The Pet Situation

As some of you may recall, several months ago we added a new family member in the person of a small betta fish named Bluetail. The kids really wanted a dog, but I figured that was something they probably ought to work up to from something smaller, so we ended up making a deal: if the kids could remember to feed the fish every day for two months, we would get a new, bigger pet. Well, after a few false starts, we're just a few days away from the landmark day of two months of perfect pet-keeping. Deciding on what the next pet will be has been quite a project in itself, we've made a few rounds to various pet stores and here are the lists that the kids came up with.



This first one was their first crack at it a few weeks ago, it features (for those having trouble reading the picture, man I love kid spelling):
GOLDFISH
HAMSTER
GUINEAPIGVPLL
CARNARY
eeL
TURTUL
FROQ
GUPPY
BLACKMOLLY
BUNNY.P

They put together the second list after spending half the day on Saturday visiting some more pet stores. For the picture reading impaired:
Mice.v
HAMsteR.v
TURtule.vLW
Rabits
Ginuqig
fi*sh
blakmoley
GuPey
Goldfir*sh
eel
Grble
rat
Lisrd
S*naKe
Chranchla
PiG
Knarey
Parakeyt

I'm quietly trying to steer them towards a nice, low-maintenance aquarium with a mess of little feeder fish and a swimming turtle, but I'm pretty much ok with any of the stuff on the list, except maybe the Chranchla (tarantula), since those can be poisonous and I don't think they'd be very good for a two-year-old. I'm also trying to play down the small, quick things that can escape from stubby pet owners that have the reflexes of a three toed sloth on valium, but I figure we can have those as long as we set up a child proof cage so they can't let 'em out without adult supervision.