Future pet? Au contraire mon frere...

It began with a "promise" made 2 years ago by Walderi. One lovely spring day, while strolling through Breakheart, a 3 year old Mateus was enthralled by all the dogs being walked. "Can we getta dog, pweeeeze?" was the question. "When you are 5" was the answer. Normally, I give Walderi a dirty look when he makes promises he's not certain he can keep, however, seeing as this particular promise allowed Mateus 2 years to forget about it, I figured no harm done. Well we are on the brink of the big #5 and that blessed day is as clear in his mind as ever. So, in desperation, we have been attempting to turn him on to other animals. "How about a fish?", "No, I like dogs better". "Turtles are really cool", "dogs are cooler".

Then came that fateful day in Mateus' beloved  science class. He takes this class once a week at the Y and I'm always so impressed with the activities Miss Nancy puts together for them. Nature walks, volcanic eruptions (courtesy of baking soda and vinegar), bartering for shells and using them to make wampum necklaces, and then, finally, the day of live animal encounters.... Enter: the Boa. It was love at first squeeze.

At first I considered this option. Snakes are clean, quiet, and that particular Boa and Mateus really seemed to hit it off. Then I pictured the cons. Perhaps it escapes from its cage at night and decides it wants to snuggle with me. I do like snakes, but for some reason, only during daylight hours. Or worse. Say I forget to feed it and I find it with a satisfied grin on it's face and a Bianca sized lump in it's tummy. 

So we're back to the drawing board. Is a dog in our future? I have a few more months to encourage him to fall in love with hermit crabs.