My Weekend with Reggie

This weekend my 14-year-old son had the opportunity to go to Florida, his last chance before school started. There was only one problem.

"Mom, will you take care of Reggie?" he asked.
"Don't you have a friend who will do that?" I replied.
"All you have to do is put water in his bowl. You don't have to touch him."

Anyone who knows me understands that I'm not an animal person. The kids always claim they will take care of a pet, but I don't believe them. It happened years ago with the goldfish my son won at a carnival. After a month, I was the one who remembered to feed it and had to clean the bowl. I finally told them to set it free in Lake Lanier because 18 months was long enough for me to clean the bowl of an inch long, 49 cent goldfish.

Reggie is another story. He's a 1-year-old ball python who eats one mouse a week and must have his bowl kept full of water. He eats on Wednesdays, so there was no problem with that. Finally I relented and my son headed to FL. Reggie doesn't move around much in his 3ft x 1ft x 1.5ft cage, so I was a little surprised when I checked on him the second day and found him slithering to the other side, away from his usual resting place. Then I saw why and the text messages with my son began.

"So Reggie pooped a LOT next to the glass under his log."
"Can u remove it"
"Eeww"
"Grab some toilet paper and just pick it up"

Eeww! I headed down to the garage and found some industrial strength plastic gloves and did what had to be done. Then, I got to thinking about what a mom will do for their child.

Proverbs 31:27 She watches over the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness. 

My son soon called to check on Reggie (and probably me as well). He told me that event happens only once every 3 weeks. (Lucky me!) I assured him that the cage was clean again, but he would be cutting my grass this week - free of charge. He agreed.