It was a ferret. I forget it's name. All we remember about the ferret was how badly it smelled. Mostly, we remember the smell because of our mom.
(WARNING: Beginning of paragraph teasing Mom. Mom is a good sport.)
Mom has the nose of a bloodhound. This comes in very handy if there's a single spore of mold in the closet that needs to die, or something's burning in the oven, or there's a gas leak. She can also smell fear in restaurant wait staff and members of various service industries. So, thirty years later, she still talks about that ferret and its odor.
I have to admit, though, that we all remember that smell. In a classroom of funky middle-schoolers, nobody could tell the difference between the critter and all the kids...but in our spotless and shining home, he sort of stood out.
Fast forward to spring break 2012. Last week Mom's 4th-grade grandson informed me that we "won" Puff and Howie, the two class lizards (bearded dragons, to be precise), as our guests for the holiday week.
They spend most of the day snuggled up like this. They're rather large; Howie's tail alone is 11" long. I can't detect a smell on them, but the box of wiggling, writhing mealworms they eat has quite a funk.
We showed them a DVD about lizards; Howie became agitated and pooped on the cushion.
Puff's belly extends out to either side...what would a cardiologist say about that?
I'm going to start Howie doing crunches, though.
I'm considering inviting my parents for Easter dinner, but I know Mom won't abide the lizards' table manners. They eat their mealworms with their mouths wide open.
