Saturday, March 12, 2005

 

A Smaller Breed of Rodent

Juan and I had big plans for yesterday evening. We were going to feast on my mom's lasagna for dinner, then go to the movies with his brother Juan, his brother's wife Nancy, and their 4 year old son (juan's nephew), Aniel (pronounced onyell).
Aniel just may be THE MOST adorable child on the planet.( I cannot post his picture because I do not have permission from his parents.) He is animated, imaginative and enthusiastic about EVERYTHING from Burger King to CatDog.
For the past year and a half, Aniel has been begging his parents for a pet. Any type of pet. He had already named the pet "Henry", regardless of breed or sex. They finally caved and got him a hamster last weekend. They brought Henry home, and outfitted his cage with every exciting hamster toy in existence. Henry was brown with a white stripe.....

....WAS being the operative word.
I was at home waiting for Juan to come over and have dinner with me when the phone rang. I hear:
"Hi babe...um, i'm going to be late...there is an emergency here"

It turns out that early that morning, before Aniel went off to school, Henry began the process of 'crossing over'. Aniel was obviously quite upset that his brand new pet was sick. Nancy told him that Henry would be fine, and they would take him to the vet while Aniel was at school.
Riiigghhhhht.......
After work, Juan had the fabulous job of returning the hamster corpse to the pet store, exchanging it for an identical hamster, and getting it back to the house before Aniel woke up from his nap. Upon giving the dead hamster to the pet store attendant, the attendant opened the box and peered in at dead Henry.
"Oh", he said "Looks like he died from Wet-Tail"
Juan replies 'Wet-Tail, what is Wet-Tail??"
"A severe form of hamster diarrhea. I guess you didn't get the medicine in time."
"Medicine? What medicine?"
"Dry-tail"

Jesus! If only all medication was that simple! "DR, I have a terrible headache!"
"Here", he replies, "Just take some of this No-headache"

Anyway, after the Wet-Tail/Dry-Tail discussion, Juan went in search of an identical Henry. To make matters even more comical, THEY DIDN"T HAVE ANOTHER HENRY! Nope, not even ONE other hamster that was brown with a white stripe. So Juan just got one that was the same color brown, and hoped for the best.

Upon returning home, Aniel was awake from his nap and looking for Henry. Juan handed him the box and said
"Here's Henry! I just picked him up from the vet!!"
Aniel opened the little box and picked up the vibrantly alive new Henry, while everyone in the household held their breath. He exclaimed
"Oh wow! He's OK!" and skipped off to put Henry back in his cage.
The missing white stripe was lost on him!

After the movie, we went out for dessert. Over ice cream, I started asking Aniel questions about Henry. I innocently asked
"What color is Henry??"
Aniel enthusiastically said "Brown with a white stripe!"
Nancy snorted and said under her breath "......just brown, now!"

Comments:
Oh my goodness. Did you know that it was a different color when you asked him that? Because if you did, then you are a very bad girl. -cfs
 
Oh, my god I do not know what to comment on first. It is strange that you have had so many interesting encounters with rodents. I am also impressed with your ability to use your toothbrush even after Juan cleaned it for you (what a good man). Kuddoos to you. I also hope you are feeling better, daytime talk shows can annoy anyone so hopefully you didn't watch to much....
 
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