LM and Turtles and Bears, Oh My!

So let me give you some history here. LM has had a ton of pets. There was the lizard, the hermit crab, cricket, frog and fish. All of them had an unusually short life. All of them were very distressing deaths. The lizard dried up on its rock (nothing like coming home to an eyeless lizard!). The hermit crab was attacked by his sister's and killed in a grueling fight over a shell. The cricket, well it was a cricket, it wasn't supposed to live very long (in fact it was supposed to be some one's dinner). The frog was supposed to live for twenty years. It lived for three months and again dried up one day. I swear we do try really hard to take care of these poor little creatures. Finally LM came home from school one day and said he just had to have a pet. He was the only kid in his class from school that didn't have one. He saved up his money and went to buy a fish. A beta fish to be exact. They are supposed to live a long time. In fact Gem's is still alive and thriving. We came home on Monday night to see a dried up fish on the floor. Apparently it had jumped out of the bowl and died. LM broke down into tears, ran from the room exclaiming that he was cursed. I had to admit that I certainly was beginning to feel that way too. The next day I was talking to a couple of my friends about the early demise of Ice Serpent the fish. One of them turned to me and asked if I wanted a turtle. She had the tank, the food, the turtle and everything. I could come that day and get it for him. My first thought was how excited LM would be. My second thought was, what is the expected life span of a turtle. She said they had neglected it for years and it had managed to stay alive. That was a good sign. I agreed to the turtle with the condition that if it died an unexpectedly, she couldn't be mad at me. She agreed with a big sigh of relief and we set up the time for the trade. We surprised LM that night. He named her Lily, such a sweet little name, and has been loving her ever since. Here's to a long healthy life for our turtle.

As if that wasn't enough excitement for one week, LM also received his Bear award in cub scouts. He moved up to Weblos with much enthusiasm. I was the one pinned for helping him, when in actuality it is all do to his great dad. Congrats LM!