Save me.....

Sam wants to get a parrot.

He wants it so badly that when I wouldn't drive him to go look at parrots, he decided we should take a bike ride. And when we went on the bike ride he said he wanted to go to BigChainPetStore which is way up in Williston, probably about 7 miles away. I agreed figuring that he wouldn't last long so we left home with the house keys, and our bikes. And I made him ride up the big hill on the road near our house thinking that would put the ride in perspective and make him change his mind. And damned if he didn't have it in him to get there and back! It was about 85 and humid, we were riding on sidewalks and roads for the majority of it, some along very busy roads. And we're in Vermont so of course there are hills.

I'm proud of him.

As far as the parrot goes, I told him he could get one if he saved up his money but he had to keep it in his room. We discovered that they're about $600 for the bird and another $100 for the cage so I'm hoping he loses interest before he saves that much money. No, we are NOT taking donations. Do you know that they can live up the 25 years?

After he realized how expensive they are, he decided that maybe he wanted one of the finches or parakeets -- these birds are about $20 and cages are about $35 which, unfortunately, he can save fairly easily. I told him that in order to be able to do that he'd have to take total responsibility for the cats, including the litter box, for 30 days without my reminding him to do so. I set the bar high.

And the next thing out of his mouth? "After I get a bird I really want just a little puppy."