LEARNING EXPERIENCE Why had I agreed to these animals in the first place? Although I had an aversion to pets I felt I should not deny the healthy learning experience it offered my boys

D on’t get me wrong.
I’m truly fascinated by the animal kingdom intrigued by animal behavior.
I love learning about animals from books and even observing them from a safe distance at the zoo.

But I must have inherited a dominant gene from my father born in Lithuania who could not fathom how a frum Jew would keep an animal such as the puppy my American-born mother had bravely suggested. In Kelm it was not the fashion. Furthermore a dog is an unclean animal so how can one learn Torah and make blessings with a dog at one’s heels?

Years later in Jerusalem when my brood included a bunch of boys in a row my mother’s genes must have become empowered. I didn’t agree to the horse that Yirmy begged us to buy for his tenth birthday even though as he claimed we had lots of room in our garden. But when Yirmy brought home a turtle he had chanced upon in the middle of the sidewalk how could I refuse?

And so Bootzik became part of the family. Theoretically he resided in his box in the garden but he usually hung out in the boys’ room where he was safe from cats the broiling sun frost etc. I actually picked up Bootzik with my own hand — holding him at a safe distance with my thumb and middle finger — when I’d find him wandering around the house and no one else was home to put him back where he belonged.

But I never touched any of the other animals they brought home and neither would my older daughters who could not fathom why I ever consented to the zoo. We didn’t even hold the cuddly rabbits — Crembo Snowball Flopsy Pinchy and all the others we hosted over the years.