Want to know a cautionary tale about refusing to get pets because everyone cried themselves to sleep about poor Poppy and Blossom for months
Brace yourselves...
Two springs ago, kids off sick (this is normal in our house). Happily watching wee coal tits nesting in our garden wall, cute cheeping, lovely, exciting, like having your own pet really.
Parent coal tits vanish. Cheeping becomes desperate. Phoned wildlife hospital who said "they need feeding every 20 mins, either take them on yourself, or let nature take it's course"
Can you see the kids' big sad eyes? Is "bugger that for a game of soldiers, too much work" a life lesson I want to give the kids about the sanctity of life?
No. Course not.
So, we land up with 6 chicks - to feed every 20 mins dawn to dusk.
What do you feed wild chicks? Glad you asked. watered down cat food, with oats and soaked mealworms, off a paintbrush.
School run took longer than 20 mins. So, they had to come with us. With a hot water bottle to keep them cosy. Sitting on a wall, with a squawking bundle on your lap and a paintbrush attracts the attention of kids. So, that led to me taking them into school and nursery to show them off (which, I did enjoy - "children, want to see my tits?" ha ha ha ha)
Of course, these are wild birds. So, my kids were instructed not to think we were keeping them, not to give them names, not to handle them. So, deep, deep joy when I find TopHat, Sparky and Under-Leggy how to jump through a hoop made from sellotape and loo rolls.
I then find myself buying trays of live crickets to teach them how to hunt. Naturally, one of the kid's pals knocked the box over, so we had a plague of biblical proportions on our hands. Crickets can successfully live and breed under your cooker for a long time.
Anyhoo, we got 3 of them to fledge. Which is kind of awesome. And now, every time we see a coal tit it gets madly waved at and causes a fight as to which one it is.
There was ,inevitably, tears and wailing at the release of the coal-tits - therefore, we got budgies as I really couldn't argue that the children weren't responsible enough to have pets seeing as how they had worked really hard.
And, the budgies are a whole different level of hassle...
Be strong, Mumsnetters. Do. Not. Get. Pets.