Sweet Scents Of Summer*

Are Not That Far Away.

Tomorrow it is done. The semester. I know school posts are beyond boring, so that is all I am going to say. Otherwise, I am just looking forward to summer. With all of this springy weather we've had lately I just cannot get enough of being outside.

This is the year. We will get this yard in some sort of shape. Planted, all right, threw down some grass seed, fertilizer, and some little baby grass is finally starting to grow. It is exciting, to me at least, everyone else seems very unenthusiastic about the thing. Oh well, they'll see. I have a vision. I have a plan.

We have a new member in our rapidly growing animal family. Now, I say it all the time, "if I bring another pet home, I am absolutely positive my husband will divorce me." It is enough that the man tolerates the lazy dogs, and the overly affectionate cats, I know that he has a limit. Two dogs, and 3 cats, anything else is just asking too much. But this time, HE brought the animal home. It wasn't my fault.

It all started when the hamster fell victim to an unfortunate ball accident. No, the thing didn't fall down the stairs. Actually, it was in its ball, and my daughter and her friend were cleaning the cage, and decorating her room, they decided to put the little guy in the ball and let it run around the downstairs, I said, downstairs, not down the stairs. I see they were thinking of the hamster's safety by putting it downstairs so it could not fall down. They forgot just one little detail, the dogs.

This might be news to some people, but dogs like to chase balls, they especially find clear plastic balls with furry critters inside all the more exciting to go after. Well, somehow they got the poor thing out of the ball, which led to numerous phone calls from two twelve year old girls who were darn near tramatized by the resulting how can I say this, carnage. It was too much.

Of course I was at work, and being in a non-cubicle profession was unavailable by phone. My friend, the mother of one of the girls had to handle it all from her workplace. My sister had to pick up my daughter, and my friend's dad picked up her daughter, and each were then sufficiently comforted by loving grandparents.

When I went on my lunch break, I checked my cell phone to make sure everything was all right with the girls at home. I had 5 voicemails, and a frantic text message from my sister, saying I "need to call home NOW." That freaked me out really bad, then I started wondering what the voicemails were about, and was quite alarmed. I have terrible reception at work. Luckily, the next text I read was from my friend, "you daughter is extremely upset and crying, Hamster is dead." And that was it. I gathered from those two text messages what was going on.

I got outside and finally got a signal and started calling people and listening to the messages, and most of them were of my daughter hysterically recapping the whole entire thing. Well, in between leaving me 5 voicemails, she also managed to call her daddy's phone and leave him equally heart wrenching messages as well.

I got a hold of my sister who told me everything was fine, and basically that the dog thought he was taking a bite out of crime, and that the little furry friend did not survive. I met up with them at my parents house after work, and over dinner with my folks was given the whole story. I asked, "where is the body?" My sister declared, almost defensively, "well, I wasn't going to bury it, that's a parents job"

"That's fine, but where is it?" I asked. "It is at your house in the garage in a chicken mc nugget box." She informed me. "Great." I said, "Well, I don't know what to do with it, I guess I will flush it down the toilet." Which appalled my father and he said, "NO! Don't do that, it will clog up your plumbing, just throw it in the trash." Apparently he has not seen the movie Flushed Away, although I wanted to blurt out, "Oh come on dad, it is no bigger than your average turd." But I decided against that because it was dinner time after all, and that would have made my mom really annoyed.

Anyway, I wish I could say we disposed of it with dignity, but I figure if you can throw a chicken bone away, then it must be all right to send the hamster out that way. I really did feel bad for the poor little thing. But not as bad as my husband did from all those miles away. He was so upset about her little pet dying that he vowed to get her another pet. Which I secretly questioned the wisdom of, but he insisted if she wanted something he would get her something else.

And that is how we got the chinchilla. I guarantee nothing is going to happen to that guy. My daughter is a zealot about keeping her door closed and all animals out of her room. She even has a gate up in front of her closed door. That's just the way it is. It is a delightful little creature. We are enjoying it very much. Hubby spared no expense and instead of the condo set up, opted for the New York penthouse with a view. The critter is way more high maintenance than a hamster, but it is so much fun.

All right I am off to bed. Should have been a long time ago.