Tinkerbell

All I wanted was a dog. Something warm & fuzzy. Something to sound the alarm on the nights the Dad isn’t home. What I got was a snail, the water kind, a fish, two cats and an opossum. Actually, we’ve had the snail since last summer when we got the snail after the disaster with the Dead Fish . Middle child wrangled the snail, happily named Gary after Gary the Snail in Spongebob, from a friend of eldest who had extra. I have no idea how one gets extra snails, I do know middle child has been fascinated by his snail since last August.

The kitty’s happened late last Thursday night. Girlfriend knew we were looking for a pet, me specifically a dog, and her sisters boyfriend mother had two kittens that needed a home. Next thing I know she’s called the sisters boyfriend and they are on their way to our house with Monkey and Dinghy. Poor kitties were just terrified to come to a house with all these wild children. The Dad was very mad. He didn’t want any pets, besides Gary, and grumbled and looked mean the whole time. Since then he’s checked on the kitties every day upon coming home and he’s coaxed Dinghy into his “hobby” room more than once. Tough guy.

Of course with kitties come responsibilities and Friday after school was spent at PetSmart. We left PetSmart with food, litter, litter-scooper, toys and a fish. Squareboy had to have a fish and fell in love with “Comet” on the spot. What the heck, I figured, Comet can share the bowl with Gary and he was only $.19 with my handy-dandy PetSmart discount card. PetSmart loves me.

Then Monday, after days of rain, the kids were finally playing outside with the neighbor girls. In comes eldest, of all people; “Quick mom!” They’d found something. I walked out side to see six kids sadly staring at a naked little pinky. Six pairs of eyes turned to me. All six pairs begging me to save it. Now, if I’d found the poor little thing by myself I would’ve kindly disposed of it. But with six pairs of eyes on me, I had eldest wrap it up in fleece in a box and stuck it on the counter. Then with six pairs of eyes still watching I tried valiantly to feed it water from a rag soaked in water.

“What is that?” neighbor child #1 asked me.
“A opossum” I answered.
“Oh no! Possum’s get in the trash.” And as I later found out surfing the web on the care & feeding of orphaned opossum’s, usually people are trying to stop them from raiding their trash. Not trying to rescue them after they fall of the Mama’s back.

“Whatcha gonna call it?” neighbor child #2 asked me. “All things should have a name.” Before anyone could peep she continued “I know. Tinkerbell! Cause she’s tiny.” I was pretty sure the hairless rat thing was a boy, but Tinkerbell stuck.

On day two I successfully found Tinkerbell a home with a local wildlife rehabilitator. Unfortunately I also successfully got Tink to nurse from a lab pipette filled with kitten formula. The kids are busy being very, very mad at me that Tink had to go.