By: Keturah Thomson

We have never had pets. Well at least, not the usual kind. Once upon a time, there was a cat which we might say we owned, except he was never allowed inside, and wandered about as he pleased. We never spent any money on him, so we really had nothing to claim him with, except the fact that he had chosen us, and we loved him.

We have lots of stories about “Stretch,” all of the times he darted in the house and made a beeline for the stairs, the blistery cold day Dad let him in to sit in a pile of blankets by the fire, (even though he was allergic to cats) the time he ate Tabithah’s oatmeal, (there is still argument about whether that was Anna or Tabithah) and the time Tabithah stood on his tail, and he bore it like a champ. There is no argument there, it was definitely Tabithah.

Stretch was our only pet. That is, until Mom discovered sourdough bread.

One day, Mom told us all about this thing she had been reading about sourdough, where you “catch a starter.” She was super excited about it, so a few days later, we had these bowls of liquidy dough on the table covered with hairnets. The instructions were that you feed the dough until you have caught the starter, and then you keep feeding it. The room temperature needs to be just right, or it gets unhappy, and won’t work right. Even if you’re not making bread with the dough regularly, you have to feed it, or it will die.

We all laughed about “Mom’s pet,” which turned into many experiments of different recipes, and eventually, an AMAZING sourdough bread.

Once Mom had a pet though, she didn’t stop there. Her next experiment was kefir grains, which also need to be fed, and stored in the fridge. Micaiah started to freak out at this point, “Why are there things living in our fridge??”

While you’re fermenting the kefir, it has to be stored in a dark spot outside of the fridge, so some of Mom’s pets moved upstairs with us. I have a little school cupboard which is home to my books and Mom’s kefir.

A few months later, Jon came home with wonderful news! He found out how to make ginger beer! First, you make a “Ginger bug,” and then you feed it…

Needless to say, this did not excite Micaiah at all. First sourdough starters, then kefir grains, then ginger bugs! That one actually sounds like a pet, but not the kind most people would be excited about having. (Don’t worry, it’s not a real bug)

But the family continued to grow, when Mom decided to make Kombucha, which is made with a “Scoby.” The Scoby may not sound as bad as the ginger bug, but it looked way worse.

The cupboards downstairs were all taken up with Jon’s thriving ginger beer supply, and my cupboard was filled with kefir, so the kombucha, which also needs a dark place, moved into the linen closet upstairs.

Sometimes people ask if everyone in our house gets along, my answer is always yes! Cats still come by all the time, (though none of them are as faithful as Stretch) everyone is loved by each other, and most importantly, the Kombucha’s personal space is respected. Its home has a nice blanket covering it, with a paper sign that reads, KOMBUCHA. DO NOT DISTURB. (Smiley face)