Recently I’ve been thinking of pets as I periodically do. When I was young and living on the farm, we had many animals. When I married and had my own family, we continued on in the same tradition only with more animals and many different kinds. But now my daughters have their own families with many pets, and I am living in a condo. I tried goldfish and a bullfrog on my deck, but a raccoon ate them. I thought about another box turtle like I’d had years ago, but I’ve found they can’t live in our cold, damp climate – sort of the way I feel about our cold, damp climate. A woman I know had a box turtle that caught pneumonia which cost her probably as much as a face lift. So I have finally come up with an idea for a pet replacement project.

I saw an ad in the Sunday paper section with all the ads . . . you know the kind where you can use the coupon and get money off at the store. Well, this ad was for tomatoes. For under $10 you could buy four seeds that would eventually grow 15 feet tall and bear tomatoes that weighed two pounds each! And they would grow in the house! So I immediately sent my check and started preparing a place for my new tomato plants. I moved furniture and trunks around in my computer room which gets a lot of sunlight being on the south side of my condo. I put two apple boxes I’ve saved from our farm in front of the windows and two big pots on top. I waited for over a month, and they finally arrived. I planted two little seeds in each tiny container and will move them to the big containers when they grow. I’ll have pictures taken when they’re several feet tall and covering me while I sit at my computer. Two days ago I discovered that two of them were coming up! This is all very exciting for me!

Oh, I almost forgot . . . the alligator picture. That was when I was in Louisiana and checking out possible pets for myself. I got a little close to this alligator and my friends finally dragged me back in the car where I took this picture . . . definitely not pet material. I saw turtles I would love to have brought home, but they belonged there. I also saw some tiny, little A-frame houses that would fit tiny, little munchkins. I was remarking to my friends how cute they looked, and they told me they were little houses for the cocks used in cock fighting! What a wonderful place Louisiana is. I left shortly thereafter.

So I guess now when I come home, I can say “Hi, Honey, I’m home” and my tomato plants will welcome me. The alligator would never have worked out.