Squirrel

Izzie Rue has always loved animals, and she delights in taking care of them. She found this puppy at the park while visiting my parents recently and was as much in love with it as the dog was with her (but don't worry, she didn't come home with the dog!).

She doesn't even seem to notice if the animal is alive or not, she is equally affectionate to them all!

As a result of this affection, we have been considering getting her a pet of her own in the future (the live version). That was, until our walk yesterday...

We had the good fortune of passing by a squirrel who had obviously lost a recent race across the street to a large automobile. Delicately, I answered Peter's curiosity about blood and missing limbs before pushing past the scene of the accident, thinking this a good introduction to one of the more difficult aspects of life.

It wasn't until half a block later, that I realized Isabelle's complete lack of progress in our walk was not due to her distracted nature, but because of big fat tears blurring her vision. After a little comforting, the best response I could get from her was, "but the squirrel, I'mmmm s..s..ssssad because of da squirrel..." followed by increased tears. Eventually we made it home, through dinner and down to bed, but not without being interrupted every fifteen or twenty minutes by, "oh, the squirrel!!!"

We have decided to seriously investigate the genetic history of any pet she receives, because it better live a really long time!