Lily Charlotte-Clementine

Lily was born a year ago this week. She's exceptionally special to us not only because her underbite gives an appearance that she's always smiling, but she entered the world as we re-entered our US life. She has three names because the boys couldn't decide on one. Nick wanted Lily. Connor wanted Charlotte after his long-lost love in England. And Patrick wanted Clementine because of his infamous impression of another Clementine.

She was preceeded by several Mason family pets. Buddy the super guinea pig caught pneumonia (probably while I was airing out the boys' rooms mid winter) and died. Connor and PJ had "Sandslicer" and "Son of Sandslicer" (no relation) the hermit crabs. They were active at night and needed to be misted often. The boys did spend an entire day painting a race track for them. Sadly, those events were unsuccessful. The boys learned their hermit crabs wouldn't follow the painted lines Better luck next time.

Nick had a goldfish named "Looker" because it had huge, oversized eyes and always appeared to look at him.

We tried two dwarf rabbits one Easter but allergies required them to be relocated with lucky friends. It did make for an exceptionally exciting holiday and the boys loved caring for them. We were late for one hockey practice trying to chase one back into it's hutch.

It hasn't always been easy accomodating pets, but they do make us laugh. Buddy was an all-white colored guinea pig. Now, we have Lily who isn't much larger. Either way they've entertained us and filled our home with extra laughter. Usually.

Happy Birthday, Lily