While the girls were young I simply did not have time to care for pets. Any pets. So the girls were forced to find their own "pets" to care for and love.
Kelsey was playing on the patio at our home in Oregon. I noticed she was very engrossed in something on her arm. I went over to the slider and asked her what she was doing. She stood, held her arm up for me to examine and said "Mommy, these are my new pets." Crawling around on her arm were about six Oregon black slugs. I tried to remain calm and gently removed the slugs from her tender pink arm.
I immediately stripped her on the back step and raced her into a warm, bubbly bath. Slug juice comes off readily and kids usually clean up nicely. I threw her clothes, along with more laundry, into the machine.
Later that afternoon as I was folding fresh clean clothes, I discovered a thread knot in one of Kelsey's pockets. I dipped my hand in and pulled out a handful of dehydrated black slugs, not a thread knot at all. I showed Kelsey what I had found and she looked at me with sad, blue eyes and said "Momma, those are my pets. Are they sick?"
Yes, Kelsey, really sick.
No comments:
Post a Comment