am. I also have a sneaking suspicious that Jeff and/or I are going to be allergic to Sara's and Annie's guinea pig, but taking an allergy pill now and again is a small price to pay for their pet-joy.

Speaking of which, I've had several people ask me what I meant when I said that no pets were allowed at my virtual birthday party. My answer? It was supposed to be a joke! Honest! I thought it would be funny to include that stipulation for a virtual party in our virtual apartment (no pets allowed in our real-life apartment...guess we'll have to just smuggle the guinea pig in somehow when we have to babysit it).

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Today's Blatherpics:

	One of Sara's and Annie's lists of potential names for their impending pet guinea pig (depending on whether it's a male or female).
	Sara researching guinea pigs.
	Annie researching guinea pigs.
	Ruth researching guinea pigs.
	Annie's drawing of a guinea pig.
	Annie and Sara and Jeff at bedtime.