The family pet and silly putty - yes, you heard me right.

The clues were subtle but I should have seen it coming. I was folding up the blanket that lives on the back of the couch when I first saw it. Let me preface this by saying this particular blanket had the pieces crocheted by my great-grandmother, was given to me by my great-aunt, and I stitched them together to form the blanket we now have. So I saw this spot on it and, upon further notice, found a hardened mass that resembled left over silly putty. Of course, no one took ownership. “What?” “What are you talking about – I don’t have silly putty!” Really, what was that you were just playing with?

Fast forward to today. Middle child Simon is at camp and oldest child Christopher and youngest child Alexander were at the in-laws for a sleep over. Hubby Shelby was mowing and I had an extremely rare moment to myself. I was on the computer when I hear a knock on the door. I leaned over to see who was behind the glass only to see Shelby hunched over holding some black mass in his hands. As I ran to the door, thinking he’d run over something with the lawnmower, I realized he had our cat, Horace, in his hands. I knew he didn’t like him but I really didn’t think he’d chopped him up or anything, but still… As I opened then door, he explained that the neighbors stopped him when they saw this blue mass stuck to his side and were concerned. By the way, one of Simon’s Mario Bros. characters was also embedded within the goo. Oh, goodie, at least we’ve now located Luigi.

So what was I to do? I put out the fervent plea on Facebook to find out how to remove silly putty from a cat’s fur. That right there should have put a few people into hysterics. A number of concerned friends put forth their suggestions but in the end I followed the cat around the house snipping, bit by bit, until I cut out this funky blue goo. Of course, my husband found this entirely too funny regarding the shaving of my “cat” – in his world he substituted the word cat for a synonym starting with the letter “p.” I told him this would result in sudden death if that particular line ended up on Facebook.

But it started me thinking about the “family” pet. We’ve had a few. When Shelby and I first got married, he had an Australian Shepard from a previous relationship. We added a Labrador to the mix who we lost to cancer. The children rallied to get another dog and we adopted yet another Lab. To that we added fish and a hermit crab all amid the cries of “Please, Mommy! I promise I’ll take care of it!” We picked up a few cats along the way, here and in New Orleans, which have all come and gone. Our most recent addition is a grey gerbil. Christopher wants a snake but I’m not too sure how that will work out with the gerbil. They fight enough as it is so I don’t really think I want to throw the “your-snake-ate-my-gerbil” argument into the mix!

Experts tell us that the best way for children to learn responsibility is to have a pet. I think they are full of poo. Let’s face it, anyone who has ever had a child who has had a pet knows, that pet does NOT belong to the child. That pet is the sole responsibility of the parent. But here’s the secret: I kind of like being the only one the gerbil will come to. I like that the fish climb to the top of the tank when I walk into the room. I like the way the cat sleeps on my bed during the winter for a few hours before Shelby comes to bed. These small beings love me because I give them the creature comforts. Not because I buy them the latest Lego sets or provide them with money for iTunes. They like me for me. They don’t care if I really should start South Beach on Monday or that I’m wearing last year’s shoes. In the quiet moments I have with all of these animals, I feel special. I am appreciated. Hey, I don’t know about you, but I’ll take it where I can get it!

On another note, oldest child Christopher walked by this evening and thanked me for feeding his fish. He also said that he thought middle child Simon was “probably thankful for me feeding his gerbil.” Maybe they do notice after all!