Mice, ants, grasshoppers, and worms

After the death of Arasa the mouse, E has been trying to find herself a pet. We have promised to get her a pet for her birthday (probably a rat, but she might also choose a fish or hamster or guniea pig), but until then she's been improvising.

She found some ants outside the library, and asked to bring one home. I had a tupperware container in the car, so we put the ant in it. Unfortunately it died on the way home. So, I helped her find another one in our yard and we brought it in the house. Then I accidentally squished it while transfering it from one container to another. So, we went back outside and found a worm. She kept it on the table in a bowl for a few hours- until L got ahold of it. We think she ate it! It was a *very* tiny one. E ate one a lot bigger when she was L's age! LOL

She had a pet grasshopper a few months ago. It rode home on our windsheild all the way from our garden co-op! She let it go in the grass and later found a dead grasshopper on the steps. We don't know if it was the same one, but she think so.

Most recently, she had a pet spider. She asked me to catch it for her and I put it in a glass jar with some little holes poked in the lid. When we went to bed that night, she gave the jar a hug and told her spider goodnight. Then right before we went to sleep, she asked if the spider could sleep in the bedroom with us- so I put it's jar on the tv by the bed. She tried to give it a spider friend, but it ate the friend. She caught a bug for it to eat, but it wouldn't eat it. I told her that if the spider didn't eat, it would die and that it would probably be much happier outside. It would raise up it's front legs and bang on the side of the jar if we bothered it. So, she let it go outside and is hoping it will build a web on our porch.

She said "Mommy, all my pets die! My rat died and my grasshopper died and my worm died and my ant died! I don't want my spider to die!" And every day she asks "Is my spider ok?" and say "I hope so, but it's outside so I don't know. I'm sure it's happy to be outside."

She keeps trying to catch squirrels, which I'm not concerned about because they are way too fast for her. However, I did have to discourage her from catching the raccoon that lives in the creek behind our house. It's half her size and has stood on it's hind legs and threatened D before, so I don't want her near it.

I'm looking forward to getting her a pet- she's going to have so much fun with it!