"Animals, Animals, Animals... Everywhere..."

If you've ever heard this song played during the 1970s on Saturday morning television sung by Lynn Kellogg, that's my daughter.  There is a definite difference between your average, typical animal lover and my daughter though.  Sure, there are animal lovers, who fall in love with every animal they see and who even go so far as adopting and accumulating a large amount.  What makes Amber stand out from your average animal lover/collector though is that she loves all animals, regardless of whether they are cute or furry.  In fact, some of her favorite animals, the average "neurotypical" person might think, "Why?"  The first exotic animal she'd become fascinated with was an Axolotyl.  I'd never in my life heard of one of these but kept an open mind about it.  I wanted to be able to try and look at it through her eyes and see what she appreciates about them.  So, if you look at an axolotyl, it is quite the unique creature, although I didn't run out and get her one.

Over the years, she's expressed interest in such animals as snakes, rats, bugs, hairless cats, albino animals, alligators, etc.  We have never had any of these as pets, although I keep somewhat of an open mind.  I don't gross out at the thought of a rat, (as long as it's not in my house), and I've pet a snake before, although I have not personally handled one.  I always want to try and be able to relate to my daughter and understand where she is coming from and give her guidance.  This can be a challenge at times though. 

There was a time, when she went through this alligator phase.  She had gotten this idea from watching Steve Irwin that she could tame alligators.  She literally would tell me about her plans to move to a warmer climate, when she was an adult, and start her career taming alligators from birth.  As any concerned parent would, I expressed my concern with this choice in career occupation.  It's not that I'm overprotective of my daughter in any way.  This is just a very dangerous choice in careers.  Alligators eat people!  They will rip your arms and legs off and have no remorse about it whatsoever.  She tried assuring me that none of that would be a problem.  I was not convinced.  Fortunately, this alligator obsession started when she was 15, so the threat of her turning 18 and leaving to make this dream a reality wasn't anything to be faced in the near future.  The other day, much to my relief, I had asked her if she was still passionate about alligators, and she said "no" and neither did she want to tame them either.  She realized they were dangerous animals.  I don't know what came along and changed her mind, but I am genuinely happy for it.

These animal obsessions go in phases.  The most recent obsession she has is with helping her pet turtle and hermit crabs molt, which apparently is a type of grooming process, where they shed their shells.  Her wanting to help these creatures out has caused our family some distress.  Firstly, the hermit crab, she had read something on the internet that had convinced her that she had to go to Pet Smart at 10 pm on a week night and buy it new shells to molt into or it was going to die.  I assured her it could wait until morning.  My husband tried assuring her.  That didn't work either.  It didn't end very pretty.  She wound up crying, and somehow, I managed to console her.  So, not all bad.  We did go and get the hermit crab a couple of shells the next day, which I made her buy with her own money.  This animal habit of hers can get rather expensive at times.

As far as the turtle, there was one night, where I could not get Amber to go to bed for anything.  She was bound and determined that her turtle's shell needed to dry out or it would somehow suffer.  I have no idea what on earth she read on the internet that made her come to this conclusion.  I lead a very hectic life, at times, and by 9 pm I'm just ready to put my daughter to bed and have some quality, alone time, move on to my next child I have to put to bed, and hopefully, have some time left over for myself.  So, we were squabbling about how the turtle really is going to make it and that she doesn't need to stay up with it.  She decides, at that moment, that she wants to be more grown up and put herself to bed, which in theory if it was true, would be great.  I didn't buy it.  She insisted that she's a big girl and that I should leave her be.  When she sees that I'm not falling for this, she decides that she was ready for me to put her to bed, which was a relief to me.  So, I put her to bed.  We do this routine, where I tuck her in, say prayers, scratch her back, put lotion on it, kiss both cheeks so that there isn't an imbalance, (can't kiss the mouth because of germs), turn-on-the-fan, and turn-lights-off ritual.  Then, I can leave the room.  It always seems so exhausting.  So many hoops to jump through, but I made it to the finish line or so I thought.  I go upstairs, only to find a few minutes later her shuffling around.  I had to give up at that point.  I was not spending my night arguing with her about the turtle.  She did eventually go to sleep.

Another time, there was an episode with a baby chipmunk.  It was the most adorable creature.  Amber and one of her friends rescued this baby chipmunk in our backyard from being our dog's little snack.  The problem was what to do with this small creature.  So my daughter gets on the internet and tells me that it says the baby has been abandoned and that we have to take care of it or it will die.--I'm sure you see where this is going.

I definitely was not wanting to adopt and care for a wild animal.  I'm not heartless.  It's just we already had gold fish, bettas, a dog, a guinea pig, and hermit crabs, and when Amber comes up with the idea of a new pet, I am Amber's safety net, when it comes to animal care.  Unfortunately, Amber as much as she loves animals, just isn't very sanitary, when it comes to keeping their habitats clean.  So, I call Animal Care & Control (AC&C), and they tell me to put the chipmunk back, where we found it.  If the mom doesn't return in about 3 hours, then she isn't coming back.  Amber dutifully listens, but the mom never came back.  So, I tell Amber she can keep the baby in a shoe box and give it a sugar-water mixture to keep it alive, until we were able to give it to AC&C for pet adoption.

Interestingly enough, the next morning, Amber was up early and went to school.  My cell phone rings at work, and it's the school nurse telling me Amber has a headache and isn't feeling well at all.  I ask if they need me to pick her up.  The answer was a "no", although she did leave her glasses at home.  Then, my husband gets a call, and Amber needs picked up.  Not only that, but she has a little visitor.  Amber had smuggled the chipmunk in her coat pocket and brought it to school.  My husband came and got the chipmunk and took it to Animal Care and Control.  As it turns out, Amber had stayed up all night caring for the chipmunk and that is why she wasn't feeling well.  With that news, Amber stayed at school the remainder of the day, until it was time for me to pick her up for an appointment.  When I got to school, I was finding humor in hearing people talk about the chipmunk that had been in the office earlier, knowing the full story behind it.  I could imagine Amber and her chipmunk was all the talk all over school and in the teachers' lounge that day.  So, even though my daughter does bring me some grief with her little animal escapades, I enjoy the storytelling aspect I derive out of it.  I will share more of these stories in future blogs.

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