gettting a pet

So Noah has earned a pet. He filled his gem jar to the top - holding back from cashing in on the treats and things he could have gotten on lower levels. Instead he held out for the big reward he had wanted so bad: a pet.

Now let us be clear, we set the bar pretty low for what a pet entailed. A goldfish is the ball park we were talking. As people who are busy, broke, and like to travel, a pet is an awfully big commitment, even after we have two kids. You're not going to take your chickens or cat to Europe for the summer.

We had no idea how low we had set the bar in Noah's mind until one day he and I were in the parking lot of the library on our way to the weekly Spanish story time and we found a black furry caterpillar crawling across the asphalt. "He can be our pet! Now we don't have to buy one!" was Noah's thrilled response.

How could I argue with that. And the caterpillar was unlikely to survive in the middle of the parking lot anyway, so we were sorta rescuing it, right?

Within hours he had a home in a plastic tub that once was home to fresh mozzarella balls. The earthworm that was living in there already got evicted. Somehow the earthworm never qualified as a pet, but the caterpillar did. The earthworms are up in arms (if they had any) over the discrimination.

That afternoon my Mom and I took the kids to a local winery that has a bottle your own wine day when you bring in empty wine bottles and they fill it and re-cork it for you. Noah had his caterpillar the entire time and by the end had shown every wine maker and person in the winery his new pet. I did not hear all the conversation for my mom and I were tasting wine and I was watching Hendrik stumble around the winery like a drunk. But I did hear the Wine maker ask Noah a question many adults ask this precocious youngster after they hear him talk: "How old are you?" When Noah said six the wine maker replied "The age I started drinking wine!"

Noah ended up with some corks to add to his caterpillar habitat which already had a variety of possible foods he might like.

There was also a glass blower next door and Noah had to watch him make glass, ask some questions about the process, and show off his pet.

That evening Noah wanted to read about pets. We had checked out some books from the library - intending to have them help guide and inform our choice of pets (I had not planned on finding a pet in the library parking lot). I guess going to get the books really did help us get a pet in a very direct way.

We had one book called Great Pets! It was a pretty comprehensive list of pets one could have and info about what it takes to keep each one. Noah got excited "let's look up caterpillar's!" I had to warn him that caterpillars may not be in it, but there I was, making adult assumptions.

My Mom said skeptically "lets look in the Index". At least she could teach him a new word she figured. Caterpillars, page 43. Turns out it is official: Caterpillars are great pets!

The caterpillar after a couple days was not moving. It was clearly barely alive. It may have been a bad wipeout on the finger skateboard which Noah had him riding. It could have been being shaken by a hyper six year old in a platic container with big ass corks. It could have been the toxic plastic it was housed in. Who knows, but the poor caterpillar was saved from the parking lot only to be given a slow death by six year old boy.

I was happy to use it as an excuse to make a new 'rule'. Wild animals are not meant to be pets. We can no longer catch animals for pets. Too bad the owners of Sea World did not learn this lesson when they were six!

Noah immediately got a piece of paper and drew a large picture of the caterpillar - even having me flip it over so he could see its legs when he was drawing that part. Then he named it Tim. He asked me how to spell 'Tim'. I told him he could figure it out and he did, writing it perfectly with a capital 'T' even. Then he added an 'e' to spell 'Time' - pronounce of course how it looks: Tim-E (Timmy). He later buried him in the yard and used a little rock for his head stone.


This was not Noah's first dead invertebrate buddy. He never seemed to be too bummed at their deaths. He wanted to keep the dead bugs, they were still good pets in his view. I had already limited his animal capture program to invertebrates. We have a ton of salamanders in our yard and I did not show them to Noah until he understood that they are not to be captured.


So we are back to a pet that we will not catch from the wild.

So what kind of pet to get? If anyone has any suggestions please write a comment below. A fish cannot be held or touched - which may prevent Noah from killing it. Fish often don't live very long. But if they die you are not too attached to them like you would be a cat lets say. Tortoises, mice, hermit crabs. We need a pet that is interesting but not too much of a commitment. Something that if it gets sick you would not spend thousands taking it to the vet.

Anke and Noah saw a super loving cat from the Humane Society. They almost got it. And hearing about it I almost thought they should have. The best excuse to dodge that responsibility is Hendrik is young and cats and babies are not always the best combo. Also we live on one of the busiest streets in Half Moon Bay, next to a stop sign people constantly blow through because they are so clueless they do not even see it. Having a cat get hit by a car would be a bit more traumatic than "Time" dying.