srnity: I don't teach kindergarten anymore and am not sure if these days they'd even let me have an animal in school. I let the kiddies take the rats out during play time. I had several rats (cuz at night the rats would fool around) ;) We had fish too...gold fish cuz they could survive the environment. I had some of them for over 5 years. Alas I haven't taught kindergarten for about 10 years. ;) (although I do have them come to me twice a week for art.