Flipper got a new frog last week, to go along with the Cuban Tree Frog he already had. This one was about the size of a nickel. The guy at the pet store said that the larger frog wouldn't bother the smaller one. The larger frog, though, begged to differ. He looked at the smaller frog and thought "Fun-sized".

Flipper was sad and angry. I sympathized. I had hamsters when I was his age. The hamsters had a litter. I made the mistake of handling the babies. I didn't know that that was ill-advised. The mother ate the babies. She died as a result. I threw her corpse in the lake and tossed rocks at it.

Flipper is over his anger. But not by much.

Flipper's younger brother, henceforth referred to as Chili, has been asking for a per of his own. Though he's not nearly as persistent (or needy) as his brother. I took his casual approach to mean that this wasn't something that he felt strongly about, until he gave me a copy of his "Persuasive Essay" from school (he's in the third grade).



Ouch. He gets lost in the shuffle sometimes. Middle kid. And it's clear that he feels it. He loves his brother, and I don't think he's jealous. He just hurts for that kind of attention. We'll read up on the fire-bellied newts. We already have birds, fish and frogs. Looks like we're headed for a newt, too.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 03, 2006 at 10:54 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.