Well, it looks like I'm overruled. The girls want a pet, and not a fish, either. They want something they can cuddle. I won't take a puppy or another cat.
So of course they go straight for the rodents. They want a guinea pig. I thought I could put it off: I tried explaining that they're too mean to each other to cooperate over a pet. But they started cooperating. Now, if they just get their rooms clean, three days later I have to get them a guinea pig.
Don't go thinking I fell for it easily, though. I know better than to make any concrete deadlines or conditions. I certainly wasn't the one who got roped into this. No, it was my wife! Traitorous, that one. Turns out she wants a guinea pig, too.
Next thing you know, she'll want another baby.
Why couldn't they have gotten a nice tarantula? Or a snake? Well, at least guinea pigs are diurnal.