My Temporary Pet

 We're pet sitting for the holidays.  We have a tiny hamster named Peppy in our living room for the next three weeks.  The kids are overjoyed, although they've only seen her come out twice since she arrived.  I told Toby that it's a dwarf hamster, so it's smaller than other typical hamsters, that it doesn't eat very much, and usually will only come out at night.  So Toby's taken to calling it an elf hamster; he told his class all about her.

Yesterday we fed her lettuce, so she came out of hiding long enough to nibble some leaves.  The kids both said "We love lettuce too!"  Maybe this will be a good way to get them to eat salads.  I can't help but think of all the ways that a hamster can be a good tool for teaching lessons about things in their life.  See, kids, she eats her lettuce so you should eat your salad.  See, Norah, she goes potty in the sand box, so you should go potty in your potty.  OK, maybe using the hamster to get Norah interested in potty training is a bit far-fetched.

But I think that the kids are going to do a great job being responsible for this little pet, and thankfully so, because for the next 1/18th of her life she'll be spending it with us.  (They apparently only live about 18-24 months, so here's to hoping that it doesn't die of old age in our care, even though she's only 7 months old!)  However, I figure that 3 weeks is just long enough for them to be interested in the new pet without realizing that mommy's not going to get them one of their own--because guess who will be the one emptying the sand box?