Two friends have asked me and OSFO to take care of their pets while they are away.

For a friend who lives in a lovely brownstone, we will be feeding two guinea pigs, playing with them, and cleaning their cage a few times next week. OSFO just loves the guinea pigs; she hugs them close to her chest.

We will probably also sit on their deck,  sip iced water and pretend that we live in a brownstone. We might even listen to her CDs.

We’ve also been asked to water her plants. My friend has many, many plants all over her brownstone—and she wants all of them watered. Including the four on the stoop.

No-one wants to come home to dead plants. Or dead pets for that matter. So it’s an important job this care and feeding of our friends plants and pets.

Inside the house, it’s a treasure hunt finding all the plants. Don’t miss the spider plants hanging in a fourth floor window of the laundry folding room upstairs. Don’t miss the large built-in planter on the second floor landing or the hanging plants in every window of the playroom.

It’s a big house and there are a lot of plants.

For friends in our own building, we are feeding two large swimming turtles everyday. We fed these turtles last year but back then they were the size of a quarter. Now each one is the size of two bagels. Our friends never expected them to get so big. "I’m scared," she said to me jokingly. "I wonder how big they’ll be when we get back."

Tonight she gave us instructions. Morning and night. A smidgen of this, a smidgen of that.