There comes a time in every boys life

So this came in the mail today.
Murray McMurray chicken catalog is to my boy what the Sears Christmas Catalog was to me as a child. The kind of thing you leaf through over and over until pages start falling out of it. Dunn wants a chicken. And when he gets home from his friends house, this catalog will not leave his little hands for a week....maybe more. He will take it to bed with him at night and bring in back down stairs in the morning. It will have breakfast with him and sit next to the bath tub when he takes his evening bath. He will want it read to him before bed each night and at intervals through out the day. It will go on many an errand with us until one fateful day it will be so grubby and unreadable it must be recycled. He will be sad but hopeful that a new one will come in the mail soon.
What started all of this you may be asking? I will tell you so that you might spare your child this love affair. It's not so much of a what, but a where. Dodge Nature Center Preschool. His classroom pet last summer was Lulu a little bantam hen. Dunn fell for this chicken hard. He spent the entire summer with her tucked under one arm and a shovel clenched in his other little hand. He worked hard digging up worms and finding other yummy things for her to eat. While older sister came home with lavish depictions of each days events, Dunn came home with tales of Lulu. Only Lulu and the occasional feather tucked in his pocket.
The crazy thing is that my sons love for this hen was so palpable that I actually felt he must have one. His teachers wore his heart ache on their faces on the last day of camp. Big brown eyes staring at the tips of his crocs as I lead him out of the classroom assuring him in soft tones that Lulu would be there next summer.
We live in the city.....we have a very big dog that would like nothing more than to eat anything non-human in our back yard....what would the neighbors think?.....So many reasons not to do it.
But one very good reason to......


Now what kind should we get?