Saying Goodbye

We came home from our lovely 4th of July vacation to a sad discovery- our hamster of almost 11 months had died. We had given him plenty of water and food (we'd left him this long before), so we're not really sure what happened. This hamster was a gift to Gavin for his birthday last August. Nobody asked for him, we weren't ready to care for a pet, but we did anyway. Gavin was less than thrilled with him at first, bu he grew on all of us. Lauri and Eli really loved him the most. Eli would just sit and watch him run around his cage shouting, "PeeWee! PeeWee!"

We weren't quite sure how the kids would take it, but we didn't want to postpone telling them. We told Gavin first. He burst into tears. He is our extreme emotional child. When we bought hermit crabs that bored the kids and only lived a month, he bawled for days. Everytime he'd pass the empty case int the garage, he'd start crying again. We told the girls and they took a little logner to come to tears, but soon we were all crying (save Eli and Brett).

We managed to cheer the kids up with ice cream.

They are now asking for new pets, but Brett and I have put a hold on any pet shopping until the end of the summer. Whatever we do get, IF we get something, will once again live in a cage/tank of some sort and not require too much effort. After the bawling fest on the couch that night, I have no desire to have another pet ever, but I'm sure I'll lose out in the end.