Of Books and Boys and Other Stuff

My mom’s a genius. (Most moms are—it just takes a while for us to realize it). Look what she made my kids for the lake.

Mr. E and the Critter Keeper

We’re calling it a “critter keeper.”

Some background: our cabin is very much a “cabin” and not a “cottage”. In other words, there’s no carpet, cutesy northwoods décor, or even a TV or a phone. It’s much more akin to camping than what most people call their “cabins.”

At the cabin, Mr. E and Colonel Mustard love sloshing around the weedy, muddy shore in their tall boots, exploring, fishing, and catching things. For the last few years, we had an old aquarium that we’d fill with water. They kept their critters there—snakes, toads, frogs, salamanders, fish, water bugs, you name it, for the weekend. But it was a pain to fill the tank, and we’d always worry about adding fresh water to it, feeding whatever was in it, or if it was in the sun and the captives were getting too warm. Not to mention that it had a big crack in it and we were waiting for the day it’d break.

But no more! Nana came through with the critter keeper, which she ingeniously designed out of some window screen, garden stakes, and a chain. She sewed a loop around the bottom, threaded the chain through, sewed the screen in a circle, and added sleeves for the stakes. There’s no bottom. All you do is unroll it and stake it where you want it—land or water. The weight of the chain pulls the screen down to the bottom. Of course, it’s not perfectly escape-proof, but since we always release our animals anyway, we’re okay with the occasional fugitive. Now we’re got a pen for our finds that stays cool, keeps fresh water available, and even give the critters access to a snack or two—all in their natural environment. And when we’re done, we pull up the stakes and roll it up for the next weekend.

Thanks, Nana!

Aunt Ruby, Nana, Colonel Mustard and the Critter Keeper