Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

Today I was supposed to work on our PTA’s fundraiser paperwork, but none of my numbers matched, and it was apparent even before my hubby left for work that Peter–my favorite bunny, our smallest, shyest, most nervous, and more recently frail bunny–was not going to rally. At first I avoided his box while I worked on what paperwork I successfully could; when I’d finished much of it and taken a break for lunch, I checked on him and suspected that he was fading. I moved him onto the couch next to me and petted him while I read, listened to my audiobook, and played aimlessly on my phone, and he died 15 or so minutes before my older girlies got home from school.

It was a quiet, somber experience, sitting alone with our poor sick Peter while he passed, and as my children got home we snuggled–and some of us cried. It isn’t easy to lose a pet at any age.

Before he passed, though, I finished reading a new graphic novel I checked out for my raccoon-obsessed 9-year-old–The Racc Pack, by Stephanie Cooke (with art by Whitney Gardner). It was more thoroughly entertaining than I’d expected, if more action than character drama: hungry raccoon brothers, a nefarious business owner who refuses to donate his edible castoffs and guards them against any and all interested parties, and a mysterious housecat with a suspicious agenda. I don’t know that my 14-year-old will be as interested–she prefers animals to be animals, not talking, clothes-wearing protagonists–but I’m anticipating much excitement from my third grader.

And today, that’s not a bad thing.