Pets!

The other day we were having a conversation about pets and I said that I'd never had any when I was a child but that's not strictly true.  I remember my first pet very fondly but have never admitted to it before because I was ashamed. His name was Crawly and he only lived for a couple of hours  and even though he was not around for long I felt he was really a part of me.  In fact, in a way, he was.

I remember the first moment I saw him as if it was yesterday.  I was sitting at my desk imagining I was in Africa and the perspiration was running down my neck.  My seat was right by the window and it was roasting hot and my head felt all hot and itchy so I got tore in and suddenly, there he was, all small and vulnerable under my nail.  I flicked him very carefully onto my jotter and he started to run across the lines towards the middle of the page. At first I thought he had escaped but  there he was all snug in the fold of the paper. 

I tried to move him every now and again with the tip of my pencil to make sure he was still alive but was very careful in case I hurt him.  The teacher was really pleased when I asked if I could take my jotter home to finish off the composition.  I know I closed it over very carefully and held onto the open end of it the whole way to the house but when I got there he was gone and all that was left was a little red dot where my Crawly had been.

I was devastated and told my mum and she pulled me over and sat me between....