The Chewy Saga

A couple of months ago Henry went to a friend's house for preschool. They have pet chickens and Henry fell in love. He begged for chickens. I am not ready for this whole pet thing to start, but I am really not ready to even consider chickens. So I told him if he could take care of all his responsibilities for 2 weeks (his room cleaned, toys picked up, and chores done daily) then he could get a fish. If he takes good care of the fish we could go from there, fully expecting him to not be able to (is that terrible? We are talking about giving Henry a living thing here, are we not?), but willing to follow through if he did.

A few days later a fly was caught between our window and screen and Henry decided that that was his cage and that he was our pet fly. He named him Chewy. Apparently Chewy likes to eat sprinkles; that is according to Henry and my niece who also recently (in a freaky coincidence) had her own pet fly named Anna. So I now have sprinkles in my window sills for whenever Chewy gets hungry.

Chewy has been lost a few times. The first time Chewy got lost Henry was so upset he was moaning Chewy's name and crying, calling for Chewy out the window. You'd have thought Chewy was a dog. About a half hour later Chewy "came back" and Henry was chasing him around the living room, beside himself with giddiness at the return of his beloved pet. Chewy has been lost several times since then. But Chewy always returns. A few times Chewy has brought along family members. He has brought over his dad, his son, his mom, and several friends. Once Henry brought up Chewy, caught between his thumb and forefinger and showed me that Chewy had lost a wing and 2 legs. I was wondering if Henry would start to suspect something when Chewy later returned with all his legs and wings. But Henry said something about there being lots of Chewy's, so that answers that. Here's the kicker for me though, that night in his bedtime prayers Henry asked Heavenly Father to bless Chewy to feel better. That's a new one in our house.

Chewy's popularity waxes and wanes, but Chewy seems impervious to this. He keeps returning; prancing around the living room waiting for Henry or Miles to chase him around, gloating at Sam and I that we have to be much more sneaky about our pest control methods. Meanwhile, the fishbowl complete with blue rocks and a tiki man statue still sits empty, but Henry is happy...