Pets, Pets and more Pets

Lately we seem to somehow be accumulating more household pets.

It first started after that dreaded snake intruder.

Anden was SO bummed I wouldn't let him keep it for a pet

that I took him to the pet store the following day to pick out something else.

(that I approved of!!)

The kids were EXTRA creative with their naming skills that day.

Meet Alex and Princess Fishy

Then came along the poor little tail-less gecko.

Well I'm sad to report he didn't last long.

No, his death wasn't at the hands of pint size humans.

Unfortunately it was by me.

During our Fiesta party the kids apparently decided to renovate his home.

So they relocated him to temporary housing,

which just happened to be the same clear tupperware 

as all the others I was using for dinner.

After the party while I was cleaning up, 

the kids were frantically looking outside for the gecko.  

Then they remembered Sophie had him last.

So I texted Tracy to see where Sophie put the tupperware,

which again at this point I'm still looking for the BLUE tupperware

and didn't realize he had been relocated.

Tracy texts back, "Soph said she left it on the table in the kitchen".

Hhmm that's odd. Nothing's there.

So I send the kids off to bed and promise we'll find it tomorrow.

Later that night as Ryan and I were doing all the dishes,

he picks up one of many matching clear tupperware bowls and panics.

"OMG Katie that was the bowl the gecko was in!!"

I innocently mumbled, "Huh?!"

Then he explained that apparently he was the Head Contractor overseeing

the gecko home renovation and knew the kids had moved him.

Hhmm that would have been nice if I knew that bit of info too.

I was in Tasmanian Devil cleaning mode picking up everything in sight and

putting it in the proper location.

"Katie what did you do with the grass, etc (etc means alive gecko) inside this bowl?"

"Duh, I threw it in the garbage with the rest of the leftover food and trash."

And from there we attempted (ok actually Ryan did) to pick through

every last morsel of trash and rotten food in the garbage can

to find a millimeter size tail-less gecko.

Needless to say the odds were against us.

But to make us feel better,

we left the bag of trash outside on the lawn opened up

so Stubby could crawl out if he was still in there.

The next morning it was on me to explain to the kids what 

happened to their beloved pet of 5 days.

They were sad.

But luckily quickly forgot.

Well after we got home from the Water Park on Saturday,

Ryan came over to play.

The boys immediately decided they were going bug hunting again to replace Stubby.

It took about 7 minutes before their diligence paid off.

"Mommy look what we caught!!"

Um hello that is NOT a miniature gecko!

That is part Komodo Dragon!

They were SO excited!

They tried out a few buckets until they found the right home for it.

Then came the question,

"Well what do we feed him?"

Next thing I knew we had buckets walking up and down the street 

illegally checking every neighbor's water box meter to collect all the

cockroaches, grasshoppers, moths, ants we could find.

Disgusting to say the least.

Taylee and I just skipped up and down the street

while the boys focused on icky bugs.

But in the process they did manage to hit the jackpot

and found a replacement gecko!

Even one with a tail!

So we took all of our new found creatures back home and threw it in 

Komoda's (we're still finalizing the decision on his name) bucket.

Luckily he didn't devour the bugs in front of the kids,

Didn't want to have to explain that one too.

Then we found a new clear tupperware,

that everyone was aware of this time,

for the gecko's home.

Two days later the gecko escaped.

But the beast lizard is still there.

And we're still feeding it grasshoppers that Ryan collected at Circle K.

(I did inform him that people think he's nuts now for chasing down bugs in a public place!)

What ever happened to having normal pets??