All in a Mommy's Day's Work

Last Saturday I took my oldest girls shopping for the entire afternoon. Later, Kylie even told me it was one of the best times she's ever had. We certainly did have a wonderful time!

Nearing the end of our excursion, we stopped by a large display in the mall where a couple of people were displaying, describing and selling "Pocket Pets". They're actually a small marsupial called a sugar bear or sugar glider. Kendra was immediately smitten. She spent the evening and following day reading up on this "sweet" new pet and decided that she really wanted one. Since she solicited my advice, I told her I was going to save her from herself by requiring her to submit to a waiting period and either getting rid of her two rats or waiting until they die.

In the end, the waiting period is still on-going, but the whole occasion did spur Kendra to do something about the rats. These weren't just any rats, these were PEW* rats (*pink-eyed white) and neutered males to boot (Does the question of "who would neuter a rat??" come to mind - uh, huh, me too.) AND, they were obtained from a small-animal rescue in Maryland. The "rat lady", as I affectionately refer to her, drove all the way here nearly a year ago to drop them off to Kendra with the agreement that they come back to her if Kendra ever changed her mind.

Fast-forward a few days and my usually, mostly-free Friday became the only convenient day for the "rat lady" to meet me half-way to pick up the little darlings. Unfortunately, unrecognized by any of us here, the little darlings were not in very good health anyway. Seems I could've saved myself the trip and let "nature" take it's course.

Three hours round-trip later, I was greeted at the door by Kendra's real love - Bailey, the SPCA-adopted Cocker Spaniel-German Shepherd-Border Collie. I no sooner turned around to set the mail down when I heard a sound like Bailey smacking her lips. Turning back towards the door, I realized Bailey had just thrown-up a couple feet from where I was standing. Nice.

Now, I'm not much of a dog person, so I'm not fluent in "dog", but I'd swear she seemed to be saying, "Welcome Home, Grandma! Thanks so much for running that extraordinary errand for Kendra. Oh, and by the way, Kendra's not here to clean this up, so could you do it (before I'm tempted to lick it up myself)??"

Sure, dog. No problem. Rat delivery, dog vomit clean-up....all in a mommy's day's work. Apparently.