Birthday Present

Some very close friends of our’s gave Jack a pretty cool birthday present.  It was a terrerium and a pet store gift card so that he could shop for a li’l critter of his choice to put into the terrarium.

Firebelly Toad

Jack picked a frog.  It’s a Firebelly Toad.  He named it Carl.

On the way home from the pet store Laurie and I were teasing Jack about what we wanted to name the li’l critter.  We told him we were going to call it Jack Jr.  Jack wanted to name it Fido (he really wanted a dog… but… couldn’t find one that fit in the terrarium.  ;-)

Our Lunch Came Up

Before we went to the pet store we actually stopped off for lunch at Carl’s Jr.  So Jack thought he’d be clever and tell us that he was gonna call it Carl Jr.  Next thing you know, it was just Carl.  :-)

Update

We like Carl. He’s a cool li’l frog. Toad. What ever. Anyway… we discovered that we are terrible frog feeders. Toad feeders. What ever. We were only able to successfully transfer 3 live crickets into the terrarium. Two disappeared underneath the base of the terrarium, the other just disappeared and I’m hoping Carl ate it. There was a fourth cricket. It got loose in Jack’s room. Saw it once. Then lost it in the shadows when I went to catch it. It got away. Ruh-roh!  Two other dead crickets got into Carl’s terrarium.  One was gon this morn.  It either came back to life and found it’s two buddies underneath or Carl was desperately hungry.

In hindsight, owning a frog means owning more than just one li’l pet.  It means owning a bunch of live crickets, too!  We decided (with Jack) that we’ll take Carl back to the pet store and trade ‘im in for a goldfish or a beta or some other low-maintenance, non-carnivorous creature. I’d even be happy with a hamster.

There’s a 14-day return policy.  That’s good.  I hope they offer grief counseling, too, ’cause I think I’m gonna need it.

We’ve been telling Jack for several months that he wasn’t ready for a pet, though I think it really comes down to Laurie and I are unprepared parents <heh>.  Should’a got a fish in the first place. What were we thinkin’???