tuesday night's homework: write about a future unusual pet that you like and why they are so special

while well intentioned and definitely (at least to me) aww worthy, erik's homework isn't quite cutting it for me. i love the thought behind it but it's not the kind of writing i want to do.



i want...



i want to write amazing pieces. i want to figure out a way to string words together in such a way that make people pause. that speak to them. catch them. make them feel something they haven't felt. or maybe something they're needing to feel... pieces that feed one's soul. not in the chicken soup kind of way, but in a different way. a way that connects us all as humans.


i believe that our experiences while vastly different are often quite connected. and though the context might vary, i think most of us go through many of the same emotions. hope. fear. disappointment. happiness. excitement. nervousness. embarrassment. etc. etc. etc. i love writing about emotions. i love learning to understand them more. in myself and in others. i want to write pieces that feed the emotional sides of us. that both stir and soothe those parts of us at the exact same time.


that's what i want.


and it's scary to want something and not know if it's possible. attainable. i have no idea if i'm going to be the writer i want to be. i'm 30 years old and not off to the best start. and now with this ongoing writer's block, it feels like what little umph i had, has disappeared. but i've been here before. questioning myself. wondering if want and reality are on the same page, or if something's gotta give.

i remember while in the dating scene, time and time again i wondered if i'd ever find someone i connected with. loved. i searched for something that was missing. something i never had before, but believed existed. that something was both foreign and familiar.


this want to write. to be a writer. is like that. and it scares me to say it aloud, but it is my truth. it is my desire. and so i'm putting it out there...


but i'm way off subject. so enough rambling. it's time i get on with this homework assignment and tell you about my pet fronkey, floyd.



i found floyd while i was in peru. it was after i sucked it up, stopped thinking of my cuy as a pet and ate the damn thing. it was gooood. who knew guinea pig could be so tasty??



after that, i went for a walk to ease my stomach. my walk led down a dirt path and on that dirt path was an adolescent boy with a cardboard box full of fronkeys. i'd never heard nor seen a fronkey before. it was the most unusual thing to see these cross breeds of monkeys and frogs.

later, after returning to hawaii i learned that fronkeys were the experiment of some peruvian scientist who created these animals by genetically tampering with their dna. the experiment went well, but due to controversy, was forced to shut down. the fronkeys were scheduled to be exterminated, however, the night before their extermination someone broke into the facility and let the creatures escape. they ran off to the jungle and repopulated wreaking havoc on the environmental systems. this is currently a big crisis in peru. however, government officials have been trying to keep quiet about it, as not to deter tourism and put peru in bad light. currently there are tons of people who are trying to exterminate them, but others who catch fronkeys and use them for financial gain by selling them through the black market. and then there are the occasional people who sell fronkeys to unsuspecting tourists, like the kid i came across, on the day i met floyd.


anyway, back to my story... the box was filled with 3 small (about the size of chihuahuas) creatures shaped like monkeys, but with green fur, webbed feet, a long slender tongue and these big brown eyes that could make you melt. and melt i did the moment one of them (floyed) looked up at me.

i didn't think. i went off of pure instinct and knew i had to have him. it was as if, and i know this sounds crazy, we had met in a former life. he had been my pet once before. and i knew my mission was to buy him, take him home and care for him.

and so i did. it wasn't easy and involved a lot of risk and a lot of illegal activity, as fronkeys aren't allowed outside of peru. but with a lot of luck and good fortune on my side, i was able to pull it off.


adjusting to being a pet owner of a strange and exotic pet took time. i learned a lot about responsibility and taking care of living things, but it has been an amazing experience.


as for what's so special about this unusual pet. well, i could go on and on about floyd... he is the cutest thing. i love coming home to him happily swinging on the closet bar. and i also love the fact that he kills all of the bugs in the house including those big huge roaches that used to scare the crap out of me. he's also a great swimmer and extremely agile. and, i mean, come on, he's a fronkey! that in itself is special with a capital S. but to me, what makes him special is just that he's... well, him. and when he looks at me with those big brown eyes and that cute little green face, there's just no words.

this past weekend we celebrated his 3rd birthday. yes, i know i've become one of "those" pet owners that do weird things like throw birthday parties for their animals. but i just had to. and it really was more just an excuse to have some fun with friends. check out the cake! the decorator totally screwed it up by making it brown instead of green, but it's still pretty cute, isn't it ???

(photo taken from: http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/)