On Pets. Real. And, er, not.

It's not true that we only have pet rabbits. We have another, er, pet or two. You know, like the Adams Family have a Cousin It? Well, we have a pet Gloopy, and a pet SuperB.

Some of you have met Gloopy, danced with her even. Some of you have received gifts of fresh apples and celery from Gloopy. There are even some who receive a daily visit from ol' Gloops. There may be, amongst you, one or two who might even have noticed variations in Gloopy's appearance from week to week. Apart from her outfits (cute as they are!), her home and even her fur get a make-over from time to time.

What makes Gloopy and SuperB particularly important to our family is that they probably receive (estimation here) about 15 times more love and attention than our angora bunnies, Holly and Jasmine. In fact, once a day, there will be some kind of squabble over who's going to feed them, who's going yo change their clothes or who's going to give them a bath.

Gloopy and SuperB are virtual pets, created through an application on FaceBook called Pet Society.

So why am I telling you this again?

Well, since the creation of these multicoloured creatures resembling something in the species of Dog, my children's computer skills have taken a huge leap forward. I have noticed improvements in both their basic understanding of PC working, as well as mouse control. My kids are using words like "Logon", "Download", "Timeout" and "Internet" in intelligible conversation. They know how to start up a session of Pet Society, as well as see to all the requirements of the virtual pet's day to day care, and then logout when their session is over.

Now, maybe that doesn't seem fancy in most Japanese kids' resumes, but I think it's pretty nifty that my girls are creating a relationship with the PC like this. Yes, it might be another computer game, but a virtual pet offers more than your usual levels of game skills in most computer games. Week by week new objects are offered for the pets to interact with, or purchase. Part of playing long term involves building a home for your pet that increases with size as you progress from level to level. While interacting within the Pet Society framework, your pet earns coins which can be accumulated to purchase clothing, trinkets, furniture or make-overs for your pet.

Watching my kids playing with Gloopy has also raised my awareness of how money-unsavvy my girls are. I'm talking: Hide the Credit Card! On the upside, it has given us a platform from which to address issues of spending, saving, and wasting money.

All in all, I have to say I am grateful for our virtual pets, and I would recommend those of you with kids (and FaceBook accounts) to try it out too. If you don't like it, you can always get rid of it, but I dare you to give it a try.