My dear son (aged 5) was looking down at heal. I asked him why and he replied, in a sad whine, that his woodlice had died. (I didn't correct his grammar; I also call them woodlice when they are singular, as I don't like the word 'louse'', and I say 'a dice' too).
I'd seen him frollicking around with a woodlice in the living room the other day (in sofar as you can frollick with an insect). I didn't realise he'd adopted it as a pet. But he had. He'd put it in a tray in his bedroom and tended to its every need for a period of about 48 hours.
'It died in the night', he said. I nodded sadly. I wanted to share in his grief, but at the same time 'move him on' very quickly.
'Never mind. You can always find another one.' I said. His face lit up.
'Yes!' he exclaimed. 'Or I could find a beetle!'
As long as he remembers that in my house '0 - 6 legs: good; 8 legs: bad', we'll all be ok! (Seven legs also = bad. I take 'seven legs' as a spider that's lost a leg, not a beetle that came with an extra one).
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4 comments:
You're lucky. Aedan didn't used to keep woodlice as pets. He used to eat them. Still alive. He'd eat the house flies dead though...
And just 'cos I'm feeling pedantic and 'cos I can, a 'woodlice' isn't an insect, it's a crustacean. (Sorry. Couldn't help myself)
I'm with on the 7/8 legged thing though.
I went to tidy the boys' bedroom today, but gave up as I suddenly became concerned at what I might find hidden in there, living. Or even dead, horrors!
Poor kid. I don't even know what woodlice are but I'm sad for him anyway
A woodlice?
Well, it's a crustacean (thanks for that Louise!) and it's an ancient creature - it kind of looks like a tiny armadillo.
Erm, does that help...?!
He's over it now. I learned the same horrible lesson when my pet hamster, Smokey, died, aged 15 (I was aged 15, not the hamster). Oh I was distraught. I was the one who found him lying in his nest, still as a stone with his eyes wide open. It really was sad, actually - it really was.
The same hamster you had at Woodrow Park? Wow, that's impressive.
I can sympathise though, I found my rabbit, Fiver and Cathy's rabbit, Hazel, (not at the same time) and it does leave a lasting impression. I found my dwarf hamster too, I was in my twenties then and I was still upset by it, then made it all worse when I began to wonder if he'd just been asleep...
(Can't remember his name, that's terrible.)
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