Fish are the perfect starter pets for kids. Quiet and low maintenace, they require little more than a clean tank and daily food.

House the family pet in style in this unique ceramic fishbowl by Australian designer Danny Cheung. Magnified plastic portholes enable the humble goldfish to loom larger-than-life, while the opaque walls provide respite from all that attention.

Dubbed the ‘1984 Fishbowl’, it was inspired by the classic George Orwell novel. Now $399 (was $430) at Yooneek.

While out on a Target run, dressed to the nines in Daisy Dukes and a midriff baring blouse, Britney popped into the California Pet centre in Calabasas. She came out with a pet parakeet.

Will this little tweety bird be a new addition to the Spears household, perhaps a feathered friend for sons Jayden and Sean Preston? Let’s just hope the boys like birds and that they’re actually home long enough to take care of it.

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From Jessica’s Twitter Page:

“My heart is broken because a coyote took my precious Daisy right in front of our eyes. HORROR!”

I really feel for Jessica. It’s hard enough to break up with your superstar Dallas Cowboys boyfriend, that you thought you might one day have kids with, but having a coyote steal your dog right in front of you? Man, that’s rough.

When Redbook asked if she sometimes envied the freedom that her sister has, Ashlee replied that it was actually Jessica who was doing the envying:

“She’s always saying, ‘Oh, I want a baby!’”

In the wake of her loss, Jessica has turned to the internet to help find her missing pooch. Unfortunately, she doesn’t seem to realise that coyotes almost never use the internet, or Twitter.

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While Sasha and Malia enjoy puppy playtime with Bo during the day–and try, somewhat successfully, to prevent him from chewing through magazines and shoes—it’s the parents (surprise, surprise!) who are responsible for his walks.

But if anyone needs the grounding and lighthearted routine of caring for a family pet, it’s the Obamas. Michelle walks Bo in the mornings, while the President looks forward to his evening jaunts with the Portuguese Water Dog.

“I’m the guy with the night shift,” he told one interviewer. “We go out and we’re walking and I’m picking up poop and in the background is the beautifully lit White House. It’s quite a moment.”

No one should be above scooping poop for the love of a furry creature–which is why I hope the president lets the duty fall to his kids at least some of the time.

Photo: AP

Expert: Jennifer Andrew, Humane Educator at the Best Friends Animal Society, mother of one, and proud owner of a dog and a cat.

1. Throwing In the Towel

“One issue I see a lot is that when people have a new baby, they often feel like they have to give up their pet. In certain cases, it probably is the best thing, but in most cases, it just takes a little bit of planning to make it work. When you know you’re going to have a baby, you need to make sure that your pet is well trained. Many people, when they come home, let the dog jump up on them or roughhouse with them. If you don’t have a baby, it’s not a big deal, but once the baby comes it is. If you’re holding the baby and the dog jumps up on you, suddenly, the dog is getting yelled at and it doesn’t understand why. So you need to plan ahead and do some basic training. Make sure the dog can sit, stay, and follow basic commands. You need to interact with your pet as though you had a baby in the house already. If you don’t want your pet to behave a certain way when the baby is around, start teaching your pet that during your pregnancy.”

2. Not Preparing The Pet for Change

“You can also help your pet to adjust by getting him used to a baby’s sounds and smells. Before you bring the baby home, you usually have the baby’s room and furniture set up. You should let your pet smell all of the new stuff. This is particularly helpful with cats. Let your cat or dog go in and walk around and smell everything — all of the new furniture, clothes and products. It’s good, because you’re telling your pet that something new is going to be coming in and it will keep him from getting jealous. Don’t, however, let him lay in the crib or on the baby blankets, because you don’t want him to think it’s okay to do once the baby is there. Another helpful thing is to buy a CD of baby sounds. You can put it on and gradually increase the volume so that your pet can get used to the sounds of whining and crying. My husband and I did this before our daughter was born. As it turned out, my dog was fine with the noise, but my husband and I were both like, ‘Oh no! Turn it off!’ It was good preparation for us too!”

3. Letting Pets in the Crib

“Sometimes I read in the different parenting forums things like, ‘Our cat loves our baby. She sleeps next to her all the time.’ This really scares me. You never, ever want to leave any animal alone with a baby. Your cat should never sleep with your baby, because a cat can accidentally smother an infant. There can also be severe allergic reactions at that age. Other people will think, ‘My dog loves people, so it’s okay to leave him in the room with the baby for just a minute,’ but it’s not true. Dogs don’t recognise babies as human beings for the first few months of their lives. For some reason, the baby’s smell is different than an adult’s and a newborn also sounds like an injured rabbit. This can spark an animal’s prey drive, even in an otherwise calm dog. When you are in the room with the dog and the baby, make sure that the baby is always higher, physically, than the dog. You want the dog to know that the baby is dominant over him. Having pets and kids together can be a great experience. You just always want to err on the side of caution with how you handle it.”

