A short rant from Jason...

OK, this is completely rediculous. Those of you that know me, know that I am not really an animal person. However, I somehow find myself a member of a family of 6...that is me, my wife Becky, my son Joshua, my daughter Breanna, my dog Aggie Pride, and my new hampster Chewbacca "Chewy."

How did I find myself in this circumstance? I lay the blame at the feet of my beautiful wife, Becky.

With Aggie, Becky wanted a running buddy and, in her words, "besides, the kids will love us." She was right...Aggie is her running buddy and the kids do love us. Though on the last point it has nothing to do with the dog.

Aggie scares the daylights out of both of them, which is why I have the extreme pleasure of spending my free time in the back yard trying to convince her to quit chewing my grill to pieces and scooping her poop.


Speaking of poop, Chewy is about the size of the average Aggie poop. A tiny furball that has enamored not only my children, but my wife as well. While I'm scooping Aggie poop, the rest of the family is sitting around the hamster cage mesmorized by a hairball running on a wheel or moving sunflower seeds from the food dish to a far reaching corner of his cage and back again.

The worst part is that only a couple of days after Chewy arived in our home, he escaped from behind bars. Chewy was on the lam for 2 full days before I finally caught up with the little bandit. Now, as I lay awake at night listening to Chewy run on his wheel...all night long I might add...the only reassurance I have is that he is safe behind bars and not figuring out a way to snuggle up to me as I sleep.

After all that I have put up with this year, Santa had better not leave me a lump of coal again this year.