The animals are plotting against us I think. First it was Ted the hermit crab. The other day while I was at work I came home and found Huston and Steven searching the living room for him. Huston loves to build Ted little "castles" out of his building blocks. He's done this for some time. He'll build the latest style in crab habitats and then go retrieve Ted for a little time away from home: a hermit crab vacation.
The problem comes in the fact that Huston is not a very sound engineer, nor is he very knowledgeable concerning the abilities of his hermit crab. Many times his structures are viewed more as an challenge of escape by Ted than they are a lovely vacation home. And he has often times succeeded in his escape.
Usually we are not too far away from him and can quickly locate him when he shows off his Houdini-like skills... but this weekend was a different story. It seems that the rest of the family took a trip to a local park while Ted was in one of these temporary Huston-designed structures. About an hour later the jail break was discovered. As I walked in they were searching the living room - the scene of the crime.
I took over the search from Steven and Isaiah, Huston and I looked everywhere - we eventually just sent Huston to bed because he just wasn't handling the situation very well - a little frantic, a little overeactive, and a great big bundle of panic and tired. Isaiah picked up all the toys and ummm... junk all over the floor while I also helped straighten and moved the furniture. We looked every.where. No Ted. I eventually found him in the next room hanging out with some dust bunnies in the furthest corner he could find under a bookshelf... confirming that Huston just has no idea how to architecturally please his crab. (He needs dark creepy cave places, not roofless baby block condominiums).
That experience ended well... but today's experience not so much.
Our poor little Chicky has flown the coop. Once again, I would like to let the reading public know that I was out of the house at work during the time of the incident. Today I returned home from town just ahead of a slight thunderstorm. Usually when it storms we cover Chicky's little chicken coop to protect it from the rain and wind - the coop only has chicken wire on the sides. I jumped out the van and ran to get the job done and that's when I discovered the bird was missing. Very, very sad.
Steven and I looked everywhere. All the kids were sleeping at the time (miracle, I know!) and I really dreaded them waking up. Isaiah and Huston were the first to hear of the unfortunate news. Seems as though the chicken was left unattended outside of his cage - so who knows what exactly happened. I'm betting that some bird of prey snatched him up for his lunch. :(
The boys of course cried... and are this very moment outside with their rain jackets searching for their beloved Chicky. I really have very little hope that it will be found, but crazier things have happened. It's a hard lesson to learn, but maybe they will be a bit more responsible when caring for their critters? One can only hope. This is only a small taste of what it's like to watch your kids struggle through bad choices and let me tell ya, it stinks!
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