Pets
Dear Barack Obama

I know, all little girls dream about having a pet - beginning with a cat, then a dog and in the end they all must have a horse. It somehow amuses me, that such a family-matter takes even place in your family and this makes you even more simpathetic to me.

At my doughters age of 5 years we first had a cat. It's name is "Streiffeli" and she loves to sit on my newspaper, when I'm reading. Streiffeli hat four kittens, Nero, Luna, Chiara and Zipfeli. We spent a great time with them, they replaces many bedtime story reading and filled our house with live and love. The kittens grew very quickly and the snuggle-effect didn't last as long as I hoped.

Soon after they had to leave our house, my girl talked me into to buing her a hamster. Mummy was always the one to clean the terrarium and to give some fresh food to this poor little animal called Nora. Nora just loved to sit on one's shoulder and was a sort of tickling machine. Unfortunately the poor hamster died after only 8 months because of a genetical illness. One more hard-breaking experience.

Of course we had to replace it, so strong was the craving for snuggle. We decided to buy mice. The shop-seller promised that they were much more interesting then such a sleepy hamster would be and assured us, that mice would love to play. So now Trixi and Traxi, two boy-mice, live in our house and give us a hard time. These boys didn't understand at all, that they were supposed to give us a lucky playing time. Instead they go for a run and attacke by biting your hand, as soon as you touch theyr living area. So we had to buy very thick garden-gloves to protect ourselves from this little monsters but even then we couldn't help ourselves and felled in love with them.

After all these emotional, funny and real experiences with animals we learned that a pet is and will always be a family-member no matter how big it is and it will take you a quite bit of your free time to care and to educate it.

So we wish you all the best and a great lovestory with your soon arriving new family member.

Mary