Determination Wins

Last spring we rescued a box turtle from the middle of a two lane country road, his name was Speedbump.

Speedbump was more than a box turtle and he was more than a slow and gentle friend, he was a seed. He planted the notion that dogs and cats do not define the boundaries of pet ownership in our home, he demonstrated that parents are sometimes willing to adopt, and despite his plodding nature he inspired ideas that raced wildly behind conspiring young eyes.

Every parent of young kids knows, all things in nature must be owned and named. Turtle ownership set precedent and a whining frenzy ensued... I began to think my kids were planning in earnest for a great flood.

Like any good parent would do, I offered them an impossible promise for an impossible price if they would just leave me alone. "One year!", I said. "You each take sole responsibility for one pet we already own... feed it, clean up after it, ensure it is well cared for, and I will allow you each to buy your own pet with your own money next year". They bit the hook.

There was a time early on that I thought our dog, cat, and turtle might unite and go on strike against the diminished quality of their care. Things got better, mostly. Joey and Speedbump dropped out of the race early and Speedbump was returned to the Missouri woods he came from (off the road this time). Molly and Garett pressed on, swapping pets half way through the year to avert exhaustion.

One year later... we have two new pets; a Cockatiel, and a Bearded Dragon Lizard. Both bought and paid for (cages too) with allowance saved. The lizard gets live prey, crickets and meal worms kept in-house, so Garett is also tasked with feeding the food. In fact, we now own an entire food chain... that we regularly leave alone in the house together.

I thought I had been clever.
I thought I had capitalized on naive underestimation.
As it turns out, my kids were thinking the same thing.

House sitters wanted.

Give Your Kid a Camera

Each of my 3 kids has their own digital camera. They are not cheap cameras made for kids with disposable quality and very low image resolution... I bought each one second-hand through CraigsList and they're the real deal. In fact, my daughter's 30 dollar, 6 Megapixel camera with a gigabyte of memory is better than my own!

While on vacation recently, we ended each day with a memory dump of images (and movies) from everyone's cameras. We would gather around the computer each night for a sort of 21st century slide show of the day's events. That's 4 cameras total... and 4 unique perspectives on the day.

I've often wished I could be a fly on the wall in my kids' classrooms or when they are off on their own playing. Pictures and movies from their cameras are about as close to a fly's-eye-view as one can hope to get. All images are, of course, taken from a lower position than an adult's would be (it is interesting to see yourself from this perspective), are of subjects many adults would pass over, and speak volumes about the person who took them and how they experienced the day.

The first night on vacation I pulled files from cameras and found images dating back to Thanksgiving on my son Joey's camera. He likes to take pictures of people and his results are impressive. The collection included portraits of friends and family and even our waitress the last time we went out to eat (last year).

There is something about Joey that is irresistible and you can see it in the faces of his subjects. His pictures are of people with their guard down, of warm and friendly faces adorned with genuine smiles. It makes me happy to see how the world looks to my 7 year old son... and touched to see how the world looks back.

You can see a few portraits taken by Joey here.

Cat Calls

Molly, my 9 year old daughter, feeds the family cat twice a day. She recently decided that it would be of some benefit to have a way to call the cat, Jingle, at will. Like, for instance, if Jingle is outside in the yard and it's getting dark... we should have a way to bring her in without a chase.

The chosen method involves a long, flexible, accordion-like tube. With pursed lips and a good strong blow, you can use the tube to make a sound like an elephant. Aside from the possible confusion for our neighbors, I had concern that if Jingle found herself alone on the Savanna... she might charge a herd of trumpeting elephants.

The training method involves feeding and trumpeting is strictly prohibited unless there is food in the cat's dish. Molly hopes Jingle will eventually realize the association and VIOLA!... a cat-call will be born.

Molly is executing her strategy with impressive consistency and twice daily she heralds the cat with a call that echos through our home. As the cat-call theory has been put into practice, and Molly's trumpeting skills are tested, my Savanna concerns have been curtailed. At most, I believe Jingle's risk is to someday charge hungrily into a herd of gassy elephants. That doesn't seem as dangerous to me.