As told to Lindsay Armstrong.

But four months later, they learned that rangers on the remote island of St. Bee had captured a seemingly wild dog. The dog, who was surviving off of baby goats, had become so ferocious that it took several months for rangers to capture her. They carried the caged dog to the Australian mainland, where Sophie’s owners were eagerly waiting to see if she was their lost pet. And sure enough, as soon as they called to her, the snarling wild beast turned back into loving Sophie, whimpering and running to lick and cuddle her family.

Animal experts are amazed at Sophie’s adaptability. Though she had been a house pet all her life, she managed to swim five nautical miles to shore and then survive in a harsh climate home mainly to koala bears.

And her transition back to home life has been just as impressive. After four months of not allowing any humans to come near her, Sophie immediately resumed her old life of eating food from a can and sleeping happily on the family bed.

Photo: MSNBC

The child was fine in the end, but the snake was so badly injured that it had to be put down.

By now I can hear you yelling at your computer screens, “What the heck was a boa constrictor doing in the bedroom of the mother of a three-year old?” I was yelling it too, believe me. And I haven’t found an answer.

Pet store owner, Jim Tracy advised reporters that the snake had been mishandled by its keeper and was the victim of her negligence. I agree with that. I pity the snake as well as the child. But I also think that some animals are not meant to be kept as pets (and shouldn’t be sold, therefore, in pet stores). There are animals who have lived with humans for millennia (dogs, horses, cats and cattle) and are meant to coexist with them symbiotically. But there are animals people have no business dragging into their Vegas bedrooms and pythons are one of those animals.

This worked out fine for 6 months or so, until the birds, in rapid succession, died.

Marina couldn’t bring herself to tell Erika. She told Erika the birds were at the vet and would be home soon. This went on for well over a week. Marina wanted to secretly replace the birds with doppelgangers. My sister got increasingly frustrated, and finally told Marina if she didn’t tell Erika my sister would tell her herself. Which is what ended up happening. Erika was distraught.

I don’t blame Marina for being so hesitant to break Erika’s heart. No one wants to deliberately make a child cry, which is what you’re basically doing when you tell him or her that a pet has died.

But it’s a lesson that has to be learned. Hopefully, the closest most kids will come to death is through a pet rather than a relative.

My kids are still a bit young for this; at 3 and 4 they’ve experienced plenty of death through the waters of their fish tank. But rather than cry, they argue over who gets to flush the little guy down the toilet.

Christy Oglesby writes of the death of her son’s beloved guinea pig on CNN. Her concern wasn’t with how much grief her son would feel, it was with when he would feel that grief: during three important tests at school. She was able to keep the pet’s death a secret through some very careful manipulation (unexplained power outage in the boy’s room, unexpected tv-watching at night), and when she did tell her third-grade son two days after the fact, he thanked her for holding off on the news.

I’ve written before of how much I hate lying to my kids, but I’m not sure where this fits in. Isn’t omission of fact just as much of a lie as omission of truth? Our kids need to learn of life and death, but when? Erika
still cries over the untimely death of Marina’s dog, Chavi, last summer, while my 4-year-old son Declan simply speaks of it matter-of-factly. Neither of them batted an eye when their great-great-Uncle Bob died around the same time.

Perhaps it’s just what’s familiar to the kids, who and what they see every day that hold the closest place in their hearts.

Have you had to break the news of a pet or loved one to your kids? How did you handle it? How did they?

Last year the RSPCA accepted 161,994 surrendered, abandoned, stray or neglected animals from the community. Although the organisation tries hard to find new homes for as many as possible, over 23,000 dogs and 43,000 cats had to be euthanased.

If you are considering a new pet, make sure you have the buy-in of all members of the family. Also consider adopting from an RSPCA shelter first, that way you are not only giving an animal a second chance but they can match you with the perfect pet for your family.

Some questions to consider when buying a pet for kids is who will walk it, feed it, brush it, play with it, worm it, and take it to the vet? Can you afford a pet? If you move will you be able to take it with you? If you go on holidays will you be able to arrange appropriate pet care? If not, perhaps the battery-operated variety of animals is a better option for now.

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The study of more than 1,100 kids ages 5 to 12 showed kids with a friendly pooch in the house were in better shape – even if they weren't walking Fido on a regular basis.

Pets have long been touted as good for kids, boosting self esteem, helping kids learn discipline and responsibility and even lowering kids risk of developing allergies down the line. Put each of those benefits together, and it would make sense that kids who have a four-legged friend have a healthier outlook on life – which usually translates to overall health.

Image: Pet Door Decor