Family Pets

The Sutherlands have officially taken in our first family pets. Wait for it.....that's right....an ant farm! The grandparents purchased the 9 x 5 inch habitat for Christmas, the ants cost $2 and came in the mail right to our door. These are my kind of pets---low maintenance--scratch that: no maintenance. Well, actually the little dudes do tip over their water thimble and I have to refill that at least once a week. Now, you're probably all saying--you live in Missoula, Montana--doesn't a dog come with the house? Yes, actually we are some of the only people we know without a large mammal in their backyard. And we're open to the idea of a dog (not a cat, never a cat) sometime in the future, just not now. I clean up way too much poop already to add someone else to the mix. I mean, it's not like the kids have been asking for a pet, in fact, they are a bit obsessed with insects--catching them, looking at them under the microscope...squishing them. They love big animals, but Bridger had a nasty reaction to a cat recently and we have plenty of friends with dogs and even goats and chickens for us to enjoy.

And even if they do want a larger pet down the line, the kids need to learn responsibility with something small. Couple more years of this and they can work themselves up to a Betafish.