It appears the technical folks have worked all the blog bugs out (knock on wood) and, on behalf of all the ETN bloggers, it's good to be back. It's been frustrating for all of us. We've worked hard to gain blog readers -- last thing we want to do is lose you due to technical problems.

We've got big news at Casa Cass.

Well, it's not really big news, it's kind of small actually. And furry. And cuddly.

It's all Maxwell's fault. Maxwell is a cute, innocent-looking tow-headed kid in Kelly's 5-day preschool class. Little Maxwell brought his hamster for show-and-tell last week and, well, it's all I was told about for three days straight.

I'm not even kidding.

Kelly begged, pleaded, cried and whined for her own pet 24/7. It was the first thing out of her mouth in the morning as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and the last thing she asked when we tucked her in bed at night.

I told her we had two cats. She wasn't buying that. "Those are YOUR pets. I want my own" she said.

I offered to buy her a fish. No deal. She wanted something furry and cute. Can't cuddle a fish.

I stalled. "Daddy & I will talk about it."

Truth is, she got us at just the right time. I was the one who had taken them to Buzz 'n B's earlier in the week "just to look around." And, we have all been missing our labrador, Cassie, who died a few months ago.

I always had hamsters when I was growing up, but my husband thought we should get a Guinea pig. After doing some research, I was sold.

The best selling points -- for me -- were:
* They are extremely social and crave interaction and attention.
* They learn to recognize their owners and show affection by communicating through whistles. They have been known to whistle a hello when owners return or when they hear the refrigerator door open.
* They are awake 20 hours out of every day and they do not run on those annoying -- and ALWAYS squeaky -- hamster wheels.
* They are content to stay in their cage -- even if some preschooler leaves the top wide open. They're not good climbers and most don't have the energy or ability to jump very high.
* They are gentle and rarely bite.
* They are content to sit on your lap and snuggle for hours on end (perfect for 5-year-olds who insist on holding them for hours on end).
* They're vegetarians (ah...someone else in the house who like vegetables besides me).

So, we took a family trip to Buzz 'n B's on Saturday night and came home with Oreo -- a totally adorable 10-week-old black and white female Guinea pig who quickly wriggled her way into all of our hearts.