Pets

DD loves animals.If there's just one thing that could bring a smile to her face, that one thing would be an animal. A trip to the zoo is sure to make her a very happy girl.

She has been waiting to keep a pet for the longest time. But DH would always say no, citing inconvenience as the number one reason. I tried to argue in DD's favour on numerous occasions, but it didn't work. I don't know why DH was against us keeping a pet, but I guess it has something to do with him having to care for cats for an entire year during his first year at university. You see, he stayed at a family friend's house during that first year. He had to care for their pet cats as the houseowners were living in Malaysia at that time. Like, who would live their pets in the cold weather in London while they themselves frolic in the hot weather in KL, right? Well, that family would.

I on the other hand am neutral about pets. I like looking at them, but caring for them? We'll see...

Anyway, DD's BFF, Amelia got a couple of hamsters a few months back. DD went to her house to see the hamsters and came back to report that the hamsters would be getting married soon. Not long after the 'wedding', we heard the good news of new additions to the hamster family. DD and Amelia would play with the baby hamsters for hours on end at Amelia's house.

Another friend, Shakirah got a couple of those tiny tortoises from her parents, aptly named Lazy and Crazy. DD was envious. And then, when we balik kampung for raya, we found out that DD's cousin, Alisha had pet tortoises too.

When we were at my sister, Kak Nun's house, I saw DD playing with their beautiful cats. She didn't say anything, but I knew she was longing to have a pet of her own.

The turning point was when Shakirah announced that she had another pet. This time, it's a cat that took shelter in her dad's car engine. From the forlorn look on DD's face, I knew that I just had to find a way to convince DH to allow her to have her own pet.

That opportunity came through DD's friend, Ameera. Ameera is a generous girl who's always giving things to her friends at school. One day last week, she gave DD crystal balls. You know, those colourful gel-like balls that are used in place of soil for indoor plants. They come as tiny beads, and as you add water, the beads would expand into marble-sized balls.

Somehow those 7 year-old kids (including mine) thought that the crystal balls are alive. They would 'feed' water to the balls, watch them grow, and feed them more water because the balls are 'thirsty'. They keep the balls in small containers and take them everywhere. At one point, I caught DD talking to the balls!

Now, that was the last straw. I told DH about it and right away, he agreed that DD needs a pet. We took DD to a pet shop to see if there were any suitable animals for her. I was hoping that she would choose fish, but she chose hamsters instead.

Since the exams were ongoing, we told DD to wait until the exams were over before buying the hamsters. She asked for a specific date, and once I gave her the date, she started the countdown. Meanwhile, she's been changing notes with Amelia about how to care for hamsters.

That specific date to buy her hamsters is today. And she said she wants grown up ones so that there'll be babies soon.