Brunner Add-Ons

So, our hamster died. I am not sure what her name was because we never fully agreed upon a name. I like the ham- names that are more like puns such as canned ham..smoked ham..shaved ham. Meredith wanted to name her fluffles. So she ended up being called ‘the hamster’. She lived to escape. She escaped out of that cage more times than I can recall. She always went to the same part of our basement (yes she is in the basement, so the living area is not impacted at all by the little scoundrel) so she was easy-ish to retrieve. The cage is about 3 foot off the ground and so jury-rigged I am not sure how she keeps getting out, but I tell her each time that one of these days your last jump will be your last jump.

Sure enough, that jump was 2 weeks ago. Ham was found dead; peaceful but dead.

Upon discovering Ham, my husband asks me ‘can we take a break from pets for a while?’ I don’t bring home pets for me, I do that for the kids. I want them to experience things and I want them to develop a love for animals and a sense of responsibility for another being; an extension of our family which they can have complete responsibility for. So as you probably suspected or experienced, I always end up with the clean-up of the cages, regular feedings and water refills. I don’t mind because I know ‘I’ll take care of it’ always turns into another of mom’s many jobs (hence the blogs name!)……
I do have a point here, I promise. I want to emphasize that I was specifically asked to NOT bring more animals into the house. I will comply as asked.

So 2 days later, hubby and Jackson go to a friend’s house for a fish fry. I opted to not go and kept Meredith with me. I was a grumpy old cuss and I just wanted to spend some time in the kitchen making items to freeze for the next 2 weeks and teach Meredith some of the things I know about the kitchen. I get a text message from the hubby and it’s a picture of Jackson with this puppy. I’m like ‘aww..cute’ and as a joke I text back ‘I would like to hug him; can he live here!?’ thinking the response would look something like this ‘$%^&*&^%$^&*(‘. I get back a ‘Na’ reply which concerned me.

I don’t know my hubby to be a softy when it comes to animals but this reply was weird. So I am not sure how to respond because how do you communicate that you are standing in the kitchen up to your ear lobes in homemade noodles with a girl sporting an expression that pleads for the puppy coming home idea to be true. So I didn’t reply. 30 minutes later I get a call and I ask if he is bringing home the puppy and he says yes.

Holy Poo!!

Okay so I can’t bring home a caged rodent which I exclusively care for but he can bring home a barking, eating, pooping machine! WOW!! Strange turn of events. Meredith, needless to say was ecstatic. She let out a scream that would peel paint! I just could not wrap my head around this at all and then I saw the puppy.

Holy Poo!

Cute doesn’t even begin to describe this creature. He’s cute! He’s a beagle and weighs in at 3 pounds. CUTE!!! His favorite things are leaves, sticks and my feet.  His name is Opie.

Stay tuned as well tell tales of the new pooch.